Interview with Joe Carolan by Jennifer Pannell. The sudden resignation of Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand and Labour Party Leader, on the 19th January this year was a shock to many around the world. She was held up by the global mainstream press as a beacon of strong and empathetic leadership in the face of numerous crises throughout her two terms. In her emotional resignation speech, she gave little hint as to why she was stepping down, stating “having reflected over summer I know I no longer have that bit extra in the tank to do the job justice. It’s that simple.” ' As a socialist, Joe, what’s your analysis of why Ardern resigned? There is a narrative that as a female Prime Minister, she experienced vicious, relentless trolling - death threats and attacks from a deeply misogynistic far-right led mob, who thought she was a dictator, a tyrant, a Communist. This is similar to the ideology used by the far-right in many other countries; in America, in Ireland, etce
"What neoliberalism has done has been to isolate and enforce a very pure form of the logic of capitalism itself. This, as we have seen in the case of universities, is a logic of competition and profit. Challenging this logic means pursuing a different kind of world, governed by different priorities - those, for example, of social justice, environmental sustainability and genuine democracy. Preserving and developing what is valuable in existing universities can't be sep- arated from the broader struggle against capitalism itself." - Alex Callinicos
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