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 […]
Category Archives: health care
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 […]
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 […]
Land, labour, and epidemic diseases – two articles on capitalist penetration of the Pacific
When the deadly epidemic of influenza swept the world in the months following the end of the Great War of 1914-18, the toll it took in the Pacific Islands was […]
Supporters and enemies of abortion rights measure their strength (and weakness)
The abortion law in New Zealand is an anomaly. In the actual wording of the law, it was, when passed in 1977, one of the most restrictive such laws in […]
“Trans women are women” – Identity politics takes aim at women’s emancipation
It’s worth reminding ourselves that once, not so long ago, there was a mass movement for women’s rights – a social and political movement, led by women, that mobilised people […]
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. […]
Thomas Sankara and the Black Spring in Burkina Faso
Blaise Compaoré, the president of Burkina Faso who was forced to resign by mass protests on October 31, was more than simply a dictator who had clung to power for […]
The naked class politics of Ebola
Just as a glass prism differentiates sunlight into its component colours, corresponding to the different wavelengths, the Ebola crisis ravaging three West African countries has produced three distinct responses, corresponding […]
