A worker at large

Working class politics and history, with digressions

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Category Archives: literature

Grace Millane Photo: Lucie Blackman Trust/ PA

Grace Millane, consent, and Fifty Shades of Grey: what the trial tells us about the social, sexual and legal status of women today

November 28, 2019by James Robb 3 Comments

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 […]

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alienation, literature, morality, pornography, sexual violence, violence against women, women's equality, working class

A book that changed the course of the class struggle

November 10, 2018by James Robb Leave a comment

After a six-month strike, the struggle at Waihi came to a head in early November 1912, shortly after the arrival in Waihi of the Commissioner of Police John Cullen, a […]

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capitalist state, class struggle, Harry Holland, literature, New Zealand history, police, union busting, working class history

The death of the revolution in China and its re-birth – told in a brilliant new novel

February 28, 2018by James Robb Leave a comment

The generation of workers and peasants who made the Chinese revolution in the course of the bitter fight against Japanese occupation in the 1940s has largely passed away. So have […]

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Chinese revolution, class struggle, Cultural Revolution, democratic rights, freedom of speech, literature, Maoism, slander, Stalinism, working class history

The nervous moment of insurrection

November 4, 2017by James Robb 2 Comments

The October revolution which brought to power the Bolshevik regime in Russia one hundred years ago was both the greatest achievement of the working class, and a watershed which conditioned […]

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Bolshevik party, class collaboration, class struggle, communism, literature, Marxist theory, revolution, Russian revolution, working class

Larissa Reisner and the German revolution of 1923

August 3, 2017by James Robb 4 Comments

In a vain effort to escape from the disgusting trivia of the New Zealand elections, I have been reading Hamburg at the Barricades, Larissa Reisner’s1 account of the failed German […]

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Bolshevik party, class struggle, German revolution, literature, revolution, Russian revolution, Stalinism, working class history

Apology, anthropology, and colonial genocide

May 30, 2017by James Robb Leave a comment

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 […]

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anthropology, Australia history, evolution, extinction, genocide, historical materialism, literature, morality, national self-determination, racism, working class history

Cultural appropriation, race-baiting, and the power of fiction: in defence of Lionel Shriver

November 12, 2016by James Robb 10 Comments

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’ […]

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Africa, class struggle, fiction, Kurdish struggle, literature, Maori struggle, music, national self-determination, petty-bourgeoisie, race-baiting, racism

Shanghai and the holocaust

June 12, 2016by James Robb 1 Comment

Jewish communities have existed in China for at least a thousand years, since they arrived as traders along the silk road. The European explorer Marco Polo, visiting Beijing in the […]

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anti-Semitism, China, Chinese revolution, fascism, immigration, imperialist war, Japan, literature, Maoism, Russian revolution, Second World War, Uncategorized, working class history

The Condition of the Working Class in New Zealand in 1890

April 26, 2015by James Robb 3 Comments

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 […]

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class struggle, historical materialism, job safety, literature, Marxist theory, New Zealand history, revolution, union busting, unions, working class history

“Really living life” vs the Russian Revolution: Watching Doctor Zhivago fifty years on

February 1, 2015by James Robb 7 Comments

When you’re trapped in an aeroplane seat for twelve hours, you will watch almost any movie to take your mind off the noise of the engines and the thought of […]

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communism, fiction, First World War, literature, movies, petty-bourgeoisie, revolution, Russia, Russian revolution, slander, Stalinism

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Australia history capitalist economy capitalist justice capitalist state censorship China class collaboration class struggle communism democratic rights farming freedom of speech Harry Holland imperialism imperialist war Labour Party Maori struggle Marxist theory national self-determination New Zealand history petty-bourgeoisie racism revolution Russian revolution solidarity Stalinism unions women's equality working class working class history

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