Grid of posts 2×3

  • David Harvey and neoliberalism

    By Joe McClure (Fightback Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington) David Harvey, according to his website, is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography at the City University of New York. While this is not entirely accurate – his role does not include geography – he is nonetheless considered one of the foremost academic authorities on Marxism and how it Read more

  • The opportunity for politics: A reply to Ben Peterson

    By Ian Anderson, Fightback Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington. I’d like to thank Ben Peterson for responding to Daphne Lawless’ recent article Against Conservative Leftism, published by Fightback, with his own piece. While we may disagree on some points, I am glad he has taken us up on this debate. First I’d like to clear up a possible misconception Read more

  • Housing: ‘Aww, poor thing’ – A victory for the loudest Aucklanders in the room

    Fightback supports the universal right to housing, including expansion of high-density, high-quality public housing, and strict price controls on privately owned houses. This article by Alex Johnston, reprinted from The Spinoff, makes a case for high-density urban housing in Auckland. Yesterday the democratic deficit present in Auckland’s local body politics was well and truly evident. In a Read more

  • Neoliberalism as the agent of capitalist self-destruction

    By Neil Davidson. Reprinted from Salvage, and abridged by Daphne Lawless for Fightback’s upcoming magazine issue on neoliberalism. The neoliberal era can be retrospectively identified as beginning with the economic crisis of 1973, or, more precisely, with the strategic response of state managers and employers to that crisis. Previous eras in the history of capitalism Read more

  • The public sector: Swallowing the blue pill of neoliberalism

    by Ben Jacobs (Fightback member and public servant). Like many systems of thought, the theory and practice of neoliberalism don’t line up particularly well. In New Zealand, for example, the state plays a key role in propping up a system that preaches minimal state intervention. Public servants realised long ago that actually existing neoliberalism is Read more

  • Hot bedding, sex-for-rent and $170 bunks: The rental crisis in Auckland

    by Fiona O’Callaghan Just over a year ago, I was living in a garage. It was renovated to the extent that it had been carpeted and the interior walls gyprocked (but not painted) and the entrance filled with a ranchslider. I had to go up to the main house if I wanted to use the Read more