The economic crisis that caused the pandemic
The virus and capitalist society, Part 4: a note on the dialectic of cause and effect The cause of the economic slump that has brought the world economy crashing down […]
Author Archives: James Robb
The devil’s trade-off: public health or ‘the economy’
The virus and capitalist society, Part 3 As the capitalist rulers around the world move towards lifting the lockdown conditions imposed to halt the spread of Covid-19 disease, they are […]
Essential workers
The virus and capitalist society – Part 2 Of all the capitalist governments attempting to emulate the Wuhan model of lockdown to combat the Covid-19 virus, New Zealand has fared […]
The virus and capitalist society
Is anything good likely to come of this pandemic? I have seen reports of reduction in air pollution over China, and less-than-truthful pictures of clear water and dolphins in the […]
Ghost houses and the spectre of communism
In late January, the Labour Party mayor of Auckland, Phil Goff, made a bizarre, shocking proposal: Given that there is a housing crisis in the city, with thousands of people […]
Arthur Thomas, the presumption of innocence, and the dangers of name suppression
If anyone is entitled to the presumption of innocence today, it is Arthur Allan Thomas. In 1971, and again at a re-trial in 1973, Thomas, a Waikato dairy farmer, was […]
Scientific medicine, the weight of history, and the measles epidemics in Samoa and New Zealand
It appears that the measles epidemic in Samoa is finally waning. It is now a week since the government of Samoa implemented emergency measures to combat the disease, centred on […]
Grace Millane, consent, and Fifty Shades of Grey: what the trial tells us about the social, sexual and legal status of women today
Sometimes a criminal trial throws light on a deeper social or political problem; the trial of the murderer of Grace Millane is one of those times. For the benefit of […]
Returning to Samoa after 38 years – a reflection on the growth of capitalist relations
I first visited Samoa in 1981. I went there to report for the newspaper Socialist Action on a recent strike by government workers organized in the Public Service Association. At […]
Climate change, climate hysteria, and the Sky City fire
Climate change is real, and so is climate hysteria. Anthropogenic climate change is generated by emissions of carbon dioxide (and some other gases) through human economic activity, mostly by the […]
