The forestry companies must be held accountable
“Send them the bill for cleaning up the slash and for repairing the destruction it caused. If they can’t pay, confiscate their land to pay the costs.”
Category Archives: farming
Problems of the soil – Marx, Malthus, and George Monbiot
Large-scale industry and industrially pursued large-scale agriculture have the same effect. If they are originally distinguished by the fact that the former lays waste and ruins labour-power and thus the […]
There’s a storm brewing
What the local elections foretell I am one of the large majority who did not vote in the recent mayoral and local elections in New Zealand – not because I […]
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 […]
The Holodomor in Ukraine and the obfuscations of “Mr Jones”
Few countries in the world suffered more than Ukraine in the twentieth century. One of the nations of the Soviet Union favoured with fertile soils and bountiful agriculture, geography made […]
The other exploited producers – origins of the class of working farmers in New Zealand
(First of three articles on workers and farmers in 1913 New Zealand. Long-time readers of this blog may notice that this article overlaps substantially with a post from 2015 entitled […]
Pasteur, rabbits and the working class – a case study in the politics of science
Harry Holland and the early labour movement in Australia and New Zealand Part 7 The gold rush of the nineteenth century had brought large numbers of free immigrants to the […]
Marmaduke Nixon and “our history”
Standing beside the Great South Road in Otahuhu, about 13 km south of central Auckland, is a memorial obelisk, beneath which are buried the mortal remains of Marmaduke Nixon. The […]
Are we to be reduced to believing in miracles? – A reflection on the outcome of the New Zealand general election
When the rich and powerful are celebrating their electoral success and workers are tasting defeat, the last thing that is needed is another smug commentator to step forward with their […]
A worker at large 