A new book by Christchurch activist Jared Davidson Remains to be Seen traces the ashes of Joe Hill — radical songwriter, union organiser and member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) — from their distribution in Chicago to wartime New Zealand. Drawing on previously unseen archival material, it examines the persecution of anarchists, socialists and Wobblies in New Zealand during the First World War. It also explores how intense censorship measures — put in place by the National Coalition Government of William Massey and zealously enforced by New Zealand’s Solicitor-General, Sir John Salmond — effectively silenced and suppressed the IWW in New Zealand.

The book will be launched in Christchurch on Thursday June 30 at Beat Street Cafe (Corner Barbadoes and Armagh), at 5.30pm. Copies of the book will also be available for purchase. A review of Remains to be Seen will appear in the August issue of The Spark and on this website.

Come along to this seminar presented by the Workers Party on three outstanding revolutionary figures: Che Guevara, one of the central leaders of the Cuban revolution, who also later fought in the Congo and Bolivia; George Habash, one of the founders of radical trade unions in the Arab world and the founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Seamus Costello, a legendary leader of the struggle for Irish national liberation, from his teens in the 1950s until his murder in 1977.

2-6 PM, Saturday the 10th

WEA, 59 Gloucester St (map)

There will be plenty of time for discussion after each presentation; we’ll wrap up with a meal and movie at 5pm.

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Much has been made by the corporate media and Western governments over the threat supposedly represented by Iran’s civilian nuclear program (despite the CIA themselves admitting that there is no evidence at all the Iranian government is developing nuclear weapons). Many ostensibly “progressive” people (including our own Labour government) have backed UN sanctions against the Iranian regime, yet remain conspicuously silent on the issue of Israel’s already developed arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Is it simply a case of the left needing to be more consistent in its policy of intervention, or should we instead uphold the right of the Iranian people themselves to overthrow their regime without interference from Western interests?

Come along to this month’s Christchurch Workers Party forum, where we discuss these questions as well as what Iranian leftists themselves are doing to oppose both the threat of US military intervention and their own government as well.

Wednesday September 24, 7pm

Workers Educational Association, 59 Gloucester St

All Welcome!