Socialist Aotearoa

The Tukituki River which Nick Smith lied about and the farmers want to destroy. "Just been told that UMR poll has Nats 39, Lab 36, Green 14, NZF 5.1%. Not sure if it’s out yet." tweeted Duncan Garner this afternoon. Was it David Cunliffe that did it, Labour's new hope , talking left, looking tough? Or the mass rebellion against the GCSB that saw the Auckland Town Hall packed to the rafters? Maybe the mobilisation of thousands of union members filling stadiums in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch to slam the Nats over attacks on workers' rights? The scandal over the dam that would kill the beautiful Tukituki River? The furious outrage of recreational fishers over the snapper cuts? Whatever it was, and it was probably some combination of these stars lining up, the tide has begun to run out under the National Government. In poll after poll the Labour - Green block appear a government in waiting with the numbers and the resolve to take the Treasury benc

The verdict is in from Auckland's Wharfies - " By all accounts of the straw poll I have done on the Auckland waterfront.There is a clear message there for you Len Brown from the wharfies. If this was a small community you would be out on your ass and John Minto would become the new Mayor ."- Dave Phillips , MUNZ.

MANA: Voices of resistance and rebellion from South Auckland The Mana Movement's Roger Fowler, Joe Trinder, James Papali'i and Joe Carolan join John Minto and Hone Harawira at the Mana rally in Mangere, joined by local voices  enraged that there are plans to bulldoze a motorway through their community.

Mangere Resists About 200 people turned up to an angry and passionate meeting in Mangere on Saturday 21st September, vowing to oppose by any means necessary a proposal to bulldoze a new motorway through working class suburbs. Minto and Hone excelled in these speeches.  Watch them and share them.  More to come later.

On Saturday night Auckland's Chilean community held a cultural night of poetry and music in Onehunga to mark forty years since the overthrow of Salvador Allende's Popular Unity government. This is the speech given by Esteban Espinoza , one of those dissidents forced into exile in Aotearoa after the coup. Forty years ago the world was a different place, or wasn't it? The US was trying to monopolise its global power in a constant struggle with the socialist camp. In Chile, having elected for first time a Marxist socialist President, Salvador Allende, the US government, the transnational companies and the CIA conspired from even before Allende was elected to abort his taking the government. Allende had offered Chile a new road to a liberal socialist revolution without violence which was going to transform the basis of the capitalist society with a reformist programme. This programme included the nationalisation of copper, a full agrarian reform, the nationalisation

"If Israel wins - you know we are not in Hollywood, the good guys don't always win - and the occupation prevails and the Palestinians are permanently oppressed in an apartheid or worse a warehousing type of situation it sets us all back. All of us who are talking about human rights, international laws, justice, workers' rights." An interview with Dr. Jeff Halper, Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions ahead of his Auckland lecture tonight on the work of ICAHD, his anthropology work, the TPPA and the "Palestinisation" of the globe.

John Minto’s address to Auckland Mayoral debate at Auckland University on 4 September 2013. E nga tangata whenua o tenei rohe – Ngati Whatua – kia ora koutou E nga hau e wha – nga mihi nui ki a koutou Greetings everyone Auckland is the most unequal city in New Zealand – there is extreme wealth enjoyed by a tiny few while the majority struggle. It’s a city run for East Parnell while in West and South Auckland in particular families struggle from day to day and week to week. Auckland is a city where half our workers are paid less than $24,000 a year while last year less than 100 received close to $3 billion in unearned, untaxed income. It’s a city of unliveable wages, unaffordable housing and endless traffic gridlock. And it’s getting worse because central government policy is aided by a “smile and wave” Auckland mayor who rolls over every time big business or the government come calling. That’s why we have a mayor who backs a national convention centre funded off the backs of lo

Humans Piss Me Off by Myth Of Democracy