On 5 April 2024, thousands of school children and supporters across the country took to the street to march for climate justice, a free Palestine and te Tiriti. The students spoke with moral clarity, issuing a wero to the adults who are ‘not doing their job'. Rangatahi can see we’re hurtling towards planetary extinction and no one in the halls of power is doing anything about it.
In creating Israel the British were following a policy of divide-and-rule to create an outpost as a way of projecting power into the Arab world and its oilfields. In practical terms British power could only be projected through the maintenance of immanent or actual armed hostility. The success of this strategy, as the baton was passed to the US empire, has caused the region to suffer 100 years of instability and strife while the Palestinians have suffered a long slow genocide of everyday brutality punctuated by massacres and outbreaks of resistance.
Four months into my new Covid-based heart problems, I went for a walk and had one drink of alcohol, and the next day was unable to stand up without my heart rate going up to 110 BPM, at one point exceeding 140. This phenomenon is called postural tachycardial syndrome, or POTS, and is pretty common for Long Covid sufferers. I’m writing this from a reclining position, and am not sure when I’ll get up again.
In recent years I’ve become weary of demonstrations; rallies, specifically. Some of the problem is standing around for eight or ten often-repetitive speeches, or the cringe of half-hearted chants. But mostly it’s the feeling that these rallies are not part of a bigger strategy or theory of social change. The rallies are the theory of social change—except they plainly aren’t working.
The year is 2003.
The US President is unbending in his determination to wreak as much destruction as possible upon civilians in the Middle East. People around the world take to the streets to protest the bloodlust of the American military machine but it’s hard to stop when it’s already in motion.
More importantly, though, it’s also the night of Hollywood’s biggest celebration!!!
The revenant of Austerity Britain looms over Aotearoa New Zealand today as the current Government insists that they can cut their way to surplus, provide tax cuts, and promise recovery.
The mask I wear leaves lines cut into my face after I take it off; 12 hours after stepping outside, getting onto a bus, working an 8-hour shift at a daycare, getting some groceries, going home to the one 3 by 4m bedroom where I know I can safely breathe
The film festival has been a highlight of each year since I moved to Te Whānganui-a-Tara well over a decade ago. A love for, and knowledge of, cinema and a respect for audiences underpinned its decisions during this time. This was driven by its programmers and the late, great Bill Gosden who had been Director of the festival for 40 years.
I didn’t write this essay because I don’t like Barbie. I wrote this essay because it’s clear many people felt Barbie with almost reverent fanaticism. They didn’t just like Barbie because it was fun to dress up and get drunk with the girls at. They didn’t like Barbie for its design or cinematography or direction. They attached to Barbie as a feminist symbol instead.
As the tide goes out on New Zealand election season after the traditional post-election conference debrief and Hipkins having presented himself for a round of what-me-worry interviews, there’s been a little circuit of right wing discussion in local media about Labour’s loss, praising the Taxpayer’s Union and New Zealand Initiative for consistently putting out press releases, white papers and manipulating media narratives. It’s all out in the open now.
As the Omicron wave wanes worldwide, countries have been quick to declare COVID-19 officially endemic- the pandemic we are told is over.
In the 53 years since the term entered the lexicon, the social terrain of politics has radically changed. The median voter today is very different from the median voter of 1969.
As we settle into the current Red Light setting and as the cases of Omicron climb each day, the hospitality sector in Auckland has had its life support switched off.
The centre-left will fail to deliver for working-class people if it doesn't embrace universal basic services. We can only tackle the housing, inflation and inequality crises by decommodifying and guaranteeing the essentials of life for all.
Here are the ways working-class people fought back in 2021. There are many examples, I've only picked my favourites; the thing about something like a global pandemic is it exposes how the system works and whose labour makes the world go round
I think it is fair to say that 2021, like 2020, was an awful year globally, and sadly there is no reason to believe that 2022 will be any better.
Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs) offer Labour the chance to live up to their promise of being a transformational government. It is vital they forge ahead with FPAs in spite of bad faith criticism from the right and business interests.
Listening to Christopher Luxon’s maiden speech I got the impression I had somehow discovered time travel. It appeared I had managed to go back to the halcyon days of 2007. This 2007 was very similar to the one I remembered, it was a period of business as usual.
A Common sensibility is something we’ve been thinking about since a couple years back when a group of us in the left media space met to discuss communication and direction of the broader left project.
New Zealand's success at eliminating COVID in 2020 saw the Sixth Labour government receive international praise and fanfare. In the early stages of the pandemic, our small island nation demonstrated the virtues of evidence-based governance and of listening to the science on issues.
We’re joined by genocide researcher, educator and survivor Arnesa Buljušmić-Kustura to discuss the genocide Israel is committing in Palestine, how the warning signs have been there for decades, and the complicity of the West.
Lots in the news on the news this week with major decisions being made for both Newshub and TVNZ. Is Murdoch eyeing up NZ shores? We discuss the cynicism and nastiness of the Cass Report and the stitch up between political and media classes to attack trans healthcare. And government corruption is at a premium as the Fast Track process gathers momentum.
We discuss the continued cuts under the National coalition, the attacks on Māori wards and the new history curriculum and the ways in which right-wing politicians are more than happy to be “indoctrinating children” so long as it’s them doing it. Finally we shout out to SS4C and wonder about the future of electoral politics.
We discuss the current situation in Gaza, the inability and lack of desire by the international community to stop a genocide, and how it’s being responded to in western settler colonial states including NZ.
The National coalition government has lost control of it’s partner parties as they continue descending into attacks on minority groups. We discuss the problems with the term “culture war” and what the framing and strategy of the extreme right is hoping to achieve.
Paul is joined by lawyer and campaigner Max Harris to discuss Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s Long Term Plan proposal, which seeks to entrench his agenda of privatisation, low rates and low spending for years to come.
The National coalition government continues to move at horrible, incompetent pace with cuts and punitive policy. We talk Fast Track Bill, public service cuts, foreign spying and Peters making a fool of himself, again.
There are once again too many things happening in the world, and the National Party coalition is using that to their advantage to continue ramming through deeply destructive policy. We talk cops, school lunches and protests. But what’s up with opposition parties being unable to capitalise on these clearly unpopular decisions?
We cover the week’s events once again! Gaza and reporting in the west continues to be a major issue, the US continues to be complicit. Journalism is struggling, particularly in NZ, how much is it a marketing and structural failing? The National coalition is cutting everything and attacking the vulnerable while also criminalising - why are they bringing back bootcamps?
David Farrier joins us to discuss the advent of AI in the media space, recent lay-offs and the funding structures that led us here. We go into broader detail about the forces driving these issues, particularly in the tech industry, and what hope there is for journalism.
