[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjjRDJ039FI]
Two part screening at Victoria University:
4pm Wednesday March 3
Meeting Room 3, Student Union Building
4pm, Wednesday March 10
Collins Room, Student Union Building
Review: Goldilocks and the Three Queers
by Ian Anderson
In its initial workshop run, Goldilocks and the Three Queers made for an unforgettable night out. There’s maybe a bit of chaff to cut, with the play running overlong in a packed Fringe season, but the wheat makes for delicious brownies. Definitely worth catching on its return season at BATS.
Goldilocks is the second in a trilogy of fairytales, devised by theatre company Short Term Visitor Parking. The first instalment, Hansel und Gretel, interpreted Hans Christian Andersen’s famous tale as a Nazi parable. This one gives us a potted history of the ‘70s gay liberation movement, with a dash of ‘80s (AIDS, cocaine, paranoia) thrown in for good measure.
The production is uniformly excellent, with set designer Fern Karun milking the unusual venue for all it’s worth. In a cramped building next door to a strip club, cantankerous landlord (landlady?) Ling Ling guides the audience into an intimate 1970s basement pad, where couches and beanbags await. Divider screens serve as changing rooms, and funkadelic music-man Tane Upjohn-Beatson sits in full view of the audience. We’re accepted as guests in the rented abode of an unconventional nuclear family; the Queers.
Continue reading “Review: Goldilocks and the Three Queers”
Eyewitness to a revolution in Nepal
Ben Peterson is a young Australian activist who spent a year in Nepal witnessing first hand the revolutionary struggle. He is touring NZ 21-26 March 2010.
Auckland: Sunday 21 March @ 2pm Trades Hall, 147 Gt Nth Rd, Grey Lynn Monday 22 March @ 1pm Function Room (over Quad café) Auckland University
Hamilton Tuesday 23 March 1 -2pm (followed by discussion) @ SUB G.20 (Guru Phabians room) Student Union Building Waikato University
Rotorua, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch venues and dates to be advised soon.
ACC PROTEST : Strong and weak points
Don Franks
The Accident Compensation Commission has “blown out’ financially and needs major reform, ACC minister Nick Smith claimed last year. The government now says it must control costs by raising levies, cutting entitlements and coverage, and privatising parts of ACC.
Seasonal and part time workers, people needing hearing aids and sexual abuse survivors stand to be particularly disadvantaged by proposed ACC cuts.
On February 16th two hundred people opposing these measures rallied at parliament .The protesters were mostly unionists and bikers, angry at ACC levy increases specifically aimed at them. Continue reading “ACC PROTEST : Strong and weak points”
Can students be radical?
The following article is extracted from a talk given at a Workers Party forum at Canterbury University in October, 2006, by Philip Ferguson. The article is reprinted here and originally appeared in an earlier edition of The Spark that was published on 12 October 2006.
For many people, especially on the left, the answer to this question is an unqualified “yes”. They might agree there is not much happening on the campuses in New Zealand right now, but point to big protests and even occupations over the past decade over issues like fee rises. However, if we think more deeply about the question, the unqualified “yes” tells us more about the studentist politics of much of the left than it answers the question.
To be radical means to go to the root, to deal with the core problems of the existing society and work out a strategy to solve those problems by doing away with the system that causes them. Continue reading “Can students be radical?”
Why you should join the Workers Party
1. We are revolutionary socialists
We all live in a capitalist society – which means that the working-class majority experience exploitation and poverty in order to guarantee profits and luxury for the ruling-class minority.
The capitalists have many weapons at their disposal – not just the army, police, courts and prisons, but a system of ideas, developed over centuries, that shape people’s beliefs about what is normal, natural, and possible. These prevailing ideas tell us that we can do no more than tinker with the current system. Continue reading “Why you should join the Workers Party”
Protest against the appalling conditions the Sri Lankan Tamil Asylum Seekers are facing in Indonesia
A vigil will start outside Waterhouse Coopers Tower, 186-194 Quay St, Auckland, 4pm on Monday the 18th.
Then march at 5pm from Quay Street up Queen Street towards Aoeta Square.
Save the Earth – Close the Pentagon
Reposted from Climate and Capitalism. How is it possible that the worst polluter of carbon dioxide and other toxic emissions on the planet is not a focus of any conference discussion or proposed restrictions?
By Sara Flounders
In evaluating the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen — with more than 15,000 participants from 192 countries, including more than 100 heads of state, as well as 100,000 demonstrators in the streets —it is important to ask: How is it possible that the worst polluter of carbon dioxide and other toxic emissions on the planet is not a focus of any conference discussion or proposed restrictions?
By every measure, the Pentagon is the largest institutional user of petroleum products and energy in general. Yet the Pentagon has a blanket exemption in all international climate agreements.
Review: Mo & Jess Kill Susie
by Ian Anderson
Mo & Jess Kill Susie is a play about differences that can’t be resolved. The slogan announces it’s about “Three women, two guns, one room, no way out,” and the title tells us what will happen onstage. The question then becomes; who are Mo, Jess and Susie?
Gary Henderson wrote Mo & Jess Kill Susie in 1996, a hostage drama in which two Maori nationalists kidnap a white police officer. As the play begins, Mo & Jess await orders from their comrades. Unfortunately, the play sets up a false dichotomy, reflecting paranoia rather than objective conditions. The original play was set in the year 2000. In the intervening years we’ve seen a sharp ramp-up in police repression, while Maori nationalist tactics hardly warrant the title of “terrorism.” This production is set in 2014, and its vision of the future has not changed since 1996.
Fortunately, Henderson’s characters are well drawn and the production is uniformly excellent. A special shout-out goes to Thomas Press for his moody lighting & sound design, at once naturalistic and expressive. The performances are also top-notch. Cian Elyse White consistently holds attention as Mo, a Maori nationalist student. While White is a commanding presence, churning out fiery rhetoric in jumpers and jeans, Juanita Hepi and Antonia Bale give excellent slow burn performances. In particular, Antonia Bale’s Susie spends much of the play asleep in a blindfold – when the police officer beneath the blindfold emerges, things really start to heat up.
Wgtn: solidarity picket against targeting of Auckland activists
Over the past week, 8 people have been arrested for protesting outside a tennis match involving Israeli Shahar Peer. This protest was in keeping with the Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) campaign which seeks to cut off international support for the racist state of Israel.
Come along and show solidarity!
11am, Tuesday the 12th of Jan
Willis St, opposite BNZ centre