Australia: A few bad eggs? The collapse of Australian Capital Reserve Australian Capital Reserve recently went bust leaving thousands of small investors at risk of impoverishment, among them pensioners who were convinced to sink their life savings into their various speculative schemes. It has already been made clear that the small investors will be the last to receive any compensation, an example of what we may see elsewhere.
New Zealand: first ever national lock-out in public hospitals ends in victory Locked out SFWU workers say 'We Beat the boss'!
Australia: Kevin Rudd doesn’t get it but the capitalists do - the coming election will be fought on class lines The forthcoming federal election in Australia is shaping up to be an almighty contest between the classes in spite of the moderate stance of the Labour leaders. The Australian workers are fed up with anti-trade union legislation and are turning to Labour on the electoral front as a way of combating these.
The price of a life in New Zealand? - NZ$168.40 An Auckland woman, Folole Muliaga, recently died in New Zealand because she could no longer run her oxygen machine which kept her alive, the reason being the electricity company Mighty River Power cut off her supply because of a NZ$168.40 arrears. A clear example that services run for profit kill!
Full Employment in New Zealand at the expense of Kiwi workers On the surface New Zealand is “booming†but it is doing so at the expense of the working class. It is not surprising that under such conditions trade union membership has significantly increased and strikes over collective agreements and pay have broken out.
Massive mobilisation of workers all over Australia One year since the massive mobilisations against the introduction of draconian anti-trade union laws, the workers of Australia today showed their determination to keep the struggle alive. Over 250,000 turned out across Australia in rallies to protest.
New Zealand: Supermarket workers win! After 28 days of being locked out workers belonging to the National Distribution Union (NDU) and the Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union (EMPU) at the 3 Progressive Enterprises supermarkets depots have won pay parity across all depots within the next 18 months in one of the bitterest dispute seen in New Zealand in a generation.
Australia: Queensland State Elections – landslide for Labor The recent Queensland election was called against a backdrop of crisis in the public health system and problems with water and electricity supply. The choice was between between a right-wing Labor party and the avowedly anti-worker policies of the Coalition.
New Zealand: lockout after 48-hour strike of supermarket workers Wages are abysmally low for supermarket workers in New Zealand. Recently the National Distribution Union organised a 48-hour stoppage. The bosses reacted with a lock-out. This has only served to strengthen the resolve of the striking workers. Send messages of solidarity and protest.
Australia: Defend the 107 - Defend the right to strike Construction workers in Western Australia are in the front line of a vicious attack under the Coalition government's anti-union laws. This Tuesday, one hundred and seven workers will be in court where they face ruinous fines of up to AU$28,600. The fines are for a strike which was called to protect safety at work and to defend a sacked union representative.
The whip of counter-revolution: Australian workers mobilise against Howard attacks On Tuesday over 500,000 Australian workers came out on demonstrations across the country to protest against the latest draconian anti-trade union laws, with 200,000 at the Melbourne rally. The mood on the rallies was very militant. The Australian working class is returning to its best traditions of struggle, and this is only the beginning.
Australia: Massive Demonstration in Sydney There was a massive demonstration on the day the war started. The write-up in the Sydney Morning Herald made things clear...
Attitudes towards War in Afghanistan and the general economic and political situation in New Zealand Rupert O'Shea explains the mood towards the war in Afghanistan among workers in New Zealand and also explains a little of what is happening in the political an d economic scene in the country. There have been demonstrations against the war, in fairly modest numbers so far, but starting before the first bombs were dropped on Afghanistan.
Letter from our correspondent in New Zealand Attitudes towards the War in Afghanistan and the general economic and political situation in New Zealand Since the attacks on America of 11th September, many people have been eagerly following events on TV, demonstrating the heightened interest in international affairs that has been reported from other countries on the In Defence Of Marxism web site. In the short run at least, many people have been taken in by the imperialist propaganda that has been pouring out of their TVs and other bourgeois media. Take my friend Joanne, for example. She is a Labour party member. But she thinks America is in the right. I tried to explain the far greater atrocities that the US government and big business have committed, but she did not buy it. Everything's different now, she says. She seems to think the...
New Zealand's Labour-Alliance Government: a review of the first fourteen months Rupert O'Shea from Wellington looks at the real record of the Labour Alliance Government in New Zealand which has been presented by some as a 'left' government as opposed to socialdemocratic governments in Europe.
