Solidarity.
“Burn the vampire bosses”
October 31, 2009 by
On the eve of Halloween there was a carnival atmosphere as people marched up Queen Street Auckland.
The march was part of Unite’s campaign to get 300,000 signatures on our petition for the minimum wage to be raised to $15 an hour. If that target is reached by May next year the government will have to hold a referendum on the question of whether the minimum wage should be lifted to $15 an hour.
A vampire boss effigy was burnt at the stake, to cap off the night.
Book Review: How Aid Hurt Palestine
October 29, 2009 by
Reprinted from Electronic Intifada. To support the WP Palestine solidarity campaign, click here.
From 1994 — shortly after the Oslo Declaration of Principles was signed — to 2006, when Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank, international donors gave $8 billion in aid to the Palestinians, making them one of the most subsidized people on Earth. This aid ostensibly had three purposes: to support the peace process leading to a two-state solution, to foster economic and social development, and to promote institution-building. Yet, many years and billions of dollars later, Palestinians are poorer and further from statehood than ever before, and their dysfunctional national institutions face an unprecedented crisis of legitimacy.
In her first monograph, international relations specialist Anne Le More seeks to answer a straightforward question that ought to be of profound import to scholars, activists and decision makers: how and why did this happen? Along the way, International Assistance to the Palestinians after Oslo, the first in Routledge’s Studies on the Arab-Israeli Conflict series, provides an important critique of the belief that reconstruction, development and humanitarian aid form essential counterparts to political processes aimed at resolving longstanding violent conflicts. Le More’s study focuses solely on the Occupied Palestinian Territories; the questions it poses, however, could offer a template for exploring the extent to which “aid” has become the means to repackage Western military occupation and dependency as “state-building” and “independence” in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Kosovo.
Key tells CTU no major changes to employment law
October 27, 2009 by
by Daphna Whitmore
In the run up to the last general election the Labour Party enthusiasts who hold so many of the top posts of unions were giving dire predictions that a National government would take NZ back to the dark ages as far as workers’ rights were concerned.
The Workers Party, in constrast, didn’t think Labour had ushered in a golden age, nor did we think National were planning on a major attack on unions. What was likely, we said, was that it would be business as usual.
Lockout Over, Cheese Workers Win Collective Agreement
October 27, 2009 by
Media Release: Dairy Workers Union
The month-long lockout of workers at Talleys-owned Open Country Cheese is over after workers have secured their goal of collective employment agreement to cover their jobs.
“The members of our union at Open Country Cheese have stuck together right through this very difficult dispute,” Dairy Workers Union National Secretary James Ritchie said.
“All that these workers wanted was some basic job security through a collective employment agreement and they were illegally locked out for standing up for their rights.”
The company’s restructuring at the plant greatly reduced the number of positions available and a confidential settlement was reached for workers whose jobs have disappeared, he said.
“The workers were buoyed on by the very strong support of the Waharoa and wider Waikato community, and the solidarity of the union movement. Their stand for fairness at work shows that workers are stronger when they act together in unions,” James Ritchie said.
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