Grid of posts 2×3

  • Maina’s story

    Film screening Blockhouse Bay Community Hall Sunday 1 March 2009 Maina is based on the real story of a 15 year old girl from a remote village in Nepal. She was arrested by the Royal Nepal Army and brutally killed. Maina Sunar’s case got attention because of the struggle of her mother, Debi, to find Read more

  • Solidarity for sacked workers – join the patrol

    From March ’09 workers in small businesses will be able to be sacked for  no reason at all, in their first 90 days of employment.  In Auckland Unite union and other groups, including the Workers Party, have been preparing  to defend workers sacked under the new law You can expect to see Unite’s 6 meter high inflatable Read more

  • McDonald’s workers upsize their pay

    -Daphna Whitmore The Spark February 2009   After a series of strikes, Unite union members at McDonald’s restaurants have a new collective agreement with improved wages and conditions. Their actions included 50 strikes in dozens of stores from Whangarei to Hamilton and a protest outside the company’s national conference. There was a real fighting spirit Read more

  • Kindergarten teachers deserve wider support

    -Don Franks The Spark February 2009 Kindergarten teachers are seeking to ensure they don’t cop a 90-day trial period when they start a new job. The workers’ union, NZEI Te Riu Roa, has lodged the first employment claim in response to the National government’s anti-worker Employment Relations Amendment Act 2008. (Under the new law, rushed Read more

  • How capitalism works – and doesn’t work

    Philip Ferguson The Spark February 2009 (The following article is the first in a two-part series on the present economic crisis. This part explains how the system operates; the second part, in our March issue, will be an examination of what’s happening right now – and what workers can do about it.) According to economics.about.com, Read more

  • Free the Cuban Five!

    Below we republish a statement put out recently by the Christchurch Cuba Friendship Society calling for the release of the 5 Cuban government agents currently incarcerated in the USA for spying on right-wing Cuban exile groups in Miami who are guilty of engaging in terrorist attacks against the island nation: Meeting calls on President Obama Read more