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 […]
Category Archives: historical materialism
Ex Machina – a porno flick for the thinking man
I’m sorry: if you are looking for porn, you will be disappointed. There is little in this movie that would raise the eyebrow of the censor. The pornographic content of this […]
The sheltered childhood of the working class in New Zealand: 1890-1912
The newborn working class in New Zealand took its first breath in the upsurge of union organising and the 1890 maritime strike, which was both the culmination of that upsurge […]
The Condition of the Working Class in New Zealand in 1890
In 1842 Friedrich Engels, the 22-year-old son of a German textile manufacturer, was sent to Manchester, England, to work in the family business. Manchester was at the time the centre […]
Origins of the working class in New Zealand
The modern proletariat is a propertyless class. Evicted from the land, dispossessed of the means of life, the proletarians are thereby compelled, under threat of starvation, to sell their labour-power […]
The Legacy of Primitive Communism
Last part of “Once Were Communists,” a series of four articles by Terry Coggan The last article in this series argued that the system of Maori communal production could not be reorientated […]
The Destruction of Maori Communism
Part Three of “Once Were Communists,” a series of four articles by Terry Coggan It is a “guiding principle” of Marx’s historical materialism that “at a certain stage of development, […]
A Maori Matriarchy?
Part Two of “Once Were Communists,” a series of four articles by Terry Coggan If we take the society of the Iroquois Indians of North America studied by Lewis Morgan, […]
Once Were Communists – Part One: The first communism
Note from James Robb: The next four posts in this blog will be a series of articles on primitive communism in New Zealand by Terry Coggan, a longtime member of the communist […]
Beauty, truth, and “the hideous music admired by savages”
Beauty is truth, truth, beauty – that is all Ye know on earth and all ye need to know John Keats, Ode on a Grecian urn With this, Keats articulated […]
A worker at large 