[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Most recently on Redline blog: Review of the film 'Just Mercy': https://rdln.wordpress.com/2020/02/03/film-review-just-mercy/ Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine: Zionists use Holocaust Forum to cover up their crimes against the Palestinians: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2020/02/01/popular-front-for-the-liberation-of-palestine-zionists-use-holocaust-forum-to-cover-up-their-crimes-against-the-palestinians/ Samidoun (Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network) on Trump “deal of the century” to crush Palestinian freedom crush Palestinian freedom: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2020/02/02/samidoun-palestinian-prisoner-solidarity-network-on-trump-deal-of-the-century-to-crush-palestinian-freedom/ Britain exits the European Union and takes a sharp right turn: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2020/01/20/britain-exits-the-european-union-and-takes-a-sharp-right-turn/ The timely death of the British Labour Party: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2020/01/14/the-timely-death-of-the-british-labour-party/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Woman: Deleted - the Council of Disobedient Women on the wording of NZ's new abortion legislation: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2019/10/11/woman-deleted/ Jordanian teachers' big victory: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2019/10/10/jordanian-teachers-successful-strike-has-lessons-for-here/ Labour vs working class immigrants - yet again: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2019/10/09/labour-vs-working-class-immigrants-again/ Government spin on poverty accepted by union leadership: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2019/10/10/government-spin-accepted-by-union-leadership/ Talking Freer Lives - a Marxist gender-critical perspective from Australia: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2019/10/11/talking-freer-lives-a-marxist-gender-critical-perspective-from-australia/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Veteran working class activist Don Franks on Unions need "much larger systematic change": https://rdln.wordpress.com/2019/01/08/unions-need-much-larger-systematic-change/ Don on Three suggestions for the NZ Council of Trade Unions: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2019/01/04/three-suggestions-for-the-nz-council-of-trade-union/ Marx Bicentennial (articles on Marx, esp political economy): https://rdln.wordpress.com/2018/12/28/200th-anniversary-year-of-marxs-birth/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * French public sector workers fighting back: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2018/04/14/french-public-sector-workers-fighting-back/ Rank-and-file articles on the current struggle by health workers in NZ: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2018/04/13/support-the-health-workers-struggle/ Palestine: PFLP says March of Return is "referendum on our rights": https://rdln.wordpress.com/2018/04/09/pflp-leader-jamil-mizher-march-of-return-is-a-referendum-on-our-rights/ On the Gaza border:a wanton massacre: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2018/04/07/on-the-gaza-border-a-wanton-massacre/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Lutte Ouvriere on how Guianan workers are showing the way forward to French workers: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/11/11/guianan-workers-show-the-way-to-french-workers/ In Australia both the Liberals and the Labor Party are responsible for the horrors at Manus Island refugee detention centre: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/11/10/liberals-and-labor-both-responsible-for-the-horrors-of-manus-island-refugee-detention/ Death of veteran Irish socialist-republican Liam Sutcliffe (Liam was involved in the 1956-62 borfder campaign, blowing up of Nelson's Pillar in 1966 and prominent in Saor Eire in the early 1970s): https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/11/09/death-of-veteran-irish-socialist-republican-liam-sutcliffe/ Veteran NZ working class activist Don Franks on Thoughts after the Texas killings: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/11/08/thoughts-after-the-texas-murders/ NZ Marxist Daphna Whitmore on Manus Island and the NZ government: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/11/04/manus-island-its-a-f-disgraceful/ The Spark on the inspirational 1987 BCBSM strike in Detroit: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/11/03/an-inspirational-strike-the-1987-bcbsm-strike-and-its-lessons-for-workers-today/ Daphna Whitmore on the need to globalise the struggle for a living wage: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/10/31/a-living-wage-time-to-shift-the-boundaries-and-think-global/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * below is a list of some of the stuff we've out up on the blog recently. Jacinda - Labour's most pleasant leader: https://rdln.wordpress.com/ 2017/08/02/jacinda-labours-most-pleasant-leader/ Yet more bad news for Labour: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/07/31/more-bad-news-for-labour/ On the 45th anniversary of his murder: remembering Palestinian revolutionary intellectual Ghassan Kanafani: https://rdln.wordpress.com/ 2017/07/31/remembering-ghassan-kanafani-april-8-1936-july-8-1972/ 'The Young Karl Marx' - movie review: https://rdln.wordpress.com/ 2017/07/26/movie-review-the-young-karl-marx/ Marx versus the Keynesians and the austerians: https://rdln. wordpress.com/2017/07/29/marx-versus-the-keynesians-and-the-austerians/ Important workers' victory in the Caribbean - Guadeloupe banana workers win struggle: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/07/28/ victory-in-guadeloupe-banana-workers-strike/ The 'fire next time' - 50th anniversary of Detroit ghetto rebellion: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/07/28/the-fire-next-time- remembering-the-detroit-1967-rebellion/ France after Macron's victory - only the collective strength of the working class can bring change: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/07/25/ france-only-the-collecive-strength-of-the-working-class-can-bring-change/ Happy reading, Phil F for the Redline blog collective _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * >From the vaults - Pacific Islanders in NZ still at the bottom of the heap (2003): https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/07/11/from-the-vaults-pacific-islanders-in-nz-still-at-the-bottom-of-the-heap-2003/ >From the vaults - Behind NZ imperialism's intervention in the Solomon Islands (2003): https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/07/09/from-the-vaults-behind-the-solomons-intervention/ NZ governments like to present themselves as the 'good cops' on the block, but this is just a kind of 'boutique imperialism' (to borrow a term from Tom O'Lincoln). See this article from 1997/98 about NZ's fake 'honest broker' image: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/new-zealand-honest-broker-of-the-pacific/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * We have had a very busy time on Redline in the past fortnight or so. We've endeavoured to get up a chunk of material on the Grenfell Tower fire in London, for instance. Here is a very powerful piece by one of the firefighters who fought the inferno. He deals with the experience of the fire, the deaths, and also some reflections on firefighter pay and conditions: https://rdln. wordpress.com/2017/06/23/grenfell-tower-the-voice-of-a-firefighter/ Here is Paul Embery, the firefighters' union's London organiser, warning of the dangers as a result of the closure of fire stations in London: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/06/17/firefighter-organiser-2014-warning-re- closures-of-london-fire-stations/ Here is an interview we did last year with Paul about issues facing firefighters (and much more): https://rdln.wordpress. com/2016/07/15/interview-british-firefighter-organiser- paul-embery-on-firefighters-issues-the-state-of-the- british-working-class-and-the-brexit-vote/ An interesting short piece by an ex-firefighter in Britain: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/06/17/ex-firefighter-on- the-grenfell-tragedy/ And, of course, the tenants had been predicting the fire for some time: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/06/17/grenfell-fire-tenants-predicted-the- disaster/ *An important victory in Ireland* Several years ago, at a protest against the vicious austerity programme of the coalition Fine Gael/Labour government, a number of protesters sat down around the car of deputy prime minister Joan Burton, who was also the minister of social welfare, and one of the most anti-working class politicians in the government. She and her party (Labour) connived with the police to get very serious charges of false imprisonment brought against a number of the local working class activists. They have now been found not guilty in a unanimous jury verdict. Moreover, the state and the cops tried to prevent pickets outside the court and ban defendants from speaking publicly against the case. This was a very serious test case for free speech, the right to organise and protest, and it has been won: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/06/30/jobstown-not-guilty-working-class- activists-beat-labour-state-assault-on-right-to-protest-in-ireland/ Here is a short video with a statement by the Jobstown Accused as they walked free from the court: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/07/01/jobstown- innocent-labour-guilty-statement-of-victorious-working-class-activists/ *An important victory in London* Cleaners at the LSE in London, mainly migrant workers, have won an important victory against casualisation: https://rdln.wordpress.com/ 2017/06/20/important-workers-victory-in-london-the- cleaners-at-the-london-school-of-economics/ *Other features* If North Korea didn't exist, the US imperialists would have to invent it: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/06/23/if-north-korea-didnt-exist-the-us-would-create-it/ We've put up a piece by a member of the Working Class History Association in the States on the origins of the police force: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/06/27/the-police-were- created-to-control-working-class-and-poor-people/ We've also been running a series of articles by an American reader about his experience as an older worker in an increasingly casualised workforce in 21st century America. Here's pt 6: https://rdln.wordpress.com/ 2017/06/30/our-brand-is-uselessness-part-6/ Irish comrades write about the discovery of substantial human remains at a Catholic nun-run 'home' for mothers and babies: https://rdln.wordpress.com/ 2017/06/29/ireland-even-more-sins-by-the-catholic-church/ *Theory* We're very aware that we exist in the West (the imperialist world) and solidarity with the struggles of the oppressed peoples of the globe are crucial - workers in the West need to see ourselves as part of a global class, otherwise we're in danger of simply fighting for ourselves at the expense of the working class in the rest of the world: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/07/02/the-relevance- of-lenins-imperialism-and-the-split-in-socialism-today/ And we should look at Jeremy Corbyn's election campaign in this light. JC supports every repressive institution of the British imperialist state: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/06/09/british-election-results/ In solidarity, Philip Ferguson for the Redline blog collective _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Kenan Malik on British Labour Party: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/03/27/kenan-malik-on-british-labour-party/ Duneidn library workers show solidarity with Auckland workers: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/03/26/solidarity-with-the-auckland-libraries-workers-statement-by-dunedin-workers/ >From the vaults: political correctness and social control: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/03/25/from-the-vaults-political-correctness-and-social-control/ >From the vaults: race relations and social control: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/03/24/from-the-vaults-race-relations-and-social-control-written-in-19992000/ Yemen - the ignored war: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/03/24/yemen-the-ignored-war/ Martin McGuinness: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/03/23/martin-mcguinness-1950-2017/ Palestine - on hunger strike against administrative detention: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/03/21/17151/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Get out the Vote? Maybe not: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/02/27/get-out-the-vote-maybe-not/ Capitalism and democracy just don't mix: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/02/28/capitalism-and-democracy-they-just-dont-mix/ Capitalism brings greatest inequality ever: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/02/26/capitalism-brings-greatest-inequality-ever/ India: how and why the poor don't count: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/02/21/india-how-and-why-the-poor-dont-count/ A collection of articles on fighting factory closures: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/02/06/when-workers-occupy/ Phil _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Hi folks, an update on material we've been putting up on Redline over the past week or two. Treatment of Palestinians within Israel: https://rdln.wordpress.com/ 2017/02/03/treatment-of-palestinian-within-israel/ Links to our list of articles on the NZ Labour Party: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/02/03/redline-on-the-labour-party/ A review of the film *Hidden Figures*, about black women working for NASA in the 1960s: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/02/07/film-review- hidden-figures/ A look at Trumpism under noses in this country: https://rdln.wordpress.com/ 2017/02/09/trumpism-under-our-noses/ Links to collection of articles on Labour and anti-Chinese racism: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/02/12/the-labour-party- and-anti-chinese-racism/ Links to collection on Labour and anti-Pacific Islands racism: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/02/12/labour-and-racism- against-pacific-islanders/ The normality that produced Donald J. Trump: https://rdln.wordpress.com/ 2017/02/11/the-normality-that-produced-trump/ Review of a book looking at Australian rebel working class women: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/from-the-vaults- australian-rebel-working-class-women-2000/ Apple's cash hoard and the problems of contemporary capitalism: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/02/14/apples-cash-hoard-and-the-problems-of- capitalism/ Good reading! Phil for the Redline blog collective _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Democracy US style - an entire government that no-one has elected: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/11/18/democracy-us-style-an-entire-government-that-has-not-been-popularly-elected/ France - analysing the mobilisations against the new labour law: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/11/18/france-mobilisations-continue-against-proposed-new-labour-law/ (reprinted from International Viewpoint) Former Labour party leader goes back to business consultancy (where he belongs): https://wordpress.com/stats/insights/rdln.wordpress.com _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * This week the Rail Maritime Transport union in NZ discussed disaffiliating from the NZ Labour Party, a step we at Redline strongly favour. The article below about the RMT move contains links to our articles on unions and the NZ Labour Party: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/11/01/rail-maritime-transport-union-discussing-disaffiliation-from-labour/ Ditch Labour, fight for workers' rights: this article contains links to pieces on alternatives: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/11/01/ditch-labour-fight-for-workers-rights/ Writing from Canada, Nizar Visram sees the US presdiential contest as tweedlee-dee and tweedle-dum: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/11/01/us-presidential-election-tweedledum-vs-tweedledee/ A reader in New York, however, disagrees with parts of Nizar's analysis - see the discussion section below the article. We reprint Australian Marxist Corey Oakley's important article on Syria and the western left: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/10/29/the-war-in-syria-and-responses-of-the-left-in-the-west/ And a recent presentation by Yassamine Mather on the left and what's happening in Syria now: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/10/29/the-left-and-whats-happening-in-syria-now/ And several old articles from our former publications on Labour and immigration policy: Labour's repressive 2008 immigration legislation - an attack on all workers: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/10/28/from-the-vaults-labours-repressive-2008-immigration-legislation-an-attack-on-all-workers/ When Labour began the dawn raids and then tried to rewrite history: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/10/27/from-the-vaults-when-labour-began-the-dawn-raids-and-then-tried-to-rewrite-history/ Immigration and citizenship: Labour versus workers: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/10/27/from-the-vaults-immigration-and-citizenship-labour-versus-workers/ Phil _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Notes for first session of the Imperialism study group. We begin by looking at the economic aspects of Lenin's pamphlet on imperialism: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/07/20/imperialism-study-group-notes-for-discussion-1-the-economics-of-lenins-imperialism/ Redline talks to Paul Embery, national organiser of Trade Unionists Against the EU and London regional organiser of the Fire Brigades Union about issues facing British firefighters, the Brexit vote, and much more: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/07/15/interview-british-firefighter-organiser-paul-embery-on-firefighters-issues-the-state-of-the-british-working-class-and-the-brexit-vote/ We're currently working on a series of interviews. The next one is with Marxmail regular Mark Lause about his new book. It will be going up in a couple of days time, so look out for it. The one after that is with Barbara Gregorich, which I'm finding fascinating. That is still being done - we do a bit each week - so look out for that in a few weeks time. There's material abut supporting the irish revolutionary current, eirigi: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/07/13/support-the-irish-revolution-donate-to-eirigi/ And there's a piece on the importance of Hegel for Marxists: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/07/12/the-reason-for-revolution-why-understanding-hegel-is-important-for-marxists/ Phil _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Hi folks, as usual a busy time on the blog, although we have all been busy with other stuff like work-work, children and family, political activities and so on. We are just about to start our Imperialism study group and we're currently discussing with some other people around the country the idea of a national educational event later in the year. If you're interested in either of these, please get in touch asap. Now to the new stuff on the blog: Are public hospitals, like Dunedin hospital, examples of 'socialism in action', a view recently put forward by Andrew Tait, one of the leaders of ISO. We say no. Read our articles - and you can link to Andrew's from there: Sloppy food and politics: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/05/17/sloppy-food-and-politics/ Is Dunedin Hospital red? How (not) to propagandise for socialism: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/05/19/is-dunedin-hospital-red-how-not-to-propagandise-for-socialism/ We reprint a statement by a British socialist group on the Hillborough Stadium collapse in which 96 soccer fans lost their lives and where the state and the media continually blamed the fans. Finally, after almost 30 years, the fans have been vindicated. See: : https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/05/20/british-marxist-workers-group-on-hillsborough-findings/ Radio NZ recently interviewed veteran Iranian Marxist Yassamine Mather, whose work we regularly feature on Redline: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/05/18/interview-on-iran-with-yassamine-mather/ Also see our own interview with Yassamine from a couple of years ago: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/repression-and-resistance-in-iran-interview-with-yassamine-mather/ And Yassamine's article on what happened in Iran following the 1979 toppling of the shah: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2012/09/15/marxism-and-the-iranian-revolution/ Further on Iran, we have run several articles by Torab Saleth, who was a leader of the Iranian section of the Fourth International during the 1979 revolution and for a short period thereafter. See, for instance, his analyses of how the mullahs, rather than the socialists, ended up in power in 1979 and how they have been able to hold onto it ever since: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/12/23/veteran-iranian-revolutionary-on-the-class-nature-of-the-regime/ Torab also wrote recently about the current state of the workers' movement in Iran: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/06/14/the-working-class-movement-in-iran-2014-and-a-2008-interview-with-torab-saleth/ Along with (directly below) the article on the workers' movement is a 2008 interview I did with Torab. Sean Bresnahan of the 1916 Societies looks at the low turnout in the Stormont Assembly elections: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/05/12/low-election-turnout-voters-withdrawing-consent-the-stormont-case/ We run a statement by a US socialist group on the current political and economic situation there: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/us-marxist-workers-group-on-political-and-social-situation-there/ Happy reading! _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Firefighters coverage on Redline: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/04/26/firefighters-coverage-on-redline/ Gallipoli and NZ imperialism: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/04/25/gallipoli-and-new-zealand-imperialism/ Slump capitalism and the end of history: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/04/24/from-the-vaults-slump-capitalism-and-the-end-of-history-1997/ The Bernie Sanders campaign and the US left: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/04/21/the-bernie-sanders-campaign-and-the-us-left/ CLR James, Malcolm X and the politics of rebellion: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/04/21/c-l-r-james-malcolm-x-and-the-politics-of-rebellion/ Dead in Porirua: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/04/23/dead-in-porirua/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * *Gallipoli and NZ imperialism* The poppies are out again. We’re all expected to give to the RSA and to wear one of their poppies to show our respect for NZ combatants who died in wars abroad. But it doesn’t really take more than a second or two of reflection about Gallipoli, the centrepiece around which war is recalled in NZ and poppies worn, before a couple of questions present themselves. Why was New Zealand invading Turkey? What was World War One about? And there’s the rub. full at: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/04/19/gallipoli-and-new-zealand-imperialism/ *UN leadership contest - Helen Clark is the ultra-establishment candidate: * https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/04/15/un-leadership-contest-helen-clark-is-the-ultra-establishment-candidate/ *Michael Roberts on the Panama Papers*: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/04/14/michael-roberts-on-the-panama-papers/ *Shakespeare 400 years on*: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/04/10/shakespeare-400-years-on/ *Tax havens - natural and inescapable product of capitalism: * https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/04/09/tax-havens-natural-and-inescapable-product-of-capitalism/ *Free trade isn't the problem - it's capitalism:* https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/04/08/free-trade-isnt-the-problem-its-capitalism/ *Whose time is it anyway - distribution workers, time and alienation: * https://rdln.wordpress.com/2016/04/07/whose-time-is-it-anyway-time-distribution-workers-and-alienation/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Susanne Kemp on Palestine/PFLP News: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/10/20/palestinepflp-news/ Tony Greenstein on A third Intifada?: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/10/19/beginning-of-a-third-intifada/ Moshe Machover on Jeff Halper's 'War against the People': https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/in-review-jeff-halpers-war-against-the-people/ Yassamine Mather on the poisoned fruits of imperialist intervention in the Middle East: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/10/19/syria-iraq-the-poisoned-fruits-of-imperialist-intervention/ Sabena Norten on Zinoviev's book on German social-democracy: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/10/15/marxist-classics-an-appreciation-of-zinovievs-the-war-and-the-crisis-of-socialism/ Tony Norfield on how British imperialist plunder helped Labour create a welfare state after WW2: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/10/15/the-british-welfare-state-model-something-were-not-told/ Plus a 1980 article by Tony on the end of US dollar supremacy: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/10/14/the-demise-of-us-dollar-supremacy/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Hi folks, as usual we have been very busy at the blog. Our biggest new piece is one offered to us by a fellow blogger about his experiences as a worker in the modern NZ office; in his case he was doing data processing. It's a fascinating tale of alienation and employer mechanisms of control in offices across twenty-first century NZ. Read it at: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/08/27/diary-of-an-office-worker-2/ Last Sunday, QA dragged has-been Don Brash out of the cobwebs to tell us that low productivity growth in NZ is the fault of too many people coming into the country. He seemed mystified that the economic reforms of the late 80s and early 90s hadn't produced the results they were supposed to. Instead of drawing the logical conclusion that there must therefore be something wrong with his theory, he trawled around for a scapegoat. The real reason for sluggish productivity growth, we suggest, is that employers are relying so much on making workers work harder, faster, longer, rather than investing on the level required in new plant, technology, machinery and RD. See: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/08/26/the-ridiculousness-of-don-brash-on-immigration-and-low-productivity-growth/ Mike Roberts look at the new wave of turmoil in global markets: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/08/25/yet-more-market-turmoil/ Philip Ferguson looks at the anti-Chinese racism of the early NZ Labour Party and the infatuation of people like Michael Joseph Savage with 'racial purity: 'https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/labours-racist-roots-2/ We also look at the problem of blaming 'bad banks' for our woes, when the problem is actually in the productive economy itself: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/08/23/from-the-vaults-bad-banks-or-bad-capitalism/ Another article suggests that it is long since time that we had a campaign to get unions to disaffiliate from the anti-worker Labour Party and started to build a new movement of, for and by workers: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/08/22/12932/ There has been quite an interesting discussion in the comments section for the article on disaffiliation; you might be interested in joining in the discussion. We've also had over 500 views on the piece on how the 'left' in the Australian Labor Party essentially simply services the right. If you haven't already looked at this article you might take a look: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/08/21/how-the-left-in-the-australian-labor-party-services-the-right/ And for a take on the role of lefts in Labour parties in general, see: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/08/21/labour-parties-and-their-left-oppositions/ Lastly, in the month that has marked the70th anniversary of the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, folks might be interested in reading about wartime opposition to the dicatorship in Japan: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/08/21/wartime-resistance-in-imperial-japan/ All the best, Philip Ferguson for the Redline blog collective PS: Please do think about leaving comments in the comments section under any articles that particularly interest you. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Over the past week, we've been concentrating on demystifying all the propaganda around Anzac Day. New features pieces on the blog include: Labour movement historian Jared Davidson on the response by working class activists to militarism and class exploitation in NZ, 1905-1925: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/26/opposing-war-abroad-fighting-the-class-war-at-home-radical-workers-in-new-zealand-1905-1925/ The absurdity and obscenity of Gallipoli as seen through the eyes of three NZ writers: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/24/the-absurdity-and-obscenity-of-gallipoli-three-new-zealand-writers-accounts/ Tom O'Lincoln looks at the crap existence that confronted homecoming WW1 soldiers in Australia: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/27/after-world-war-1-the-horrors-of-peace-at-home-australia/ Australian cops shut down Aboriginal Anzac Day march: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/27/australian-cops-shut-down-aboriginal-anzac-day-march/ Tim Leadbeater writes about his excellent new blog, 100 Years of Trenches: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/100-years-of-trenches/ And check out our earlier material on WW1 and Anzac Day that is grouped here: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/as-we-approach-anzac-day/ In Christchurch the new Palestinian Association organised a successful event to commemorate Land Day: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/21/palestinian-land-day-commemorated-in-christchurch/ In Wellington Peace Action activists picketed Tony Abbott's appearance at the war memorial: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/anti-war-action-at-pukeahau-memorial/ British elections: Labour attacks migrant workers: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/british-elections-labour-attacks-migrant-workers/ Lastly, we have a piece looking at the police murder of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Here's an extract: with his hands cuffed behind his back, with his legs in shackles, Freddie Gray was thrown into the back of a Baltimore police van, no seatbelt, nothing to secure him in place, and then ridden around for 42 minutes, over bumpy roads, around sharp fast turns, punctuated by sudden reversals and stops, tossing him around the back of the van, bouncing him off its walls, unable to protect or brace himself with his feet or his hands. It’s what Baltimore cops call a “rough ride,” and what Philadelphia cops call a “nickel ride.” By the end of that murderous ride, Freddie Gray was for all practical purposes dead, although it took him another seven days to die. His spinal cord had been almost severed, three neck vertebrae were fractured, his larynx crushed. . . full at: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/27/us-the-states-systematic-violence-kills-another-young-black-man/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Hi folks, with Easter coming up, this update is coming early. We've stuck up three important articles on workers' rights in the past few days. Phil Duncan looks at the background to the tussle between Cotton On workers at the company's Auckland distribution centre and the bosses who were trying to take away their breaks. This round has gone to the workers: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/02/workers-at-cotton-on-win-pay-and-teabreak-victory/ The settlement in the Cotton On case came just after we'd posted up a major feature article on the importance of distribution workers in 21st century capitalism. While the article deals with the US it is very relevant here. Indeed, drive around chunks of 'industrial Auckland' and what you will largely see are distribution centres more than factories. The importation of industrial and manufacturing products that were once produced here has put distribution workers here at a pivotal place in contemporary capitalism (and,. as Marx noted, sections of workers involved in the sphere of circulation produce surplus-value): https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/the-importance-of-circulation-workers-in-21st-century-capitalism/ Lastly, however bad conditions of workers in New Zealand are, workers in the Third World have it far worse. Read about the Mexican farm workers' strike in which fruitpickers, many of them impoverished and semi-literate workers from the south of Mexico, are pitted against some of the biggest and richest companies in the world: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/mexican-farm-workers-strike/ In the next day or two, we'll doing something on an impressive transport workers strike in Argentina - so look out for that. Also, check out our piece on the Northland 'buy-election' result: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/03/29/the-dark-lord-takes-the-north-land-peters-win-no-victory-for-the-working-class/ And an excellent piece by Kenan Malik on why young people in Europe would join a group like ISIS: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/why-are-young-people-in-european-joining-jihadi-groups/ And, over Easter, you might have time to peruse the following collections of articles on the blog: *The state of the working class in New Zealand today: * https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/12/16/the-state-of-the-working-class-in-new-zealand-today/ *This is what workers' resistance looks like: * https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/03/12/this-is-what-resistance-looks-like/ *Education for anti-capitalists:* https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/03/29/education-for-anti-capitalists/ Have a good Easter break, Phil for Redline blog collective _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] New on Redline blog
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * This week we've been starting to get busy again with the blog. I've just stuck up a piece by Michael Roberts on deflation and what it means for workers and for the global economy. See: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/01/24/what-does-deflation-mean-for-economies/ Since 9/11, a whole bunch of new laws have been passed in New Zealand expanding the powers of the state and threatening our democratic rights. Cam Walker looks at changes since 2007. The article also includes the list of current organisations and movements that the NZ government designates as 'terrorist', some of whom are clearly progressive/liberation movements. See: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/the-terrorism-suppression-act-since-2007/ Meanwhile, John Key argues that NZ military involvement in Iraq/Syria is the price that must be paid for membership of the selective club involving Britain, the USA, Canada, Australia and NZ. Veteran activist Don Franks investigates: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/looking-inside-john-keys-club/ We've also re-put up an article we posted right near the blog's beginning in 2011, looking at GST and taxation and demystifying them: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/01/21/understanding-gst-and-tax-policy/ We've collected together a number of articles on the 1960s that have appeared on Redline since we began. The sixties were a fascinating time, when everything seemed possible: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/01/18/the-sixties/ We've re-put up a couple of critical articles on Labour Party history: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/01/20/labour-always-in-the-rearguard-never-the-vanguard/ https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/01/19/more-on-the-fourth-labour-government/ Lastly, some weekend leisure: I’ve gotta put a plug in for my current favourite musician. If you like folk, but harder and more sinewy than the old duffel-coat brigade variety, check out Seth Lakeman, the youngest of the three very talented Lakeman brothers (the others being the oldest, Sean, and the middle one Sam). I wrote a review of Seth’s last two albums here: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/12/30/seth-lakemans-workers-lives-review-of-tales-from-the-barrelhouse-and-word-of-mouth/ Seth comes from, and still lives in, the West Country in England. Devon to be precise. Most of his songs are about ordinary people’s lives, drawing on the history of Devon, Cornwall, Dorset etc. His ‘Live at the Minack Theatre’ DVD is my all-time favourite live music DVD, equal with Cream’s 1968 Royal Albert Hall gig. The Minack Theatre, by Land’s End, is a stunning venue. Check out, for instance Seth there at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwLK0rJ3keA Some more Seth. Another of my great favourities of his: Blood Red Skies, which is his variation on the Reynardine theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glp_V–Hya8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Glp_V--Hya8 And here’s a song which was something of a breakthrough of his (title track of his second album, which was nominated for a prestigious Mercury Prize); it’s the story of a young servant who killed herself after being impregnated by the young master, her grave is on Dartmoor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLrOR6swYPI Another great favouritie of mine is Irish socialist-republican and great singer-songwriter Damien Dempsey. ‘Damo’ toured here earlier this year, just him and his guitar. Here’s a review of his Christchurch gig, which was packed out with young Irish: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/damo-does-the-dux-gig-review/ The review contains a link to one of my great favourites of his – Masai. All the best for 2015. Phil for the Redline blog collective _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
