AGAINST THE CURRENT

NO SOLUTIONS FROM SMITH

2012-01-30T00:05:00.009+13:00

Nick Smith fails to address the real problems facing the Christchurch City Council.

The Minister of Local Government's 'big' idea to sort out the mess at the Christchurch City Council has been to appoint another bureaucrat to oversee its work. That job has gone to former Nelson mayor Kerry Marshall who'll be in the job until possibly as late as July. Apparently he's going to 'nursemaid' the city council and it'll be sweetness and light all round. Yes, it will. Really.

Marshall, of course, is also a member of the National Party so, despite the spin from Smith and Parker, he isn't politically independent. This is about as believable as Sue Wells declaring over the weekend that she isn't 'for' or 'against' Mayor Bob. Wells is clearly more stupid than I thought.

Will Marshall's intervention work? If the autocratic and furtive rule of Parker and Marryatt is brought to an end then perhaps. But if, as I suspect, Marshall's role turns out to be simply to make life easier for 'The Bob and Tony Show' then it won't. If it turns out to be 'business as usual', albeit with Marshall guiding the proceedings, then it won't take long for the whole process to turn to custard. If the Parker-Marryatt cabal is allowed to continued to rule the roost, excluding councillors who dare to disagree with them, then Smith's initiative won't work.

If a 'good working environment' means everyone having to agree with Sideshow Bob, then we should have new elections.

Its been suggested elsewhere that Smith may be setting up the Christchurch City Council for a fall.

The Christchurch City Council's problems are structural and Smith has failed to address that. There needs to be more internal democracy. In that respect Labour's 10 point plan to shine some light on proceedings does have its merits. The plan was drawn up last year shortly after Chrissie Williams resigned as a councillor and has been promoted by Councillor Yani Johanson.

In the current environment it is a positive and thoughtful proposal but the fact that Parker has shown no interest in the plan is hardly cause for optimism. Unfortunately Parker and Marryatt - as well as their supporters on council - behave as if they are working for a private corporation rather than a public body.

But I would like to see Labour's plan expanded to encompass real input from the good people of Christchurch into the decision making processes of the council. And councillors need to be directly accountable to the people who voted them into office. There needs to be a mechanism whereby councillors can be 'recalled' by the community if required. Councillors need to know that they cannot simply do what they like without there being real consequences.

Why should people's only input into local government be confined to voting every three years? (The same argument applies to national politics.)

Instead of political power being concentrated in the hands of the Parker-Marryatt cabal, its time to expand the democratic process to include the wider Christchurch community. This stands in direct contrast to councillors like Sue Wells who would like to see the Christchurch community deprived of any local democracy via the appointment of government commissioners. When the situation cries out for more democracy, she would like to see less.

One of the things that the Occupy movement has taught us that is we don't have to accept being passive citizens who merely vote every few years. We don't have to put our trust in unaccountable 'representatives' who simply ignore our wishes.

Protesting on February 1 is, among other things, a step forward in asserting our rights as active and politically engaged citizens.

Well, well, well.

When the Christchurch City Council 'CEO' was given his $70,000 salary increase, Sideshow Bob claimed it was in recognition of Tony Marryatt's outstanding work.

But now we learn that two in-house reviews, released under the Official Information Act, indicate that Marryatt hasn't been doing outstanding work at all. According to the reviews he has only been moderately successful and that his quality of work has declined since 2009.

So it looks like Bob has been telling porkies again.

CAN SIDESHOW BOB SURVIVE?

2012-01-26T16:54:00.008+13:00

In the face of mounting public pressure, Bob is getting desperate...

He's claimed that Christchurch City Council merely has 'communications problems'. He's raised the spectre of government-appointed commissioners taking over at the city council. He's even tried to be humble and admitted that 'mistakes' have been made.

But nothing a desperate Bob has said or done has been able to stem the rising tide of public opposition to his autocratic rule.

So now Bob has had a quiet word with his faithful right hand man and - surprise - Tony Marryatt now says that he has not ruled out turning down his $68,000 salary rise! It's amazing what a little bit of public pressure will do to halt stubborn and arrogant politicians right in their tracks.

This, of course, is a far cry from what Marryatt said just a month ago. He declared "I am not refusing the pay offer and I am not giving it to charity.''

But you have to read the fine print when it comes to despots like Marryatt. He also says that he will be interested in the 'outcome' of the meeting between city councillors and Local Government Minister Nick Smith tomorrow afternoon.

But if Marryatt thinks $68,000 will buy 'The Bob and Tony Show' the freedom to carry on with their secretive and autocratic ways , he'd better think again. And what's more it's completely unacceptable for Sideshow Bob and Marryatt to attempt to hold the good people of Christchurch to ransom - and try to predetermine the outcome of the meeting tomorrow.

Nor will $68,000 'buy off' the protest on February 1.

As organiser Peter Lynch has said : "We have much bigger issues to address, such as the dysfunctionality of the council, and the poor decisions it has been making,"

Something is rotten at the heart of the Christchurch City Council and cosmetic surgery won't solve the problem.

HAIKU TIME!

2012-01-26T08:13:00.007+13:00

Clare Curran is making a stand for the working class!

I don't read Labour's Red Alert much and a reader has just reminded me why.

The Labour Party is going nowhere fast and despite leader David Shearer's call for 'new ideas' there is nothing to suggest that Labour is going to break with neoliberalism. Indeed, if Trevor Mallard has his way, a new Labour Government would be launching its own attack on what remains of the welfare state. The brave Mallard wants to take the big stick to the 'undeserving' poor. What a guy.

But its good to see Clare Curran getting to the crux of the matter. The Dunedin MP isn't mucking about.

Last year she got all hot and bothered about Otago rugby jerseys - even getting herself of thrown out of Parliament. At the time she said : ' 'I was taking a wee stand (as we say in the South) on something I thought was important. Though I know taking direct action has its responsibilities. And consequences.'

Yes Clare knows what's important and this year she's writing....haiku's.

Curran's attempt at a haiku appeared on Red Alert a couple of days ago.

Though our aim divine/
The delivery human/
A labour of love

She says its a response to a critical piece that journalist John Hartevelt wrote on 17 January.

He made some justified criticisms of Red Alert which included:

'Trevor Mallard and Clare Curran do most of the writing. Mallard posts short, sometimes cryptic missives and has been responsible for some ill-judged if not downright juvenile efforts in the past. Curran's posts appear mostly on issues of special interest to her. Both Curran and Mallard have developed a strange habit for writing some of their posts as if they were poetry.'

Hence Curran's haiku.

Given the current dire condition of the Labour Party you would of thought Curran would be able to find some better things to do with her time. Here's a hint. Why not use Red Alert to start mapping out a true Labour alternative to National rather than just continuing to spout the same old neoliberal drivel? Just a thought.

Some Red Alert readers fired back some none too subtle haiku's back at Curran including this one from our old mate Chris Trotter:

The summer rains fall,
Hopes for better weather fade,
Shearer says nothing.

Curran hasn't responded to this.

THE BIZARRE ADVENTURES OF COUNCILLOR WELLS

2012-01-24T14:35:00.001+13:00

Credit: Assorted Goodies

WELLS SHOOTS HERSELF IN THE FOOT

2012-01-24T08:06:00.011+13:00

Councillor Sue Wells has lost the plot.

Mayor Sideshow Bob's and Tony Marryatt's decision to spend $80,000 of ratepayers money on an 'inquiry' into the Christchurch City Council's so-called 'communication issues' is a feeble and badly conceived attempt to halt the growing public opposition to Sideshow Bob's autocratic regime.

Predictably (except to Bob and Tony) it has just inflamed the situation. In quake-wrecked Christchurch no one is impressed that ratepayers money is being spent on a pointless inquiry about the city council's PR operations.

As well Marryatt's claim he is now going to talk with community groups has been met with derision. If he's expecting a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit out in the eastern suburbs then he's going to be disappointed.

With a significant public protest scheduled for February 1, Sideshow Bob and his council flunkeys are scrambling to save themselves. The squeeze is on - and Bob doesn't like it at all. His calls for 'unity' and for councillors to rise above 'pettiness' are rich coming from a mayor who has been mostly responsible for the disunity and pettiness in the first place.

But the most bizarre 'solution' to the Christchurch City Council's woes has come from Councillor Sue Wells who says that the Government should replace the city council with commissioners. You may recall that Wells is the same councillor who had a holiday in Germany last year - and got the ratepayer to pay for it.

Wells treats local democracy like a doormat to wipe her dirty feet on but she doesn't really want to put herself out of a job that pays so well. She is on a salary of around $110,000 and also picks up another $30,000 for being a director of Christchurch City Council Holdings.

In 2010 mayoral candidate Jim Anderton said that if he became mayor he would request all councillors to forgo directorship fees for sitting on council-controlled organisations because they were already well paid. The money saved would then be diverted to struggling community groups.

Wells said she would refuse to give back her director fees. This is the true ugly face of Sue Wells.

There's always an 'angle' when Wells is concerned.

She doesn't want to lose her financially job lucrative job but calling for the sacking of council (which she knows won't happen) is designed to give the impression that she is prepared to sacrifice her own job for the sake of Christchurch. We voters are supposed to be impressed!

Buts it's all sound and fury, told by an idiot. And its a giant miscalculation by Ms Wells. Her self-serving attack on local democracy has just left her looking foolish.

There's nothing, of course, preventing Wells resigning as a councillor herself. But we all know that she won't.

IT'S DR EVIL!

2012-01-22T13:01:00.012+13:00

Why is Kim Dotcom guilty until proven innocent and why is the New Zealand media acting as a cheerleader for the American authorities?

Despite the fact that the owners of the filesharing site MegaUpload have yet to appear in court to answer the many charges laid against them, the US authorities have still pulled down a site that receives around 50 million hits a day and accounts for four percent of all Internet traffic. If you are one of the many millions of users who have paid to use MegaUpload for legitimate purposes - well, thanks to the good old boys at the FBI, you can no longer access a service you have paid for. You have also lost access to all the files that you might have had stored on MegaUpload. What can you do about it? Nothing.

As well, with the obliging assistance of the New Zealand authorities - who even called out the armed offenders unit - we have seen the US authorities seize property and cash and freeze bank accounts.

All this has been dutifully recorded by our media. The mainstream media seems completely unconcerned that Kim Dotcom (Kim Schmitz). and co have yet to be found guilty of anything. It seems that the New Zealand authorities are quite happy to suspend the principle of 'innocent until proven guilty' and be the foot soldiers for the American entertainment industry.

Just to rub it in, a campaign of character assassination is underway. While many of us won't care for the opulent lifestyle of Dotcom, the fact that he lives in a mansion, throws lavish parties and is a rich git with a shady past isn't a crime. If that was the case the likes of Mark Hotchin would of been thrown in the clink years ago. The media though have gleefully reported all the comings and goings at Dotcom HQ as if it was more proof that Dotcom and his mates were up to no good.

Dotcom, thanks to our gormless media, has been transformed into Dr Evil bent on world domination.

No one seems interested that MegaUpload are saying that the charges against it are 'completely overblown'

Said a lawyer for the site: 'Our initial impression is that the allegations are without merit and MegaUpload is going to vigorously contest them. We have deep concerns over due process and assets being taken without the opportunity for a hearing."

And while the US authorities have denied it, the FBI raid on MegaUpload seems to have been specifically timed. It came just a day after the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act—that would, if enacted, vastly expand the control of the US government over the Internet - lost significant political support in the face of massive public opposition.

The raid on MegaUpload is a demonstration that the United States Government will continue to take action against websites despite the widespread opposition to attacks on internet freedom.

WASTING MORE MONEY

2012-01-21T12:08:00.006+13:00

There's been a communications breakdown at the Christchurch City Council, claims Sideshow Bob. But we've all heard this excuse before.

Mayor Sideshow Bob never seems to tire of wasting other people's money and he's at it again. This time Sideshow and his faithful right hand man Tony Marryatt have decided to waste $80,000 of ratepayers money on an 'independent' review of the Christchurch City Council's 'communication issues'.

We've been down this road before. At the last election, when he was being pummelled in the polls by Jim Anderton, Sideshow explained his unpopularity on the basis that council decisions had been poorly communicated to the people of Christchurch.

In August 2010 Bob said that '“People need to know that I get it. I get that we have not taken everyone with us on important issues and at times people have felt that their input did not carry much weight. I acknowledge that on some issues I have not explained well enough the reason behind our decisions.'

But since then Bob has proved again and again that he actually doesn't get it. He is still running a secretive and autocratic council that is simply out of touch with the community it purports to represent.

It doesn't register with Sideshow that you might get away with running roughshod over the wishes of the community once or twice but if it becomes the norm, then expect the full weight of public opprobrium to descend on you. And that's what has happened to Sideshow Bob and his council flunkeys.

Councillor Yani Johanson is absolutely correct when he says that '"People are quite unhappy with the way things are being done; it's not just about communication,"

Ironically, despite chairing the council's communications committee, Johanson only learnt of the $ 80,000 review twenty minutes before a statement was sent to the media late yesterday. Once again this has been a decision hatched in secret by Parker and Marryatt and it has completely undermined Johanson's position on the communications committee.

Meanwhile Marryatt is trying to earn some brownie points by claiming that he accepts criticism of his lack of involvement in the local community. What he means by this, of course, is that he admits he has completely shunned the quake devastated eastern suburbs. Fifteen months after the first major quake it's a bit late in the day to claim that he now wants to talk to community groups and stakeholders.

This is political cynicism at its very worse compounded by the fact that that Marryatt still refuses to give back his massive and completely unjustified $70,000 salary increase.

Don't forget the protest outside the Christchurch City Council offices on Wednesday 1 February at midday.

A WORLD TO WIN

2012-01-20T23:30:00.007+13:00

"More than any other time in my life, and the lives of many others, the world is filled with energy. And it should be our goal to harness that energy and turn it into revolutionary possibility." There is no place for cynicism when there is still a world to win, writes Trish Kahle.

I am not going to claim to be at peace, nor will I charge myself with being serene. I am neither of those things. I am angry. I am sick and tired. I am a fighter. I can be argumentative.

But I am hopeful.

In just the last year, we–ordinary people–have overthrown dictators. We have sent politicians running. We have changed the direction of discourse, and we now fully intend to change the courses of action. In Egypt, the struggle has taken over everything–from the squares to the factories. Even Western leaders have resigned because they can sense their time has passed, and ours has come. The victories may have been few, but they have been critical. Attacks and repression have not weakened us, but instead tightened our lines and increased our numbers.

So how, in this context, can people say things like “I’m just impotent to fix the suffering around me, like everyone else?” In the same year that workers took over the Wisconsin capitol, how can one say, “I see no struggles of the working class here in America?” That someone can watch a world in revolt and come to these conclusions is astounding enough. That they try to win others to these strange concepts and attempt to discourage activists in the fight and revolutionaries attempting to increase the level of mass political consciousness through agitation is despicable.

Certainly, reforms will not get rid of capitalism, but the struggles to achieve them can be fundamental in forming people’s political consciousness. It is where we learn important lessons that will be used again. And of course, even a reform-oriented movement can evolve into something much greater. After all, who thought when a group of people in New York decided to Occupy Wall Street that it would set the spark on the first mass movement in the US in over a generation? Who thought that the removal of Ben Ali in Tunisia through a massive revolt would lead to a worldwide uprising? To this we received a reply that “I cannot make this movement revolutionary, for men make history, but not as they please.” When Marx said the second half of that sentence, he was not suggesting inaction, but rather perpetual action for the relationship between humans and their conditions is a dialectical one. We are influenced by our conditions but also have the power to alter them through struggle. That is why Frederick Douglass said, “Without struggle, there is no progress.” Progress comes when we are willing to upset the equilibrium of social conditions that capital imposes on us–or when we are ready to dismantle it entirely. But to suggest that Marx was arguing for inaction until the revolutionary moment occurs is a perversion of the materialist method.

How will workers and oppressed people come to understand that not only should the system be overthrown, but that they are the agents of this revolution if they are not educated through the process of struggle to fight and to win? Political consciousness is not spontaneous. To assume it is–and to assume a socialist revolution is inevitable or a foregone conclusion–is hardly scientific. It is a utopian fantasy not supported by the history of struggle and revolution at all.

This is hardly a time to be cynical or nihilistic! More than any other time in my life, and the lives of many others, the world is filled with energy. And it should be our goal to harness that energy and turn it into revolutionary possibility. Marxism is not only the study of theory, but its implementation. As Marx wrote, “Practice without theory is rudderless, and theory without practice merely academics.” But taken together, they are the driving material force of history.

I am so incredibly hopeful, because I believe with all my heart that there is a persistence of song, that struggle is not fruitless, that victory is possible. A coach of mine told me once, “I never started a race I didn’t believe I had a chance of winning.” I didn’t take up this struggle because I thought I would lose. I took it up because every fibre of my being believes that we can win a world without racism, without sexism, homophobia, transphobia. I believe another world, where people are put first, is not only possible…it’s worth fighting for.

This article was first published on I Can't Believe We Still Have To Protest This Shit.

SURE TO RISE

2012-01-17T22:44:00.001+13:00

24 OVER PAR!

2012-01-16T19:53:00.003+13:00

Christchurch's most unpopular man was out on the golf course again on Sunday (15 January).

Tony was again playing at the Christchurch Golf Course (Shirley) which, of course, is on the eastern side of the city. This is probably the only time that Marryatt ventures into the eastern suburbs. Perhaps he thinks no one will recognise him out 'in the sticks'. Fat chance.

This time he was 24 over par, which included eleven bogeys, four double bogeys and three uncompleted holes. He is truly awful.

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW

2012-01-16T19:04:00.012+13:00

CERA chief Roger Sutton says Christchurch has a bright future - but that's cold comfort for people struggling today.

Roger Sutton, the chief of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) writes a weekly column in the Christchurch Star.

Generally its a unrelenting optimistic column. Not only is Sutton in charge of the rebuilding of Christchurch, he also seems to have adopted the role of chief motivator; the man always on hand with a few breezy words of encouragement. Judging by the many derisory comments made about him on the web, not everyone appreciates being told that 'the glass is half full' again and again.

So in his January 13 column Sutton, against a backdrop of more morale-sapping quakes over Christmas-New Year, is keen to again stress that, while it may be on its knees now, Christchurch has a bright future ahead of it. It lies somewhere over the rainbow. Yes, it does.

Sutton name checks the American magazine Foreign Policy which has, in a somewhat glib photo essay, labelled Christchurch as one of the sixteen world cities to watch.

He then references a Lonely Planet article that claims that Christchurch is 'one of New Zealand's most exciting cities'.

Sutton writes that 'history backs such optimistic views. San Francisco for example suffered a 7.1 earthquake in 1989 causing more than $6 billion of property loss but is now one of top tourist destinations in the world.'

We can argue the validity of Sutton's PR-massaged optimism (and I have real problems with his rose-tinted views, especially with Gerry Brownlee lurking in the background) but there is no disputing that his vision of a safe, environmentally-friendly and exciting Christchurch is a long way from fruition. It will take decades.

But for people who have been hit hardest by a succession of quakes it is cold comfort to be told that a new and better Christchurch will rise from the rubble eventually. People are, of course, having to live their lives now. They can't live on promises of a better tomorrow.

I live on the east side of Christchurch so I've had the opportunity to travel around the quake-wrecked suburbs and I have to say that not a lot has changed. The scenes of quake devastation remain. But the Eastside has largely been forgotten. 6500 houses have basically been wiped off the map. Another 3000 remain in limbo, still awaiting their fate.

How long are people expected to put up with this situation?

And you cannot help but feel the growing sense of anger.

This sense of anger was articulated in a letter in The Press on Saturday.

It was written by Darren Aitken, a fire officer based in New Brighton. He lambasts the Christchurch City Council. insurers , banks and the EQC as 'heartless organisations' who instead of helping people, are simply increasing their levels of stress. He writes:

'I now work a New Brighton Fire Station, and I still see people breaking under the stress - stressed caused by organisations that are meant to be helping. We no longer ask 'how's your day going?' because the answer is that they having a crappy one. 'Just look what I'm living with or in,' they say. My heart breaks again and again for all these people.'

There are numerous horror stories of people getting short shrift from the likes of EQC and CERA.

Similarly the eastern suburbs have been abandoned by a mayor who won't defend the interests and concerns of residents who pay his inflated salary. He has become the tame lapdog of a government that has allowed a social crisis to develop.

This is a council that allows councillors like the self-serving Sue Wells to take holidays in Germany at the expense of the ratepayer. This is a council that gives its CEO a salary increase of $70,000. This is a council whose deputy mayor thinks 'God' will save the city. This is a council totally out of touch with a city it pretends to serve.

On February 1 at midday there will be a protest at the Christchurch City Council offices. It is a ostensibly a protest about Tony Marryatt's salary increase. But it'll also be an opportunity for people to say that they are not going to put up with being kicked around by organisations so clearly out of touch with the immediate needs of people struggling to cope with the impact of the quakes.

Not satisfied with the way things are going in Christchurch? Be at the protest. Be heard.

MALLARD PROPOSES WAR ON THE POOR

2012-01-13T15:30:00.009+13:00

Trevor Mallard wants Labour to 'rethink' the welfare state.

Liam Byrne, British Labour's spokesperson on welfare, has been attacking 'welfare scroungers'. No, he hasn't been attacking the bankers and the stockmarket clowns who have been the beneficiaries of massive financial bailouts. Hey, Byrne's got friends in the City of London - its far easier to attack the weak and the poor, the victims of a capitalist crisis that Byrne's mates provoked in the first place.

In an article in The Guardian Byrne declares that many beneficiaries receive support that is 'unearned'. This is a declaration of war on the so-called 'undeserving' poor. Liam Byrne himself , despite being on a generous MP's salary, receives over 2000 pounds a month in benefits. The British taxpayer is paying his mortgage, his rates. and his power and phone bills.

This round of beneficiary bashing by Byrne has also 'inspired' the Dominion Post to do its own bit of beneficiary bashing here. Instead of exposing this Government's abject failure to provide sufficient employment, it prefers to bash beneficiaries with a big stick. This is 'because the aim of welfare policy must always be to help those without work secure a foothold in the employment market. Schools, hospitals and roads are not built with welfare cheques.'

The Dominion Post would rather just ignore that there are few jobs available in a 'employment market' plagued by increasing casualisation. While it pontificates about 'welfare reform' jobs continue to disappear down the black hole of the capitalist crisis. And, lets face it, the few jobs that are available are mostly minimum-wage and insecure jobs. Crap jobs.

According to the Dominion Post, which has shown little interest in the concerns of the working class in the past, the job of new Labour leader David Shearer is to 'reconnect' Labour 'with the working man, and woman.'

The newspaper though warns Shearer against extending to beneficiaries the “in work tax credit”, intended to compensate low-income workers for the extra costs associated with working.

It would simply prefer to see the iron heel pushed harder down on the throats of the poor. Then 'we' can all sleep easily in our beds, safe in the knowledge that 'the undeserving poor' are being well and truly sorted out.

But its not only the Dominion Post that wants Labour to declare war on the poor. On Labour's website Red Alert, Trevor Mallard declares that Liam Byrne wants to 'slay some sacred cows'. According to Mallard, Byrne isn't attacking the welfare state - he's 'rethinking' it.

Mallard ran out of steam years ago and his only solution to Labour's sinking popularity is to kick the crap out of the poor and hope like hell that a good dose of right wing populism will resonate with Labour's lost supporters.

The bloated carcass of Mallard will be crawling around Parliament for the next three years, occasionally stirring to vomit up crapola like this.

What will new Labour leader David Shearer do? Will he take the party even further to the right? Shearer has said he wants the party to have 'new ideas' but it may well be that, under the guise of adopting 'new ideas' Labour will finally drop even any nominal commitment to the concerns of ordinary New Zealanders.

26 OVER PAR!

2012-01-13T09:44:00.004+13:00

We'll keep you right up to date with Tony Marryatt's golf game!

Tony was playing golf and 'clearing his head' at the Christchurch Golf Club (Shirley) on Wednesday Jan 11.

The half a million dollar man, despite the fact he plays a lot of golf, can't be described as a good golfer. In fact, he's crap. He was 26 over par after he completed his latest 18 holes. This included four double-bogeys and two holes he never managed to complete! Jeez..

WORKING ON HIS GOLF GAME

2012-01-07T12:05:00.005+13:00

On two of the nine weekends that Christchurch City Council CEO Tony Marryatt said he was working, he was actually playing golf.

Thanks to a tip-off, the Christchurch Press has revealed that on two of the weekends that Tony Marryatt said he was working, he was actually out on the golf course.
His golfing records on the golf.co.nz website reveal that he played golf at Clearwater Golf course on April 2 and 9.

This revelation about his weekend activities has seen Marryatt backpedaling at a rapid rate of knots.

He says that when he said he was working weekends it didn't mean that 'I was working 10 hours for each day.' and that he played golf to 'clear my head'.

On April 2, while Marryatt was clearing his head. council staff were fighting to prevent the city's sewerage system collapsing.

Marryatt has also resorted to one of Sideshow Bob's favourite ploys, namely blame everything on some shadowy conspiracy to undermine him.

He wants us to believe that the poking around in his golfing records, is all part of a 'smear campaign' which is part of a wider campaign to have the entire council sacked and replaced by commissioners.

He doesn't actually produce any evidence to back up his claim though. In fact the only person who has publicly hinted at sacking councillors is Quake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee. Its hardly credible that one of Sideshow Bob's closest political allies is conducting a smear campaign against Marryatt.

Marryatt is simply blowing smoke and everyone knows it.

GREED IS GOOD!

2012-01-06T12:00:00.007+13:00

An OECD report issued in December last year showed that New Zealand has one of the fastest growing income gaps in the OECD. The gap between wage and salary earners and the top CEO executives has grown ever wider. And we tax the rich less and tax the poor more. Christchurch City Council CEO Tony Marryatt is doing his bit to expand that income gap.

If Christchurch City Council CEO Tony Marryatt wants to be greedy than, at least, he should not insult us all by trying to justify his venal and grasping philosophy. If he wants to be a greedy then he should have the decency to own up to it. If he wants to stick his nose in the trough and chow down at our expense please don't tell us that he's doing it for us. 'I'll have another two dozen cream cakes,' says Tony. 'But I'm only going to eat them because I'm committed to Christchurch'. Yeah, right.

'Greed is good' said Wall Street shark Gordon Gekko. Come on, Tony - stop bullshitting us and admit you've got a poster of Gordon Gekko on your bedroom wall.

Marryatt must have the same gormless media advisor as Mayor Sideshow Bob or Councillor Sue Wells because he has tried to defend the indefensible. And its like watching a car crash in slow motion.

He says he's worth another $68,000 because 'he's never worked so hard in his life'. He then goes on to bemoan that he hasn't a weekend off in nine weeks.

These remarks have only served to further infuriate the good people of Christchurch and you don't need to be a genius to work out why.

For a start workers in New Zealand are being screwed to work harder for less. Workers are being given wage increases that don't even compensate for the rise in the cost of living.

Indeed in 2010 Christchurch City Council own workforce received a derisory low wage increase of 2.75 percent. I would expect most of these workers are working harder now than at any stage in their council careers - will they be getting a 14.5 percent salary increase like Marryatt's? I don't think so.

So its another $68,000 for Marryatt and peanuts for the workforce he presides over.

Marryatt's self-serving justification for his greed is a smack in the face of the good people of Christchurch, many of whom are struggling to simply survive after a series of devastating earthquakes. So Marryatt has had to work nine weekends in a row. Does he really think this will garner public sympathy?

A wealthy CEO crying about life being a bitch is not about to resonate with people struggling to make ends meet.

He should get out into the quake wrecked eastern suburbs and see what people are going through everyday. There's no pot of cash at the end of their rainbows. There isn't even a rainbow. Just destroyed houses, empty and damaged streets and uncertain futures.

I doubt though that Marryatt has any real comprehension of what people are going through - a far as I'm aware, he's never even been seen in the Eastside.

Indeed if Marryatt is doing such a fantastic job, as his political allies claim, then why - after nearly 15 months - are the eastern suburbs still a place of devastation and where people are still being treated as second class citizens and are now being fobbed off with picnics and egg and spoon races?

WHY WON'T THE MEDIA CALL OUT RON PAUL?

2012-01-05T16:10:00.006+13:00

The corporate media have portrayed Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul as a 'maverick'. Liberals have been seduced by his so=called 'independent' stance on American foreign policy. What goes largely unmentioned is his desire to take the axe to welfare services, his racism and his homophobia. He has also associated with neo-Nazi groups and the Ku Klux Klan. Trish Kahle writes that its time to stop giving Ron Paul an armchair ride.

Ron Paul is not very different from the other GOP candidates. He’s a racist, sexist, homophobic radical free-marketist. And he should never be allowed to set foot in the halls of power. But that’s not the Ron Paul being portrayed by mainstream media sources. NPR called him a “maverick” (not again!). Pundits left and right will jabber on about his “controversial” stances on foreign policy. They mention his “libertarian values” every chance they get. He seems to have escaped the media scrutiny he deserves. For every Rick Perry racist family campsite, there’s a photo of Ron Paul like this one:

This is Ron Paul with former American Nazi Party member and current KKK Grand Wizard and Stormfront.org webmaster, Don Black. Ron Paul also distributed racist newsletters that his campaign has tried to distance himself from–but there’s a snag: Paul’s name was in the newsletter title, which makes it somewhat implausible that he didn’t know about the content of the letter. He also voted against renewing the 1965 Voting Rights Act and he claimed the Civil Rights Act violated the Constitution and undermined personal liberty. Obviously, this doesn’t make any sense unless you’re a racist. However, there’s an easy solution. Anytime Ron Paul says “personal freedom” or “individual liberty” add on “of white people.” That’s where he’s coming from.

Paul also has a long history of homophobia. In 1994, he wrote: “[Gay] men don’t really see a reason to live past their fifties. They are not married, they have no children, and their lives are centred on new sexual partners…they enjoy the attention and pity that comes with being sick.” He’s tried to skirt around the question this election–knowing that Americans’ views on LGBT rights have dramatically shifted over recent years, but the record speaks for itself. In 2004, he spoke in defence of the homophobic DOMA. He then co-sponsored the so-called “Marriage Protection Act” which would have prevented legal challenges to DOMA. In a 2007 article, he wrote that recognizing same-sex marriage at the federal level would be “an act of social engineering profoundly hostile to liberty.” (The liberty he’s referring to is the liberty of the states.) If you’re confused about how he’s managed to sell this as “individual liberty,” you’re not alone.

Because in Ron Paul world, not only are corporations people, so are the states. In Ron Paul world, corporations and states have more rights than you–unless you happen to be a rich, white, heterosexual cis man. In 2005, Paul introduced the “We the People Act,” which would have removed from the jurisdiction of federal courts “any claim based upon the right of privacy, including any such claim related to any issue of sexual practices, orientation, or reproduction” and “any claim based upon equal protection of the laws to the extent such claim is based upon the right to marry without regard to sex or sexual orientation.” If you’re not sure how Ron Paul claims to be a strict constitutionalist while arguing that the Fourth Amendment is invalid, you’re not alone.

To continue the bizarro-states-rights line of bullshit, Paul has said of the death penalty, “Over the years I’ve held pretty rigid to all my beliefs, but I’ve changed my opinion of the death penalty. For federal purposes I no longer believe in the death penalty. I believe it has been issued unjustly. If you’re rich, you get away with it; if you’re poor and you’re from the inner city you’re more likely to be prosecuted and convicted, and today, with the DNA evidence, there’ve been too many mistakes, and I am now opposed to the federal death penalty.” So basically, Ron Paul thinks it’s not racist if the state carries out an execution of a poor, Black man. If you’re wondering if there is a planet where that train of thought actually holds any logic, you’re not alone.

But all this is sort of moot. We already know Ron Paul’s a bigoted asshole. What I think is worth noting is how much of this shit he gets away with.

Even though I’m of the opinion that every GOP candidate should be charged with hate speech, and the media clearly aren’t interested in that level of scrutiny, most of the other candidates have had to endure some fire over their bigotry. So why does Ron Paul get a free pass?

The only reason I can think of is that he calls himself a libertarian, but no one will interrogate that. As I’ve shown, Paul is for pretty much everything except personal liberty. Did it never occur to any of the mainstream media dimwits to consider how someone who claims government should get out of everyone’s business also claims that the government belongs in a woman’s uterus? Somehow, Paul has managed to evade any real inquisition of his policies regarding same-sex marriage by shouting “STATES’ RIGHTS” at every available moment. Some disillusioned liberals seem to have taken this as a sign of progressivism. Nothing could be further from the truth. States’ Rights are slavery. States’ rights are Jim Crow. Calling states’ rights is a tactic for stifling social movements from being able to demand national change and for preventing courts from issuing nationwide class action rulings like Brown v. Board of Education.

So, everywhere Ron Paul goes? Call him out. Call him out and shut him down.

MIC CHECK!

This article was first published at I Can't Believe We Still Have To Protest This Shit

CHRISTCHURCH NEEDS GOD!

2012-01-04T12:37:00.003+13:00

Deputy Mayor Ngaire Button thinks the good people of Christchurch need to be 'saved'.

In these days of trouble, what do the good people of quake-stricken Christchurch need? Jobs? Financial security? An affordable place to live?

It is, of course, all these things and more. But Deputy Mayor Ngaire Button has other ideas about what the people of Christchurch are in search of. She says we need 'to know who God is'.

The loyal Sideshow Bob supporter told a Spreydon Baptist Church service that 'The biggest need for the city is salvation. People need hope. They need to see the world from the right perspective.'

Presumably 'seeing the word from the right perspective' also includes supporting the National Party like Button.

Button also describes the media as 'a negative influence' on Christchurch which certainly won't help her when she next tries to get some 'good news' story into The Press.

It's also interesting to note that while she expresses concern about the dire housing situation she is also the same Ngaire Button who voted to put council rents up a massive 24 percent in 2010. Council flats are home to some of Christchurch's most disadvantaged people.

But, at the same time, she voted to give failed property developer Dave Henderson a $17 million bailout.

She also voted to cut council funding to struggling community groups.

Indeed Button's motto seems to be 'take from the poor and give to the rich' because she also voted to boost Tony Marryatt's salary to over half a million dollars a year.

POP-UP REBUILD TIME!

2012-01-03T16:05:00.004+13:00

Families enjoyed some classic Kiwi fun during a pop-up picnic in Scarborough Park in Sumner on New Year's Day.

The picnic was sponsored by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera) and featured egg-and-spoon races, sack races and a lolly scramble.

The event is part of Cera's series of pop-up picnics and movie screenings, which will show New Zealand classic films on inflatable screens, including Under the Mountain and Boy.

The picnics will be held in parks in suburbs such as Aranui, Dallington and Brooklands from January 1 to 15.

"We want it to be sort of informal, a bit of fun in the local park with a picnic, tug-of-war contests and face painting," said Cera chief executive Roger Sutton.- Fairfax NZ News

Photo: Assorted Goodies

REPORT BLASTS COUNCIL

2012-01-02T11:25:00.006+13:00

Mayor Sideshow Bob claims Tony Marryatt is a fantastic CEO. Apparently the Christchurch City Council is 'lucky to have him'. A council internal report suggests otherwise.

A Christchurch City Council internal report has, among other things, raised more questions as to why Tony Marryatt was reappointed CEO and why he is worth a salary of more than half a million dollars.

Despite promising at the last mayoral election that he would be more 'transparent' and 'accountable', Sideshow Bob and the Christchurch City Council have been sitting on this report since January last year. It has emerged in the public arena only after the Canterbury earthquakes royal commission demanded it be submitted as evidence.

Its hardly surprising that Sideshow Bob wasn't keen to release it. It reveals that the Christchurch City Council shockingly didn't recognise the seriousness of the September 2010 quake and responded in a haphazard and ab hoc manner.

Indeed the report basically blasts the council as incompetent. It says council relied on a new overworked and under-resourced team, called the building evaluation transition (BET) team, to evaluate dangerous buildings.

The BET team made the Keystone Cops look professional. It communicated poorly with the council and the public, losing files and sometimes giving conflicting and "embarrassing" advice. There is no evidence that Tony Marryatt intervened to address the situation.

The team also exceeded its original mandate, operating for 12 weeks instead of three and costing ratepayers $50,000 a week. Again, where was Tony Marryatt? Where was Sideshow Bob? Was everyone simply asleep at the wheel?

The report is very critical of the council's response to the 2010 Boxing Day quake commenting that it seemed more concerned about opening the central city bars and restaurants. Meanwhile those of us living in the hard-hit eastern suburbs were deemed to be of secondary importance. But at the time Sideshow Bob denied that people in the Eastside were being treated as second class citizens.

There was no attempt to secure dangerous buildings or even clear fresh rubble from the streets, the report also says.

It points out that buildings that were classified as 'safe' later collapsed in the February quake. it has already been revealed the council incorrectly cleared a green-stickered part of a building after September 4 that collapsed in the February 22 quake, killing one of the occupants.

Sideshow Bob's response has been laughable. He insists that this wasn't a fiasco - just part of 'a learning curve' for the Christchurch City Council. Yes, council officers losing files and a CEO seemingly missing in action can all be chalked down to the vagaries of Bob's nonsensical 'learning experience'.

Despite this damning report, its a fair bet that no one will be held accountable. Sideshow Bob will look after his council chums and Quake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee will protect Sideshow Bob. The stench of cronyism is all pervasive.

WE ARE THE MANY - MAKANA

2011-12-30T21:03:00.002+13:00

'WOOLLY THINKING WOOFTERS!'

2011-12-30T07:56:00.005+13:00

It's another intelligent political analysis from the man who told us that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. This time Newstalk ZB's Bruce Russell has Occupy Auckland in his crazy sights.

Newstalk ZB's Bruce Russell has been attacking Occupy Auckland - and the occupy movement generally - on a regular basis. Yesterday he was frothing at the mouth because Judge Philippa Cunningham declined to issue arrest warrants for the Occupy Auckland activists.

Six tents remain in Aotea Square despite the protesters being served with an injunction last Friday ordering them to leave.

Judge Philippa Cunningham however said she was concerned people could be put in jail and not have access to the courts until January 16.

This ruling from the good judge sent Russell and his redneck talkback callers into hysterics. Russell wanted his callers to tell him what could be done about 'activist' judges. 'Activist' judges are judges that Russell doesn't like. Judge Cunningham wouldn't be an 'activist' judge if she had thrown the Occupy actvists into jail. Russell would of been congratulating her and sending her flowers.

Neither Newstalk ZB, or Bruce Russell, have managed to do any serious programs on the occupy movement - they'd rather just indulge in the usual right wing bigotry. In fact Newstalk ZB has behaved in much the same antagonistic way to Occupy as Fox News in the United States.

So according to Russell, the man who said that Obama Bin Laden had training camps in northern Iraq, Occupy Auckland are just 'woolly thinking woofters'. And they're 'layabouts'. And why are they living in tents made by those horrible corporations? Blah Blah Blah...

According to Russell 'the whole of Auckland' is against Occupy. Has Russell surveyed 'the whole of Auckland'? No. he hasn't. He's just making it up as he goes along. As usual.

Russell's rant encouraged his redneck callers to attack the judge. I'm certain Judge Cunningham would not be happy with some of the outrageous allegations that were made against her by his moronic callers.

Having encouraged the vicious attacks against the judge, Russell eventually started cutting short callers who threatened to get abusive. What a hypocrite.

WHEN A CITY FALLS

2011-12-28T06:01:00.011+13:00

Christchurch is a city in crisis

Christchurch was hit by a couple of strong quakes the day before Xmas Eve. I have to say that the sense of disillusionment and renewed anxiety that has fallen over the city has been palpable. After several months of relative quiet, these quakes have been a real kick in the guts. Any sense of optimism was always fragile and that has been smashed.

For people out in the Eastside it has meant more soul-destroying liquefaction and, elsewhere in the city, more damage to already damaged buildings. Some buildings, formerly deemed to be repairable, are now to be demolished. Both the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) and the Christchurch City Council haven't been up front about the new damage - presumably they think they are protecting a city's battered morale. We are well beyond that point now.

Any notion that a significant rebuild will begin in Christchurch in 2012 was always fanciful but it is now right off the agenda. The international insurers will not touch this city with a barge pole. Interestingly it is an issue I've heard both Quake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and Mayor Bob Parker skirt around in recent interviews. Vague claims that there is still cause for optimism are simply ridiculous.

In the meantime the Government's 'hands off' approach to the quake recovery process has only served to make this city's future increasingly unclear. With the possibility that Christchurch could be facing seismic activity for up to four years and with the flight from the city set to accelerate, this is a crisis that has been compounded by the Government's ideological assumption that, somehow, 'the market' will see Christchurch right.

Thanks to the Government's neoliberal zealotry, many owners of damaged homes are in danger of losing a considerable amount of equity. That's 'the market' in action.

And on the Eastside the situation continues to get worse. Large areas are now simply uninhabitable - although Roger Sutton and CERA have yet to recognise this. The Press yesterday reported that on the 23 December a Green Zone resident received a letter from CERA advising his zoning appeal had been turned down: he was confirmed as remaining Green. On the same day his area of Burwood was hit by liquefaction again.

Now the people in these areas, already under considerable stress, are expected to wait while CERA reassesses these areas again. Given CERA's inability to get it right first time round, no one is confident they will get it right this time round either. Roger Sutton's familiar refrain that he 'understands' what people are going though is really beginning to grate. Sutton is now being lampooned as the 'nice Aunt' who shows up to say something encouraging but meaningless and then disappears again.

People's lives and futures are at stake here and I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that there has been a ghettoisation of the eastern suburbs.

People out in the Eastside can't swan off to holiday homes in Marlborough (Brownlee) or holidays in Taupo (Parker) and the Gold Coast (Marryatt). They are stuck in this deep mess for the duration. Platitudes about the 'Canterbury spirit' and 'everyone pulling together' merely mask the deep inequalities between the quake 'haves' and 'have nots'.

The Government has allowed a social disaster to unfold in Christchurch.

Instead of fighting for the interests and concerns of local people the Christchurch City Council has been little more than a mouthpiece for the Government's views. We have Mayor Bob Parker to largely 'thank' for that - but he has been backed by councillors also allied to the National Party. This includes councillors like Sue Wells whose 'priority' this year was to attend a wine 'conference' in Germany - and got local ratepayers to pay for her holiday.

Ironically the councillors who have not toed the Parker line have been publicly lambasted by Brownlee for not supporting the recovery process. That really is calling the kettle black.

Earthquake Communities Action Network

SHAKEDOWN!

2011-12-27T22:23:00.002+13:00

Credit: Assorted Goodies

No Pay Rise For Tony Marryatt

MARRYATT PROTEST

2011-12-21T17:36:00.004+13:00

4pm. The good people of Christchurch, including activists from Occupy Christchurch, occupy the foyer in the Christchurch City Council Civic Offices to protest the $70,000 salary increase for CEO Tony Marryatt.

Deputy Mayor Ngaire Button, who voted for the increase, tries to justify Marryatt's new bloated salary. The crowd is not impressed. Sideshow Bob fails to make an appearance.

Photo: Ed Muzik

RESPECT MY AUTHORITY!

2011-12-21T09:22:00.011+13:00

If you're not backing Sideshow Bob you're blocking the Christchurch earthquake recovery process! That's the crazy talk of Earthquake Recovery Minister, Gerry Brownlee.

In an astonishing attack on local democracy, Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee has attacked certain Christchurch City councillors for supposedly holding up the earthquake recovery process.

He claims that 'several people' have asked him to sack certain councillors although Brownlee conveniently neglects to tell us who these 'several people' are. Mrs Brownlee and family perhaps?

Although Brownlee hasn't got the guts to come out and say who he is attacking, we all know its the councillors (many of them Labour-aligned) who have decided to do their jobs and represent the interests of their communities - and not simply be Sideshow Bob's pet poodles like Sue Wells, Barry Corbett and Ngaire Button (and who are all, like Sideshow Bob, supporters of the National Party).

Sideshow Bob has, not surprisingly, failed to defend the councillors under attack from his mate. Sideshow has never stood up to Brownlee and he's not about to start now - especially when he's expecting something 'special' in the New Years Honours list.

In fact Sideshow has come out in support of Brownlee's comments, declaring that "This is not a time to be embarking on Don Quixote political exercises, and there's a bit of that going on.' You're guess is as good as mine as to what Sideshow Bob is talking about here but once again it reveals his lack of loyalty to the entire council - and not just his flunkeys.

This is a politically driven attack on Sideshow Bob's political opponents by Brownlee who is dishonestly trying to portray the councillors as slowing the quake recovery process when they are simply doing the jobs they were elected to do.

As Councillor Tim Carter has said: 'Delays should be avoided, but this did not mean supporting the mayor unconditionally'.

Of course Sideshow Bob is not known for respecting the democratic process so he may like the idea of the council turning into a simple rubber-stamp operation, where he and Tony Marryatt can get on and make all the major decisions without having to consult anyone else. And Mussolini got the trains to run on time as well...

TOYS 'R' US!

2011-12-20T21:34:00.004+13:00

A reader writes: 'I seem to recall you publishing a photo of Sideshow Bob in a festive mood. In the spirit of Xmas, could we see that photo again?'

Happy to oblige.

NO BRIGHTER THAN SHE LOOKS

2011-12-20T15:30:00.005+13:00

Christchurch councillor Sue Wells is blogging again - but there's no mention of her recent raepayer-funded junket to Germany.

Readers might be interested to know that Christchurch councillor Sue Wells , after a long absence, has started blogging again - well, she wrote something for December 12. She's also cropped up again on Twitter

As predicted she makes no mention of her recent European escapade. We Christchurch ratepayers got to pay for her junket to a wine 'conference' in Germany where she, apparently, spent her time pouring glasses of wine, handing out awards and sightseeing.

Wells told a local newspaper that she was writing a 'report' on her trip to Germany and it would be available at the end of November. Surprise - no report has emerged. Remember this is the same councillor who told voters that 'accountability' and 'transparency' were a priority for her. Obviously they are only a priority when they are not personally inconvenient. She seems to think that if she doesn't mention her German holiday ever again, everybody will forget about it. Which means I will be mentioning it on a regular basis in 2012.

Wells, being a loyal Sideshow Bob supporter, voted for the massive $70,000 increase in Tony Marryatt's salary. She also voted for his $80,000 salary increase in 2009.

Wells, of course, also voted to bail out failed property developer Dave Henderson to the tune of $17 million - while at the same time voting to put council rents up 24 percent and cutting council funding to community groups.

Sue Wells is no brighter than she looks but, disturbingly, she harbours mayoral ambitions. Perhaps voters will do the decent thing next time round and vote her out of office.

HYPOCRITE

2011-12-20T09:33:00.008+13:00

During his election campaign, Christchurch councillor Aaron Keown declared that he wanted to stop 'excessive council spending' and that no council employee should get paid more than the mayor.

A reader has pointed out the inconsistencies of Councillor Aaron Keown, who voted for the $70,000 salary increase for unpopular Christchurch City Council CEO Tony Marryatt.

During his election campaign the loyal Sideshow Bob supporter declared that curbing 'excessive council spending' was one of his top five issues. He also declared that no council employee should get paid more than the mayor.

Perhaps Keown could explain why he voted for a big fat increase in Marryatt's salary, which means that 'Tony' now gets well over $200,000 more than Sideshow Bob? How exactly does encouraging a 'culture of excess' in the upper echelons of the Christchurch City Council help to curb 'excessive council spending'?

Clearly we can't trust anything that Keown says.

Meanwhile the hard-working Marryatt is on holiday on the Gold Coast.

It should be also be pointed out that union workers at the Christchurch City Council got no more than a 2.75 percent pay increase - well behind the cost of living. And the council were even reluctant to agree to this, claiming that 'everyone' had to make 'sacrifices' in difficult economic times.

LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK

2011-12-19T08:58:00.013+13:00

Sideshow Bob and chums demonstrate the size of Tony Marryatt's salary increase. The unpopular Christchurch City Council CEO is getting another $70,000 a year! Councillor Glen Livingstone has described the increase as 'appalling' given Christchurch's financially stricken circumstances

Once again demonstrating the cronyism that pervades the upper echelons of the Christchurch City Council, Mayor Sideshow Bob and his council flunkeys have voted Bob's loyal right-hand man, Tony Marryatt, a massive and unjustified salary increase.

They have voted the unpopular Christchurch City Council CEO a massive 14.4 percent increase - another $70,000. This takes his salary from $470,400 to $538,529, backdated to July this year. In comparison, the Prime Minister gets paid $393,000 a year and many people feel he is paid too much.

Who voted for this increase? There's no prizes for guessing that it was Bob's bunch of sycophantic scoundrels - Barry Corbett, Jamie Gough, Aaron Keown, Ngaire Button, Claudia Reid and Sue Wells.

When Sideshow says 'jump', these clowns ask 'how high?'

Tim Carter, Glenn Livingstone, Sally Buck, Jimmy Chen, Helen Broughton and Yani Johanson voted against the increase. And they are to be congratulated for representing the interests of the Christchurch community

Back in 2009 Marryatt received an $80,000 salary increase and I wrote at the time:

This disgraceful increase for Marryatt should be considered against official data that shows that real wages in New Zealand declined approximately 25% between 1982 and the mid 90s and have never recovered. Wages still lie 25 percent below their peak in 1982 - while costs have continued to rise.

Since then, of course, Christchurch has been hit by a series of devastating quakes and times are now even tougher. This increase is a insult to the good people of Christchurch.

Marryatt's salary has now increased, incredibly, nearly 45 per cent during his four years at council. In an age when austerity policies are being imposed on most of us, Marryatt's extravagant salary is simply a disgrace.

ANGRY OF WHANGANUI

2011-12-18T11:38:00.004+13:00

Michael Laws is Media Clown for 2011.

Michael Laws has been a consistent media clown and he really came through this year to take 'Media Clown of the Year'. Well done, that man!

Laws can normally be heard on talkback station Radio Live berating people who are not 'proper New Zealanders', but he's been off-air since 20 November. Even Radio Live couldn't stomach him telling his redneck listeners that he would shoot journalists if he had a gun. Bashing beneficiaries is ok - advocating violence against journalists isn't.

Laws wasn't particularly happy with the media's performance over the so-called 'Teapot tapes' and fired off a few rounds at the Herald on Sunday for its role in the whole ludicrous affair.

"If I had a gun I'd shoot them - put them out of their misery - because they have gone rabid and they may infect others.", thundered Laws.

He went on to say: "Have you noticed ... the Herald on Sunday for example, which is rabid all the time ... no idea why somebody hasn't taken the shotgun there and just cleaned out the entire newsroom."

In fact Laws doesn't seem to like many people at all. As I commented about him last year he regards himself as '... the good keen man who speaks his mind and fights the good fight against the always threatening mob of beneficiaries , crims, gang members, hopeless Maori parents, druggies, namby-pamby liberals and people who want to introduce an 'h' into Wanganui.'

Laws often refers to people he doesn't like as 'feral' but it seems that it is Michael Laws, trapped on a low rating talkback station, who is the becoming increasingly rabid. Now the low rating talkback station doesn't seem to want him either.

Perhaps he isn't so much a clown but an angry middle aged white male inexorably falling into obscurity as the modern world disappears into the distance.

'Come back, I haven't finished with you yet!" shouts a furious Laws.

But he hasn't quite figured out that the world has finished with him.

TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR: THE PROTESTER

2011-12-15T14:31:00.005+13:00

2011 will go down in history as a revolutionary year akin to 1848 and 1968: a year in which ordinary people round the world rose up against their governments and ruling elites – their respective 1%s.

The explanation for this global tidal wave of revolt is essentially very simple. The international capitalist system is in profound crisis and the 1%, the ruling class, everywhere is trying to make the rest of us pay for it and in place after place people are fighting back. From Tahrir to Oakland we are feeding on the inspiration of each other’s resistance. Confidence is rising and for the first time in a generation revolution is back on the agenda.

John Molyneux, Irish Socialist Worker

SIDESHOW BOB ATTACKS OCCUPY CHRISTCHURCH!

2011-12-15T12:21:00.006+13:00

Bob gets all agitated about Occupy...

Mayor Sideshow Bob has attacked Occupy Christchurch and demanded that the group move from South Hagley Park - or be forcibly moved by the city council.

According to Sideshow, who appears to have appointed himself as arbiter of all that is right and wrong, Occupy Christchurch ' have a had a really good opportunity to demonstrate and make their opinions known, but there's a time when they have to move on.'

But Bob, despite the bluster, knows he presently has no legal powers to remove the protesters. He admits that he is waiting for the legal ruling on Occupy Auckland's continued occupation of Aotea Square.

Occupy Christchurch say they have no intention of 'moving on' - so suck on that, Bob.

Of course Bob, a loyal supporter of the National Government, is hardly a fan of the aims and aspirations of the Occupy movement. He is, after all, the mayor who tried to put council rents up nearly 24 percent while at the same time bailing out property developer Dave Henderson to the tune of $17 million. He's also the mayor who cut funding to community groups - claiming that it was no longer 'affordable'. But, despite pleas of 'budget restraints' he still managed to find $5 million to pay for the naming rights to an Auckland garden show.

It is also interesting to observe that while Sideshow has a lot to say abut Occupy, he has had nothing to say about certain councillors who go on overseas junkets at the expense of the ratepayer. Of course Sue Wells isn't a bloody lefty and is one of his loyal supporters..

EUROPE ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE

2011-12-12T19:03:00.007+13:00

The economic crisis continues to deepen in Europe.

Despite all the huffin' and puffin', the European Union (EU) crisis meeting in Brussels over the weekend was yet another failure.

Despite 'agreeing' on plans to allow EU bureaucrats to impose coordinated spending cuts on the increasingly angry people of Europe, the summit’s failure to agree on a rescue plan for the single currency did nothing to stabilise the increasingly chaotic finance markets.

While the corporate media devoted much of its attention to the 'split' between Great Britain and the EU, it went largely unnoticed that 'stress tests' conducted on the European banks, revealed a deteriorating picture. It hasn't gone so much from bad to worse but more worse to 'Danger! Impending collapse!'

The tests showed that the European banks had a shortfall of 115bn euros compared to 106bn euros in October. And the German banks were found to need double the amount of capital originally thought. It was a further indication that the crisis is now imposing itself on the German economy.

It should also be remembered that most of these banks have already been bailed out by trillions of public money.

The fundamental problem remains the same - the huge amount of debt strangling the life out of countries like Greece, Italy, Spain, Ireland and Portugal.

Many banks are exposed to loans to these countries and they do not have sufficient capital to handle a default, let alone the collapse of the euro.

The worse case scenario for finance capital is that these countries will default on these debts and simply exit the eurozone.

Indeed a Citigroup economist and former central banker Willem Buiter warned last week that a fully blown break-up of the eurozone could spell a global depression and "pandemonium".

" A break up would drag down not just the European banking system, but the north Atlantic financial system and the internationally exposed parts of the rest of the global banking system as well".

But the only 'solution' on offer is to impose even more austerity measures. Ordinary people will be squeezed and squeezed again to pay for a crisis that they weren't responsible for.

But further austerity measures will only accelerate Europe's plunge into depression. Years of austerity budgets have deflated demand and increased unemployment across Europe but the Brussels 'solution' is simply more of the same.

Even some of the more hardened neoliberal zealots are beginning to question the rationale for a 'solution' that only leads to further drop in demand, more job losses and increased debt levels. But the politicians have nothing else to offer - the SS Eurozone is heading for the iceberg and there's nothing they can do about it.

Of even more concern for the European bourgeoisie is that resistance to the austerity cuts continues to grow throughout Europe. A spectre is haunting Europe's rulers and that is the spectre of an organised movement that finally overthrows the rule of capital

Last week US military officer General Martin Dempsey admitted that he was "extraordinarily concerned" about the euro's survival and the prospect of more 'civil unrest in Europe'.

"The eurozone is at great risk," the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the media. "We are extraordinarily concerned by the health and viability of the euro because in some ways we're exposed literally to contracts but also because of the potential of civil unrest and breakup of the union that has been forged over there."

LIBERALS ARE USELESS

2011-12-10T13:37:00.011+13:00

The Standard looks to resurrect Barack Obama's tattered liberal credentials.

Liberals are useless aren't they? It doesn't matter how many times they get betrayed/shafted/deceived by their leaders they can be guaranteed to return for another good kicking up the backside.

A few days ago Barack Obama, a president who has allowed over 43 million Americans to sink into poverty while he has bailed out his mates on Wall Street, made what can be described as a cynical attempt to portray himself - yet again - as a 'champion of the people'.

In a speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, Obama laid down his so-called liberal credentials.

This was not only a sick joke but a direct insult to the tens of millions of Americans who have suffered under his 'progressive' presidency. They have lost their jobs, their homes and their futures. Obama wants to use their despair - which he is directly implicated in causing in the first place - as a convenient trading card to get him back into the White House for another term of kissing the ass of big business and Wall Street.

But all of this is of little consequence to his liberal supporters who have been desperately looking for some kind of indication that Obama isn't just another 'man of the system'.

So they have grabbed Obama's Kansas speech with both hands.

Take Robert Reich for instance. Reich is Professor of Public Policy at the University of California bit, more significantly, he was secretary of labour under President Bill Clinton.

He's a mainstream Democrat - a bit of a Keynesian - who has felt badly let down by Obama.

But in a column titled 'The Most Important Economic Speech of his Presidency ' Reich, on the basis of one cynical speech , welcomes Obama back to the liberal fold. All is forgiven!

Here, finally, is the Barack Obama many of us thought we had elected in 2008. Since then we’ve had a president who has only reluctantly stood up to the moneyed interests Teddy Roosevelt and his cousin Franklin stood up to. Hopefully Obama will carry this message through 2012, and gain a mandate to use his second term to take on the growing inequities and game-rigging practices that have been undermining the American economy and American democracy for years.

But Obama's speech, ironically, doesn't contain any answers for addressing 'the growing inequalities' that Reich hopes Obama will take on during a second term in office.

Indeed Obama's only solution is the kind of silly drivel we've heard spewed by New Zealand politicians for many a year:

In today’s innovation economy, we also need a world-class commitment to science and research, the next generation of high-tech manufacturing. Our factories and our workers shouldn’t be idle. We should be giving people the chance to get new skills and training at community colleges so they can learn how to make wind turbines and semiconductors and high-powered batteries.

This is the sort of rubbish we heard from Goff and the Labour Party during the election campaign and which convinced no one.

The answer to the crisis is not 'training' or 'upskilling' - or whatever this week's buzzword is - but jobs. But Obama has presided over massive job losses.

Indeed just a few weeks ago Reich himself wrote:

'So many jobs have been lost since Mr. Obama was elected that, even if job growth were to match the extraordinary pace of the late 1990s—averaging 300,000 to 350,000 per month—the unemployment rate wouldn’t fall below 6% until 2016.'

But there's nothing in Obama's speech that even hints at a solution to the jobs crisis - the very speech that Reich praises.

It's not surprising that the Labour-aligned The Standard has chosen to republish Reich's column in full. The website, after all, embraced all the hype about Obama and 'change you can believe in' and has been compromised ever since.

But now The Standard is prepared to believe the lie that Obama is on the side of 'the 99 percent'. It would rather swallow this rubbish because if it didn't its lazy and opportunistic writers might just have to come to some uncomfortable conclusions about the reality of American capitalism.

IF YOU PLAY BY THE RULES, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO WIN

2011-12-07T11:36:00.009+13:00

Playing the game of electoral politics is a political dead end because the rules are rigged against us, writes Trish Kahle.

In Kristen Britain’s fantastic novel Green Rider–which I recommend to everyone–there’s a scene which I would say had been written about Occupy if the book hadn’t been published in 1998.

The book’s protagonist, a young woman named Karigan, finds herself trapped in a place between life and death with the two antagonists, a rouge prince named Amilton and the magical Shawdell. Shawdell’s magic has made him one with Amilton, and Shawdell is the dominant part of the merged spirits.

On the table, a game of Intrigue was set up. Amilton leaned over an army of red pieces, his eyes darting here and there over the board. Shawdell, in contrast, leaned back casually in his chair, watching Karigan’s approach with interest.

“Won’t you join us?” he asked.

Karigan adjusted her grip on the sword. “Why are we here?”

“Would you believe anything I told you?” he asked.

“I will judge your words for myself.”

“You will not like what you hear.”

“Just explain,” Karigan said.

“All right.” Shawdell’s voice was quiet. “With your actions, you have released wild magic and it has torn the wall between worlds. You brought us here.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“As you wish,” he replied.

All that mattered was leaving this place. “How do we get back?”

Shawdell mocked her with his light and musical laughter. “You would trust me with the answer? You who not believe what I tell you about where we are?” She glared at him, and he stopped laughing. He leaned forward. “To leave, we must finish the game. You must sit down and play. Won’t you have a seat?” He gestured at the empty chair.

“I don’t want to play,” Karigan said.

“I thought you wanted to leave this place,” Shawdell said. “You must win the game to leave.”

“No,” Karigan said. She hated Intrigue. She always lost. She gestured to Amilton. “Why doesn’t he make a move?”

“He moves when I give him leave.”

“And when do you move?”

“I move when you sit down to play.”

“And if I refuse to sit?”

“Then we remain an eternity in this place. But if you play the game, you have a chance to win.”

“Why don’t you use your magic?” Karigan asked.

“Play the game,” Shawdell said. “Play the game. It is the only way we can leave.”

Karigan laughed, giddy with sudden insight. She was the Triad, the random element. She could spur the game on or maintain the stalemate. She controlled the game. She remembered what Zachary had said to her, playing in the castle not long ago. “If you play by the rules, it’s impossible to win.”

She raised the sword over her head. Shawdell quailed. The sword slashed down like a scythe. The blade bit into the cork game board and the pieces scattered. The sword carved into the table and deep through it. The place between worlds disappeared, and the sword clattered loudly on the stone floor of the castle.

Occupy is the Triad. The random player.

We aren’t anywhere close to splitting this world apart yet, but so far, we’re headed the right direction. We aren’t playing the game of electoral politics–the game that is rigged against us. And we should keep it that way.

As we head into the 2012 election season, the Democrats are going to tell us to sit down and play the game. They’ll tell us it’s the only way. And we have to fight back against that lie. As Audre Lorde said, “the master’s tools will never tear down the master’s house.”

They will throw up pictures of incredibly scary Republican candidates, but remember it’s the Democrats who have actively engaged in cracking down on Occupy protests. It’s the Democrats who have expanded the practice of military detention. And Democrats have signed on with enthusiastic support to completely strip US citizens of their right to due process and impose massive austerity packages. The Obama administration has made it abundantly clear to a new generation of activists that we cannot win this game by electing Democrats.

We don’t need to play their game. We need a new game.

This is part of why the blockade development is so exciting. As Boots Riley said, “They coordinated attacks against us. We’re going to launch a coordinated attack against the 1%.” Blockades, occupations, strikes, and community pickets aren’t playing their game, and the results aren’t rigged in their favour. That’s why the crackdown has been so coordinated and has escalated in scale rather quickly (considering the movement is not yet three months old).

But whatever actions we pursue going forward, independence from the political parties is going to be key. Whether it’s occupying foreclosed homes, mic checking CEOs and politicians wherever they go, or showing our solidarity with striking workers–the Democrats aren’t going to support Occupy, they’re going to fight it. And they’re going to fight it hard. Just like Shawdell and Amilton, corporations and capitalist politicians are one and the same. They fight together, and they’re probably going to die together.

From Oakland’s general strike to the massive labour turnout in NYC, we are showing that we are beginning to understand collectively that our power is not in the isolation of the voting booth, but with our arms linked in the streets.

We aren’t playing by their rules. And that’s exactly why we can win.

This article was first published on I Can't Believe We Still Have To Protest This Shit.

COUNCILLOR WELLS FAILS TO RELEASE REPORT

2011-12-06T17:06:00.008+13:00

Councillor Sue Wells has failed to release a report on her recent trip to Germany. Are we surprised?

We're still none the wiser as to what Councillor Sue Wells got up to at Great Wine Capitals Global Network conference held in Germany in October.

Despite indicating that a report of her trip would be released at the end of November, Wells has done nothing.

It seems that she is quite happy to spend ratepayers money on overseas trips but not very keen to supply any information on what she gets up to. She claimed that her German wine junket would have 'benefits' for Christchurch but it appears that this has been just more hot air from a councillor who seems to regard the Christchurch City Council as her own personal gravy train. And Sideshow Bob is completely relaxed about it all because Wells is part of his 'A Team' .

A reader though has pointed out that this photo appeared on the Christchurch City Council's Facebook page yesterday. It shows Sue Wells handing out some wine awards. I agree with the reader that this may be the only 'report' we're going to get.

I WAS ONLY JOKING!

2011-12-05T11:14:00.013+13:00

Jeremy Clarkson helps out his mate David Cameron.

I think we've all met prats like Jeremy Clarkson. You know the type. Wealthy and privileged middle-aged white males who think the whole world is their playground. They're oafs but they like to think of themselves as 'lads'. Blokey-blokes. They just like a drink and a laugh and what's wrong with that?

Jeremy Clarkson is a high profile wealthy and privileged middle aged white male and he has the good fortune to get paid a lot of money to behave like a naughty schoolboy. On the BBC's Top Gear Clarkson gets to drive around in big fast expensive cars and joke around with his two fellow 'lads' , James May and Richard Hammond.

Actually I'm probably doing May and Hammond a bit of a disservice here because they're job seems to be mostly about stroking Clarkson's inflated ego.

Naturally Jeremy is a reactionary prat. I say 'naturally' because, as a rich and privileged middle aged white male he is always going to defend the world that allows him to be a rich and privileged middle aged white male. I doubt he's been on a protest march in his life although I do recall him defending the 'right' of the landed gentry to kill foxes. Perhaps he marched about that.

Clarkson, despite behaving like 'a good old boy', spends much of his time socialising with members of the British establishment. He goes to parties held by his good friend David Cameron, the British Prime Minister. He's also a good friend of the former chief executive of News International, Rebekah Brooks - and who he has consistently defended.

So it came as no surprise that Clarkson launched an attack British public sector workers taking part in a 24-hour walkout .

"I would have them all shot", said Clarkson on a chat show "I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families. I mean how dare they go on strike when they have these gilt-edged pensions that are going to be guaranteed, while the rest of us have to work for a living?"

Despite the deliberate hyperbole this is a politically charged comment. Clarkson suggests that the strikers all have fat pensions that are guaranteed. In fact British state workers are being squeezed to contribute more to their modest pensions and to work for longer before they are eligible for pensions

Let's be clear. Clarkson was doing his bit to ridicule and denigrate the strike. Not coincidentally his mate Cameron tried to dismiss the strike as 'a damp squid'.

But the BBC ended up having to apologise for Clarkson's remarks . Clarkson claimed he was only joking Cameron backed him up, claiming that his comments weren't meant to be taken seriously. Jeremy was only joking. So that's alright then. We are all like a laugh at the expense of the proles, eh?

Compare though Cameron's defence of his friend Clarkson with the punishments given to people supposedly associated with the recent British riots.

Two young men, Jordan Blackshore and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan both posted messages on Facebook calling for their friends to join in the unrest.

The two men said in court that they had only been joking and no riots had actually broken out. This didn't convince the magistrate who sent the two men away to jail for four years.

The 'only joking' defence didn't work for them but it has for Jeremy Clarkson. But it helps to have friends in high places...

A SMALL VICTORY FOR OCCUPY AUCKLAND

2011-11-30T11:26:00.004+13:00

Auckland Council CEO Doug McKay doesn't get his own way - like he's used to.

The Auckland authorities have failed, first time round, to evict Occupy Auckland from Aotea Square.

After the Auckland City Council issued them with a trespass notice, Occupy Auckland went off to court. Judge David Wilson agreed that Occupy had not been given sufficient notice to leave Aotea Square and struck out the trespass notice.

So Auckland Council CEO Douglas McKay who told Occupy Auckland 'to forthwith leave and stay away' now has egg on his face.

The judge instead gave protesters a week to prepare for a two-day eviction hearing which will begin on December 7.

Doug McKay has no sympathy with Occupy Auckland and the issues that it is highlighting like poverty and growing inequality.

He is on a total salary package of approximately $750,000 so he won't be heading to a food bank anytime soon.

Previously he has held senior positions in firms like Goodman Fielders, Lion Breweries, Sealords and Independent Liquor.

When he was CEO of Independent Liquor Matt McCarten of the Unite Union wrote to him requesting a modest wage increase for his workers - as they were still on the minimum wage. McKay said no to the wage increase. He also declined to do anything about Impendent Liquor's notorious anti-union activities which included managers intimidating staff.

He is, not surprisingly, a supporter of the National Party.

Meanwhile Occupy Auckland have criticised Mayor Len Brown.

Occupy Auckland spokesperson Chris Glen says Brown has backed away from a commitment he made to Occupy.

“At our latest liaison meeting Len vehemently stated that no immediate action would be taken against the lawful protest action in Aotea Square while discussions were ongoing,”

WHAT I DID ON MY HOLIDAYS

2011-11-28T15:22:00.004+13:00

Councillor Wells claims she's writing a report about her recent trip to Germany.

Cate Broughton at the Christchurch Mail has been diligently pursuing Councillor Sue 'Double Dipper' Wells. But Ms Wells, not one to usually shun the media spotlight, has turned down repeated requests for an interview about her recent wine junket - namely attending the annual conference of the Great Wine Capitals network in Germany.

The loyal sideshow Bob supporter seems to have conveniently forgotten that, during last year's local body elections, she promised to be accountable and accessible. But it was always too good to be true. This, remember, is the councillor who told the media that if anyone in her ward wanted to talk to her they could do so while she was doing the shopping or the gardening!

She's the same councillor who declared that she didn't want to represent the good people of Christchurch - she wanted to lead them! In the case of her unequivocal support for the dismal Henderson bailout she led the good people of Christchurch by the nose. The price of her cronyism and stupidity was a $17 million bill for the Christchurch ratepayer.

But Wells is now being forced to write a report outlining the 'benefits' of her German holiday for Christchurch . That report, she claims, will be available at the end of the month. It'll make for interesting reading.

Of course she may not necessarily write the report herself. That job might have gone to either Elizabeth Wilson or Samantha Sii, both council employees. Wilson is the Christchurch/South Island coordinator of Great Wine Capitals while Sii is listed as the Christchurch/South Island administrator.

It seems that these two women get to do all the work while Wells helps herself to the free overseas trips.

LABOUR DISINTEGRATES

2011-11-27T16:18:00.011+13:00

National's victory marked a disastrous defeat for Labour. We have to look beyond electoral politics for real political and economic change.

Only 68 percent of eligible voters bothered to vote. Yes, a third of the voting population decided that it didn't want to participate in the 'democratic' process to elect yet another neoliberal government. Yet the mainstream media wants us to believe that the turnout was 'disappointing'.

Clearly the voters didn't share the opinion of both the politicians and the corporate media that, just by voting, they had a real say in the economic and political direction of the country.

They certainly didn't share the opinion of blogger Martyn Bradbury who waxed lyrical about the 'power of the individual' and the joys of voting. Wrote Bradbury: 'bless our civil society, today is a true celebration of the power of the individual and our liberal progressive democracy!'

Perhaps Bradbury might spend some time reflecting on what are the implications for representative democracy when the major parties are peddling similar austerity policies that will only serve to further cut living standards, public services and the social rights of working people.

There is clearly widespread anger with the economic policies that are being pursued but, other than through the Mana Party, that anger has not been heard in parliament. And that anger will continue to be not heard in parliament.

But there has been no talk in the mainstream media about the disenfranchisement of ordinary people. The fact that this election was simply about which political faction of capitalism had the 'best' austerity policies has gone conveniently unrecognised by the mainstream commentators.

Labour, which attempted to paint itself as the natural party of the working class, didn't convince anyone and its vote collapsed. Labour's tossed a few policy crumbs in the direction of working people ( eg no GST on fresh fruit and vegetables) but, ultimately, it had no plan to upset the pro-capitalist and neoliberal applecart. When Goff talked of 'making hard decisions' we all knew it wasn't going to be business that was going to be at the sharp end of those 'hard decisions'.

Now the discussion among what's left of Labour's support base is about who to replace Goff with. But the cupboard is looking bare and I'm sure that no-one in Labour will be thanking Phil Goff and former president Andrew Little for leaving the party with so little to work with. (I'm very happy that Little, who betrayed and sold out union struggles time and time again, failed to get elected as a Labour MP. He could only sneak in via the list.)

But in the end the speculation over Labour's leadership will only serve to give pro-Labour political pundits and bloggers something to write about. Eventually The Standard will begin to churn out its 'Isn't John Key terrible?' articles again and commentator Chris Trotter will continue to hanker for his blue Labour, sans social liberalism. Pointless diversions.

But next year John key and his chums will be on the attack again, slashing services, axing jobs, bashing beneficiaries. Labour can do nothing to stop them.

Labour has got nothing to offer ordinary people and that means we can only fight the National Government by taking action outside parliament through demonstrations, strikes and other activities.

That said, I opened the Sunday Star Times this morning and saw a large advertisement placed by the PSA. The advertisement urges the 'incoming government' to put people before profit, make 'our country a fairer, more equal society' and ensure that 'services are there when they're needed'.

This is the same PSA leadership that has sat on its hands for the past three years and allowed the Government to smoothly axe over 1300 jobs.

The Government plans to axe more jobs in the coming months and the PSA's only response is to run pointless newspaper advertisements.

Even now it looks like the CTU and PSA bureaucrats, despite everything, are still not going to organise and fight.

The policy for the last three years has been not to rock the boat because 'a Labour Government will make things better for everyone'. How does that strategy look now?

ELECTION RESULT : THE SAME OLD CRAP WINS

2011-11-25T17:04:00.008+13:00

You want real progressive change? You're out of luck.

In these last few hours before 'the big day', the commentators and the bloggers have been amusing themselves - and boring everyone else - with their endless speculations and hypothetical scenarios about the election result. Will John Key be able to rule alone or will Labour - with the help of Winston Peters, apparently - be able to stop him. Can a combination of parties lead to a Labour-led government. What needs to happen for that to occur? And so it goes on. And on. And on.

The implication of all this hot air from the 'chattering classes' is that we are being presented with real political alternatives . According to The Press we are facing our 'starkest choice between the two major parties in a decade.'

The Fairfax-owned newspaper defines this 'stark choice' this way: 'Labour's prescription centres on a capital gains tax and compulsory savings scheme, and National's on partial asset sales and fiscal austerity.'

This is isn't a choice between competing ideologies - this is simply a choice to decide on neoliberal economic policy. This is not democracy - this is the Pepsi - Coke challenge. You can have Mars bar or a Moro bar - but its the same damn chocolate bar.

Labour's so-called 'alternative ' is simply ‘more of the same only less so’. Labour is offering us austerity lite - but with no guarantee it won't revert to austerity heavy if the global economy collapses - which now looks increasingly likely . If there is a major European banking collapse, the extent of austerity we see now will be a picnic compared with what is to come.

We have effectively been disenfranchised. Representative democracy has failed.

While I have nothing but contempt for John Key I think Goff's attempt to paint himself as a friend of the working class has also been nauseating.

What we can expect from Parliament, whoever is the Government, is more sustained attacks on living standards, more job cuts, more attacks on beneficiaries.

The question is - what are we going to do about it?

SOLID ENERGY GETS HACKED

2011-11-25T15:30:00.004+13:00

No Lignite Coal Mining In Aotearoa NZ from Roger L on Vimeo.

Ha Ha. Solid Energy's website was hacked by anti-lignite activists this morning. Visitors to the website were redirected to this video.

John Key has described the hacking as 'underhand'. Boo hoo.

ENOUGH OF BLAMING WOMEN

2011-11-24T11:13:00.008+13:00

Jennifer Fox, 19, was three months pregnant last Tuesday evening when she joined an Occupy Seattle march that stopped at the intersection of 5th Avenue and Pine Street. "I was standing in the middle of the crowd when the police started moving in," she says. "I was screaming, 'I am pregnant, I am pregnant. Let me through. I am trying to get out.'" At that point, Fox says, a Seattle police officer lifted his foot and hit her in the stomach. Another officer also struck her in the stomach. She was then pepper-sprayed by both officers.

Jennifer, who is homeless, later had a miscarriage.

Incredibly some people think Jennifer was responsible for what happened, writes Trish Kahle.

Earlier today, word got out that Jennifer Fox, a pregnant woman who was pepper-sprayed at an Occupy Seattle protest, had a miscarriage.

Police had insisted after the attack, which also resulted in the pepper-spraying of an 84 year old, that the chemical weapon is not more dangerous for some than others. Obviously, to anyone with common sense, this isn’t true. But even if you take this statement as true, if pepper spray isn’t more dangerous for some than others, it’s clearly dangerous for everyone. That’s why it’s, you know, a weapon.

In addition to being pepper sprayed, Fox was also kicked at least twice in the stomach–even though she screamed multiple times that she was pregnant.

But honestly, I expect this shit from cops, as much as it infuriated me. What was even more revolting–did you know such a thing was possible?–was the responses I saw from sexists across the internet. These were not pulled from dark corners of internet chatrooms. These were some of the comments I saw on Facebook, where my lefty friends had posted the story in a rage.

I wouldn’t have even brought my dog to an OWS protest much less a child or pregnant wife/partner/girlfriend whatever…looking at responses to OWS in New York (pepper spray, use of batons), and Oakland (pepper spray, tear gas, batons), would YOU personally be ok with allowing a woman you know to be pregnant to put herself in a situation where there is even the slightest chance that the police would use force?…I see a trend and the trend would be one where if I was on either side of the demonstration I’d fear for the safety of women much less pregnant women. If its “wrong” or not for such people to protest is an erroneous point to me, I see danger to women and would act accordingly.”

“Why hang around pregnant when shit’s hitting the fan?”

“Sure the police were unnecessarily violent. But it’s been going on for months now; it’s no surprise that something like that happened. It was totally irresponsible for her to be out there in her condition.”

“I don’t condone violence and I’m not saying what happened was a good thing. But maybe she shouldn’t have put herself and her baby in this situation to begin with. It’s called ‘responsible parenting’. Apparently this 19 year old isn’t ready for that…”

“I’m sorry but all these peaceful protests turn violent with the police…and she had to know and so did others that it would. I don’t go to “peaceful” protests because I am a mother and have to be whole for my children. I am all they have. Why didn’t she see that? Why couldn’t she have stayed out of it for her childs sake? I am disgusted with both sides on this one.”

(As a side note, if by chance you see something you wrote here, I’m not sorry. You should be ashamed.)

First, let me make something perfectly clear. Women are people. Women are human. And we have rights.

One of those rights is the right to self-determination. Fundamentally, women can make their own choices about their own bodies. Carrying a fetus doesn’t change that. This is not even close to being up for debate. It’s just how it is. Also, women and children should not be lumped together, though they so often are.

Why? Because children are dependent. Women are autonomous. Women can make their own decisions. The first comment above suggests that no women–no women at all–should be involved in the Occupy protests out of fear for their safety.

But there are other ways to defend Fox’s action–even though I shouldn’t have to.

The primary claim against her is that she should have stayed home from the protest to ensure the safety of the fetus. But how does one define safe? For most people, “safety” means having a place to sleep that is protected from the elements, having access to clean water, healthy food, and adequate health care. Fox is homeless, which means her safety was already severely violated–yet no one seemed to care about that. Her safety–and the safety of the fetus–only became a cause of concern when she challenged the very social structures that perch her on the margins of society. What is veiled as a “concern for safety” actually functions as a sexist form of social control, an attempt to frighten women into not exercising our constitutional rights. Glenn Greenwald wrote about this much more broadly on his blog earlier this week, but the fundamentals are the same.

Another argument against her is that when the crowd refused to disperse, the “action was no longer peaceful” (their words, not mine), and the police then acted within their right to pepper-spray and beat her. But there is no circumstance under which “refusal to disperse” legitimates violent attack–chemically or physically. Not for anyone. That the person who commits civil disobedience must accept their punishment as “right” is a legal fallacy. Fundamentally, when “unjust decisions are accepted, injustice is sanctioned and perpetrated,” noted Howard Zinn. “When unjust decisions become law, the government and its officials should be toppled.” The root question of it all is this: is the rule of law more important than the freedom of assembly?

The answer, quite clearly, is no. Laws, theoretically, are created to protect rights in the form of a social contract. In American society, laws protect class interests, and they are based on the domination of one (minority) class over another that constitutes the vast majority. This is not a social contract. It is social colonialism. The right to assemble supersedes the rule of law. Therefore, the police–and the people who gave the orders–were in violation, not Fox, not any of the protesters.

Instead, I argue that by participating in the Occupy Seattle protest, Fox not only acted within her human and legal rights, but she also acted incredibly responsibly–regardless of any pregnancy outcome she may have desired. Current austerity proposals would further undermine the safety she would be able to attain within society, and if she had chosen to carry the pregnancy to term (and not, you know, be beaten and pepper-sprayed) the level of safety she would have been able to provide for her child.

For many of us on the margins, at the bottom, we stand to benefit far more in the long term from a mass movement that restructures society, that ensures human needs and human safety come before the needs of profit and the protection of property. And I can think of no more moral or responsible action than fighting–at any pregnancy status–for a world free of exploitation, free of oppression, and certainly free of sexist bullshit like this.

This article was originally published on I Can't Believe We Still Have To Protest This Shit.

LIBERAL ILLUSIONS

2011-11-23T20:45:00.009+13:00

Bryan Bruce's call for a 'fair market' to tackle child poverty is naive and unrealistic.

Bryan Bruce's documentary , Child Poverty: A Special report, was an indictment of nearly three decades of neoliberal economics that have completely failed the people of this country.

The reality for many people in this country, as Bruce showed, is being forced to live in shocking living conditions. Bruce visited several houses owned by the state that were simply uninhabitable. There was mould on the ceilings caused by damp , there was inadequate heating, the houses were in a general state of disrepair.

But families are living in this squalor. In one house six members of a family were sleeping in one room just to keep warm.

It is such horrendous living conditions that disease thrives. Last year, more than 25,000 children were admitted to hospital for respiratory infections. Doctors routinely treat cases of rheumatic fever and scabies – diseases now rare in Europe. These are the diseases of poverty. We used to say that New Zealand was a great place to bring up kids - its a sick joke now.

Bruce visited Sweden where a free nationwide health service health service is maintained for children. And all children get a free and healthy meal at lunchtime while at school.

This liberating policy actually saves money. Economist Gareth Morgan explained that comparative international studies have shown that by insuring that children are fed at school, live in warm houses and have access to healthcare pays off $4 to every $1 spent.

Bruce argued that the child poverty is an ethical question rather than a political one. He thinks there should be a political consensus to tackle the issue of child poverty and to tackle it immediately.

But in the end it is a political question. Bruce say in the documentary that he wants a 'fair market' rather a 'free market'. In short, he wants a fairer and kinder capitalism.

But the economic crisis that continues to deepen is slashing the social gains of the post-war era. This is not a question of temporary sacrifices to steady the ship through stormy economic waters. What we are witnessing now - and which many liberals will still not acknowledge - is the overturning of the social contract that emerged after the Second World War.

It's worth noting that both Social Development Minister Paula Bennett and Minister of Health Tony Ryall have been seemingly unavailable to respond to Bruce's documentary.

They are members of a Government whose response to the economic crisis is to cut social spending, cut wages, slash jobs and welfare.

In these circumstances Bruce's argument that there should be some kind of political consensus to create a 'fair market' is, to be frank, simply naive and gets us nowhere.

We need a far more radical transformation of the economy than the one Bruce is proposing.

THE RETURN OF THE CLOWN

2011-11-22T11:21:00.010+13:00

Paul Henry lends a helping hand to John Key.

In 2010 Paul Henry won my inaugural 'Media Clown of the Year' Award. Last year Sideshow Bob Parker lifted the coveted prize and he must be confident that he can retain his title after some ludicrous performances in the media this year.

But for Paul Henry, until last night, it looked like his glory days were well behind him. He's been spending his time hosting a 3-6pm show on Radio Live but it would be fair to say that his undoubted talent for buffoonery and general stupidity have been wasted on the low rating talkback station.

But last night Susan Boyle's greatest fan was a member of the panel that assessed the performances of John Key and Phil Goff in TV3's Leaders' Debate.

It was clear that Battlin' Phil Goff scored a clear points victory over Smilin' John Key. Goff had Key backpedaling for much of the fight. Key made a better fist of it in the latter rounds but by then it was just too late. This, I have to say, was a surprise victory for Goff. He's clearly benefited from some intensive media training in the gym.

And the general consensus is that Goff came out on top. Even the New Zealand Herald couldn't give the fight to Key;

'It was a clumsy debate for National leader John Key, who appeared oddly out of sorts from the beginning...The winner was Goff, for whom the media training has finally paid off. He sounded convincing and measured against Key's interruptions.'

Strangely though none of TV3's panellists gave the nod to Battlin' Phil.

Political Scientist Therese Arseneau thought it was a draw as did TV3's Political Editor Duncan Garner. I suspect they had been talking with Don King during the commercial breaks.

But former National Party candidate Paul Henry gave the fight to John Key. Perhaps Henry still thought he was on TV1's Breakfast which he, almost singlehandedly, turned into the 'John Key Appreciation Show'.

Henry's verdict clearly caught host John Campbell off guard. He enquired if this opinion was a product of Henry's own political preferences rather than any objective assessment of the fight.

You know me, John,' was Henry's glib reply.

The 'whooshing' sound you heard was all of TV3's political credibility escaping from the studio. Arseneau looked flummoxed. Garner played with his pen and stared at his notepad.

But Henry didn't stop there. He declared that the sixty-odd people who were controlling 'the worm' all looked like 'greenies'. And we all know what Paul Henry thinks of' greenies 'don't we? They smell and can't be trusted.

Yes, out of nowhere, Henry is a contender for 'Media Clown of the Year.' And he has another chance to slake his claim for the big prize on Saturday because he is one of the commentators on TV3's election night show. Expect Henry to pull out all the stops...

EMPTY POSTURING OVER STATE ASSETS

2011-11-21T11:12:00.008+13:00

The state-owned power companies that Labour are championing are the same power companies that keep putting their prices up.

So a Labour Government wouldn't sell any further state assets.

Big deal. I'm not about to break out the champagne and put on my party hat. I'm not about to declare that this is 'a real point of difference' with National.

Given that this is the very same political party that plundered the state asset larder in the 1980s, Labour's claim to be the defender of 'our assets' is more than a little hypocritical.

I watched Phil Goff on television last night declaring that it was only six days until New Zealand's future was hocked off to the highest bidder. Really Phil? I thought you and your Labour chums did that in the 1980s and, as John Minto has commented, we've been paying the price ever since. Paying through the nose.

This isn't the Catholic Church Phil - you don't get pardoned for your past sins. Some commentators might be able to forgive you for the sake of political expediency but these the same people who never fight back, who are always prepared to 'compromise'.

If Labour really had seen the error of its ways it would be campaigning on a policy of re-nationalisation. And it would nationalise the banks and the finance sector. (Every year New Zealand loses billions of dollars in dividends that the Australian-owned banks take out of the economy,)

But Labour won't do that because it remains committed to neoliberal economic policies that have completely failed.

At the very least Labour should have committed itself to scrapping the State Owned Enterprises model.

It was the fourth Labour Government that brought in the SOE model to ensure that state companies operated on the same basis as those in the private sector.

In short, none of the state assets that Phil is championing today play a social role. The job of the SOE's is to make money and pay whopping dividends to the government.

The power companies that Phil likes to refer to as 'ours' are the very same power companies that have been ramping up their prices for years and making life miserable for the very people that Labour claims to represent.

Indeed electricity prices went up over 70 percent under the Labour Government of Helen Clark. I didn't hear Phil Goff complaining about this.

What's so fantastic about the government owning a power company that is continually putting up its prices and which ruthlessly disconnects families who are struggling with the huge bills they are receiving?

But none of the neoliberal parliamentary parties are prepared to break with the SOE model that has created this situation.

Labour's defence of stste assets is, frankly, little more than political posturing. There is no difference between privatised state assets or corporatised state assets - ordinary folk still get shafted.

SIDESHOW BOB GETS A BAD REPORT

2011-11-21T11:02:00.005+13:00

The Christchurch City Council are failing the people of Christchurch, says the Future Canterbury Network.

The Future Canterbury Network is an independent watchdog group was established shortly after the devastating February 22 earthquake.

Its brief is to monitor and assess the progress that Canterbury councils have made in the process of earthquake recovery.

FCN has just released a report assessing the performance of the Christchurch City Council since the February and September quakes and the council doesn't exactly receive a rave review (see scorecard)

The FCN praises the work that the council did in preparing a draft city council plan and says that it had been 'a model of community consultation' but suggests that tings have ground to halt since then. The reports says 'there appears to have been little translation of the grand idea into strategies.'

Certainly a malaise appears to have fallen over Sideshow Bob and many of his council chums. The report highlights the controversy that erupted over the appointment of the council CEO but equally, we can point to incidents like Councillor Sue Wells being allowed to travel to a wine 'conference' in Europe at the expense of the ratepayer. It is another manifestation of a council without focus, led by mayor who continues to play 'favourites'.

Despite indicating he would develop a better working relationship with the Labour-aligned councillors there is no evidence he has done that.

This writer has long criticised Sideshow Bob and his chums for their lack of accountability and transparency, and the report also criticises Sideshow Bob for his secretive ways.

The report comments that a lack of transparency appeared to be 'situation normal' for the Christchurch City Council.

Sideshow Bob , as we well know, is always hostile to any form of criticism - however mild. In the past he has rejected criticism as being part of a mysterious 'left wing conspiracy'. Or its all part of a Labour Party campaign bent on destabilising his mayoralty.

The problem for Bob this time round is that the FCN is chaired by a former National minister, Philip Burdon.

The members of the FCN come from a wide cross section of the community. They include the Vice Chancellor of Canterbury University , the head of the Salvation Army, architect Miles Warren and former mayor Garry Moore. Indeed, at other times, some of these very same people have been political allies of Bob's.

But that hasn't stopped Bob dismissing the report as a 'hatchet job'.

But Bob is proving to be something of a ventriloquists dummy and its the Earthquake Recovery Minister who has his hand up his bottom.

Gerry Brownlee has attacked the FCN as ‘hand-wringing talkers’ and ‘time wasters’ and its no surprise to see Sideshow Bob simply regurgitating the words of his master.

SIDESHOW BOB ON FAIL BLOG!

2011-11-17T21:12:00.005+13:00

Here's some media coverage 'Mr Orange Safety Jacket' probably won't like..

A reader sent me a link to something Sideshow Bob- related. I clicked on the link.

The Facebook item below made it to the mega-popular American site Fail Blog which, according to Wikipedia, chronicles ' disastrous mishaps and general stupidity in photos and video'.

One section of Fail Blog is 'Failbook' which features 'fails' found on Facebook. Someone submitted this piece featuring our hopeless Christchurch mayor.

see more Failbook

POLICE ATTACK OCCUPY WALL STREET

2011-11-15T22:39:00.001+13:00

The New York authorities have declared war on the Occupy movement and in the early hours of Monday morning the police attacked the movement in Zuccotti Park.

The media were forcibly kept away while the police demolished the camp, batoning people indiscriminately. This attack comes hard on the heels of the police demolition of the Occupy Oakland camp in California.

But as one person tweeted from Zuccotti Park: 'You can't evict an idea . We will grow stronger.'

This short video catches the police in violent action..

D'OH! 2

2011-11-15T17:42:00.004+13:00

Following in the footsteps of Rick Perry, Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain reveals what he doesn't know about Libya - which is a lot.

SOUND AND FURY SIGNIFYING NOTHING

2011-11-15T13:15:00.006+13:00

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, the mainstream media try to extract some mileage from the Prime Minister's staged meeting with John Banks in an Auckland cafe.

I have taken marginally more interest in the general election campaign than I did with the Rugby World Cup but that's not saying much. So I know who the main teams are, who are the key players and I can give you a brief outline of the main game 'incidents' but, after that, I'm kind of working on remote control.

I've avoided most of the TV 'debates' and I've read mere snippets of the myriad of articles and columns that have been written about this campaign. What's more - I don't think I have missed much.

The problem is that party politics is no longer about ideological differences, or indeed any kind of substantial debate reflecting competing visions for a better society. There is nothing to engage with and nothing to debate. There is no passion. There is no excitement.

Despite the fact that neoiliberalsim has failed and capitalism is stuffed, none of the parliamentary parties are prepared to abandon the 'free market' and start afresh.

This election - like the last one - is about which company director will win the boardroom battle to run New Zealand Inc. It's a naked grab for power within a set of defined rules. It might even be a game of two halves but neoliberalism will definitely be the winner on the day. It's just a matter of who gets the big office with the big comfy chair.

Because none of the parties - and that includes the Green's -can even conceive of a society not under the iron heel of the 'free market' , this election campaign has been reduced to personality clashes, party machinations and petty squabbles over policy differences that are mostly disagreements about technicalities rather than about differences in fundamental philosophy.

And we can't forget the incessant opinion polls. Its 14 -0 to National but Goff has just kicked a penalty from a John Key foul. Its 14-3! But Labour supporters say that the score doesn't accurately reflect the true nature of the game!

'Show me the money!" demanded John Key, when he accused Labour of not costing its election promises.

A backpedaling Phil Goff retorted that he would be releasing ' a spreadsheet' '. Gosh. A 'spreadsheet'! Be still my beating heart!

The media, of course, went goo-goo over this. It was about as interesting as two accountants criticising each others work methods but,apparently , its one of the pivotal moments of this dreary election campaign.

We really are scraping the bottom of the intellectual barrell when John Key quoting a line from a Tom Cruise movie is considered to be the height of clever. The fact that Key's backroom staff thought it was a good line to deliver was sad but what was even sadder was the way the media got sucked in by it.

The media are now going ape about the taped conversation between John Key and John Banks.

What does it say about this election campaign that the mainstream media are devoting so much time and energy to reporting crazy over reality? Perhaps Key discussed his preference for English Breakfast tea or perhaps he and Banks talked about Don Brash's shelf life. Maybe someone cracked a joke about Winston Peters. Who cares other than Guyon Espiner, Duncan Garner and co?

The really important issue that the mainstream media won't talk about is how we, the people, are living under a one party system and the only 'choice' we are being given is which brand of capitalism we want. We have been effectively disenfranchised and the corporate media has nothing to say about it.

It would rather speculate on a conversation between two politicians in a cafe.

D'OH!

2011-11-13T10:36:00.006+13:00

You don't have to be a follower of American politics to appreciate this display of stupidity from this week's Republican Presidential Debate.

Governor Rick Perry of Texas wants to get rid of three branches of the federal government - but he just can't remember what that pesky third branch is...

POINT OF EXTINCTION

2011-11-09T19:19:00.006+13:00

Labour's demise is not just Phil Goff's fault.

In its first year, Phil Goff explained away the National Government's popularity as simply 'the honeymoon period'. Unfortunately for Goff and Labour, National's popularity remains largely undiminished. Labour are on track for a demoralising election defeat which could well see National being able to rule without the baggage of coalition partners. Labour is in danger of extinction.

It shouldn't really be this way. The economy has tanked and there are , officially, over 157,000 out of work And on top of that there are a growing number of working poor, many of whom can't get enough hours to make ends meet. And there are 240,000 children living below the poverty line.

The Government's response is to give tax cuts to the wealthy while imposing austerity measures on the rest of us. This is John Key's prescription for economic renewal and 'a brighter future'.

Yet Labour continues to plummet in the polls. The problem is that Labour is providing no alternative other than an assertion that it would be a better steward of the neoliberal economy than National. The differences between the two parties are minor and what we might 'gain' on the swings with Labour we will surely lose on the roundabouts.

There is also the problem of Phil Goff. John Minto has put it this way:

...even as Labour tries to distinguish itself by shuffling a little to the left of National its attacks are blunted because it's hopelessly compromised at every turn and the problem is personified in Labour leader Phil Goff. When Goff attacks the rise in GST, the ghost of Goff reminds us it was the man himself who introduced GST at 10% in the first place and then increased it to 12.5% back in the 1980s. It was also Goff who brought in tertiary student fees and again it was Goff who sat at the Labour cabinet while it sold our key state assets for a song to the rich mates of senior Labour politicians of the time. We've been paying the price ever since.

Of course its not all Goff's fault. It's not just Trevor Mallard or David Cunliffe's fault. It's not even just the fault of the present Labour parliamentary cabal.

Behind Labour lies a small army of trade union 'leaders, 'advisers', journalists, columnists, bloggers , academics and the like who have consistently supported and defended Labour's neoliberalism. They have all contributed to a party which, in John Minto's words 'has done more than National in the past 27 years to enrich the 1%.'

Between them and the Labour Party they have been the architects and promoters of an economic ideology that has devastated working class communities while enriching the already wealthy. Some of them still seriously regard themselves as 'progressive' but they have been consistent supporters of economic policies that have wreaked untold damage in working class communities up and down the country.

I think you probably know who some of these people are.

Asked what was the difference between the left and right, Italian philosopher Norberto Bobbio replied that the left always seeks greater equality and the right always produces greater inequality. The Labour Party has created a society scarred by inequality, a society more unequal and more unjust than ever.

Of course there have been a range of rationales and excuses to justify Labour's venal politics. They have ranged from the dumb 'lesser evil argument' (National is worse than Labour) to the more sophisticated but equally dumb arguments of 'Third Way' politics.

Even today Labour's supporters are lying to us. We are being told that there are real 'points of difference between National and Labour' . We are even being told that Labour is a 'centre left' party. The intellectual dishonesty is astonishing, the political cowardice unacceptable. The Labour Party is on the point of extinction and these clowns behave as if they aren't to blame. It's easier just to blame Phil Goff.

Not surprisingly John Minto predicts a comprehensive win for National and he says Labour will dump Goff in the New Year as it tries to 'shift significantly to the left'. But he does say Labour's new caucus is going to have problems 'finding anyone in their new caucus who has an economic backbone rather than a corporate-moulded artificial brace.'

Certainly Goff will go but the Labour Party, after nearly three decades of slavish commitment to neoliberalism and the 'free market' , has nothing to do with the future of left wing politics in this country. As any kind of progressive force Labour has been dead for many years.

The debate about the future of progressive politics in this country has got nothing do with the guilty people who have pursued and defended the policies that have inflicted such misery on ordinary folk. They deserve to be swept away.

DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN

2011-11-07T14:56:00.005+13:00

Where in the world is Councillor Sue Wells?

Weeburdt1 has asked on Twitter : ' Does anyone know where @sue_wells went? I hope she is ok and only taking time out.'

Since attending a five day wine 'conference' in Germany, Wells has 'disappeared'. Her blog remains dormant as does her Twitter account. Her Facebook page is 'temporarily unavailable'. It's almost as if Wells uncharacteristically wants to keep a low profile.

The wine 'conference' ended on 27 October.

What we do know is that the loyal Sideshow Bob supporter is apparently still in Europe and is supposedly 'looking' at cities damaged during World War Two.

A number of Christchurch councillors have justified overseas jaunts on the basis that its earthquake-related 'research' but Wells justification for touring Europe, on the face of it, seems spurious at best.

I'm sure though that Ms Wells will be providing the good people of Christchurch with a comprehensive report on what she's been doing and what she's achieved. And how much it cost the ratepayer.

That will lay to rest the scurrilous gossip that she's simply having a holiday at the ratepayers expense...

BE REALISTIC, DEMAND THE IMPOSSIBLE

2011-11-05T08:56:00.012+13:00

The Paris Uprising of 1968 demanded the impossible. Over forty years later we must demand it again.

Talking with friends in the US and following its development via the internet and, to a lesser extent, television, it is clear that the Occupy movement in the United States is continuing to grow and gather momentum. This is important for the development of the movement worldwide.

Its growth and impact has been stunningly impressive especially since it has occurred in the face of hostility from local authorities, intimidation and violence from the police and the predictable attacks on the movement by the corporate media.

We have to also remember this is all happening in a country where children are taught that 'everyone can become President' and if you're not wealthy then you must be stupid and/or not hardworking enough.

Presidential candidate and former corporate CEO Herman Cain said recently “if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself.” That view may of fallen on fertile grounds in the past but the likes of Cain are now discovering that Americans aren't going to swallow that line no more. Suddenly that notorious cheerleader for the rich and powerful, Fox News, is looking mean and grubby and the demands for more cuts to social programs have become less insistent and belligerent.

The Occupy movement has changed the entire political debate. Instead of the talk being what next austerity measure can be imposed on ordinary American the focus is now well and truly on the 1 percent who have benefited at the expense of everyone else. Ordinary Americans have inserted themselves into a space previously the domain of the politicians, the business 'leaders' and the journalists and columnists of the corporate media.

After having been bailed out by ordinary Americans the denizens of Wall Street are continuing to 'live the lifestyles they have become accustomed to' and, despite it all, they still feel they are entitled to the lavish salaries and the bulging bonuses.

Many of these creatures should be in jail - but they have been shielded by a President whose election campaigns are largely funded by these very same people.

And ordinary Americans have just had enough. The sleeping giant that is the American working class has awoken and all the 'experts' who told us that class struggle was over and we had 'reached the end of history' and 'liberal democracy' had won - well, it is they who have been consigned to the rubbish dump of history. Good riddance.

Where will the Occupy movement go from here? What organisational model will it take if any? What kind of policies will it gravitate around? All these questions and more are being debated within the movement. As an aside, I am finding this debate far more interesting and stimulating then the banal charade of the New Zealand general election campaign where we plebs get to vote on which machine politician gets to manage the neoliberal economy.

While there is part of the Occupy movement that sees the corporations, the banks and 'greed' as the main problem there is , equally, a significant section of the movement that says that it is not about replacing a 'bad' banking and finance sector with a 'better' one but it is about replacing a crisis-ridden economic system that is manifestly unjust.

It seems to me that the guiding principle for the movement is that it must be ambitious and it must seek a new world. The world that Marx told us was ours to win is still to be won. That cannot be done by making deals with forces defending entrenched positions of power and privilege. That is the road to nowhere and to defeat.

If the Occupy movement retreats to the hopeless position of what is 'acceptable' it may as well give up and go home now. If it is prepared to negotiate with Government to 'find areas of common agreement' it may as well fold up the tents, stop the marches and let Wall Street continue its looting and pillaging in peace.

The Occupy movement must demand the impossible . It is only impossible until it happens. Then it is the new reality and the there is no returning to what went before and a whole new world awaits.

Be realistic and demand the impossible.

NOT DOING THE RIGHT THING

2011-11-01T22:12:00.004+13:00

Labour won't do the right thing and turn TV1 into a non-commercial public broadcaster.

A few months ago Labour's spokesperson on broadcasting , Clare Curran, commented that Labour was 'committed to a strong independent public media'.

At the time I said that Curran's comments had to be viewed with scepticism and Labour's announced intention to create a new public broadcaster has justified that scepticism. It has failed to deliver.

Instead of doing the right thing and transforming TV1 into a non-commercial public broadcaster, Labour proposes to create what looks like a cut-price organisation using TVNZ7 and the resources of Radio New Zealand. Indeed this is similar to the model that the National Government was considering before it decided to pull the plug on TVNZ7. Ironically a previous Labour spokesperson on broadcasting , Brendon Burns, described National's idea of turning TVNZ7 into a 'public broadcaster' as a 'face saving measure'.

A national broadcaster should be at the heart of a country's media affairs and a important part of is cultural life. But Labour's 'national public broadcaster' would be little more than a niche provider broadcasting to a minority audience on the fringes.

It would exist out on the periphery allowing the commercial operators (including TVNZ) to rule the roost - and the ratings.

This is what the commercial operators want and it looks like Labour is happy to oblige.

When a radical shakeup of broadcasting is required in this country, Labour 's offering is weak and ineffectual. It displays, again, Labour's continued obsession with pandering to the needs of 'the market'

Curran says that will be a public debate which will allow New Zealanders to shape the future of public broadcasting,

This is nonsense. Labour already have an agenda in mind and any discussion on turning TV1 into public broadcaster will certainly not be part of that agenda - which, incidentally, is the policy of both the Green Party and Mana.

Curran has accused National of killing public broadcasting in New Zealand, but Labour's new initiative will certainly not bring it back to life.

PROPAGANDA WARS

2011-10-30T11:43:00.012+13:00

The Labour Party is different from the National Party in the same way that Marmite is different from Vegemite.

I see that everyone in the media are saying that Labour's opening television address on Friday night was far better than National's effort. But its hard to see how it could of been worse.

National were clearly trying to trade on Key's 'nice guy' image but having Key give prepared answers to prepared questions from a handpicked studio audience just didn't work. Key looked uncomfortable under the blaze of the studio lights and strangely wooden.

I tuned out about ten minutes in.

If Labour's opening television address is any indication, then Labour is going to be spending its entire election campaign denying what it really is and pretending its something else altogether.

Labour tried to conceal its neoliberal politics behind the smokescreen of its past. It hauled in Mickey Savage, Norm Kirk, David Lange and others to suggest that its a straight line from Savage to Goff and Labour's surrender to neoliberalism never happened.

Within this world where pink elephants float across the sky, Phil Goff was never a loyal lieutenant of Rogernomics. The smug and arrogant bastard I jeered at various protests in the eighties was apparently a figment of my imagination. It apparently wasn't Phil Goff who told me it was necessary to sell Telecom. It also wasn't Phil Goff who introduced users pays into education.

You will learn to love Big Phil. Repeat after me - 'Labour is a centre left party', 'Labour is a centre left party'.

Propaganda might be used to convince people that hell is paradise but in Labour's case its an attempt to create a fiction that it is different from National. It has no intention of disturbing the economic and power structures in this country and wants us to believe that a little tinkering with the neoliberal economy will produce a 'fairer society'.

There is no new vision. While the Occupy movement seeks to create a brand new world, both Labour and National want to keep us deep in the neoliberal mire. Anyone who says that this isn't acceptable is, according to Trevor Mallard (Labour's election 'strategist'), part of the 'loony left'.

Of course you can't expect anything approaching the truth from election propaganda but there's still something seedy about this politically bankrupt Labour Party trading on the names and achievements of the more principled Labour Party's of its social democratic era. It's especially odious since Goff is on record as saying that Labour's social democratic history is irrelevant. But he's more than happy to plunder the past if it'll garner him a few more votes.

Of course there are some clowns who'll believe any old rubbish that Labour serves up. So someone called 'The Sprout' on the Labour propaganda website The Standard declared Labour's opening address was 'the best piece of contemporary political television by a political party I can remember.'

My advice to 'The Sprout' is to stop talking goo and grow up.

WE'RE HAVING A PARTY!

2011-10-28T10:31:00.005+13:00

Councillor Sue Wells lives it up in Germany...

Councillor Sue Wells quietly slipped out of Christchurch a week or so ago. She was off on a ratepayer-funded junket to Mainz, Germany where she has been attending the five day 'conference' of the 'Great Wine Capital Network'.

The good people of Christchurch have been forced to stump up the cash for her travel expenses which could be as much as $5000.

During last years election campaign Wells stressed that she would listen to the concerns of ratepayers . But the loyal Sideshow Bob supporter chose not to listen when the good people of Christchurch told her that if she wanted to go on a wine junket then she should pay for it herself.

Not known for her modesty, Wells has uncharacteristically made no mention of her German holiday on her blog. In fact, there have been no posts since around mid-October. She's even gone strangely quiet on Twitter albeit for one 'wish you were here' tweet.

But here's some photos of Sue Wells and her chums hard at work at the 'conference'. It's a tough job drinking all that wine and eating all that smoked salmon, but someone has to do it..

WORK TILL YOU DROP

2011-10-27T22:01:00.007+13:00

The CTU bureaucrats are going to support Labour's threat to raise the retirement age to 67.

What's 'a point of difference' between two right wing neoliberal parties, namely the Labour Party and National?

According to the hopeless Peter Conway, CTU secretary and Labour Party flunky, it's Labour's nasty proposal to raise the retirement age to 67.

Workers might think that Labour's plan to make them work until they drop is, to put it mildly, 'exploitative', but according to Conway, its 'bold'. In the same way that taking the axe to the welfare state is 'bold'.

Having obviously connived with the Labour leadership to come up with this lousy policy, Conway wants us to believe that 'The increase in the qualifying age for NZ Super will be a challenging issue for unions to work through.' As they might say in Parliament, Conway is being 'economical with the truth'.

Perhaps one of the 'challenging' issues for Peter Conway and the CTU will be trying to promote this policy to a membership who might reasonably expect the CTU to defend their interests - although after many years of being betrayed and sold out by the CTU bureaucracy many workers expect nothing from their union ''leaders'. Which is usually what they get. And less.

Conway goes on to say: 'But there will also be concerns, particularly among manual workers”.

Hey, what 'concerns' might they may be, Pete? Conway conveniently doesn't elaborate but one of those 'concerns' will be that people in the lowest paid jobs will have the least prospect of looking forward to an early retirement.

“But we will need to discuss this policy in considerable detail with workers and employers”, says Conway, engaging in more platitudes.

In other words, the CTU is not only not going to oppose Labour's dismal retirement policy but its going to promote it among the membership.

Of course working until he is 67 won't be on the agenda for Peter Conway since he has a nice pension plan, thanks very much.

Similarly working until the age of 67 won't be on the horizon for Labour leader Phil Goff and all his Parliamentary mates.

While its a gold plated, platinum-lined, copper-bottomed pension scheme for Phil Goff and his fellow Labour MP's, he and the Labour Party are campaigning for much tougher terms for everyone else.

THE VIOLENCE OF CAPITAL

2011-10-26T20:21:00.008+13:00

The police declare war on Occupy Oakland.

I was disturbed to read of the 'demolition job' the riot people did on Occupy Oakland (California) on Tuesday.

The attack came at 4.30 am on Tuesday morning and involved a reported 600 riot police.

It was a full-on assault by the police who used flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets, and tear gas to get into the Occupy Oakland camp.

There were a reported eighty arrests and multiple, but thankfully, minor injuries.

The police attack has received little coverage in the American mainstream media.

According to an eye witness report: 'The camp looks like a tornado went through it. Everything is destroyed, and it is currently occupied by hundreds of police.'

This is happening in a country whose 'leaders' are boasting about the restoration of 'democracy' in Libya.

The reaction of Occupy Oakland has, naturally enough, been one of anger. But I'm of the view that the Occupy movement must translate its anger into an uncompromising determination and must continue to ask what kind of a society renders such police violence impossible.

The only conclusion that can be drawn is that there are no ameliorative solutions to the capitalist crisis and the violence of capital.

KERRE IN WONDERLAND

2011-10-24T13:59:00.012+13:00

It's a classless society in Kerre Woodham's 'Stadium of Four Million'!

Mac, who is a regular reader of this blog and always good for a interesting observation or two, has brought it to my attention that talkback host Kerre Woodham has been waxing lyrical about the Rugby World Cup in her weekly column in the New Zealand Herald. So I took a look at it.

Jeez. Anyone would of thought we'd discovered a cure for cancer rather then scraped an ugly victory in a tedious rugby game. But according to Woodham, the RWC brought us all together in 'a stadium of four million'. Not me it didn't. I imagine though the working class got the cheap seats and Kerre and her mates were up in the corporate boxes swilling back the champagne.

Kerre's hoping that 'the spirit of fun and optimism and goodwill will remain' for the remainder of the year. I scanned this column with my patented bullshit meter - it charted off the dial and then promptly blew up.

I'm kind of wondering also if young women on the DPB were invited into Kerre's 'Stadium of Four Million'.

Earlier this year Woodham suggested New Zealand's high level of child abuse was due to mothers who had children for cash. Ignoring the effects that increasing poverty and social deprivation have had on child abuse levels, Woodham thundered:

'All those mothers who haven't got a clue who their children's sperm donors were. All those mothers who have children because they get paid to - and, let's face it, they wouldn't get paid to do anything else. Those mothers who stay with men who hurt them and their kids because they're so pathetic and useless that any shag - even when it comes with a biff - is better than being alone.'

The myth that women get pregnant purely to stay on the DPB might appeal to a redneck talkback audience but I would of thought that Woodham, being a mother herself, would have quickly recognised that enduring the lengthy months of a pregnancy in order to pick up the pittance that is the DPB is just nonsensical. It's hardly a ticket to 'lifestyles of the rich and famous' - more like a ticket to the food bank.

Kerre though doesn't seem to have had any problem with the Government throwing tens of millions at the RWC. The Government spent $12 million alone on state functions and to accommodate official guests. Yes it was mighty big piss-up and all at the expense of the taxpayer.

And, as far as I'm aware, there actually is no evidence that backs Woodham's assertion that women do get pregnant in order to continue receiving the DPB. It's simply more anti-working class bigotry.

But then Woodham also wrote this year that some people were just too dumb to find jobs. She wrote: 'Some people are just plain unemployable. They're the ones who would have been the biscuit packers in the factories of yesteryear. '

So its not capitalism's fault you can't get a job - you're just too stupid!

FREE BRADLEY MANNING

2011-10-24T08:56:00.004+13:00

Accused Wikileaks whistleblower Bradley Manning has been sitting in prison, much of that time spent in solitary confinement, for over sixteen months.

While Barack Obama declares a victory for 'democracy' in Libya, one man not enjoying any 'democracy' under the Obama administration is US army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, the accused Wikileaks whistleblower.

In the blaze of publicity that surrounded the capture (and what appears to be the lynching) of Gadaffi, it went largely unnoticed by the mainstream media that Juan Mendez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, confirmed that the Department of Defence has blocked his requests for an unmonitored meeting with Manning.

The Obama administration had claimed that such a meeting could take place but effectively undermined any such meeting by refusing not to record it. Mendez said the meeting would have only taken place under conditions where 'he could not confirm the confidentiality' of his conversation with Manning.

He said that this was not acceptable to the United Nations and that Manning himself " chose not to waive his right to have a private conversation with me."

Mendez is investigating evidence that Manning was subjected to severe conditions of confinement while being held at a Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia. Several hundred American legal scholars have signed an open letter arguing that these abuses may have amounted to torture.

We should remember that the 'crime' that the US army intelligence analyst is accused of is releasing a video that shows the killings of civilians, including two Reuters journalists , by a US helicopter in Baghdad.

He is also charged with leaking the Afghan War Diary, the Iraq war log and US diplomatic cables.

For bringing to light what the Obama administration wanted to keep concealed, Manning has been imprisoned for over sixteen months, awaiting trial.

Its worth noting that the Occupy movement has benefited from Bradley Manning's work.

The diplomatic cables, for example, have revealed that Chevron executives worked in tandem with American. officials to avoid paying $18.2 billion in court-ordered damages after the energy giant acquired Texaco and which had dumped billions of gallons of waste in indigenous areas.

Another series of cables illustrate how diplomatic officials successfully squashed a proposed increase in the Haitian minimum wage. Pressure from U.S. diplomats on Haitian officials enabled major American clothing companies like Levi's and Hanes to continue exploiting sweatshop labour in Haiti.

IF VOTING CHANGED ANYTHING, THEY'D OUTLAW IT

2011-10-21T07:43:00.013+13:00

We need to look beyond the ballot box if we are serious about real change.

The Occupy movement has made impressive and inspiring progress in just a few short weeks. It has spread to over 90 countries and over 1000 cities and, despite attempts by governments and the corporate media to 'shut it down', it continues to grow.

In the United States, the country that champions 'democracy' elsewhere, the police have roughed up and intimidated protesters and arrested nearly 2000 of them. The man who promised 'real change', Barack Obama, has said nothing.

it is not hard to work out why the movement has made such rapid progress.

All around the world people are fighting a common enemy, namely an economic and political system bent on surviving and it is of no consequence how many ordinary people will have to be sacrificed in order to save capitalism. That is why the slogan 'We are the 99 percent' has had such resonance. We know, instinctively , who we are and who our real enemy is - the capitalist elite and its governments.

As Richard Seymour writes on Lenin's Tomb:

'The reason we have seen a global movement erupt is because capitalism is an international system, and it's doing the same thing to all of us, everywhere. What was done to the Third World in terms of structural adjustment is now being done to the working classes in advanced capitalist societies.'

The movement has arisen at a time when ordinary people have effectively been shut out of a political system that claims to do things in our name. Indeed we have, for decades, lacked a political voice while the zealots of neoliberalism have crowed in our faces about 'personal choice' and 'personal responsibility'. The empty slogans of the venal.

It is of no surprise that the number of people who bother to vote has continued to fall worldwide.

Why vote when nothing changes and more shit happens? Why bother to vote for another set of bastards to replace the set of bastards you've already got? Who is going to get excited about a political party whose leader says there is 'no alternative' to the 'free market' and whose finance spokesperson says he 'wants to work alongside business'? Ladies and gentlemen - I give you Phil Goff and David Cunliffe.

Representative democracy has failed. Utterly. This won't come as any surprise to anyone but the academics and the commentators who drone on in the media and in the blogosphere as if voting mattered. But, in the end, its just a race for votes and it always leaves the fundamental economic and political structures unchallenged and intact.

We have an elected elite, with the electorate reduced to election fodder, whose only function is to endorse one of the near identical corporate controlled political parties at election times.

The social democratic parties, that once were vehicles for mild reforms, surrendered to Big Business many years and many betrayals ago. These parties, whether its the Democrats in the United States or the Labour Party in New Zealand, are parties dominated by spin and riddled with cronyism and allied to the capitalist elite . The (declining) memberships of these parties have little say in the making of policy. Their job is to do the donkey work like delivering leaflets and raising funds.

And tragically, but also not surprisingly, is that complacent and conservative union leaderships have chosen - without consulting their grassroots memberships - to support these dismal parties. They have abandoned any form of emancipatory vision to play, frankly, a despicable role in maintaining the rule of capital.

It is in this political vacuum that the Occupy movement has emerged, giving voice to the demands of ordinary people that have been for too long silenced by politicians and trade union leaders who have masqueraded as our friends and defenders.

The movement is, of course, in the embryonic stage, and I think the calls for organisational structure and specific demands are, at the moment, well wide of the mark. It is enough that discussions and debates are taking place. A diversity of views is the movement's strength and not its weakness.

But we do need a movement that does not fall into the trap of fighting merely the symptoms of the capitalist crisis rather than the root causes.

I HATE THE RUGBY WORLD CUP

2011-10-19T07:26:00.007+13:00

Relief is at hand! The Rugby World Cup is, thankfully, nearly over.

I am very proud to say that I have seen mere glimpses of the Rugby World Cup (RWC) on my television. I say that I'm proud because the local media has done its damndest to insult my intelligence with some banal RWC related story. But I'm a gun-for-hire when it comes to the TV remote and I've happily flicked away from the rubbish to something more interesting.

Apparently there is so little happening in the world that both TVNZ and TV3 can devote large chunks of their already insubstantial news bulletins to rugby. Apparently it was a game of two halves but rugby was the winner on the day.

On a day when the Prime Minster admitted that poverty has grown under his Government, TVNZ's Mark Sainsbury, possibly the stupidest man on television, was asking trite questions of another All Black. God, these 'ABs' are so dull that they make Wendy Petrie seem interesting and perceptive.

The fact that John Key has no answers to the chronic level of unemployment and the growing level of poverty other than yet more punitive welfare measures has gone completely unexamined by a media which thinks the state of McCaw's foot is of more importance

I resent the way that political and corporate interests conspire to drive so many people into investing so much of their identity and self worth into a game that long ago became the domain of the fat cats. How many working class New Zealanders have been able to pay the exorbitant ticket prices that the RWC has demanded? But yet the myth persists that rugby is the people's game and that the All Blacks are the symbol of the nation. That's right - a group of wealthy rugby players are representative of a nation where 240,000 children live in poverty.

The symbol of the nation is a food bank - but you can't sell the television rights to this.

But the Prime Minister will get his photos with the All Black captain. This is the same Prime Minister whose government have cut food grants to needy families by 20 per cent, driving driving record numbers to seek food parcels from charities instead.

I can't stand all the boasting and flag-waving, the belligerence of pseudo-nationalism. New Zealand is a country in crisis led by politicians who have no answers but the alcohol-fuelled chauvinism of the RWC is supposed to give us the sense of community that neoliberalism shattered long ago.

Hell, Graham Henry - quoting from his Bumper Book of Sports Cliches - tells us that the job has yet to be done and some commentators froth at mouth and quote him endlessly as if he is has expounded some great truth! If he had something to say about the crisis of late capitalism then I might be interested in listening but I'm not buying from the Establishment-approved 'Isn't Graham Henry Wonderful? ' Mythmaking Department. Try next door and don't call again.

New Zealand is a desperately directionless country that has betrayed by over three decades of neoliberal policies that would, we were told, lead us all to the promised land. Instead they have led us to the wasteland of high unemployment, low wages, increasing poverty and ever more savage attacks on what remains of the welfare state.

We have been failed by the parliamentary politicians but a good dose of pseudo-nationalist tubthumping makes everything just dandy apparently.

I reject this engineered national pride, the product of media companies and advertising agencies, and I'm not going to pretend that I have any kind of enthusiasm for the RWC.

WEEKS WHERE DECADES HAPPEN

2011-10-17T21:12:00.007+13:00

Europe is pregnant with revolution. The monstrous horrors of…war, the suffering caused by the high cost of living everywhere engender a revolutionary mood; and the ruling classes, the bourgeoisie, and its servitors, the governments, are more and more moving into a blind alley from which they can never extricate themselves without tremendous upheavals.” - VI Lenin

It was our good friend VIadimir Lenin who said: “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

Who could argue with this now ? All around the world, after years of political defeat and retreat, we are witnessing an explosion of political dissent and activism that, again, tells us that we can defeat the vampires of capitalism and win this world.

With revolution again on the agenda where are the pompous proponents of incremental reform now? The social democratic parties have surrendered to neoliberalism and the leaders like Britain's Ed Miliband and our own Phil Goff splutter that there is 'no alternative' to the free market, all the while cosying up to the rich and the powerful.

The ideology of tepid reformism was, in the end, always a suffocating and sterile ideology because it always assumed stability and inertia. When capitalism couldn't even provide it with that it simply collapsed.

But Marx told us all this many years ago. He reminded us that the status quo is built on sand and can quickly fall when we least expect it. We should never fall into the trap that takes the status quo as a given - leave that dismal mode of thinking to the discredited heirs of Eduard Bernstein and his 'parliamentary road to socialism'.

Even in December 1916, only two months before the outbreak of the Russian revolution, Lenin himself despondently wrote : “The revolutionary movement grows extremely slowly and with difficulty.” But in January 1917, he wrote, “We of the older generation may not live to see the decisive battles of this coming revolution.”

The great events that we are witnessing today began in Spain, arrived in the Middle East, spread to Europe and then landed in the United States, the centre of global capitalism. And it all occurred in a short space of time.

We should always remember the Marxist concept of dialectics. It reminds us that social and political upheaval is a constant possibility, rather than a rare exception.

There are weeks where decades happen.

I AM NOT MOVING

2011-10-17T09:58:00.001+13:00

OCCUPY NEW ZEALAND

2011-10-16T08:39:00.003+13:00

The movement arrives in New Zealand...

Often a humble blog cannot keep up with the pace of events and I think this is one of those times. In just 24 hours the Occupy movement has swept around the world. There are demonstrations occurring in over 80 countries and over 900 cities.

Ordinary people are taking their rightful place at the centre of politics. They are no longer prepared to accept that they are merely passive bystanders while the politicians canoodle with the banks and corporations to protect the vested interests of the capitalist elite at the expense of everyone else.

One of the fundamental attractions and strengths of this movement is that it represents a fundamental break with 'politics as usual'. Throughout the world spokespeople for the movement have explicitly stated that the established parties have not only failed them - they have betrayed them. This is a movement that will not be diverted down a political no-exit called 'working within the system'. This is a movement that will not go away and 'organise a petition' to present to the politicians. This is a movement that will not go away and let the commentators in the corporate media tell them what they should or shouldn't do.

This is a movement that is demanding fundamental change and that means a whole lot more than voting for a political party every few years.

For the corporate media, this movement represents a real problem because it is raising real issues that the corporate media has done its best to either blur or has simply ignored.

These are fundamental issues like who should own and control the economy and about what democratic participation really means. This is a movement that is questioning the entire legitimacy of a economic and political system that has enriched the few at the expense of the many. The corporate media,very much a part of 'the machine', would like to keep these issues off the political agenda.

In New Zealand thousands of people marched throughout the country yesterday, including 3000 people in Auckland. There were also marches in New Plymouth, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill. Camps are also being established, including one in Aotea Square in Auckland.

The sheer presence of the movement in New Zealand raises all the issues that I mentioned above - and more besides. It is particularly timely given that there will be in general election in just six weeks. (Although if you were to believe the counsel of Labour Party apologist and commentator Chris Trotter, its 'not yet' time for this movement in New Zealand.)

The desire of the politicians and their lackeys in the corporate media is to conduct this election campaign like all the campaigns that have gone before.

In other words, the politicians and the media commentators will joust in the bourgeois political arena while the rest of us are expected, as usual, to passively watch them from the grandstands. And we might even be able to ask a question or two, if we behave.

Then we can vote for whatever set of neoliberal politicians we want. The parliamentary politicians are all singing from the same neoliberal song sheet so you don't get a real choice.

And that'll it be it for another three years,

It is up to the movement to say that this no longer acceptable. We want our country back -not just a vote every three years and nothing ever changes.

We want social and economic justice and we know that 'politics as usual' cannot deliver it.

BLOOMBERG REVEALS HIS TRUE POLITICAL COLOURS

2011-10-14T10:47:00.007+13:00

The Mayor of New York wants Occupy Wall Street to just go away..

While he initially declared that everyone had the democratic right to protest, it was always on the cards that the Mayor of New York was going to show his true political face when he realised that Occupy Wall Street wasn't going to be going away anytime soon.

Despite saying on Monday that OWS protesters were free to stay in Zuccotti Park (near Wall Street) indefinitely, Bloomberg is now trying to remove them.

He has suddenly announced that on Friday morning (New York time) the park will be 'cleaned' - which is an obvious ploy to shut down OWS.

That was made clear when Bloomberg added that after the 'cleaning' OWS protesters would have to 'follow the rules' which include 'no tents', 'no sleeping bags' and 'no lying down'.

This is a deliberate attack on people's right to assemble and, not surprisingly , OWS do not plan to cooperate with the Wall Street crony.

OWS also point out that they have a sanitation working group in operation within the park and say that if Bloomberg is really so interested in sanitation then he should allow the installation of portable toilets and more rubbish disposal facilities.

OWS is an occupation - it is not a Bloomberg- approved picnic outing.

Bloomberg has also recently been in the media defending his Wall Street mates, claiming that OWS was unfairly blaming "hard working" Wall Street employees for America's ills!

TURKEY FM

2011-10-13T15:36:00.004+13:00

More appalling ratings for Kiwi FM...

The numbers are in and, yes, the Mediaworks station Kiwi FM has delivered, yet again, another set of dismal ratings.

For the period 13 August to 24 September the station that is squatting in three valuable government-owned FM frequencies bombed again. Kiwi is consistently delivering the kind of ratings that, if there was any justice, would result it in being told to vacate the premises immediately and work then recommenced in setting up the non-commercial youth radio network.

But that's not about to happen soon so we're stuck with Turkey FM - a station listed as part of Mediaworks stable of commercial stations but which squats in valuable FM frequencies owned by the Government and which it has never paid for.

In Auckland Kiwi delivered the same rotten rating it invariably delivers - 0.1 percent. In Wellington it got 0.5 and in Christchurch Kiwi managed 0.3 percent.

Given that the margin of error is +/- 2.5 percent there is a real possibility no one is actually listening to this station, except perhaps Karyn Hay.

# OCCUPY AMERICA

2011-10-13T07:37:00.002+13:00

We Are The 99 percent and Boing Boing

WINE JUNKETS AND SHOPPING SHOWS

2011-10-10T20:02:00.007+13:00

Councillor Sue Wells is off on a German wine junket later this month which the good people of Christchurch are being forced to subsidise. The Christchurch ratepayer has also been subsiding her to front a shopping show on a local television channel.

Later this month Councillor Sue Wells is waltzing off to Germany for a week at the expense of the Christchurch ratepayer - despite the fact that the good people of Christchurch have told her that this is simply unacceptable. But Wells, as usual, isn't listening - because she's right and everyone else is wrong.

Funnily enough she has yet to mention her wine junket on her blog . We'll keep you posted when she does.

But this junket is yet another example of Wells cavalier 'I'll do what I like' attitude when it comes to her responsibilities to the people who pay her exorbitant six-figure salary - the good people of Christchurch.

While we have written about her moonlighting as a in-house continuity announcer for both the New World supermarket chain and The Warehouse, this year she has been fronting a half hour shopping show on the regional television channel, Canterbury TV.

Its imaginatively called Susan Sells and it screens every weekday.

While the loyal Sideshow Bob supporter is reportedly not being paid to host the show she is apparently doing it on council time. So, in other words, the good people of Christchurch are subsiding Wells to front a show on a privately owned television channel.

It seems that Sideshow Bob is just fine with Wells less than convincing commitment to her council work. She can go on wine junkets and front shopping shows and its all OK with Bob. But. hey, Sue Wells is a loyal member of Sideshow's 'A team'...

APOCALYPSE NOW

2011-10-10T14:49:00.014+13:00

The Financial Crash Pt 2 is on its way. This time it'll be worse

I don't wish to crash the Rugby World Cup 'Bread and Circuses' Party (actually I do), but has anyone given any thought to the coming economic apocalypse? Or has it been put on the backburner until the rugby circus is over?

This is what that august journal of the British establishment, the Financial Times , said recently:

“This recession is not normal. When economies suffer such steep collapses, as they did during the worst of the crisis (the peak to trough fall on gross domestic product having varied between 3.9% in France and 9.9% in Japan), an expansion that fails to return output to the starting point will not feel like a recovery. This is especially true if unemployment remains high, employment low and spare capacity elevated. In the US, unemployment is still double its pre-crisis rates. Another downturn now would surely be a disaster.”

Echoing the Financial Times, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, warned last week that the world was showing growing signs of a global economic disaster. He said:

“This is the most serious financial crisis we’ve seen, at least since the 1930s, if not ever. We’re having to deal with very unusual circumstances..'

Recently, Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize winner for economics, stated that “A long malaise now seems like the optimistic scenario.”

The alarm bells are well and truly ringing among the capitalist elite but the corporate media seem incapable of seeing this crisis as anything other than 'a rough patch' which 'we' will, somehow muddle through. So they cling to any piece of economic good news, however small, as a sign that things aren't so bad and that we can all pack up our troubles in our old kit bag.

I was dumbfounded to hear someone on either TVNZ or TV3 speculating recently whether we were going into a double dip recession.

The fact is that the world has never come out of the 2008 Great Recession. We've basically had four years of economic stagnation. This is looking like a Depression folks but you will not hear the 'D' word mentioned in the corporate media.

Instead over the last four years we've had nonsense about an 'economic recovery being just around the corner' and 'economic green shoots'.

But while these clowns have babbled nonsense, the crisis has deepened. This crisis is not cyclical but structural. In other words we have reached a point where capitalism itself is the problem and no amount of tinkering will fix it.

Not that Governments haven't tried. The banks, the corporations and the finance houses have all been bailed out with taxpayer money in a desperate attempt to revive the dying patient.

The scale of the bailout has been so vast as to be barely comprehensible. The total bailout (so far) has been anywhere between 20- 25 trillion dollars. That's 25,000,000,000,000 or a million million or a thousand billion. If you want to look at an instructive visual demonstration of what a trillion dollars looks like, go here.

This astounding bailout of global capitalism has driven a massive build-up of government debt. Countries like Greece , Portugal , Spain and Italy are all teetering on the edge of the abyss. Greece is broke and its only a matter of time before it defaults.

But as the debts continue to mount the austerity cuts demanded by the IMF become more savage . All around the world ordinary people are being forced into joblessness, poverty and homelessness in order that the finance centres of global capitalism can survive.

And the resistance to the rule of the financial terrorists (because that is what they are) continues to grow and Occupy Wall Street is just the latest manifestation of that resistance.

It should be made clear that capitalism can no longer afford the kind of reforms that characterised the post war period. This era has long gone and will never return. The machinery of gradual reform has been smashed into a million pieces.

This is the era of the capitalist offensive and vicious austerity measures.

The only solution is the radical transformation of the capitalist political economy. It really is either socialism or barbarism.

BOMBER GETS THE BOOT

2011-10-10T14:30:00.006+13:00

Blogger Martyn 'Bomber' Bradbury has been booted off a National Radio show for criticising the Prime Minister. Apparently he wasn't 'fair and balanced'.

Blogger Martyn Bradbury is acerbic, passionate and he says what he thinks.

Politically he isn't a socialist. He's left wing in a Mana Party-type way, which in the zealously protected neoliberal hothouse that is New Zealand, that makes him almost radical. It certainly won't get him a job writing opinion pieces for The Press or the NZ Herald.

But, regardless of his politics, when the barricades go up I know he'll be standing on my side. In stark contrast I suspect that some of his fellow contributors to National Radio's 'The Panel'' will be standing on the sidelines, drinking their lattes-to-go and wailing 'Why can't we all just get along?'

Because he isn't a socialist Bradbury was a regular guest on 'The Panel'. He was, apparently, a regular contributor for some ten years.

But because he says what he thinks and because the avenues of dissent in New Zealand are narrowing, he has been axed from the weekday afternoon show.

It seems Bradbury got the Spanish archer because he criticised the Prime Minister in a manner that displeased the top brass at Radio New Zealand.

According to Peter Cavanagh , the big boss at RNZ, Bradbury went too far in his criticisms of Key and that he breached RNZ's 'editorial policies'. This is absurd and the suggestion that what he said was 'defamatory' is even more nonsensical.

You can read what Bradbury said here.

In my view, there is nothing wrong with Bradbury's opinion piece. All he appears to have done is upset Cavanagh's sensitive and fragile disposition . 'The Panel' is an opinion show and Bradbury was expressing his opinion. What exactly is wrong with that?

According to the delicate Cavanagh, Bradbury's comments were not 'fair and balanced'.

Bradbury was giving his opinion on a opinion-based show. Opinion shows, are by their very nature. neither fair or balanced. If I want 'fair and balanced' I'll read the back of the cornflakes box.

Or is Cavanagh talking about being 'fair and balanced' in a Fox News-type way?

Radio Live just doesn't learn or just doesn't care.

After being rightfully lambasted for giving the Prime Minister a free hour long show to promote himself, it is now running a promo for Paul Henry's drivetime show that also features Key.

Amidst the jolly banter, we hear Key declaring to Henry: 'You love me like a brother!"

Henry is a former National Party candidate and during his time on TVNZ's Breakfast crawled up to Key on a regular basis. It looks like he's doing the same thing on Radio Live.

WHY I'M OCCUPYING

2011-10-08T08:32:00.006+13:00

I believe another world is possible'.
By Trish Kahle

If you’re one of those people wondering why in the world those people are down there, if you’re one of those people wondering what’s making us sleep out in the cold, if you’re one of the people who tells us to just wait and vote, this message is for you.

I’m occupying because I have a degree from one of the country’s top colleges, a decade of work experience and I rarely get called back for any jobs I have applied for.

I’m occupying for Troy Davis and for Shaka Sankofa–because I will not allow this government and this system to continue lynching Black men and calling it justice.

I’m occupying because back when I had a decent part-time job (making $9.50/hour), and I was so scared of doing something wrong and being fired that my hands would shake all day and my jaw was constantly sore from the tension. It ended up affecting my job performance so much that I was let go.

I’m occupying because I have been protesting the wars and the international crimes carried out in my name for too long.

I’m occupying because being told I must choose between Democrats and Republicans is like being told I must choose to drink antifreeze or drain cleaner.

I’m occupying because a war criminal can come to my city and charge $80 a ticket to talk about “peace.”

I’m occupying against the segregation of my city, which fifty years after the sit-ins at Woolworth’s began still stands at 86%.

I’m occupying because the wealth doesn’t belong to the people who create it. They steal it from us and call it development.

I’m occupying because there are more empty homes in my city than there are homeless people, because the foreclosures continue and escalate.

I’m occupying because politicians are content with business as usual and business as usual is Goldman Sachs running the country.

I’m occupying for amnesty. The people to arrest are the bankers and traders–not the undocumented.

I’m occupying because I live in a country where a person’s sexuality makes them a target and gender marks a person for violence, and this is unacceptable.

I’m occupying because we need a world without police and the brutality they inflict, a world without prisons and mass incarceration of people of color.

I’m occupying because with the money spent on war and occupation over the last decade the US government could have provided every unemployed person with a living wage job.

I’m occupying because what I’ve just described isn’t life. It’s alienation at best and a death sentence at worst. This system is broken, and we are the only ones who can fix it.

I’m occupying because I believe another world is possible–a world free of oppression and exploitation, a world where people come first, and the ugly spectre of profit is absent from our lives.

I’m occupying because I believe that the world is worth fighting for.

This article was first published on I Can't Believe We Still Have To Protest This Shit

GEORGE CARLIN ON 'THE AMERICAN DREAM'

2011-10-06T16:48:00.001+13:00

''But I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard thirty fucking years ago. You know what they want? Obedient workers - people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork - but dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it.

"And now, they're coming for your Social Security. They want your fucking retirement money! They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it! They'll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place. It's a big club and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the Big Club."

AN AMERICAN AWAKENING

2011-10-05T13:09:00.005+13:00

Real political change is finally back on the agenda in the United States

Thursday will be another significant day for the new political movement emerging in the United States.

This is the day when the movement arrives on the steps of the White House. This is the day when October 2011 will descend on Washington's Freedom Plaza.

And the thousands of people who will go to Freedom Plaza will know that thousands of people are making the same stand in communities, towns and cities thoughout the United States.

And not just in the United States. Throughout the world people are making a stand. In countries like Greece, Spain, Britain and Portugal ordinary people are fighting the same capitalist forces that see us as mere fodder for 'the machine'.

The machine has to be stopped and a new world won.

I have read several columns where the issues of political demands and organisation have been discussed.

The comments have been well-intentioned and made in a spirit of solidarity but I think they are well wide of the mark.

One of the great strengths of Occupy Wall Street is that it embraces a diverse constellation of social and political forces within the United States. This is a movement that has embraced different groups and organisations without rancour but with respect.

Its present strength and growing popularity lies in its diversity and not in uniformity.

It is more than enough at this stage that the movement has ignited a conversation and debate within the United States about the legitimacy of a economic system that enriches one percent of the population at the expense of everyone else.

That debate has been off the American political agenda for decades and, at last, we are truly seeing an American awakening.

Social democratic parties throughout the West long ago meekly surrendered to neoliberalism. But out of the rubble of social democracy we can build new progressive movements.

In the United States there is a yearning for a fundamental change. Occupy Wall Street has tapped into that yearning.

It can be done elsewhere too.

It would nice to think it could be done in New Zealand too and that we can find a new politics that bypasses the neoliberalism and the cronyism of the parliamentary parties. We need a new kind of politics that rejects voting for a cabal of oppressors every three years.

#OCCUPY WALL STREET : 700 ARRESTED

2011-10-02T15:24:00.004+13:00

While the New Zealand mainstream media obsesses over the All Blacks, the New York police arrest a reported 700 Occupy Wall Street protesters. Will both TVNZ and TV3 continue to keep the demonstrations off the six o'clock news shows?

Thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters swarmed the Brooklyn Bridge Saturday, shutting down car lanes and setting up yet another tense showdown with the NYPD.

An army of cops swooped in after the demonstrators took over the bridge's pedestrian walkway and flooded onto the car lanes heading to Brooklyn. The showdown halted traffic on the bridge for nearly three hours. - New York Daily News, Oct 1

#OCCUPY WALL STREET

2011-09-30T14:04:00.011+13:00

The protest movement is gaining traction, not only in New York but throughout the United States.

I hugely admire the Occupy Wall Street protesters. I admire them for their determination, their fortitude and their imagination. But, most of all, I admire them because, by their sheer presence, they tell us that we do not have to accept the way things are but, collectively, we can take this world back from the vampires that seek to suck it dry.

When the hoped for 20,000 protesters didn't show up on the first day of the protest, there was a degree of anxiety and apprehension. There were fears that the protest would die a quick death, especially since the corporate media was doing its best to ensure that the political message of Occupy Wall Street did not get out to the people.

It was plain why Michael Bloomberg, the New York mayor, was defending the protesters right to protest. The impartial observer might of thought the arch-capitalist was being eminently friendly and accommodating but I, for one, thought he sounded patronising. What Bloomberg was really saying was 'Oh, the kids can let a bit of steam off for a while. They'll soon grow bored and go home.'

As the protest approaches its third week Bloomberg isn't sounding quite so friendly. In a recent interview he attacked the very idea that any of the traders on Wall Street should have to go to jail for their crimes.

He may well be worried what he thought was going to be a brief demonstration now shows real signs of developing into a nationwide movement. Protests have sprung up in cities such as Boston and San Francisco. Perhaps more worryingly for Bloomberg and others of his ilk, this is a movement that will not be conned into believing that 'working within the system' will deliver results. This is a movement that won't be strangled by Obama and the Democrats - the people who have bailed out Wall Street and plunged nearly 46 million Americans into poverty.

And last week fifty New Yorkers appeared on Forbes list of the 400 wealthiest Americans. They have a combined net worth of $211 billion. At the same time new figures have emerged from census data that the percentage of the city’s population living in poverty has risen to 20.1 percent. One in five New Yorkers are living in poverty. Yeah, New York - its one helluva town.

This week Occupy Wall Street was given a morale boost by the appearance of documentary maker and author Michael Moore at the protest. He also used an interview with Piers Morgan on CNN to advance the cause.

The protest in New York will also be boosted by a similar protest in Washington DC, which begins on October 6. Protesters will gather in Freedom Plaza 'to take control of our country and our lives.'

People are invited to take the pledge which reads:

"I pledge that if any U.S. troops, contractors, or mercenaries remain in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 6, 2011, as that criminal occupation goes into its 11th year, I will commit to being in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., with others on that day with the intention of making it our Tahrir Square, Cairo, our Madison, Wisconsin, where we will NONVIOLENTLY resist the corporate machine to demand that our resources are invested in human needs and environmental protection instead of war and exploitation. We can do this together. We will be the beginning ."

As I watch from faraway New Zealand I am reminded of a passage written by Leon Trotsky. Some seventy years ago, and near the end of his life, he movingly wrote:

'Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression, and violence, and enjoy it to the full.'

These words, I think, speak not only to the protesters on Wall Street but to people all around the world fighting back against the forces that seek to oppress and impoverish us.

THE JOHN KEY LOVE FESTIVAL!

2011-09-29T17:46:00.008+13:00

There'll be jolly banter and laughs all round when the Prime Minister hosts his own radio show on Friday. What a guy!

Tailback radio is, of course, the home of beneficiary bashing and Radio Live is no exception.

Its through right wing hosts like Michael Laws that the bashing has continued despite the fact that MediaWorks - who own Radio Live - have been recipients of corporate welfare on a grand scale.

Readers will no doubt recall that the debt-ridden MediaWorks received a whopping $43.3 million 'deferred loan' from the Government to enable it to renew its radio broadcasting licences for the next 20 years.

This is on the top of the three FM frequencies it received for nothing from the previous Labour Government and which are now occupied by a station that nobody listens to - Kiwi FM.

But if John Key is going to scratch MediaWorks back, then its only right that MediaWorks scratch John Key's back as well.

Tomorrow the Prime Minister will be hosting a one-hour show on Radio Live. He'll be joined by the All Black captain Richie McCaw and wealthy British businessman Richard Branson, who either knowingly or unknowingly , will be doing their little bit to ensure Johnny gets re-elected in November.

I'm sure they will be some planted callers as well. Indeed, according to Labour's Clare Curran, Radio Live is only gong to accept non-political questions from callers. Which, of course, will allow Key to show us all what a swell guy he is.

To complete the Friday afternoon John Key Love Festival, the Prime Minister will be followed by the former National Party candidate and all-round right wing prat, Paul Henry. He hosts Radio Live's 3-6pm show.

I don't often agree with Clare Curran but I think she's right when she says of Key's radio show: ''We're entering an election campaign and I think that all the media outlets have to be very careful about how they're managing their media coverage. The fact that we're so close to an election, we're not in a formal election period but we may as well be, I think that it's very questionable.'

#OCCUPY WALL STREET

2011-09-28T21:10:00.002+13:00

On Monday night documentary maker and author Michael Moore visited New York's Zuccotti Park where the Occupy Wall Street protestors have set up their HQ.

Moore told protestors, “Change has to start somewhere. Why not here?”

“I have spent over 20 years fighting Wall Street, General Motors, health insurance companies, the whole lot of them. A lot of that has been alone or with just a very few people. It warms my heart to see all of you here.”

USELESS LABOUR

2011-09-28T08:44:00.004+13:00

The Labour Party is irrelevant to the development of progressive politics in New Zealand. Real change will come from people who insist on thinking for themselves and who reject the party-mindedness of Parliament.

It won't come as a surprise that I think the Labour Party is useless. And the people who continue to support this politically bankrupt party are equally as useless. I can say things like this because I don't have a political career and a big fat salary to protect. Trevor Mallard can't publicly claim that I am 'a waste of money'. I also know I can say anything I like and they will be no response from Labourites. There is, unfortunately, a lack of intellectual vigour in New Zealand politics and those who don't play by the established rules are deliberately shunned. Notice the lack of socialist ideas discussed in the media and in the blogosphere?

The Labour Party rightly talks about the shattered state of the New Zealand economy but that's about as far as it goes. Labour continues to advocate the same kind of neoliberal policies that contributed to creating the problems in the first place.

Labour's solution is to tinker with them. The capitalist engine might be completely stuffed but Labour's finance spokesperson thinks he can get it going again with some fiddling, some no 8 wire and some empty rhetoric.

According to David Cunliffe: 'Labour will be hands-on, working alongside business to front the tough issues that must be faced.'

Yes, Labour will be 'hands on' - hands around the neck of the working class, strangling the life out of it in the name of 'economic recovery'.

While 'working alongside business' , Labour would be imposing austerity measures on the rest of us. Cunliffe has previously described this as Labour 'not shirking its responsibilities'.

While Cunliffe, albeit in evasive code, talks like an attack dog for the rich and powerful, Labourites on Labour aligned blogs like The Standard, bleat on about such things as National's welfare cuts, the growing poverty levels and attacks on working conditions. But they won't leave the safety of the 'mainstream' to fight them.

All they seem capable of doing these days is to write anti-John Key rants. But they remain silent on Labour's continued commitment to the 'free market'. It's empty rhetoric and moral posturing.

Unlike some commentators I'm not angry or even disappointed with Phil Goff, I never expected anything from him in the first place and I haven't been wrong.

I haven't voted Labour since 1984. Since then all Labour has done is to ensure the continued rule of the wealthy and privileged.

A Labour supporter of my acquaintance (they do still exist) recently told me that Labour may have its 'flaws' (his words) but a Labour government would be at least be better than having another three years of John key. Yes, the 'lesser evil' argument is brought out of the closet for another good airing.

One of the many problems with this tired argument is that Labour just further degenerates as time rolls by. There doesn't seem to be a line that cannot be crossed, no fortress that cannot be surrendered.

I have read much about the dangers of a second term National Government but I say that the clear and present danger is that the working class in New Zealand has been weakened by a useless Labour Party and its equally useless allies in the union bureaucracy. They are not part of the solution - they are part of the problem.

I say that anyone who claims to be an ally of the working class should have walked out on the Labour Party years ago. Those who still remain are irrelevant to the development of progressive politics in this country. They are lackeys of the status quo.

There will be a lot of propaganda over the coming months about the importance of voting and 'having on our say'. Nonsense. Big business has already won the election.

The only real change in our time will come from people who insist on thinking for themselves and who reject the party-mindedness of Parliament.

#OCCUPY WALL STREET

2011-09-25T17:18:00.007+13:00

While you wouldn't know it from the absence of coverage in the mainstream media, the occupation of Wall Street is continuing into its second week.... and the arrests have begun.

On Saturday approximately 80 Occupy Wall Street demonstrators were arrested. The arrests occurred when the protestors, who are camped out near the New York Stock Exchange, marched through Lower Manhattan.

The police claim the arrests were mostly for blocking traffic but the demonstrators say that the police were 'exceedingly violent'. Some of the arrests were videoed and have been posted online.

Occupy Wall Street reported at least one protestor was arrested for taking photographs. An NYPD spokesman said police were not targeting those with cameras.

Meanwhile documentary maker Michael Moore has slammed the corporate media for failing to report on the continuing demonstration, commenting that Occupy Wall Street was the beginning of a new political movement in the United States.

ANOTHER WASTE OF RATEPAYERS MONEY

2011-09-23T13:45:00.007+12:00

Despite widespread opposition from the good people of Christchurch, Councillor Sue Wells still expects the ratepayer to pay for her trip to Europe.

There is widespread public opposition to Councillor Sue Wells proposed German wine junket in October. The Christchurch Mail, a suburban freebie, this week published two pages worth of letters on the subject. Only two of those letters supported the loyal Sideshow Bob supporter having a European vacation on the Christchurch ratepayer.

Geraldine Watson of Avonhead, whose house is to be demolished, wrote;

'I left my home on September 4. Why am I paying a $110 a month in rates? Apparently to fund this individuals's luxury holiday in Germany. How nice. Actually I think this mayor and this council have dome very little for Christchurch ratepayers. Tell her to fund her own luxury holiday.'

Wrote John Samson; 'Their never-ending sense of entitlement to ratepayers' hard earned dollars disgusts me. Please book a one way ticket Sue Wells and take the rest of the city council rabble with you.'

Of the 24 letters published only two agreed that the ratepayer should pay for Wells wine holiday.

During the 2010 council election campaign, Wells repeatedly declared that it was important to be 'accountable' and to listen to what the local community was saying.

But she wasn't listening to the local community when she supported the $17 million bailout of failed property developer Dave Henderson and she isn't listening to the local community now. Despite being told by the good people of Christchurch that should pay for her own wine junket, she still intends to sponge off the embattled Christchurch ratepayer.

Yes, Sue Wells is always up for a bit of double-dipping and a few perks at the expense of Christchurch ratepayers. Who cares that half the city has been flattened by an earthquake?

Sue Wells is not slow to ride 'the gravy train' and she's also not slow to moralise about the behaviour of other people.

On her tediously self-important blog The New Canterbury Tales, Wells has a lot to say about the recent British riots. And its ugly reactionary stuff indeed . Of the rioters she sneers:

'You who are striking down your cities are nasty little neanderthalic two bit muppets with too much time on your hands and pathetic hate in your hearts, the waste products of drugs, laziness and chronic dependency. You don’t have it in you to build. You only have it in you to destroy.'

The double-dipping Wells goes on to lecture in the 'best' tradition of Margaret Thatcher::

'When I visited your country a couple of years ago I came home horrified at what I’d seen. I was appalled at your hands-out culture, the level of your public subsidies for housing and transport and education for people eligible for it simply by spawning little urchins and refusing to create themselves a constructive future.'

She was, the reader will note, not 'appalled' by the increasing levels of poverty and joblessness in Britain. Nor, it seems, was she 'appalled' by the British Government bailing out the bankers and the finance houses.

In the conceited and patronising world of Sue Wells, the people have no right to a home, but the hedge fund managers have a right to the bailout.

Wells thinks that its just dandy that the poor go homeless and the wealthy get bailouts - and its just dandy that the good people of Christchurch pay for her wine junket as well.

She's a stupid and arrogant woman and, worryingly, a stupid and arrogant woman who harbours mayoral ambitions. She must be stopped.

#OCCUPY WALL STREET

2011-09-20T22:28:00.003+12:00

Alyona talks Wall Street on The Alyona Show. (RT. Sky 96). The show screens in New Zealand at 3pm, Tue-Sat.

A WORLD TO WIN

2011-09-20T16:01:00.007+12:00

We must recognize that we can't solve our problems now until there is a radical redistribution of economic and political power.... a radical restructuring of the architecture of American society.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr

Depending on who you believe, the Occupy Wall Street demonstration has numbered as little as 700 protesters (Bloomberg) or as high as 5000 protesters (The Guardian). But, whatever the true number, the organisers did not get the 20,000 protesters they were hoping for.

A demonstration of 20,000 was always going to be a big ask though. Unlike events in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East, Occupy Wall Street isn't being propelled along by a countrywide democratic revolution.

The groups behind Occupy Wall Street, like Adbusters magazine (which floated the initial idea) have had to act from 'scratch' in a country where the development of progressive politics has been strangled by the two political wings of American capitalism, the Democrats and the Republicans.

This is something we certainly can identify with in New Zealand where the general election result has already been decided - Neoliberalism wins.

The demonstrators have also had to contend with, not unexpectedly, a media blackout. Occupy Wall Street has been largely ignored by the corporate media - the very same corporate media who have been all over the right wing Tea Party.

It has been left to small independent news outlets to provide coverage of the Wall Street action. Here in New Zealand I have seen some decent coverage on The Alyona Show (RT, Sky 96)

But the protesters are determined, imaginative and, simply by being there, are a visible rejection of capitalist politics. It is a message not simply being transmitted to America but around the world as well. It is a message that says that 'business as usual' has led to a situation where 43 million Americans are now living below the poverty line and that cannot be tolerated.

What we are seeing here is the renewal of class consciousness in the United States. Indeed this is something that Michael Bloomberg observed last week. The New York mayor warned his fellow capitalists:

“You have a lot of kids graduating college, can’t find jobs, that’s what happened in Cairo. That’s what happened in Madrid. You don’t want those kind of riots here.”

The protest is now into its third day and six people were arrested on Monday, They were reportedly arrested on the grounds that it is unlawful for two or more individuals to wear masks in a public place.

In the towers above the protesters live the men and women who have helped wipe out the American economy and not one of them has been arrested for their crimes...

THE CRIME OF OUR TIME

2011-09-18T19:46:00.007+12:00

Plunder is a hard-hitting documentary that will never be screened by TVNZ or TV3

Sunday, TVNZ's 'flagship' current affairs show, decided that it was of crucial importance to do a story on an American ballet dancer this week. Fortunately RT (Sky 96) screened something a lot more relevant over the weekend and that was the excellent 2009 documentary Plunder: The Crime of Our Time.

In this thoughtful and, yes, entertaining documentary, Emmy-award winning director Danny Schechter interviews bankers, economists, activists and homeowners to lay stark the fraud and corruption that lies at the heart of Wall Street and at the heart of global capitalism.

He lays bare how the denizens of Wall Street have brought the American and global economies to its knees and, in the process, destroyed jobs, lives, communities.

As one website puts it: How do you steal $196 trillion and get away with it? Schechter explains how.

This week our local media thought it was a 'sexy' enough story to devote some coverage to the rogue trader who has allegedly lost UBS over $1.3 billion. But where have been the stories about the Wall Street crooks who have not gone to jail for their crimes? Where are the stories of Wall Street villians walking through the revolving doors and ending up with a brand new job with the Obama administration?

Schechter fires a number of salvos at the corporate media which, he says, has simply become Wall Street's tame poodle. It has been left to a small number of independent journalists, bloggers and activists to tell the stories that the mainstream media won't.

I'm glad that RT has the journalistic integrity to screen documentaries like this but, once again, it highlights what a parlous state our local media is in. What little news and current affairs there is on both TVNZ and TV3 is largely dumbed down infotainment.

THE OCCUPATION OF WALL STREET BEGINS

2011-09-18T08:05:00.004+12:00

BOB THE HYPOCRITE

2011-09-16T16:33:00.008+12:00

Sideshow Bob is hypocrite of the week...

Chrissie Williams was one of the more accomplished Christchurch City councillors but this week she quit her post and took a number of swipes at Mayor Sideshow Bob before she went

Her criticisms of Sideshow will be familiar with anyone who have taken any kind of interest in Sideshow's slimy political career.

When it looked like he was going to be swept out of the mayoral office by rival Jim Anderton, Sideshow suddenly claimed he had taken on board the criticisms directed at him by the good people of Christchurch. Bob promised to be more 'accountable' and 'transparent'.

But once he was safely ensconced in the mayoral office again, Bob quickly returned to his secretive and undemocratic ways.

Williams this week labelled the Sideshow Bob -led council 'dysfunctional'.

She also didn't surprise anyone with her criticism that Sideshow Bob favoured his supporters on council and kept information back from the Labour aligned councillors. She said that Parker had divided the council into 'A' and 'B' teams.

She also made some veiled references to Bob's loyal right hand man, Tony Marryatt, commenting that councillors were deliberately kept 'out of the loop' on many issues.

In response, Sideshow Bob has laughingly claimed that Williams' criticism of his leadership 'came out of politics' and went on to say that some councillors chose to act 'as if they were part of a parliamentary process" rather than in the best interests of the city'.

Sideshow Bob's hypocrisy is breathtaking.

This is the guy who pretended he was 'politically independent' but when he was staring at a massive mayoral election defeat at the hands of Jim Anderton, he called on help from his old chum, John Key. The Prime Minister promptly turned up at a fundraising event.

This is the guy who sneaks into National Party events via the backdoor.

And this is the same Sideshow Bob who has had nothing to say about the disgraceful treatment that many people living in damaged homes have received from the Minister of Earthquake Recovery, Gerry Brownlie.

Rather than act in the best interests of the city, Sideshow Bob has continued to toady up to Brownlie. It's as if Bob thinks he's 'part of a parliamentary process'.

#OCCUPY WALL STREET

2011-09-16T10:35:00.002+12:00

WINE JUNKET

2011-09-16T09:23:00.011+12:00

Councillor Sue Wells wants Christchurch ratepayers to pay for her trip to a wine conference in Germany. She should pay for it herself.

Many people are doing it hard in quake-devastated Christchurch which makes it all the more remarkable that Councillor Sue Wells thinks its entirely appropriate to have the under-pressure Christchurch ratepayer pay her bill to attend a wine conference in Europe.

Sue Wells, a loyal Sideshow Bob supporter, thinks this is more important than doing the actual job she gets paid a lot of money to do. If all goes to plan she's off to a five day wine conference in Mainz, Germany in October. The good people of Christchurch, whether they like it or not, will be paying her travel expenses which could be as much as $5000.

Wells is the outgoing president of something called the Great Wine Capital Network . She claims that attending the conference is 'good use of ratepayers money' because its an 'opportunity to get across the message that Christchurch is open for business.'

This is the kind of flannel we've come to expect from Wells. She was, after all, the councillor that said that spending $17 million on five properties owned by the now-bankrupted David Henderson was 'a very good deal'.

Wells is also one of the four councillors who, despite on salary of some $90,000, is also picking up an additional $35,000 a year for being a director of Christchurch City Holdings Ltd (CCHL).

It's estimated that CCHL work - basically attending meetings and reading a few papers - takes no more than 12-15 hours a month. which is about four hours a week. And for that four hours Sue Wells pockets an additional $670 a week.

Jim Anderton had plans to derail the CCHL gravy train and the double dipping but unfortunately he lost the mayoral election last year to an earthquake and a orange safety jacket.

What is all the more galling about double dipper Wells is that she is one of the councillors who has urged economic restraint on everyone else. She, for example, supported cuts to community funding - while defending Sideshow Bob blowing some $5 million on the naming rights to the Ellerslie Garden Show,

Wells says that the wine conference will be 'full on' . 'It's a lot harder than it seems,' she told the Christchurch Mail.

Yes, it'll be very hard work attending the Gala Dinner. The conference website informs us:

The curtain is set to rise for the grand “Best-of Gala” in the Ducal Palace in Mainz: sparkling wine reception with aperitifs in the vaulted hall, selected premium wines from Rheinhessen, an exclusive buffet menu including fine dessert specialities, prepared by the Favorite hotel star chef Tim Meierhans, and a varied evening programe provide the stimulating setting for the International Best of Wine Tourism Awards 2012.

I'm sure it'll also be very arduous attending the wine tasting:

As part of the International Wine Tasting, more than 100 different wines from Rheinhessen and all over the world will be offered for tasting and comparison; the tasting ticket also includes light snacks.

If Sue Wells wants to go on an overseas jaunt she should simply pay for it herself and stop pretending that its somehow beneficial for a city that has got bigger things to be concerned about than wine drinking.

# OCCUPY WALL STREET

2011-09-14T17:02:00.001+12:00

ROBERT REID IS VERY IMPORTANT!

2011-09-14T13:11:00.008+12:00

No hassles or delays for the General Secretary of the National Distribution Union at the opening of the Rugby World Cup! Robert Reid was in the VIP lounge with several government ministers...

I commented last week that I hoped the Rugby World Cup would blow up in John Key's smiling face, never really expecting that it would.

But it has! Before the first game even began a debacle was unfolding in Auckland that has had the Government running for cover and blaming everyone else ( especially Auckland mayor, Len Brown) for the PR disaster.

We could be in for even more humiliation for the Government now that it has 'stepped in' to rescue the RWC from the shambles that it helped to create in the first place. With Murray McCully in charge, anything is possible!

One person who avoided all the indignities that the plebs faced was the General Secretary of the National Distribution Union (NDU), Robert Reid.

Reid was in the VIP lounge hobnobbing with government ministers.

In fact he came to the defence of one of the ministers accused of boorish behaviour by an Australian paper.

Reid has described Maurice Williamson's behaviour as 'colourful but not offensive'. Whatever this means.

Robert Reid's behaviour though has definitely been offensive. As the useless head of the NDU he has consistently failed to defend the interests of his members.

Over the last couple of years I've written several reports about Reid's less than impressive behaviour.

In 2009 for example he failed to defend the interests of his members when the Line 7 clothing manufacturer went belly-up. Reid's only response was to throw up his hands in despair.

'I'm worried for the future of the Line 7 workers' he wailed.

When 87 workers lost their jobs at the Pacific Brands clothing manufacturer in March of 2009 , Reid's response was to shrug his shoulders and cry a few crocodile tears.

The NDU press release was headed "Another day, another closure: Pacific Brand's NZ workers get the bad news.'

Reid even had the cheek to say that it was 'a relief' that a final announcement had been made on the closure of Pacific Brands.

No campaign was mounted to defend the threatened jobs. Reid's only concern was that "Pacific Brands workers redundancy payments are safe if closure and redundancy is the final decision".

When the Canterbury clothing manufacturer Lane Walker Rudkin went bust with the loss of over 200 jobs, the pathetic response of the NDU was to organise a few cake stalls to raise a 'fighting fund.' This lasted a mere few weeks.

Reid became the national secretary of the NDU in August 2009.

On the Labour-aligned blog The Standard, 'Eddie' approvingly wrote:

'Robert Reid’s a solid unionist with more than thirty-five years in the movement. The transition should be pretty seamless, Reid’s had a very hands-on leadership role in the union over the last couple of years and he’s highly regarded in the movement. A natural choice for the position really.'

'Eddie' was Jenny Michie who was, at the time , the Communications Manager for the Labour Party. She is now working for the Public Service Association.

Now, in 2011, here we have Reid living it up in the VIP Lounge at Eden Park and coming to the defence of government ministers...

AGAINST THE CURRENT

NO SOLUTIONS FROM SMITH

CAN SIDESHOW BOB SURVIVE?

HAIKU TIME!

THE BIZARRE ADVENTURES OF COUNCILLOR WELLS

WELLS SHOOTS HERSELF IN THE FOOT

IT'S DR EVIL!

WASTING MORE MONEY

A WORLD TO WIN

SURE TO RISE

24 OVER PAR!

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW

MALLARD PROPOSES WAR ON THE POOR

26 OVER PAR!

WORKING ON HIS GOLF GAME

GREED IS GOOD!

WHY WON'T THE MEDIA CALL OUT RON PAUL?

CHRISTCHURCH NEEDS GOD!

POP-UP REBUILD TIME!

REPORT BLASTS COUNCIL

WE ARE THE MANY - MAKANA

'WOOLLY THINKING WOOFTERS!'

WHEN A CITY FALLS

SHAKEDOWN!

MARRYATT PROTEST

RESPECT MY AUTHORITY!

TOYS 'R' US!

NO BRIGHTER THAN SHE LOOKS

HYPOCRITE

LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK

ANGRY OF WHANGANUI

TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR: THE PROTESTER

SIDESHOW BOB ATTACKS OCCUPY CHRISTCHURCH!

EUROPE ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE

LIBERALS ARE USELESS

IF YOU PLAY BY THE RULES, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO WIN

COUNCILLOR WELLS FAILS TO RELEASE REPORT

I WAS ONLY JOKING!

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