Grid of posts 2×3

  • Venezuela: Orinoco steel industry nationalised

    By Community Reporters of Merida for Aporrea.org (see original report in Spanish here) Translated by Tim Bowron for The Spark 9/4/08 MERIDA, Venezuela. Steel workers and the trade union Sutiss have won their fight for the nationalisation of the steel industry firm Ternium-Sidor after months of strikes, confrontations and repression by the National Guard. This Read more

  • NZ Police propping up Tongan monarchy

    – Alastair Reith The Kingdom of Tonga has announced that it will be appointing a New Zealand policeman to be its new Police Commander. The news was made public on April 2, with the Ministry of Police, Prisons and Fire Services stating that none of the seven Tongan candidates were “suitable”. Tonga is a repressive Read more

  • Cracking down on user rights: NZ’s new copyright laws

    – Byron Clark The Copyright (New Technologies) Amendment Bill was passed into law earlier this week, the following is a slightly edited version of an article published in The Spark in Feburary 2007 after the bill passed its first reading. On April 7 the Copyright (New Technologies and Performers Rights) Amendment Bill was passed into Read more

  • New Workers Party Poll

    This week Helen Clark flew to Beijing to sign an “historic” free trade agreement with China. Reaction to the deal has ranged from euphoria among the business community to moral outrage from groups such as Free Tibet and the Green Party. Let us know what you think by voting here in our special online poll. Read more

  • “Crimes against the working class”

    – A talk presented by Don Franks at a recent Wellington public meeting in solidarity with those arrested during the so-called “anti-terror” raids in October 2007. Mass media treatment of politics these days is largely soundbites, titillation and trivia. The present structure of society is not subject to serious examination or question. Capitalism is accepted Read more

  • Should socialists opppose free trade? A response to an Alliance activist

    With the signing of the recent FTA with China, the debate over the issue of free trade has been reignited among workers and left-wing political activists in New Zealand. Many left union officials and members of political parties such as the Alliance have argued that immigration controls and tariffs must be retained to protect NZ Read more