Privatisation, the embrace of the free market and the New Right idealogy in New Zealand. These were the policies of sucessive New Zealand governments during the 1980's and 1990's. First under Labour's "Rogernomics", and later continued under National. Telecom was one of many of New Zealand's important assets which were privatised in this era and has come to epitomise the disasterous consequences we are now facing.
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This article was originally written on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the 1929 Wall Street Crash. It was not intended purely as a commemorative or historical piece. It was written because, to Marxists, all the signs were then apparent that another stock price ‘correction’ was in preparation. In 1998 Long Term Capital Management had collapsed, losing $4.6 billion in four months. LTCM was a hedge fund. The details of their activities were arcane, but what they were engaged in was essentially the same practice as was called ‘buying on the margin’ in 1929. In other words they were betting with other people’s money. They had been much admired in high finance. Two of their operators, Myron Scholes and Robert C. Merton, had won the Nobel prize in economics in 1997. Their economic writings were mind-numbingly mathematical. However the fate of LTCM shows they made scant addition to the sum of human happiness. But after all that had never been their intention.
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Finance Minister Michael Cullen announcement that the Labour coalition government was immediately tightening the country's overseas investment rules with regard to stopping strategic assets falling into foreign ownership was an initial setback to the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) in its attempt to take over Auckland Airport: the country's international gateway.

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A damning 450 page government endorsed report released about the state of the environment in New Zealand, unveils shocking details about environmental degradation. It fully exposed the farce of "100% Pure" New Zealand, which this country has been trying to present to the world. The report mentions that a fifth of all ground water is now unsafe to drink, 15% of fish stocks have been over-fished, and more than half the population is breathing sub-standard air. The country's roads are increasingly being clogged by more, older vehicles. In a young country of only 4.2 million people, why is it this bad?
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These perspectives constitute an analysis of the deepening social, political and economic crises of New Zealand capitalism. Such perspectives applies the method of Marxism to these developments, seeking to uncover the trends and processes within and serve as a guide to action for all workers and youth who want to struggle for the socialist transformation of society.
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At the beginning of the week New Zealand woke up to the news that there was a serious terrorist threat to the Prime Minister and that the police were carrying out militaristic armed raids (something unheard of in New Zealand) across the nation to apprehend the suspected terrorists under the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002 (TSA).
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Earlier this month there was a very militant 48-hour strike of the New Zealand dockworkers over pay and conditions. As usual, the bosses, while getting fat salaries themselves, claim the dockworkers are already well paid!
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NZ Labour's Finance Minister, Michael Cullen, delivered his 8th budget in the 'Beehive'
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An Auckland woman, Folole Muliaga, recently died in New Zealand because she could no longer run her oxygen machine which kept her alive, the reason being the electricity company Mighty River Power cut off her supply because of a NZ$168.40 arrears. A clear example that services run for profit kill!
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