Grid of posts 2×3

  • Wellington bus drivers fight back

    – Spark Editors Over the last couple of decades, workers have taken significant hits to their pay and conditions. The last nine years of Labour-led government has seen no significant improvement for the great majority of working people. That’s why some groups of workers, like the bus drivers, have started fighting back. On 25 September… Read more

  • The environment: a class issue

    – Byron Clark When environmentalists talk of ecological doomsday (real or imagined) it’s unusual for working-class people, or groups fighting for the working class, to respond. As Alan Roberts pointed out in 1979, in words that are even more relevant today: “The bulk of the population of the underdeveloped world live continuously with the threat… Read more

  • Why finance companies fall over

    – John Edmundson While New Zealand has not yet experienced financial turmoil of the type facing the USA, there has been an unprecedented series of collapses of finance companies over the last two years. It is easy to simply blame the directors of these companies as individuals, identifying their greed and the criminality they have… Read more

  • Abolish *all* GST

    We produce the goods and services – let’s take ownership of them all! GST was first introduced in NZ by the fourth Labour government in 1986 at the rate of 10%. While a similar tax in Britain excluded basic family items, the only things Labour excluded from GST here were financial services, real estate transactions… Read more

  • Not much done, lots more to do

    – John Edmundson As election day nears, you’d think it would be time for union leaders to raise workers’ needs in front of the politicians. The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (CTU) has released its spin on the latest statistics summarising the socioeconomic state of New Zealand in the last decade. The CTU’s assessment… Read more

  • Why the Workers Party stands in capitalist elections

    – Nick Kelly Editorial from the October 2008 issue of The Spark As this issue of The Spark goes to press Wall street is in trouble. The international capitalist economy is yet again entering a downturn As we head into the general election, New Zealand voters once again face a choice of political parties who… Read more