class war

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A calculated feeding of the beasts within

Written By: mhager - Date published: 2:13 pm, February 5th, 2015 - 76 comments

The social democracy of my youth has radically collapsed into our current culture of individualism, privatisation and personal greed.

AFFCO Talley’s and Jobs That Count

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 7:21 am, February 5th, 2015 - 9 comments

Darien Fenton at Jobs That Count brings us the details of the fight for decent pay and conditions at Talley’s meat processing plants

Unemployment up

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 2:27 pm, February 4th, 2015 - 40 comments

We need a much better analysis of what kinds of jobs and conditions are out there in NZ, crude figures are not telling us enough.

Charity is illegal in Florida

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:21 am, February 1st, 2015 - 26 comments

florida-charity

Monbiot on state media and the corporate elite

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:29 am, January 26th, 2015 - 43 comments

George Monbiot wrote recently on how Canadian and United Kingdom public media reporting on corporate news are hopelessly pro business and lacking in any sort of balance. And how the volume of articles concerning environmental issues is declining. Is it the same in New Zealand?

Beneficiaries falling

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 1:59 pm, January 21st, 2015 - 12 comments

Falling numbers yes, but falling through the cracks.

An interesting milestone

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 4:22 pm, January 19th, 2015 - 37 comments

An interesting milestone in inequality is about to be passed.

No quick fix for diseases of poverty

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:23 am, January 16th, 2015 - 136 comments

The continued rise of rheumatic fever is an indictment of our society.

New figures show that there is no quick fix for diseases of poverty.

Your move, National.

Dirty Politics in 2015

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:53 am, January 13th, 2015 - 81 comments

Political Scientists Bronwyn Hayward and Mark Boyd were interviewed on Radio New Zealand yesterday on New Zealand politics in 2014 and what happened during the election. They talked extensively on dirty politics, on the role of the media and how things can be improved in 2015.

The Socialist Pope

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 1:26 pm, December 29th, 2014 - 54 comments

Pope Francis has created a stir recently. He has been instrumental in the ending by the United States of sanctions against Cuba, he has criticised the Curia for being inwardly focussed and not sufficiently concerned for the poor and he has reached out to Muslims. And to top things off he is intending to issue a Papal Encyclical on climate change and will be urging countries to enter into a meaningful agreement on climate change.

Bill Gates on Piketty and inequality

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:00 am, December 26th, 2014 - 64 comments

Thomas Piketty in his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century came to the strong conclusion that capitalism left by itself will increase inequality and cause increased risk of social, economic and democratic upheaval. He has an unlikely supporter, albeit critical, in Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world.

Inequality – two excellent pieces

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 8:55 am, December 14th, 2014 - 65 comments

Inequality has been very much in the news recently. Friday saw the publication of two really excellent pieces that between them provide a comprehensive, if depressing overview.

Christmas at the extremes

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:24 am, December 13th, 2014 - 65 comments

Two New Zealands will shortly celebrate Christmas, the poor and the rich. Here’s a crazy thought…

None so blind

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:50 am, December 12th, 2014 - 181 comments

Message to today’s anonymous Herald editorialist – competition doesn’t close the inequality gap, it widens it. In other news, black is black not white, and water is wet. How can you write such drivel?

Denying the truth no way to run a country

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 12:09 pm, December 10th, 2014 - 16 comments

Right-wingers recently got all hot and bothered about the idea of “recall elections”. Perhaps we do need them, not for the scandal of a Mayor having a bathroom, but for governments that systematically and cynically deny the truth, to the detriment of us all.

Exploited workers need union protection

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 11:20 am, December 1st, 2014 - 30 comments

Another example of a bad employer unfairly docking a worker’s pay. But this worker was a union member…

Democracy, Money and Power

Written By: KJT - Date published: 9:18 am, November 27th, 2014 - 6 comments

The stage was long ago reached where members of the US Government were told they should “wear their sponsors logo’s on their shirts”.

Tip of the iceberg

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:39 am, November 23rd, 2014 - 99 comments

Looks like exploiting petrol station workers by docking their pay for circumstances beyond their control was just the tip of the iceberg of this kind of behaviour.

One law for the rich

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:10 am, November 20th, 2014 - 77 comments

And, as ever, one for the poor.

Why does the right control the English speaking world?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:31 am, November 16th, 2014 - 116 comments

Jason Wilson in the Guardian has asked a very relevant question. Why is the right currently dominant in the English speaking Western World and what does the left have to do to change this?

The casualisation of work

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:00 am, November 14th, 2014 - 147 comments

Zero hour contracts, where an employee’s work hours are determined solely at the whim of the employer, are becoming increasingly common. The implications for the fight against poverty are dire.

Social housing providers

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:08 am, November 12th, 2014 - 46 comments

Is Key planning to flog off state houses at half price to a liquor company?

The TPPA – big business plans to fight back

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:10 am, November 11th, 2014 - 74 comments

Big business is planning a fighting fund to extol the virtues of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement. And they want there to be a debate about the benefits of the TPPA. But only after the treaty has been concluded …

The working poor

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:20 am, November 8th, 2014 - 183 comments

The Nats’ line on poverty is that beneficiaries need to get in to work. The rise of the working poor both in NZ and internationally, shows what nonsense that excuse is.

Partially Privatised Power Companies Chief Executives’ salaries surge

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:00 am, November 5th, 2014 - 13 comments

Chief executive remuneration packages in the privatised power companies have surged post float.

How much is too much?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:48 am, November 2nd, 2014 - 43 comments

In England there is a couple who own nearly 1,000 houses, who previously evicted beneficiaries in favour of Eastern European immigrants but who have recently taken to evict immigrants with too many children. And in Uruguay there is a former President who used to give most of his salary to charity, who lived in a farmhouse rather than a palace and who drove a VW Beetle rather than a limousine. Which particular form of humanity should be in charge?

EEO Commissioner blasts employment law changes

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:33 am, November 1st, 2014 - 43 comments

Workers have lost the statutory right to meal breaks and smokos. Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) Commissioner Jackie Blue – who happens to be an ex Nat MP – pulls no punches in setting out the consequences.

There is no child poverty in New Zealand

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:03 am, October 29th, 2014 - 64 comments

A recently published UNICEF report on levels of child poverty amongst developed economies suggests that despite our rockstar economy and our brighter future child poverty levels in New Zealand have stagnated since 2008 while in Australia meaningful changes have been made.