No escape from the death-trap
The first victim of the horrific fire in Grenfell Tower in London to be named was Mohammad al-Hajali, a 23-year-old civil engineering students and Syrian refugee. Three years ago, Mohammad […]
Author Archives: James Robb
Why ‘Vaxxed’ gets a hearing (and why the defence of vaccination can’t be left to doctors)
I watched the movie Vaxxed – from Cover-up to Catastrophe recently. It has been generating a great deal of excitement and controversy as it does the rounds in New Zealand. […]
Apology, anthropology, and colonial genocide
A review of Terra Nullius, A Journey Through No One’s Land, by Sven Lindqvist Terra Nullius – a Latin expression meaning ‘no one’s land’ – was a legal fiction used to clear […]
The falling rate of profit and other explanations of capitalist crisis
Guest post by Terry Coggan, a New Zealand Marxist and trade unionist. Part two of a two-part article entitled A Complete Theory of Capitalist Economic Crises? An Appreciation of the Work […]
A Complete Theory of Capitalist Economic Crises? An Appreciation of the Work of Sam Williams
Guest post by Terry Coggan, a New Zealand Marxist and trade unionist. Part One (of two parts): The implications of Marx’s theory of commodity money Few of us will ever make […]
A meditation on family violence
Maea, the central figure in Tusi Tamasese’s movie One Thousand Ropes, is a man haunted by his violent past. He lives in a barren, cramped, dark apartment – typical of […]
Donald Trump and the transition to Bonapartist rule
The Twitter Bonaparte casts a shadow – second of two parts Donald Trump was elected to the US presidency in a world different in countless ways from the world of […]
The Twitter Bonaparte casts a shadow: two articles on Bonapartism
Part 1: the second Bonaparte (and the first) In 1848 the continent of Europe was engulfed in the flames of revolution. Absolute monarchies, princes and dukes were overthrown in Denmark, […]
Fidel Castro’s ‘moral armour’ and courage under fire
In one of the videos of Fidel Castro that have been circulating since the revolutionary leader’s death, a reporter is accompanying Fidel on the plane trip to New York, where […]
Cultural appropriation, race-baiting, and the power of fiction: in defence of Lionel Shriver
US novelist Lionel Shriver ruffled a few feathers – to put it mildly – when she spoke at the Brisbane Writers Festival in September. Shriver took aim at ‘identity politics’ […]
