‘In world market crises, all the contradictions of bourgeois production erupt collectively; in particular crises (particular in their content and in extent) the eruptions are only sporadically, isolated and one-sided.’ Theories of Surplus Value – Karl Marx What happens when capitalism reaches its limits? Can the system sustain itself indefinitely, or is collapse built into…
We’re stoked to be contributing to this event alongside Teachers for Palestine! https://events.humanitix.com/kneecap-film-nightTickets are $20 waged, $15 unwaged. Funds raised by be donated to KiwiPal https://kiwipal.org Kneecap have made it their mission to bring attention to colonisation through their Irish language hip-hop. Riotous, rebellious, and hilarious, Kneecap the film is a mostly-true origin story of the…
In 2023, the Wellington City Council commissioned a review of its balance sheet which identified that the Council had a significant insurance risk associated with underinsurance in the context of a major disaster. The review recommended the sale of the full Wellington Airport shareholding and establishment of a perpetual investment fund to manage the Council’s…
The National-led coalition’s shock gutting of pay equity legislation, passed under urgency just days after being announced, has taken woman workers back decades. The new legislation goes well beyond repealing the 2020 amendments to the Equal Pay Act of 1972: in a number of important respects, it takes women back to the 1970s. In 2012,…
Sara Salman joins us to discuss her recent book, The Shaming State, which examines the erosion of social rights and the political use of shame against people in need, and argues that shame exacerbates the decline of social solidarity in neoliberal western regimes. Her book investigated the vanishing horizon of social rights in the United…
*PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT DATE DIFFERS FROM OUR USUAL SECOND WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH* Childbirth is often described as a natural process, but the decisions we make around birth, the care that is available and the risks we face, are embroiled in the dynamics of the capitalist system in which we live. In…
Sean KB is a rank-and-file member of the NYC District Council of Carpenters, co-host of the Antifada podcast, and founder of the Independent Labour Club of North America, a workers’ organization with branches across the U.S. dedicated to class independence. We will discuss what the struggle for socialism might look like at the chaotic imperial…
On November 14,1914 the Sultan-Caliph of the Ottoman empire proclaimed an official ‘Great Jihad’ against the allied powers. Today there is renewed interest in the role of Islam in the first world war, and revisionist histories see the conflict as a ‘clash of civilisations’ in which ANZAC soldiers battled with Jihadis. In his lecture Byron…
For more than a century, socialism in the United States has gone through two distinct phases: a period of ascent from the late 19th century through the Great Depression, followed by a long and steady decline from the end of the Second World War to today. At its height, American socialism was deeply embedded in…
The introduction of Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs) under the last Labour government was an ambitious attempt to deal with stagnant wages and rising poverty. FPAs would have allowed unions to dramatically increase their reach and improve pay and conditions across whole industries and occupations. Unfortunately, the recent change of government led to the repeal of…