Salient Issue 02 - Volume 89

KNOW YOUR POWER

Last night, whilst swimming off the wharf near Te Papa, I met two first-year commerce students. “I fucken hate commerce”, one of them told me after a particularly embarrassing attempt at a manu, “but I need to get rich. I can’t live like this anymore.” The other told me that he had begun gambling on footy matches in order to supplement his income.

Almost every institution in your daily life is designed to reduce and diminish your power. The liberal-capitalist university system atomises students - it splits your mind and body into contained units, organs of mass production that exist only by the good graces of your employer, your landlord, and your university. Your body churns out hours at the restaurant for the sole purpose of helping your employer save for a second house. The minimum-wage payments you receive there are then sequestered away by your landlord, who uses your productive labour to pay off a mortgage that they could not otherwise afford.

You are then extorted for the price of food, of transport, and of healthcare - necessities that are provided to you for the purpose of keeping you productive, keeping you satiated enough to continue producing. Your mind, on the other hand, is under constant attack by the corrosive mechanisms of liberalism, which pit you against your fellow human being. Women and men are pitted against each other, immigrants against citizens, and Māori against tauiwi (particularly Pakeha, but also increasingly Asian immigrants).

You are, in essence, forced into precarity - made to rely on the next paycheque, never given the space to breathe nor to connect and share experiences with your fellow human beings. When the precarious mind enters university, they are unable to make truly independent decisions without layers of societal and financial pressure stacking the field against them. You look for scholarships not because you want to academically succeed, but because you need the money and prestige to find work that will support you and your family in the near future.

Those of us who do have the privilege to pursue degrees like film, theatre, and the creative arts, are often so privileged as to be completely unable to use their newfound skills to create art that uplifts other people. Even when they leave university, they are forced into a profit-making survival mindset that strips their art of any real experimentation. In short, liberal capitalism kills art at its inception.

The only power that we have ever had, as workers, as students, as minorities, as anyone who is forced into the margins of consumer society, is when we are together. Any of the small number of wins that make our lives better - a minimum wage, an 8-hour work day, the Waitangi tribunal and the existence of public holidays, have been achieved not by the kindness of our rulers but by the prolonged collective struggle of people working for one another.

All these things, mind you, were achieved in the 20th Century, when the Soviet Union and Communist China still existed. Capitalists HAD to grant us concessions, because they knew there was an alternative that we could turn to. Now, all of that is gone. At present, there are no real feasible alternatives to liberal capitalism. It is the responsibility of anyone who cares about the human race to build them.

P.S. There are several images of the Salient lizard, Melman, in this issue. If you find all of them, give us an email with the correct number, and we might include a photo of you and Melman on a wacky adventure in the next issue.

Eyegum - Fine Wine Social Club The Audio Visual Drop Kicks: 'Better-

Eyegum is back! The reliable free gig that brings together Wellington’s art and music communities is unmissable, and both acts tonight are regular favourites. If you’ve never been to Eyegum before, don’t miss this one.

This classic Dunedin band is making their way to Te-WhanganuiA-Tara for a brand new album, and this time they’re playing community favourite venue Valhalla. For just $12.50, get a taste of Southern culture.

Vera Ellen, Greta O’leary (Rongo Rehutai Summer

Vera Ellen and Greta O’Leary are two of the finest songwriters to come out of Wellington in recent years. It’s rare to see talent of this calibre for free.

Kuru Ponamu: Wellington Pride Opening Celebration

With the queer community in Aotearoa increasingly under attack, show up on Friday to support our very own Pride festival.

re:rubyBunny Single Release

w/ Zadie, 3-piece rock band, and Ngahuia, solo act

While there’s no formal protest organised, showing up for Wellington Pride is a powerful way of showing the fascist Destiny movement that they have no place in our community. The Council has organised extra security at these events, so you’re not in danger of being attacked, but as the saying goes - “existence is defiance”.

Wed 8PM San Fran

Liquor laws? I hardly know

If you’re one of the many freshers starting your study at VUW you were probably excited to kick off the year with VUWSA’s O-Week. But perhaps not quite as excited as some of Wellington’s nightclub owners. In a bid to cash in on freshers’ course related costs, a number of nightclubs such as Red Square, Shady Lady, and Dakota, ran aggressive marketing campaigns targeting students.

Playing fast and loose with liquor laws, mimicking VUWSA’s branding, and shuttling students to their door were all on the cards for various bars and clubs across the precinct.

At orientation events earlier in the day, some students were offered vouchers which could be exchanged for a “complimentary gift” from Red Bull, redeemable at Red Square Bar. Red Square’s Instagram story, which has since been deleted, revealed the “complimentary gift” to be a Vodka Red Bull, breaching liquor laws.

Red Square insists that Red Bull was responsible for the marketing campaign. However, when we spoke to a Red Bull’s VUW campus representative, they denied having any knowledge of the campaign. Attempts made to contact Red Bull higher-ups were futile.

Epic Hospitality also tried to cash in on O-Week by distributing flyers offering 25% off before midnight. Redeemable at three of their venues, Shady Lady, Vinyl, and Dakota, the flyers used branding VUWSA found remarkably similar to their official O-Week marketing.

In emails seen by Salient, Epic Hospitality was warned by Wellington City Council that their

flyers were also in breach of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act for offering a discount of 25% or higher. The discount, which Epic Hospitality says was a mistake, was later dropped to 24.999%.

However, VUWSA CEO Matt Tucker is still concerned that the targeting of first years by bars is not healthy, “I’ve done O-Week for 8 years and this is the heaviest targeting I’ve seen yet.”

He believes that there needs to be consequences for breaches of liquor laws, “if this is allowed to happen, then every bar will want to do it […] it’s not good precedent setting”.

A veteran Courtenay Place bartender who wished to remain anonymous pulled no punches: “[it’s] fucken bullshit. They're so desperate. Where was the care for student safety?”

However, Greig Wilson, CoOwner of Epic Hospitality, insists the campaign to get freshers into their bars was all about safety. “If you’re a parent, would you rather your daughter is in a licensed venue before midnight or at a flat party in Mount Cook with a bottle of vodka?” he asked. He believes that VUWSA is overreacting: “This old mantra that the bars are evil is completely outdated”.

While Epic Hospitality said they would “rather give their money to the Green Party” than consult with a lawyer, Wilson confirmed they were seeking legal advice after being told by the Chief Licencing Inspector that they must not target students.

Big road can hurt you

A recent study by the University of Otago found that New Zealand’s automobile industry (Big Road) lobbies similarly to Big Tobacco. The authors found Big Road often framed climate change as caused by individuals, and carless travel as unviable due to the lack of infrastructure. Given the negative health and climate impacts a carcentric society has, the authors argued that the automobile industry is as detrimental to public health as the tobacco and fossil fuel sectors. The study however only examined Big Road’s lobbying tactics and not the actual policy outcomes from said lobbying.

Dan Moskovitz, He/Him

Darcy Lawrey, He/Him

The Future of Public Transport is Expensive

Public transport is about to get more expensive, thanks to the government’s policies.

The cost of each public transport trip is split between the rider, the relevant regional council, and central government. When halfprice fares were in effect, the amount riders paid went as low as 11.6%, though with their removal the number is now closer to 27%.

National, however, want this to rise to 40%, the percentage paid back in 2017. They instructed regional councils to make plans to get there by the end of 2024.

Regional councils however had already finalized their long-term plans - where they allocate funding for various projects - meaning this was a large, unexpected, and sudden financial burden. Fare rises on Metlink - run by the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) - were initially feared to be as high as 70%.

“We had already set both rates and fares for 2025,” said GWRC chair Daran Ponter. “As such, it was rather galling how central government dictated us to lift our public transport fares.”

“It felt like we were handed a fait accompli. They had quite frankly, fanciful ideas about the revenue streams regional councils can generate.

“It’s a reflection of the lack of connection the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has to local government processes.”

In a letter to the then Minister of Transport Simeon Brown, Ponter requested a moratorium on the process, citing the “unreasonable and unachievable” deadline for such radical change.

“We made points which were difficult to deny. The proposals as they were then would see fares increase to the point of hollowing out our public transport network.”

The moratorium was effectively granted as Waka Kotahi NZTA and regional councils negotiate on the future of public transport. But Ponter says NZTA remains intent on pushing ahead with “aggressive changes.”

“There’s a strong public good element to public transport. If you increase fares too much, you drive people back into private vehicles. Then you’ve got a whole new financial equation to work through in terms of maintenance to accommodate there being more cars on the street.”

But the changes are coming regardless, meaning costs have to be slashed somewhere. The off-peak fare discount - currently 50% - is first up, with GWRC considering reducing it to 30%.

This accompanies a proposed 2.2% Metlink fare increase to keep pace with inflation.

Any changes will have major impacts on Vic students especially. In late 2024, Vice-Chancellor Nic Smith and former VUWSA president Marcail Parkinson cowrote a letter to Minister Brown with their concerns.

“Over 50 percent of Te Herenga Waka students rely on public transport to get to and from campus. Increasing costs will place more financial burden on students,” said a spokesperson for Vice-Chancellor Smith.

“We are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving a goal of net zero carbon by 2030. We don’t want to see an increase in students having to drive to campus because of the cost of public transport.”

The spokesperson confirmed neither the uni nor VUWSA received any response from the minister.

Salient asked new transport minister Chris Bishop how he intended to alleviate the financial pressures fare increases would put on students. Bishop ignored the question, telling Salient instead how the government intends to “reduce the burden on ratepayers and taxpayers” regarding public transport.

Dan Moskovitz, He/Him

Michael Fowler Centre to let everyone what Wellington needs to do to become a world class city. Cameron claims to be a Wellingtonian, and highly aware of the city’s needs. That being said, he mainly resides on a massive envirofarm in the Wairarapa, popping into his more central Roseneath property when necessary.

The event was organised by Vision for Wellington, a group of powerful Wellingtonians who aren’t happy with the current direction of the council. They say council decision making is ideology-fuelled, that the cities leadership is drifting, and their exorbitant spending habits need to be reined in.

The panel covered a range of topics. Headlines stirred mainly when James mentioned the lack of carparks in the city, or a brief throwaway line about cycle lanes being annoying, but what was most important was the discussion about Wellingtons film sector, or according to Jim, lack thereof.

Cameron listed a few ways he thinks the industry could improve on its current path. More government subsidies and more film courses at universities. As the panel was all about making Wellington in a better city, we can assume Cameron is pointing the finger at Victoria’s film faculty.

Mayor Tory Whanau told Salient that she disagrees with Vision for Wellington’s assessment of the council’s direction and performance, but that she’d love to work with James on a forum specific to the screen industry.

Wellywood is in an apparent slump. One; there is a lack of vigour here in Te Whanganui a Tara, and two; Wellingtonians have forgotten how good they are at making movies.

Speaking to Salient, Tanya Black, Manager of Screen Wellington, argued that Wellingtons screen industry is thriving, and punching well above its weight. Black points to the ‘creative tech’ sub industry that exists in Wellington, made up of ex-Wētā employees who have founded their own VFX, animation, and game development studios. These are all world-class firms concentrated into one, reasonably small city.

Tanya also highlighted Wellingtons status as a UNESCO Creative City of Film, and the unique opportunities this allows. Some of these include screen industry internships for underrepresented communities, workshops between tertiary students and visiting international directors, and the Māoriland Film Festival in Ōtaki, the world’s largest indigenous film festival.

Black also presented statistics showing screen workers in the Wellington region are earning up to 30% more than those in other film centres in Aotearoa according to MBIE data. Wellingtons film sector also makes up 40% of the industries national GDP, equal to $1.2 billion dollars.

‘We don’t have Jason Mamoa or Brad Pitt, but we do have the future of filmmaking’ says Black.

Salient also reached out to Sarah Ross, head of film at VUW, regarding Cameron’s claim that

school was growing or shrinking. ‘We’re delighted that the film programme is growing,’ said Ross. ‘It has been one of the most successful majors in the faculty’. Ross told Salient that the film major was at max capacity last year, and mentioned the universities Miramar Creative Centre, which was named in the top 15 film schools of the world by the Hollywood Reporter last year. So, it seems that Wellington’s film industry is actually doing quite well, contradictory to Cameron’s assertions, and the film school here at Te Herenga Waka is going rather nicely. Of course, Jim’s investment in the region is appreciated, but Wellingtonians don’t seem to have forgotten their talent for cinema.

Fergus Goodall Smith

Shane Jones's Diary

What a time to be Shane Jones. New Zealand First’s deputy leader has had a roller-coaster of a time recently. Jones has twice heckled Mexican-born Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March with racist taunts in Parliament in the past month, following the example of Winston Peters and Trade Minister Todd McClay. First, Jones yelled “send the Mexican home!” on 29 January. Two weeks ago, Jones asked if Menéndez March "[could] contemplate the appropriateness of recent immigrants telling Māori what the name of our country should be", after Menéndez March asked a completely unrelated question, in which he happened to say “Aotearoa” instead of New Zealand. Speaker Gerry Brownlee lightly sided with Jones by encouraging the use of both names together or no “Aotearoa” at all. When asked at a visit to a school if he would condemn the remarks, our Prime Minister claimed that both he hadn’t heard them and that they wouldn’t be remarks he would make himself, before saying all MPs had to “watch their rhetoric”. He squirmed when he was pressed further and tried to change the subject. The Luxonese is getting easier to understand; Matua Jonesey gets away with it, again.

With a bombastic personality, Jones wields significant clout. He’s the only other sitting New Zealand First MP with any real history in the party apart from Winston Peters, barring thirteen-year Malborough councillor Jamie Arbuckle (a minnow in the scheme of things). You see, Jones is unlike Arbuckle, who is virtually anonymous, but he’s not quite like his boss, either. When New Zealand First fell apart in the 1996-1999 parliamentary term, Peters held onto his Tauranga seat by a mere 62 votes. When he repeatedly campaigned against Aotearoa becoming “the last Asian colony” in the 2005 election, New Zealand First lost ground to Don Brash’s more subtle National, and then was booted altogether in 2008 after a similarly racist campaign. And when Peters visited the antivaccine occupation of Parliament in 2022, he was trespassed. Consistently throughout his career, Peters has faced consequences and paid them. Jones, the man who ran for the Labour Party leadership less than three years after admitting to using taxpayer money to rent pornography, kind of doesn’t. With a lower public profile and a perception of lesser influence, he doesn’t get even the wet bus tickets Winston and David sometimes do.

Believe you me, Jones is sly. You’d only have to watch him rapping in his badly lip-synced campaign

ad from 2023 to get why some may disagree. He may don a black “Put New Zealand First Again” cap and play the role of a drunk uncle at a wedding, but he is fiercely intelligent and a master political manipulator. Amid the furore against the coalition’s more prominent bills, a bill drafted by Jones aimed to ‘end wokeness in banking’, is quietly about to begin debating. The bill would prevent New Zealand banks from refusing loans to companies or businesses that have failed environmental standards, such as petrol stations and coal mines. It’s heavily supported by the right-wing lobbying group Federated Farmers.

While the public fret over Jones’s repeatedly racist attacks on Menéndez March, Jones goes one step further to evade scrutiny, by pinning the soon-to-be woke banks act on former Wellington mayor and current NZ First MP Andy Foster, as Foster's ‘own private members’ bill’. It’s clear that Jones thinks little of Foster, and knows he can get more private members’ bills through if he gives them to his faceless minions in the caucus. Outside of the triumvirate, Jones could be considered the country’s fourth-most powerful man. That’s after Winston Peters, David Seymour, and David Seymour. Not bad for a 101-kilogram Dalmatian.

Q: CAN YOU GIVE ME YOUR BEST BAND NAME?

JAYDE, 20 “Ketamine Lizard”

MARIO, 23 “Granite Cortex/ Quartet”

RIVER, 19 “Frontal Lobe”

REBECCA, 19 “Fluffy Unicorns”

ETHAN, 20 “Hard Question”

EGGS IN

On 12 February 2025, history was made. I cooked 24 scrambled eggs for my flatmate Bee, who managed to down them in 9 minutes and 42 seconds, with one puke.

It’s important to hold elected officials to the same standard you hold your flatmates. So let’s see how the VUWSA executive thinks they’d fare doing the same.

Liban Ali, president: 30 minutes.

Aidan Donoghue, engagement VP: 20 minutes dry, 18 minutes with water, 12 with Pepsi.

Sanjukta Dey, treasurer + secretary: 3 days.

George Baker, clubs and activities officer: An hour.

Hugh Acton, sustainability officer: No response. Shame.

Aspen Jackman, equity officer: “I absolutely hate eggs and haven't eaten them in years on account of being vegan. However, it would take me less than 30 minutes.”

Ethan Rogacion, academic VP: “90 minutes max, provided sriracha and mayo are on hand.”

Josh Robinson, welfare VP: “I’d guess it would take about 30 minutes. Please don’t force me to.”

The previous members of your exec all imagined eating 24 eggs. One went further.

Aría Lal, education officer: “The best way to answer this question was to come up with a hypothesis then test it.

“32 minutes. I have seen God. I have questioned joining VUWSA. I have contemplated quitting science altogether.

“At egg 6, I realised I am not an endless pit. At egg 12, I decided I no longer liked eggs. At egg 18, I spiralled into an existential crisis and cried, then called my ex. And yet, I persevered. 22 eggs in, I puked.

“My wallet is empty. My spirit is broken. My ex is "disappointed" and my friends concerned.”

VUWSA CEO Matt Tucker said he was open to running a 24-egg-eating competition for the exec, so maybe we’ll put everyone else’s claims to the test.

*Anyone wanting a time lapse can contact chiefreporter@salient.org.nz

Te Matatini ki te Kāhui Maunga

Pērā anō i ngā puna wai o te tūpuna maunga rā a Taranaki, ko tēnei mea te Kapa Haka e kore e mimiti, ka koropupū tonu. I tērā wiki i tū ai te taumāhekeheke o te Ao Māori, te taumata o te Ao Haka, te whakataetae hirahira nei, ararā, ko te Matatini. I reira kite ai te kaha koropupū o te Ao Māori ki te whatarangi nui rā. Nā te Rōpu Manutaki te pae i iri i te ata o te Rātū, ā, nā te kapa o Ngāti Rangiwewehi e whakakapi te wāhanga matua o te whakataetae.

Hei te tau 2027 ka nuku te mauri o te whakataetae nei ki te Waipounamu, ki Whakatū.

400+ Samoans regain NZ citizenship since the passing of the SCR Act

Kua tukua kē te whakaputanga nei i mua tonu i te mutunga mai o te whakataetae nō reira ko tāku whakapae, he rōpu nō Waikato, ko Mōtai Tangata Rau pea ka toa i te Matatini. Koia nōki ko te hononga piri, ko te hononga motuhake a Taranaki ki te Kīngitanga. Heoi anō, ko taku wawata, ko tāku e tūmanako ana ka tau he kūaka mārangaranga ki te taumata, ka hua mai a Muriwhenua, he rōpu anō nō Te Tai Tokerau raini ki te tokoiwa matua. Doitz!

Just like the springs from Taranaki, Kapa Haka will never diminish! Last week the Kapa Haka olympics, Te Matatini, kicked off in Taranaki. Te Matatini organisers expected 70,000 people coming in person across the week and 2.5 million watching online! Quite a few familiar faces were seen at Pukerua, including Finance Minister Nicola Willis who committed to continue funding Te Matatini, although with a slight annual decrease. Te Rōpu o Manutaki set the bar as the first group on Tuesday morning, and the kapa Ngāti Rangiwewehi finished the main part of the competition. Salient goes to print on Thursday so at the time of writing Te Matatini is still in full swing. Due to this I am predicting that a Waikato group takes out first place. I am also hoping that any group from Te Tai Tokerau make the top nine, or win anything really, it’s about time!

Rotokākahi Updates

I a te Ao Māori e aro ana ki te Matatini, ka timata te Kaunihera o ngā Roto o Rotorua te whakaū paipa parakaingaki ki ngā wāhi tapu o Rotokākahi. I tau atu te hunga hangatanga me te 100+ pirihimana ki Rotokākahi i te pō o te 24 o Huitanguru, nā e 7 ngā kaitiaki i mauheretia e ngā pirihimana. Hākoa tēnei, e haumaru ana wērā tokowhitu, ā, kei reira tonu rātou i raro i te korowai a Rongo. I haka atu te kapa Tūhourangi Ngāti Wāhio mā te kaupapa nei, “Ko te pokanga whakapīrau i aku wai tapu, tau iho ki te Wairoa, ki Tarawera.”

Rotorua Lakes District Council started their desecration of wāhi tapu in Rotokākahi as the focus of te Ao Māori was on te Matatini. 100+ police arrived at Rotokākahi on the night of the 24th of February, alongside the construction crew preparing to insert a sewage pipe into sacred lands. Many turned up to protest this desecration and 7 kaitiaki were arrested by the police. Mana whenua are asking for support on the ground, as well as financial support for legal battles and resources for the occupation. Follow @protectrotokakahi for updates, and if you would like to koha please koha to 38-9026-0320724-00 ROTOKAKAHI WHANAU.

Tēnei nōki te tuku aroha ki a Te Hamua Nikora mō tāku hē i te hakaputanga tuatahi i uru ai he ‘typo’ i au e tuhi ana i tōna ingoa.

It has been confirmed by the Department of Internal Affairs that over 400 Samoans have successfully regained NZ citizenship since the Samoan Citizenship Act was passed with unanimous support in parliament in November of last year. The department received more than 950 applications from Samoans born between 1924 and 1948, whose citizenship was revoked following a 1982 Privy Council ruling. In November 2024, New Zealand legislators passed an amendment unanimously to the Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act, reopening the pathway to citizenship for the 3500 Samoans affected by the ruling. For New Zealand citizenship under the new law, eligible Samoans must have been born between 13 May 1924 and 1 January 1949.

In his speech during the third reading of this bill, Green MP Teanau Tuiono said that this bill is a “Milestone in addressing historical injustice, acknowledging intergenerational harm, and fostering accountability for [the governments] past actions.”

Māori and Pasifika News is written By Taipari Taua (Te Tai Tokerau)

The Triple Shift: Public Sector, Māori, and the Kōhanga Generation

Maia Berryman-Kamp (Te Arawa, Mataatua)

It’s been well recorded that there is an extra layer of cultural labour expected of Māori in the public sector - the Government Women's Network and Public Service Association have both reported concern regarding a complete absence of remuneration for Māori cultural labour and “tikanga duties”. In a 2023 E Tangata article, Aroha Gilling (Te Whānau a Apanui) wrote that while multiple initiatives had been created to educate Pākehā about te ao Māori, there were very few initiatives designed to support or uplift as Māori staff. Māori are expected to magically sense when karakia must be performed and phase into the room like an Ahu Boutique sponsored Spok, run everyone through a pōwhiri, and also cater it, and then whip out a full on pūkāea, flawlessly blasting out Poi E just for the wairua of the attendees. This is described as the double shift - one technical shift doing your job, and one as being the go-to Māori.

This article is about the triple shift - doing your job, being Māori, and being the unburdened young. Whereas most other young people in the public sector are assumed to have next to no real, useful knowledge (a harm of its own), young Māori are increasingly facing the opposite. Assumptions abound that because we went through school after the Māori Renaissance of the 1970s-2000s, we must live in a post-colonisation world. The idea that racism could still exist in schooling, that sending your children to kura kaupapa was a gamble not every parent was willing to make, and that we don’t osmosis the entirety of the language because you fund Matatini every 2 years, has slipped the public sector’s mind. Do they think all Māori got together, agreed we were back to full pre-colonial levels of cultural fluency, and infused said knowledge into a boil up we all ate? Was there a mātauranga microchip injection I missed while I was off being half-white? Young people are expected to be out of the intergenerational trauma and fluent in ‘both worlds’, without any actual check that we are. On average, we do have better levels of fluency and cultural confidence than older Māori, but it’s not even close to half of rangatahi Māori who are at the level being demanded of us.

In every single one of my 4 public sector jobs, without me ever confirming it, my Pākehā bosses and coworkers have assumed a far greater cultural fluency than I could ever be credited for. Translations are being flung my way (I scraped by te reo NCEA level 1 with a solid achieved), tikanga guides requested every second day (me and some uncle’s post from 2014 on FB really sorted that one out), and advice on the use of toi Māori yanked from my tiny, tiny brain (I have the artistic talent and interest of an nft bro). My *senior* colleagues seem genuinely confused when I consistently state; “no, I can’t translate this 45 page document for you, yes, I was born after the Māori Language Act, no, I can’t give you a warrior tattoo”. The expectations of this triple-shift seem to have emerged from nowhere, and are putting pressure on young people to have inherited skills we may not actually have.

When a student does actually have the skills, they are increasingly being viewed as a resource to be extracted. I’ve seen two students, one fluent and one learning, made into an in-house translation service that government departments can pick up as summer interns, pull the reo out of, and then dump them back with no acknowledgement of the taonga they were given. These Māori are being put in front of kaumātua, kuia, and full iwi contingents to explain complex issues and navigate inter-cultural tensions. While turning such labour down is risky for any Māori, rangatahi Māori need references. We’re in unstable, fixed term positions which are likely to be cut when the next government budget comes out, and we need to be seen as employable. So we keep trucking along, knowing enough to know we don’t know enough, but not knowing enough to know enough.

I wonder if this trajectory is heading to a very right-wing question - as rangatahi do become more proficient, does this mean we no longer need to recognise mātauranga as the taonga it is? Do we no longer need to ensure that te reo is taught and encouraged, and that tikanga is developed as a living, breathing, system of ethics? Can public sector work increasingly dump its ‘Treaty obligations’ onto underpaid, unconfident young people and expect genuine partnership?

The answer to all of those is no, in case you were confused. But if we don’t start looking at how to actually manage the value of mātauranga, and the role of the coming generations in preserving it, those answers are likely to change.

whakataukī for the week: moea te ringa raupā - seek a partner with calloused hands (a hard worker)

“Mā

(Seek and discover. Discover and know. Know and become enlightened.)

Taea Staples (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāpuhi, Te Atihaunui a Pāpā Rangi)

Hidden voices waiting to speak. Their eyes, begging be seen, and their stories ready to be told. Who will re-surface their truths and breathe life into them. They are entrenched in the ground, hidden under the surface. Parts splash in the rain and others surround us like the wind. Aspects appear and voices linger, but it takes many to unravel this colonial web and get to the centre. And once we get to the centre, I wonder who and what will be revealed within.

Strolling around Te Papa, you are drawn to the largest marae in the te ao Māori section. You walk up the large staircase, leading you to the feet of Te Hau ki Tūranga.

You greet and introduce yourself and then your head lifts to see its entirety. Your eyes lowering to meet the surrounded whakairo and tukutuku panels within. In awe of this, you took a breath to take it all in.

You started wondering, “Who does this marae belong to? Is this a gift to Te Papa? Or something else”.

You search for the panels in hope it would answer your questions. Turning your head left and right, to then walking around the arms of Te Hau ki Tūranga…...but there were no answers to be seen.

You ask a nearby Te Papa staff if they had the answers. They tell you it belongs to Rongowhakaata but was stolen from them.

Stolen. Stolen. Stolen.

They guide you to where the panels are, and together, you walk down the stairs, around the side, to a dimmed lighted area where the centre lies.

You, Te Hau ki Tūranga are showcased as an exotic, alluring artefact of Te ao Māori. The centre. The attraction. The masterpiece.

Many, captivated by and drawn to your beauty. Many, impressed by the intricate carvings and details. Many, majority, most, assume you are simply a gift to Te Papa.

But does this beauty conceal your pain within?

Your centre spirals around in the distance. Disconnected from your pain. But your story is one of kidnapping, imprisonment and suffering.

Your people called for you. Drenched their tears and burned their anger. Written. Articulated. Presented. Their calls laughed at. Shredded to pieces. Tossed away like a forgotten thought. They confined you to dusty, shadowed vaults of forgotten museums.

You laid captive in silence. Imprisoned in the dark for over half a century.

How did it feel to be hidden, to be paralysed, to be held captive and then deemed worthy of the light half a century later?

Even in the light, your chains cross over your heart, mouth and eyes.

Your tears drip heavy to the ground. To the place where I sit. Your tears soon became mine. Which do you prefer, Te Hau ki Tūranga, the dark or the light?

Because while you stand in the light, your story whispers from the dark.

History may cloak itself in clarity yet deceives us. Consider it a puzzle with missing pieces, claiming its complete. The missing pieces drift upon our shores, soar through the winds, and touch us like Tamanui te rā. You feel their call, urging you to search, to find the missing fragments and place them into position. Only then can you approach the centre, where ancient eyes watch, where timeless voices speak, and where the wisdom of the past is waiting to be unearthed. So, who will seek the centre in the light and in the dark? Mā te kimi ka kite, mā te kite ka mōhio, mā te mōhio ka mārama.

Historical context:

Te Hau ki Tūranga was built in 1840 by Rahuruhi Rukupō of Rongowhakaata. It is the oldest marae in the world. In 1867, Te Hau ki Tūranga was stolen by colonial official James Richmond. Immediately afterward, Rongowhakaata issued a petition protesting this confiscation. The colonial government responded to this petition, claiming that Te Hau ki Tūranga had been sold to them for one hundred pounds. As a result, Te Hau ki Tūranga was not returned and remained in the basement of Wellington museums for the next half-century. In the 1930s, Āpriana Ngata facilitated the reconstruction of Te Hau ki Tūranga for display at Wellington museums, including the Colonial Museum, then the Dominion Museum, and now currently at Te Papa Tongarewa. As of 2017, ownership of Te Hau ki Tūranga was returned to Rongowhakaata. However, the estimated cost of $24.8 billion, along with various other concerns regarding its return, is why it remains at Te Papa. The theft of Te Hau ki Tūranga is an injustice, and Te Papa's display of this history is further problematic. While the panels are there, they are significantly disconnected from Te Hau ki Tūranga, enforcing a misleading narrative that the marae was gifted to Te Papa. This situation fails to adequately acknowledge the colonial legacy that Te Hau ki Tūranga represents today. This poem challenges the current location of the Te Hau ki Tūranga panels at Te Papa and further calls for collective and critical engagement with history. Nō reira, nau mai ki te Pūrākau o ‘Te Hau ki Tūranga and the colonial web’.

A 2023 panel event introducing the Living Wage Movement to Te Herenga Waka students with Councillor Rebecca Matthews, Councillor Geoff Hayward, Muriel Tunoho, Charles Waldegrave and Chlöe Swarbrick.

The Living Wage: Improving workers’ lives under

a hostile government

Over the last year, the National–Act–New Zealand First Government has transferred wealth and power away from workers and tenants and seemed disinterested in improving the lives of everyday New Zealanders. They’ve dedicated most of their attention to who gets to sit in the “Deputy Prime Minister” seat and get the most 6pm news headlines.

Some of the lowlights include:

Views expressed in this article are the author’s and not reflective of any organisation.

H Giving landlords a tax break of $2,900,000,000

H Restarting no-cause evictions – allowing landlords to evict tenants without a reason

H Introducing legislation to dishonestly redefine Te Tiriti

H Restarting oil and gas exploration

H Cutting funding for the healthy lunches in schools programme

H Giving minimum wage workers a pay cut in real terms (accounting for inflation)

H Weakening the bargaining rights of unions

H Unemployment rising to nearly 5% – meaning 148,000 are unemployed

H Implementing sanctions on those who are unemployed (while removing employment protections)

This is all very bleak. Mix in the Trump-Musk chaos in the United States, and it’s easy to want to tune it all out.

I’m going to make the case that even when the tides are heading in the wrong direction, significant progress can be made, and there is reason to be hopeful.

A story on how working people’s lives can be improved by community-led efforts can be found in the Living Wage Movement.

The Living Wage Movement began in New Zealand over a decade ago with the goal of improving the lives of our lowest-paid workers. It’s a coalition of community organisations (including students here on campus), faith groups, and unions. It is not politically aligned to any party. The focus is on asking employers to commit to paying the Living Wage, which is defined as “the income necessary to provide workers and their families with the basic necessities of life”. This rate is independently calculated on an annual basis to reflect the cost of living.

The Living Wage right now is $27.80, $4.65 higher than the minimum wage of $23.15. Over a full-time fortnight of work, that is a $370 difference.

To many, paying this rate seems like the right thing to do. However, it is rare that employers volunteer to increase their payroll bill.

This is where the Living Wage Movement comes in. By uniting multiple different communities with shared values around a single goal, it has been able to successfully campaign for employers to shift to a Living Wage.

Its success comes from its ability to demonstrate to decision makers the level of community support that exists for fair wages, and this is only possible because of the collective effort of hundreds of workers and volunteers who contribute to Living Wage campaigns. In her book, Lyndy McIntyre – who has been a crucial part of the Living Wage movement since its inception in New Zealand – explains that “the goal was to build power to exert pressure on employers from a strong and united community movement”.

Community groups, faith groups and unions have shown up in force, hosted central and local government election forums, and effectively organised to amass over 350 Living Wage Employers in New Zealand. One of the largest is Wellington City Council. According to McIntyre, it took “a determined and public campaign and six years of consistently demonstrating community support” to achieve this. As a result, all of WCC’s directly employed and contracted staff – from cleaners to recreation centre staff – are being paid a living wage as a minimum.

This campaign began under John Key’s National Government, where minimum wage increases were minimal. It proves that even when it’s difficult, it’s not just possible, but essential, that we work together to make progress.

The Living Wage Movement’s effort to lift workers’ wages is ongoing. Currently, there is a campaign being organised across the Wellington region calling on schools to pay a Living Wage.

Here at Te Herenga Waka, the campaign for a Living Wage began in 2015. As a student representative on the University’s Council, taking action on this has been a priority of mine. Progress was made at the September Council meeting where over 100 students, staff, and community members attended in support. Staff wellbeing has been given priority in the university’s strategy, and Council agreed that:

“as part of balancing matters of staff remuneration, financial sustainability, and recruitment and retention of talent, Council requests the Vice-Chancellor and Te Hiwa to develop and implement plans for the long term enhancement of the university's Manaakitanga toward all staff who work here (including contractors), across all relevant dimensions of fairness and equity, including but not limited to working towards paying wages at rates that are consistent with the concept of a living wage”

The Living Wage Movement is just one example of a cause that you can take part in to make a difference; a cause amongst the chaos. Working Students Wellington is a member organisation and club based here at Te Herenga Waka that any student can join.

There are all sorts of ways that you can take action and contribute to causes that make a big difference.

Here are a few ideas:

H Join a group, club, or organisation that contributes to a cause you care about, whether that’s workers’ rights, human rights, climate justice, or anything else.

H If you work, join your union. Your union advocates for you in the workplace – it's unions that have fought for (and won) weekends, the 40-hour work week, and sick leave. Joining your union helps protect other workers in your industry as well as you.

H Join and get involved with VUWSA. On campus, your student union is VUWSA, which advocates for you within the university and campaigns for students on a national level.

H Make a submission to a piece of legislation. This can take under 5 minutes and have an immediate effect on our laws. Recently, the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill received over 300,000 individual submissions.

H Vote in this year’s local elections and next year’s general election. You can apply to enrol the moment you turn 17 at vote.nz (a year before you can even vote) Wellington City Council reaffirming their commitment to the 2023/24 Living Wage of $26.

At the pub quiz, on a particularly intoxicated Tuesday, I met a guy wearing a t-shirt of Che Guevara’s portrait layered over a fake Balenciaga long-sleeve. He said that he “doesn’t subscribe to communism, but (he) doesn’t condemn it either.” I thought that was already quite obvious.

When talking about communism right now, it has lost that distant alarm sound of threat to the regime, secret meetings in back alleys, and forbidden propaganda pamphlets passed around university campuses. It’s difficult to visualise a communist movement in twentyfirst century Aotearoa, because there isn’t one, and hasn’t been one for a long time. To hear it straight from the deserted frontlines, I interviewed the socialists, the unionists, and the Bolsheviks to find out what has been lost, and what can be rediscovered.

These days, being a socialist or communist has lost its stigma. This, both groups recognise, is a blessing and a curse. Now that it is easier to identify as a comrade, a broader range of people do; this can connect all struggles together and popularise the propaganda of the resistance. On the other hand, communism doesn’t pose the threat it used to because identity does not necessitate action. If one is free to support the idea of communism without being attacked on the street, one feels less inclined to actively resist one's attacker.

With this, obvious recognition must be given to comrades who are already disenfranchised in ways other than class. Most modern communists view their movements as inclusive of other marginal struggles, particularly those that intersect with race and gender. Ultimately, there is more risk in being a minority and a comrade. As we have seen recently in Aotearoa, these social issues are inextricable. The massive hikoi in November brought to the Kiwi consciousness that a threat to Māori self determination was a colonial, classist, and environmental attack.

The International Socialists’ Organisation prefers to support consciousness-raising among students and citizens alike. Socialists Sophie and Lily are focused on building the capacity to sustain these social movements. Through meetings and reading groups, they aim to “not bring revolution but bring more to the consistency of protests.” Essentially, the strides of our social justice do not begin and end with our feet in the march (or our repost to social media).

The socialists were expectantly ambivalent about social media. It was their view that social media can unite and overwhelm people who view online activism. People become quite disillusioned when they aren’t given the ability to channel their anger into real-world action. But it is, of course, “a helpful tool for discussion.”

Next, the unionist provides the most practical plan for mobilisation. I spoke at length with Elena Tiso, passionate union member and socialist student about how the lack of organised love for your coworkers has led to us all being exploited. There is no prominent and threatening union that can represent all labour forces in meaningful ways. This scale of collective organisation was lost to neoliberalism and the privatisation of industries.

In terms of social media, it was an instant no-go. For a trade unionist, this makes sense, because the instinctual feeling of being face-to-face with your comrades (and with your oppressors) cannot be replicated through a screen. The attention economy makes communism compete with consumerism and bears the scars of “tren diness” (à la the Che Guevara/Balenciaga fusion). Unions inspire loyalty because everyone around you shares your knowledge of pain and power. To be able to look your army in the eye does miles more in transforming anger into something useful.

Finally, the Bolshevik, Amal, led with a warning of what’s to come. The social, economic, and political conditions currently escalating are largely similar to those of the pre-WWII period. When I asked if violent resistance was necessary, the “yes” was accompanied by a disclaimer on the present necessity to spread communist ideas through conversation. Such fun to challenge the King to a duel, tricky to throw the first punch. Alas, it remains important for people to understand what it is they are getting into – not for participation in peaceful protest, but for the impossibility of a peaceful revolution. The first step, right now, is the need to change minds and resonate with the masses again.

Kennedy Dailey (She/Her)

What ran through all these conversations was nostalgia and the growing parallels to the past. There once was a fiery and offensive student movement in the 1970s, mostly owed to the Vietnam War protests. A united front, an endless dialogue, a distinct task-at-hand let radical ideas spread wildly through the campuses and student flats of Aotearoa. Right now, Amal is focused on the government’s efforts to ban puberty blockers in NZ which echoes the 70s protest movement to legalize abortion. ISO’s involvement in protests against the Palestinian genocide are reminiscent of photographs from the Vietnam War socialist countermovement. If revolution is cyclical, then just like the hope and unity of our predecessors, we cannot lose sight of it, we should not be distracted.

Do you believe in the power of the

student voice?

Chances are, no. Students for the last 50 years haven’t seen a strong enough counterculture to pose a genuine threat to the governing class. This is, in part, to do with the lack of a strong union, but also the general lacklustre of political discussion. Aotearoa in the 1970s was bursting with activity and a cohesive community. This is when many on campus socialist and communist groups were founded.

Are you employed under a casual contract?

Casual contracts are the easiest ways for employers to enchant students with the promise of flexible work. These sound absolutely perfect until you are just simply not rostered for weeks on end and are not given sufficient shifts during the breaks. Employers prefer to hire a surplus of casual labourers at minimum wage, to guarantee a full team, with no consideration for whether students can survive on this income. Even worse, having a large and ambiguous staff makes it very difficult to align your mistrust in your boss and unionise. As well, because students are employed all over the retail/hospitality sector, it is even more difficult for a student union to cover all its bases.

Frustrated with the First Year Free & Third Year Free fiasco?

When NZ made the switch to neoliberalism, universities were among the first to semi-privatise. Essentially, universities run like a business, which means there are the greedy executives and there are the worker-bees. Recent university-wide cuts were heavily opposed by communists and socialists alike, because the sacrifices got smaller as they travelled up the ladder. When VUW was established by the government, their policy was that the highest student fee would not exceed the lowest fee of any other university in the country. Now, while the government finds routes to abandon tertiary funding, we yearn for the days of having a right to higher education and a universal student allowance to live off. Sounds just a bit better than having two weeks of orientation, and the reinstallation of a bourgeoise university populace.

Could you probably take your landlord to the Tenancy Tribunal but ceebs?

Lack of concrete information and steps on how to bring your shitty flatting situation to justice is the goal of the bourgeoisie. Everyone’s landlord has violated the 24/48-hour rule for entry and inspection, failed to communicate promptly and graciously, and rent keeps going up. When the urban working-class in the nineteenth century complained of their overcrowded and unsuitable housing, the state stepped in. While viciously racist and poorly planned, the government showed that they did have the capacity to provide the working-class with healthy housing. Furthermore, having a collective landlord makes it easier to bargain as a group. This is complicated by the intervening factor of property agencies like Quinovic.

Are you upset and unsure how to help with wars overseas?

During the Vietnam War, youth counterculture was soaring across oceans and every political sphere. In 1971, when half of the total student roll marched against the Vietnam War, there was $2000 raised to buy a tank for the Viet Cong! Okay, this was actually just a popular rumour; the money was donated to medical aid. Today, adjusted for inflation, this would be around $36,700.

Would you like to be a part of a strong and organised union?

Elena sheepishly stated that VUWSA execs will make “wonderful Green Party MPs,” which is both wonderful and true. The point is that the VUW student union has lost its unconventionality as well. To find this, Bolshevik Amal says, there is a need to build up political life on campus, which will uplift modest conversations into ambitious campaigns. All those interviewed agreed that capitalism connects all issues of hate and marginalisation. Therefore, there should be no difficulty in gathering a force to reckon with, if we weren’t so distracted and disillusioned.

Do you know where to go to become politically enlightened and organised?

Unfortunately, Reddit and Instagram comment sections don’t count as political third spaces, in my book. When I met Mere Montgomery, who established the Polynesian Panthers chapter in Dunedin (one of the few female Panthers leaders globally!), she said that it all began when her fellow students just started showing up at her flat. This was 1973, during the height of Kiwi youth counterculture, and she set up an education centre in town to give legal aid to Māori & Pasifika students. These physical places to go for help, discussion & debate, and camaraderie barely exist anymore. A true loss in the emotional connection necessary for political consciousness.

If you would like to get involved with a union or one of these clubs, please reach out to the people or organisations mentioned. If you would like to see change, see it in the eyes of the person next to you.

WHY?

People often see the anti-fascist mission, and left-wing missions more broadly, as fundamentally interested in identity-based emancipation. However, the leftist mission is broader. Antifascism resists all forms of unjust hierarchy. Anti-fascists resist the unjust economic hierarchy that subordinates the worker to the boss, landlord, and capital owner, as well as all other unjust hierarchies: misogyny, queerphobia, racism, colonialism, and more.

Because to be an anti-fascist is to resist oppressive and unjust hierarchies, it is a core interest of the anti-fascist to fight for workers’ freedom from the unjust hierarchy of capitalism and capitalist modes of organisation.

The injustice of capitalism is not one-dimensional. Capitalism is merely one structure of oppression through which other forms of oppression manifest. In other words, capitalism does the ‘dirty work’ of other forms of oppression. And the dirty work of capitalismits unique oppressive ideology that upholds the creation of value for those who do not labour to create said value- manifests in other contexts. For example, the denial of abortion rights to women is often based on the claim that womens’ core purpose is to produce value for society in the form of children and free domestic labour.

The idea that some racial, ethnic, or caste groups are inferior manifests, with alarming frequency, in modern-day slavery.[1, 2, 3] While other forms of oppression play out through capitalist structures, so too do capitalist forms of oppression play out through racist, sexist, ableist, anti-indigenous (etc.) structures.

The deep relationship between the injustice faced by workers and other marginalised groups is played out by the far-right, too. When right-wing extremists seek to hurt the marginalised, they attack multiple groups at once.

THE RIGHT?

ACTION!

In Pōneke Anti-Fascist Coalition, we believe in taking action. What can you do to support the rights of the worker in an anti-fascist way?

More specifically, the desire to oppress certain identity groups frequently bleeds over into a desire to oppress workers and anticapitalists. We see this play out in the right-wing symbol of the helicopter. Here’s the background: In 1973, Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet orchestrated a coup against democratically elected president (and communist) Salvador Allende. After, Pinochet’s administration tortured and executed thousands of communist supporters of Allende en masse.[4] Many communist party members were killed, infamously, by being thrown out of helicopters into the sea.[5]

Today, members of the extremeright appropriate the imagery of the helicopter to signal their attitudes towards unionists and anti-capitalists. At a 2017 solidarity rally in Tāmaki Makaurau for the Muslims affected by Donald Trump’s travel ban, counterprotesting Trump supporters wore T-shirts emblazoned with a helicopter and the slogan “Right Wing Death Squad”.[6] Overseas, infamous white-supremacist and domestic terrorist groups like the Proud Boys and Three Percenters wear slogans offering “free helicopter rides” to socialists.[7]

It is not just the leftist, the ‘Antifas’, the communists, the socialists, or the green-haired septum-pierced liberals that see the connection between worker and identity-based oppressions. Right-wing extremists see it, too, and they use it to their advantage in their mission of subjugation.

1. Join your union. Unions are there to protect their members by joining together to improve wages and conditions - instead of leaving you on your own against management.

2. Seek diverse perspectives when working to improve your workplace conditions: people who are mothers, people who have different immigration status, people who are not White, etc. Create and respect identity-based interest groups within your union. Make your union a safe and supportive place for all people to be.

3. Respect picket lines. Do not scab. Offer material support to striking workers. Strikes need support to effectively force concessions from the bosses.

4. Learn about and show up for workplace struggles, including those that don’t directly affect you, those you don’t understand, and from people you might not usually know.

REFERENCES

1“Modern slavery: ‘I had to eat the dog’s food to survive’.” By Hugo Bachega, BBC, 11 December, 2017.

2“‘Every day I cry’: 50 women talk about life as a domestic worker under the Gulf’s kafala system.” By Katie McQue, The Guardian, 25 April, 2024.

3“Behind closed doors: modern slavery in Kensington.” By Robert Wright, Financial Times, 21 February, 2020.

4“What the Far-Right Fascination With Pinochet’s Death Squads Should Tell Us.” By Christopher Ketcham, The Intercept, 4 February 2021.

5“Chilean army admits 120 thrown into sea.” By Johnathan Franklin, The Guardian, 9 January 2001.

6“‘She was told to go back to her country’.” By Anusha Bradley, RNZ, 8 February, 2017.

7“What the Far-Right Fascination With Pinochet’s Death Squads Should Tell Us.”

Georgia Ezell is an American artist, graphic designer, writer, and alumna of the University of Victoria Wellington. This past year, after developing complex tendonitis and chronic inflammation in both arms, Georgia lost access to the means of creative expression that formerly served as cornerstones of her identity, purpose, and spiritual and emotional health. Forced to abandon her hyper-intricate illustrative style and intensive digital practices, her recent works reflect the difficulties of maintaining

Leo

Does there seem to be a sense of something lacking in your life? Are you sure? Maybe look to the people who are here, rather than the ones who have left you.

Libra

What are you hiding?

Why are you dodging the question? Perhaps you should consider trusting people, or something. It’s okay to be private, but you can let people in, a little bit.

Gemini

Honesty is the best policy, but so is being a nice person. Be kind and truthful to your loved ones, and your relationships will blossom.

Cancer

Have you come into some cash recently? Consider using it to give your home some love and care. A new poster or mug never hurt anyone.

Capricorn

The times, they are a’changing, and good thing too. Your luck is turning around. Maybe you’ll find a random bit of cash lying around your room. That would be lucky!

Taurus

Balancing your friendships are important: spend time with your friends, old and new. Also, have you got a lady in your life? Maybe give her a little gift.

Scorpio

Your worst fears could be coming true. Or maybe you just feel disillusioned with the amount of work you have to do. Just stick to the path as it changes, and trust your gut.

Virgo

Things are looking up! Keep your head up, and really dive deep into your interests. Also, keep a close eye on your belongings this week, people can be sneaky.

wa creative practice while grappling with the needs and limitations of one’s body on a day-to-day basis. This piece, drawn left-handed, reflects the emotional and physical turmoil of the healing process, as well the private grief that comes along with trying to reprogram the body to feel safe after a lifetime of nervous system dysregulation.

Instagram: @geeezie

Aquarius

Enjoy your hobbies, and enjoy trying out new ones! Also, you know that nagging worry you have about That Thing? Maybe talk about it with someone, because you could be right. But if it’s nothing, I didn’t suggest anything.

Sagittarius

Do you have a friend who is helpful and studious? You should catch up with them. Are you that friend? Thank you for helping your friends, you’re very lovely, and have a nice week.

Aries

You may have caught a travel bug. It’s understandable, but perhaps don’t ditch everything for a spontaneous flight overseas. Take the train to somewhere on the Kāpiti Coast with friends, and see if that scratches your itch.

Pisces

It’s a lovely week of friends getting along, and everyone finding you the funniest person in the room. It sounds surprising, but isn’t it lovely?

The myth of Atlas has fascinated people since antiquity— a man condemned to bear the crushing weight of the world for eternity. Much like Atlas, migrant workers from developing states carry a similar weight. They do so through remittances: sending money to their home countries. The culture of remittance is a lifeline for the world's poor, and an immense burden on the shoulders of migrants living overseas.

The sheer magnitude of remittances is extensive. In 2021 remittances were three times the amount of all global foreign aid, reaching a staggering $780 billion. Many economies in the developing world receive over 10% of their GDP through remittance alone. Entire economies, communities, and families depend heavily on the money migrants send home.

These funds create a ripple effect in the developing world. They benefit the people receiving the funds but also aid the wider community and economy by injecting cash in local markets. Remittance is a key driver of socioeconomic growth in the poorest regions of the world. A world without remittances is not inconceivable, but in such a case, already frail economies would deteriorate. There would be even less social mobility and hundreds of millions of people in poverty would suffer.

Even after migrants have established themselves in a new country, integrated into a different culture, and started families in their newfound home they continue to remit huge amounts. The reasons why so many migrants send large sums home are diverse. Most people remit funds to ensure the survival of their families. Many migrants leave their partners, children, and siblings behind who they continue to support financially. Older parents and partners often lack savings and the capacity to work to sustain themselves; in many cases, they are completely dependent on remittances.

Self-interest also plays a role with many people sending money to invest in land, livestock, and maintaining a good reputation. Migrants continue to have strong cultural, spiritual and familial ties to their native land. Many of them seek to return home to a more prosperous household, and to a family that still loves them.

There is a deeply ingrained culture of remittance that intersects categories such as religion and family structures. For example, many Muslims and Christians consider charity and family to be a pillar of their faith and view remittance as a moral obligation. This results in huge amounts being sent home to families and charitable institutions. My own family sends money to Pakistan every month to fund initiatives that educate children and aid the poor in our home city Nawabshah.

Families save up what they can to send their youngest and brightest overseas to give them a better chance in life, and tell them ‘do not forget us’. And they

do not. Even during recessions, global shocks and pandemics, remittance continues to grow. A recent survey conducted by Octopus Research revealed that most South Asians living in New Zealand remit up to 10% of their income.

"Entire economies, communities, and families depend heavily on the money migrants send home"

The strain on workers who are trying to survive in a country that is alien to them all the while supporting their families on the other side of the world is immense. Sending money to the people, and the country they love bears down on workers until they buckle against that weight. Such a burden is one of the reasons why many migrants work extra jobs like Uber to earn more cash. Such large sums being sent overseas means you never invest in yourself in meaningful ways. The time and energy required to earn that money isolates migrants in foreign countries. For some workers, reliance on remittances leads to a lingering dread about the ongoing need to send money home. In Greek mythology, Atlas is the personification of the quality of endurance (atlaô). But that is all Atlas is: a myth. The perpetual endurance of migrant remittances is a stark reality. It is unjust to expect a small number of people to shoulder the weight of the third world. Remittances have never been, and will never be, a long-term solution to the plight of the developing world. Frankly, I do not know what the alternative is, or how we can achieve it, but we must envision a world beyond the status quo.

CaryingHome

their Backs on

The worker drives the systems of the world, and makes the money for the bosses. Therefore we as workers have the power to stop these systems.

Feeling of helplessness. You are one small fish swimming against the stream of a company’s economic strategy.

ON FEELING POWER(LESSNESS) AS A WORKER

Nadezhda Macey (she/her)

Frankie* works at a book shop. There is a contract with the supplier of books — Penguin Random House — which states that all books unsold within a certain period of time can be returned and the book shop fully compensated. Previously, if the books didn’t sell they were sent back and then pulped. Now, the supplier requires the booksellers to rip off the front cover of each book as proof they didn’t sell and send only those back, with the coverless body of the book disposed of in a private dumpster.

Staff are allowed to take a copy or two home for personal use, but not for distribution to charities, friends, etc. But surely there are people who would read a coverless book?… like the 67 “Super Good” vegan cookbooks whose covers Frankie ripped off. I’m sure people would still enjoy Chelsea Winter’s recipes, even without her blonde halo-ed portrait greeting them everytime they want some extravagant, egg free meringue. And I wouldn’t have minded one of the many specialised journals thrown out: one for cultivating your garden, or wealth, or health. The covers are not essential (you know what they say…).

Unfortunatelyw, the books are the products of the supplier, and are still owned by them. If donated, people could benefit from their product without paying. The company would rather destroy their excess products than let people use them for free – if you already have a vegan cookbook, even one without a cover, you won't buy the next one that Penguin publishes.

What drives the wheels of capitalism is not human need or demand, but profit. Capitalism regularly makes more goods than can be sold at a profit, creating crises of overproduction. The cheap solution to restore profit is to destroy the “surplus” goods, even if there is human need for that surplus.

After the electrical fire that shut down the Tory St. store in 2023 all the stock had to be disposed of. My friend Lucy* was one of the workers tasked with destroying all the food stuffs — emptying hundreds of cans of beans, cracking open and draining every Monster Energy. It was not just the foodstuffs, she also had to compromise goods like car seats and towels, cutting straps and shredding fabric. The fire was actually quite small, so it’s not that all the items destroyed were irreversibly or at all damaged. It’s that it would be more work and money to clean them than to throw them away.

It took a team of around eight people working seven days a week for two months to dispose of all the goods. That’s nine hours a day of opening every individual bottle of water and can and pouring them out, or opening a ten pack of chips and then emptying each individual bag into the bin.

People should not have to be rummaging in a skip for food; but the reality is that they are. It might seem like concern that stopped The Warehouse from donating these goods (with a warning) to people in need, or throwing them into the skip unopened. But it was only for the potential loss of profit and bad optics if there was a following scandal. If they genuinely cared about people’s health, then there would have been mandatory PPE for the workers like my friend Lucy who were disposing of the (potentially) smoke damaged goods. Additionally, in the last few weeks of dumping, protocol got slacker; staff were told by their manager that they could take food home. It was safe for staff to eat the food, but not safe to throw that same food away untampered with — in case of legal ramifications for The Warehouse. This is especially ironic when the store is across the road from a soup kitchen.

Lucy told me that to get through each day of destroying and disposing she had to separate herself from what she was doing. She had to dissociate in some way in order to keep ripping up each baby romper and squeezing out each tube of apple purée. That’s the reality; to keep your job you have to put mental distance between your actions and your beliefs.

When I was writing this article I got to visit a warehouse full of props and costumes and set decorations from a TV series that was not going ahead for another season. If unsold at the auction, everything we saw was going to be trashed — unless we took it. I asked about the forty clothes racks that were not going to be sold, and why they couldn’t be donated –– there was no intellectual property copyright problem that prevented them from being passed on. The answer –– the donation, and where it could be donated, would have to be approved by the production company overseas. A lawyer would have to be involved, and therefore time and money. And so, apparently, it was too hard. I entered the warehouse thinking “I don’t really need anything from here”, I selected a bowl, some glasses, a leather jacket. But by the time I left all I could think was, this is all free, and if I don’t take it, it will go to a landfill. With every minute I spent in this hot warehouse, the more dizzy and mind boggled I became that all this stuff would be thrown out while so many people were right now in need.

I went back for five more leather jackets, 40 brand new white t-shirts and business shirts, shoes that didn’t fit me, a standing lamp, ten Persian rugs, an abacus, leather straps, two brass pots, swathes of fabric. Whatever I could carry, nothing seemed too strange or unnecessary to take. It was better in a heap in my room and then donated than rotting in the tip.

But it’s enraging, because it shouldn’t come down to only what I can fit in my car is the stuff that is saved. These big companies should not be allowed to just throw shit out because it’s cheaper and easier. There have to be laws and systems in place to ensure responsible and ethical disposal.

Over and over again the end results of “excess” products seem to be the same. Donation and ethical disposal take more time and money so it doesn’t happen, even (or especially) if the goods are intact and useful. If workers collectively refuse to take part in such actions, or demand better conditions, they will be listened to.

Although the state of hospitality unions is dismal, I think unions are the best first step we have for resisting. No, mass unionisation will not solve all our problems. Unions do not address the root cause of the issue. They are like a bandaid for workers living under the festering wound of capitalism, limited to fighting against the effects of the system without also trying to change it. But, through unions we as workers can experience some of our power on a smaller level (e.g. strikes for better pay.). And as said by Rosa Luxembourg

“A political strike carried out with energy and solidarity is never lost, because it is what it aims at – a developing exercise of the proletariat’s power in which the fighters steel their strength and sense of responsibility, and the ruling classes become conscious of their adversary’s might.”

Every improvement for workers comes through struggle, and necessarily so: because through struggle we learn and practise our power. Being involved in a union, and the organisation that unions are predicated on, is preparation for revolution. Yeah, thinking big!

As students we do not have huge economic striking power, but we have the privilege to read and become educated; we must help be instigators of thought and action. And most of us are not only students but workers too — we have doubled power. The most important thing is to continue, or start, to engage. Read the salient news section; speak to and radicalise a friend, colleague, family member; attend a protest! Think of the power you feel when you go on a march, when you are united with many others for something you collectively believe in.

“On these terms, or on none at all”:

Samuel Parnell’s Radical Resistance

In 1839, a year before the signing of Te Tiriti O Waitangi, an old trading ship called The Duke of Roxburgh departed London for modern day Petone. Onboard were Samuel Parnell and his wife, seeking a fresh start in Aotearoa, hoping to make a modest living as a carpenter and escape the grueling demands of the trade in London. Along the way he met future Wellington mayor George Hunter. Hunter asked the young Parnell to build him a store on what is now Lambton Quay.

Parnell agreed to the job on one condition: he would not work the usual 12-hour days typical of tradesmen at the time, instead he would work 8 hours of the day only. To Hunter’s protest, “twentyfour hours per day given us; eight of these should be for work, eight for sleep, and the remaining eight for recreation and in which for men to do what little things they want for themselves. I am ready to start to-morrow morning at eight o'clock, but it must be on these terms or none at all.” and after that an entire world of workers rights followed.

You might not be interested in a bunch of old white guys and what they said about the building of a store over 160 years ago. What Parnell did, though, was instrumental in creating the wider New Zealand Labour movement, and we can learn in applying the actions of his movement to today’s current age.

You see, Parnell had been so strict about these requirements for a reason. Back in his home of London, carpenters often worked 1214 hours each day and both conditions and wages were abysmal. Parnell joined a local union whom he once described as “a lot of the most red-hot radicals”, but after failing to reduce work hours, he left the union and went to New Zealand. Clearly they were not radical enough for him.

At the other end of our story is George Hunter, born in Banffshire, Scotland and described as having a “bald head, circular spectacles and beaming eyes” (that's like a 19th century baddie). Now like most wealthy merchants, owing to 19th-century industrial capitalism, Hunter was more than happy for carpenters to work long hours for little pay. He was completely shocked by Parnell’s request for an eight-hour workday. However, in what was probably the smallest strike in New Zealand history, the only other 3 carpenters around agreed to stick to an 8-hour day.

As Parnell would later famously write “the first strike for eight hours a-day the world has ever seen, was settled on the spot.”. In order to enforce it amongst future employers, Parnell met with incoming ships, talked to other tradesmen and enlisted him in his battle for an 8-hour working day. Then, in October of 1840, a workers' meeting held outside German Brown's Hotel on Lambton Quay reportedly passed a resolution to establish an eight-hour workday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Famously anyone caught disobeying the motion was to be thrown into the harbour (in what I can only imagine is a 19th century rendition of the New Zealand Manu championships).

Ultimately the 8-hour workday was enforced by Parnell and his group with little quarrel. According to Parnell it all ended in 1841 where a group of road builders put down their tools in late 1841 in the Hutt Valley and did not resume until an 8-hour day was conceded. This is one of New Zealand’s earliest examples of collective action. Thanks to Parnell and his workers, New Zealand became one of the earliest to enshrine an 8-hour working day in society, firstly in carpenters and then all unionized tradesmen. 50 years after Parnell, Labour day was made a national holiday. While older customs like refusing to wear white have died out, the holiday remains a vital part of social life.

Ryan Cleland (he/him)

Now I know the question on everyone's minds currently is: Okay Ryan, why do I care what Parnell and his lackeys think? (sidenote: we should bring back the word lackeys). Well, dear reader, by remembering what Parnell and his comrades did we can transpose his ideas on current social issues in order to not repeat the past and instead improve it.

As we know, the issues Parnell fought for — such as working hours, fair pay, and skill recognition — are still struggles we face today. But why is that? Well the power of the workers’ union has diminished greatly since the 1980s. Under the fourth Labour Government, Minister of Finance Roger Douglas introduced a variety of neoliberal economic reforms. Workers’ power also collapsed after 1991 when the Employment Contracts Act was introduced union membership fell to an all time low of less than 20%. Yet despite this, unions remain the largest democratic institutions in the world. As of March 2022 400,000 people are affiliated with NZ unions and 207 million people around the world are affiliated to the International Trade Union Confederation.

Parnell believed that unionism was the only way to see change in progress for struggles such as the 8-hour working day or in modern times, the living wage. We must keep in mind that Parnell’s changes did not come from governmental change, but from a small workers meeting on Lambton Quay. Parnell understood something from his time in the London unions: sometimes you cannot wait for government legislation and sometimes the best way to enact change is at a grassroots level.

In 2012, the first Living Wage campaign was launched in both Auckland and Wellington, and just like Parnell it was grassroots incarnate. According to the Living Wage Movement Aotearoa manifesto, they “emerged as a response to growing poverty and inequality that continues to hold back so many Kiwi workers, their families and our economy.”

Living Wage is a very real example of putting Parnells values to practise, and as of 2024 the movement has over 200 companies and groups committed to the movement (notable Wellingtonian examples include 11:54 Pastaria, Hutt City Council and Sharesies). All the companies that are a part of the movement are committed to paying each employee at least a minimum of $27.80 (as of 2025). Living Wage is not a government program, it is a voluntary group that strives to give workers enough for “basic expenses, and gives breathing room for rest, activities, or saving for a rainy day.” Just like Parnell, The Living Wage Movement did not wait for government intervention. Instead, it took matters into its own hands. Ultimately, that is what Parnell realised in London and what he brought over to New Zealand. Workers must take collective action at a grassroots level to secure better conditions, just as Parnell and his fellow carpenters did to establish the eight-hour workday.

Parnell passed away only a few weeks after the first Labour day celebrations in 1890, leaving behind a legacy that we can still learn from today. Whether you’re a tradie living off Blue V and mince and cheese pies or a tutor just getting through your third tutorial of the day, we all deserve healthy working hours and more so we deserve the ability to fight for them. Parnell’s fight reminds us that fair working conditions are never given—they are won through solidarity and action. His legacy is a call to action for today’s workers, showing that collective efforts remain essential in shaping fair and just workplaces in Aotearoa.

-------MAYA FIELD (she/her)

Kia ora,

I’m Maya, the sub-editor for Salient this year! I’m in my third year, studying a BA in English Literature, with a minor in Creative Writing. I know: super practical and career-oriented.

I’m so excited to get this magazine’s writing to a high level, and to encourage people to write more in general.

Honeymoon (Lana Del Rey)

I had to include a Lana album here. Honeymoon is an album I always return to. Lana is at her most poetically sultry here, truly solidifying her California-stylings. Her renditions of T.S. Eliot’s poetry and Nina Simone’s ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’ are beautiful. ‘Terrence Loves You’ is possibly my favourite song ever. It’s a no-skip album, in my humble opinion.

When Harry Met Sally (dir. Rob Reiner)

Run River (Joan Didion)

I read this novel during the summer break, and wow: Joan strikes again. This is her first novel, and it spans the decay of a marriage, from their first meeting to their final day together. Its language is beautiful and cold, and reflects a kind of Sacramento and California that you can really only find in Didion. I don’t care that I have the film taste of some Gen X wine mother — let me have my Meg Ryan movie! This film is a masterclass in dialogue, in brilliant, witty, sharp dialogue. “I’ll have what she’s having” alone cements it as a classic, and Harry’s final declaration of love is an underrated rom-com speech. The clothes are tastefully 1980s. And Carrie Fisher’s in

Reality TV

Take my advice: turn off your brains, pop on an episode of The Bachelor, cringe at the awkward kissing, and clap at the proposal. Or, for those who like their brains semi-functional, watch a season of Survivor and marvel at the Grandfather of Reality TV. The 28th season is a great place to start.

On Work

Jackson McCarthy (he/him)

One of the first times I had my poetry published, I was paid seventy dollars. Corey asked me what that would work out to, exactly, as an hourly wage. We were probably seventeen; Corey had just started working at the school tuck shop; other boys in our class were opening Sharesies accounts and micro-trading stocks. We were all becoming very interested in money.

How exactly would that seventy dollars work out? I’d written the poems over the course of months; they were, to me, intense records of my life and thinking. The poems underwent stages of writing and rewriting, drafting and redrafting: from the whole concept (I at one point had the rather obvious idea of calling the work Love Poem as Elegy) to the form (another working title was Sonnet with Messy Hair) to the rhymes, metrics, and syntax. I’d work wherever; I’d polish lines on my phone, taking the train home; I’d find new lines coming to me seemingly at random; I kept a notebook, too, full of phrases, both mine and others’, that excited me; I’d send the poems to friends for their impressions; and, of course, there were times I spent staring, as most people imagine writers staring, at a blank white page, my cursor blinking.

An important aspect of the writer’s life, I realised, was that it was inextricable from their work. It was absurd to think of my seventy dollars in hourly terms. As a writer, I was always at work; I never clocked out. For a number of months, while I lived life, went to school, fell for a boy who paid me no attention, ate, shit, and slept, somewhere in my mind these poems, my spells, were brewing; somewhere, somehow, I was working. And yet, my work looked a lot like play. While my parents worked all day to put food on our table and pay our bills, could I really call what I was doing ‘work’?; especially when I hoped for the opposite: that my poems wouldn’t feel like ‘work’ to read, that they wouldn’t bear the scars of all that drafting, at all?

It’s too easy to retreat into cliche; don’t worry, you won’t find me rhapsodising about how ‘urgent’ or ‘neccessary’ my own poetry is. Art might in fact not be urgent or necessary, might not be prioritised or properly valued, in our world. The labour of artists might not, under Neoliberalism, stand up next to the kinds of wage-labour that bring people safety and security. But art doesn’t happen because somebody thought it financially viable: there’s no investor, no board, no manager demanding anybody make art. In the bombed cities, the wasted homes, the dishevelled places, poems are still being written; poems are still being written in Gaza.

And so one of the reasons that art remains radical is that its existence alone suggests, or even speaks into reality, however briefly, an alternative system of value; a system of value other than that of money. The dollar crushes the broad spectrum of human experience into a harsh, crass materialism, as though everything were comparable — the ‘usefulness’, then, of an artist’s labour, might lie precisely in its supposed ‘uselessness’: its integration of work and leisure remains illegible in a world of markets.

All of this is to say that I was grateful to receive that seventy dollars. I felt like a real poet; I was over the moon. Pay your artists, people! But that, strangely enough, that seventy dollars only served to deepen my sense of the gap between the kind of work that art requires and the kind of compensation money can offer for it. While the marginality of artists in the public eye (and particularly in this government’s eye) continues to disappoint, working as an artist reminds you that our purpose was never to integrate into a preconceived notion of what’s ‘work’ and what’s ‘leisure’. Rather, it’s always been to imagine, to feel out and create, an alternative; to point out the times in our lives (when in love, at rest, deep in thought, grief-stricken) when a monetary system of value begins to lose supremacy.

Three Spells

Jackson McCarthy (he/him)

Make me of the body spell

And even if the night were bad, how could I want the wanting day, everything in it always receding? Make me of the body, always. Wouldn’t mind the blood and guts. Wouldn’t mind the decay. The taking and never giving. And even if this distance doesn’t fold, if stars won’t touch his back — The yawn I pick up from his yawn: a memory of a breath in the surface of the dawn.

Love your messy hair spell

Like Venus, like Antinous, like Pania slipping into the water when I could not make you stay or come closer. Love your hair even when it’s long. Love talking to you with our masks on. Love when you take your mask down so I can stare at your chin. Like a dumber blonder Saint Sebastian but less tortured and really happy to see me. O swallow me whole like Time does, then conquer Time with your Classical beauty!

Moonlight spell

We reach the point the mind forgets the mind.

Across our great divide and down to moon-soaked spots on the floor. I want to be so consumed by something, to think that there is no way out.

Turn off the headlights. Tap the stream. If poetry could make you love me, it would, I think. Close the windows. Lock the door. Show me things. Show me more.

By Ossian Lynch (he/him)

Across

1. Founder of the People’s Republic of China

2. Faction of the Russian Revolution, led by Lenin

7. _____ Khrushchev

8. Lenin (and Putin)

9. Co-writer of the Communist manifesto

12. Followers of Ned Ludd, who destroyed textile machines in the 19th Century

13. Collective noun for moles

15. Plantation of George Washington

16. Death Place of Karl Marx

18. Political protest or meeting

21. He asks to imagine all the people

22. Benjamin Franklin said that nothing in this world is certain, except…

Quiz

Down

1. Jane Austen novel, originally published in 1814

3. Female reproductive cells

4. Kind of dog that guards the underworld

5. Sedimentary rock, mostly comprised of calcite and aragonite

6. Advice to those online - ‘Touch ___’

10. The ________ Twenties

11. New Zealand sitcom, aired from 1981 to 1985

14. Hardware store

17. Russian Revolutionary, popular in this crossword

19. Monty Python’s ___ of Brian

20. Like a ___ to a flame

H In 1995, Johnnie Cochran said “If it doesn't fit, you must acquit” in defense of which man?

H Which city in Pennsylvania is home to the Eagles, the winning team of the Super Bowl LIX?

H What is the name of the french bulldog who surfed in support of Te Ao Māori on Waitangi Day? A. Andy, B. Bosco, C. Cooper.

H Which American musician was the leader of the band The Mothers of Invention?

H The government’s planned reintroduction of pay cuts for partial strikes gives employers the power to deduct what percentage of an employee’s pay? A. 5%, B. 10%, C. 15%.

VictoriaUniversityDebating SocietyistheoldestclubatVUW, foundedin1899.Theyareone ofthemostsuccessfuldebating societiesinAotearoa,andthey meetregularlyforclubnightsin KK303onWednesdaysat6:30PM.

ONTHAT!

Neg:ByJack

Aff:ByEvilJack

Theworld‘class’usedto meansomething.“Workers oftheworld,unite”wasa rallyingcryformillions,onethat securedthefundamentalrightswe allbenefitfrom.However,itverymuch seemslikeasentimentfromabygone era.Everyvehiclethatusedtodriveclass politicsforwardhasvanished.Workingclass unions,politicalparties,andvotingblocshave allfadedintoobscurityorshiftedintosomething nolongerrecognisableoreffectiveatdrivingthe causeforwards.Thedistinctionofclassalonejust isn’tusefulanymorebecauseno-oneseemstobelieve init. Lookatlabourpolitics.Fiftyyearsago,itwasadefining featureofpoliticallife–nowit’spracticallydead.Union membershipinmostcountrieshasplummeted,notleast inAotearoawherethelatestfigureisjust14%ofthe workforce.Strikesabletobringthecapitalistclasstotheir knees,suchasthe1951WaterfrontDispute,ortheUK’s WinterofDiscontent,seemcompletelyoutoftherealmof possibilitytoday.Shoutouttotherecentrailwaystrikes,but Metlinkdoesn’tneedoutsidehelptostopthetrainsfrom running.Additionally,Labourpartiesaroundtheworldhavelong abandonedtheirrootsandacceptedthebasicideological premisesofcapitalism.NottocalloutaformerSalient contributor,butChrisHipkinsishardlythepictureofa socialistcomrade.He’smoreofabeigecapitalistwhose Labourcredentialslargelyliewiththefacthethinkswelfare shouldexist.Evenso-calledMarxist-Leniniststatessuch asNorthKoreaorVietnamhavestrayedfromcommunist principlestothepointwhere‘ongoingclassrevolutions’ and‘vanguardparties’areclearlyjustbuzzwordsused tojustifyauthoritarianismwhilstcovertlyallowingprivate marketactivities.

roots.Right,I’mtakingSalientbacktoitscommunist Kindof.I’msurethecurrenteditorship doesn’tneedmyhelptodothat.Thereareplentyof peoplearoundwhohavemoreTrotskyquotesintheir repertoirethanfriends,youcangotothemifthat’sthe sortofthingyou’rereallyafter.However,there’sone Marxistcontentionthathasbeenacceptedbypretty mucheveryone–classisapivotaldistinctiontomake ifyouaretounderstandthepoliticaldynamicsaround you,andthatremainstrueinthemodernday. Thefirstreasonforthatshouldbeobviousto everyonewho’sreadaheadlineorCanvainfographic onInstagram–youarebeingexploited.Worker’s rightsarebeingassailedfromeverydirection.In Aotearoa,thecurrentgovernmenthasrepealed fairpayagreements,restored90-daytrials,and promisedtoslashhealth-and-safetymeasuresto ridusof‘redtape’.Globally,thewealth gapbetweentherichestandpoorest continuestogrowatunprecedentedlevels. IndividualactionsofpeoplelikeTrump,Musk, andBezosaside,therearemanysystemic waysinwhichcapitalismhasaffectedour health,theenvironment,andeveryotherfacet of ourlivesinawaythatsavestheonepercentfrom itsactionsbutthrowstheworkingclasstothedogs. Everyoneofthoseissuesinvolvesactivedecisions fromgovernmentsandtherulingclassaliketosustain theharmsthatstemfromthem.Thatisstillunderthe umbrellaofclasspolitics–thewealthydeliberately takingstepstodisadvantagethosewhocan’taffordto savethemselvesfromtheclusterfuckofcrisesthatthe pursuitofcapitalhascreated.

Cruciallythough,peoplearewakinguptotheirability todosomethingaboutit.Thatlookslikethehigh-profile strikesbyAmazonandStarbucksworkers.Itlookslike theGermanelectionresultscominginasI’mwriting whichhasaMarxist-Leninistpartysupportedby25%of first-timevoters.It’sevenTwitterdiscoursesaroundLuigi Mangione–nottheweirdonesaboutwhetherhe’shot ornot,butthevoicesusinghimtoputaspotlighton predatoryhealthinsurancecompaniesleavingthose whocan’taffordpremiumstodie.

Thishasmeantthatourvotingpreferencesarenolonger easilypredictedalongclasslineseither.Thepoliticalhome oftheworkingclassisspreadoutacrossthespectrumas postmaterialistargumentscometotheforefrontofdebate. Indeed,thedisadvantagedareoftendrawntotheextremist right-wing–todemagogueswhoactivelydisparageunions andworkplaceprotections,butwhoareabletopounce onthedisillusionmentofthepoorbyfalselyblamingtheir economicwoesonimmigrantsorshadyleftists.Thedeath ofclasspoliticshasleftthesepeoplebehindandsplintered themintothosewhostillbuyintothetraditionalleft,those thathaveturnedoffpoliticsentirely,andthosethatseek theirsavioursinincreasinglydarkcorners.

Idon’tthinkit’sunderquestionthatclassmatters.But importantly,wearerealisingthatmorethanever.Inthe faceoftheexploitationhappeninginfrontofoureyes, we’vekepttheRedFlagflyinghere.

…thatclassisnolongeranimportant political distinction.

My blind date got off to a great start as I realised, waiting to cross Willis Street, that I was pretty sure my date was standing directly in front of me. Their distinctively-coloured hair matched the photo I’d been sent, and as the crossing light switched to green and they made a beeline towards Evil Twins ahead of me, my suspicions were correct. Awkwardly, we both kind of got to the door at the same time, and I had to get their attention and introduce myself before it got weird, but thankfully, my anxiety diffused from there.

Sitting down with our drinks, we quickly discovered a lot in common to talk about: a mutual love of vampires, shared taste in books, having been to see Hozier in concert last year, and plenty more. The conversation flowed easily. Even our earrings, we realised, were complimentary opposites: mine, pink and gold butterflies, while theirs were silver bats. If this were to go beyond the first date, I think we’d make a pretty cute pairing in an aesthetic sense.

We both played it pretty safe in terms of overt flirtation, and the perennial lesbian first-date problem of turning platonic instead of romantic was a risk. Still, I can assure the reader that there was no “you’re so pretty!”“no YOU’RE so pretty!!!” exchange, as is the bane of all sapphic Tinder matches. Either way, though, my date was a very cool person to talk to, and I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to having gained a new friend from the experience. I had stuff to do in the afternoon, so we parted ways at the same Willis Street intersection.

I had a lovely time! She was super cool and we had a lot in common. Did I fumble and accidentally say I’d watched Twin Peaks when I dead-ass haven’t, solely because I was too nervous to correct her; subsequently going home and watching multiple summaries of the series? Yes. Did I feel my heart drop into my stomach when she asked what my sign was and I had to admit that I’m a Gemini? Yes. Is this so hyper-specific that they will read this and know it was me, therefore exposing my lie? Almost definitely. But hey, I scored a second date, so a win is a win (I’m so sorry, I love David Lynch, especially Eraser Head, but I haven’t seen Twin Peaks and I’m a filthy rotten liar).

Every week, we send two anonymous strangers on a blind date at Wellington’s hottest coffee shop. Evil Twins was founded by Natalie and Stephanie Chin, and is open on Willis St from Monday to Saturday every week. Think you could be next? Send a photo and a brief description containing your age, gender, interests, and sexuality to columns@salient. org.nz

*alias

*alias

State of the Union

By Ti Lamusse

We need unions now more than ever

With the most right-wing government New Zealand has seen in a century, we need unions today more than ever.

If you’re working a part-time job alongside studying, you have already experienced the impacts of this government’s decisions on workers.

Since they were elected, they repealed Fair Pay Agreements. Fair Pay Agreements weren’t really able to take effect before they were repealed but, if they had, they would have resulted in the biggest pay rises for low-paid workers in a generation.

They, then, followed this up with a rise in the minimum wage of just 36 cents per hour, the smallest increase since the 1990s. This is well-below the rate of inflation, meaning that most low-paid workers are well and truly worse off. The Council of Trade Unions estimates that minimum wage workers are $1,206 a year worse off, as a result.

Put simply, things are getting more expensive and this government is leaving low paid workers behind. However, working people have always had the power to demand more of our bosses and the government.

It is when we get together, and join or form unions, that we are able to make real wins.

From the 8-hour working day, to the weekend, and the end of child labour, unions are what won meaningful improvements in the lives of working people.

Unions are what allow ordinary workers to stand up to the power of bosses. When it’s one worker against a boss, asking for a raise or an improvement in their working conditions, the boss can ignore that worker. When it’s most or all of the workers in a workplace demanding the same thing, that’s then the boss has to listen.

This extends to governments too. Some of our unions are massive, with tens of thousands of members. They are Aotearoa’s largest democratic organisations and they’re able to put considerable pressure on governments.

The biggest power that unionised workers have is the threat to go on strike. When we go on strike, we stop work and deprive our bosses of the ability to make money from our labour.

When hundreds of thousands of workers go on strike, we have the power to bring down governments.

As ordinary people, without access to the levers of power or endless pools of cash, there is no better way for us to demonstrate our power than by joining a union.

In the coming years, unions are going to be more essential than ever. With global fascism on the rise, alongside a looming climate catastrophe, it’s only the united power of workers in union that will enable us to push back against the wealthy and powerful.

This column will be a regular check in on what’s happening in the union movement at Te Herenga Waka and in Aotearoa broadly.

I’m writing this column as a worker at Te Herenga Waka and the Vice President of the local Tertiary Education Union (TEU) Branch. The TEU is the biggest union on campus. Our members include your tutors, the library workers, the tech crew, your lecturers and your student advisors.

Over the next year, I’ll be writing about the important union struggles and how you can be a part of them.

This year, the TEU will also bargain for our new collective agreements. These agreements take months to negotiate with the bosses and are essential to making sure that university workers are treated with dignity and respect.

This has massive flow on effects for students too. When university workers are stressed, overworked and unable to pay our bills, it makes it harder for us to get the best results for our students. When conditions improve for university workers, they improve for students.

That means that, as we go into bargaining, the TEU needs the support of students.

We’ll need you to rock up to our rallies. We’ll need you to write to the bosses in support of us. We’ll need you to stand alongside us, if we have to go on strike.

It’s a fundamental principle of unionism that we are stronger together. We are able to achieve more and fight back harder, when we stick together.

At Te Herenga Waka, that means making sure that students and university workers know we’re on the same side. Our struggle is a united one. In union we are strong.

If you haven’t, join your union today here: https:// union.org.nz/find-your-union/

Dr Ti Lamusse is a lecturer in Criminology at Te Herenga Waka and the Vice-President of the Tertiary Education Union’s VUW branch.

For the most part, politics seems to happen outside the workplace—like in Parliament, or at a protest. The “working class”, then, seems a strange category to focus on. Why not centre race, gender, or sexuality instead?

Let's put it this way: socialists don’t emphasise workers because they're more oppressed than other groups, or because work matters most to people. Really it is not a question of morals, but one of tactics. We talk about workers because they have leverage.

Work is the essential act that satisfies our needs, whether through gathering food or building shelter.

Under capitalism, the one percent have a monopoly over these conditions for life, such as farms, factories, and supermarkets. And increasingly, that monopoly extends to media companies, prisons, transport systems, and the distribution of healthcare. This is what makes political change so difficult: we depend on capitalists to survive and participate in social life.

Unsurprisingly, getting here was no peaceful process. In Aotearoa, creating this inequality meant separating almost the entire Māori population from their land and resources. This happened either through direct military violence, as with the Invasion of Waikato in 1863–64, or by legal raupatu such as the Native Lands Act.

This narrative is not unique to our country, of course, but one shared all over the world—even in Europe via land enclosure. The point is to disrupt communal labour and sustainable relationships with the land. It gives us no alternative but to “earn” a living rather than provide for each others’ needs.

Workers, however, are in a key strategic position. We are the ones gathering food, producing machinery, making the wheels turn. And because the entire capitalist system depends on this labour, the workers also have the potential to shut it down.

What’s more, workers vastly outnumber capitalists. For instance, there are fewer than three thousand billionaires in the world. But there are more than three billion workers—and this gap will only grow in size.

SOC 101 Why do socialists talk so much about workers?

The whole existence of capitalism, then, hinges on the failure of the workers to organise. That’s why we talk about class. Because if capitalism produces and maintains forms of oppression, the workplace is the weak point. Just think about the dock workers in Greece blocking arms shipments to Israel just a few months ago, or the great strike waves that shook apartheid South Africa in the 1970s.

And so race, gender, and sexuality are not secondary at all. Advancing working class politics requires solidarity across lines of difference. No honest attempt at organising can succeed by rejecting migrants or refusing to learn pronouns.

Liberation on these lines is also the goal of social revolution. As the Polynesian Panthers once wrote in a pamphlet called What We Want, ‘we see that many of our problems of oppression and racism are tools of this society’s outlook based on capitalism; hence for total change one must change society altogether’. Working class unity makes that possible.

With many of us working part-time, or training for work, students are no exception. And fortunately, universities are great places for learning how to organise. Joining a campaign group like SJP Pōneke, or a union, is a great first step.

Meet the Prez

Kia ora e te whānau,

My name is Liban Ali and I'm your President of Te Aka Tauira - VUWSA this year! Alongside the rest of the executive, We extend a warm welcome to all new and returning students at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington! We are thrilled to have you here!

Te Aka Tauira - VUWSA (Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association) is your students’ association. We’re here to support you, represent your voice, and help make your university experience the best it can be.

We also advocate for you on the issues that matter—whether that’s making sure student voices are heard at the university level or working with local government to improve the city for students. If you’re having trouble with flatting, finances, or just need someone to talk to, we’re here for that too. Our advocacy team offers free, confidential support and advice to help you navigate any challenges. So with that being said.. COME VISIT US!

You’ll find our office at the Kelburn campus - Level 4 of the Student Union Building, and we’re always open for a chat, help. You can also reach out to us via our social media pages, website, or email—whatever works best for you.

Ngā mihi nui, Liban Ali (he/him)

A 300-word essay on why you should help me take down the Government

It might seem impossible to escape the decisions of our Government. Whether it’s attempting to rewrite Te Tiriti o Waitangi, changing our rental laws to favour landlords, allowing for the fast-tracked destruction of taonga species, beneficiary-bashing or building mega prisons - it’s clear that decisions coming out of the Beehive down the road are dangerous and irresponsible.

There’s no white knight coming to save us, but thankfully, we live in a democracy. That means we have the power to elect people who make better decisions for us all.

I’m one of many spokespeople for progressive change in our city. First at VUWSA, then as a Wellington City Councillor and now as your local Member of Parliament. I’ve been elected over and over again not due to luck, not because of anything special about me, but because we have built a community-powered movement here in Pōneke.

For those who have just moved here, nau mai, haere mai. Welcome to the most educated, and most opinionated, electorate in Aotearoa. Despite what the 6’oclock news might portray us as, Wellington is actually just a city full of people working hard for the public across the country. We are the political, arts, culture and fashion capital of this country. It is where all political, social, economic and cultural movements either start or end. It’s where the seat of power is.

My wero (challenge) to you is to take advantage of the strengths of the city you now call home and to find the conviction or cause that lights a fire in your puku.

Help us scrap the Government and build the city and Aotearoa that we deserve. Keep up to date at https://wellingtoncentral.substack. com/

Arohanui xx

Tamatha Paul

ABOUT US

Salient is published by, but remains editorially independent from, the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association (VUWSA). Salient is funded in part by VUWSA through the Student Services Levy. Salient is a member of the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA).

COMPLAINTS:

Complaints regarding the material published in Salient should be first brought to the CEO in writing (ceo@ vuwsa.org.nz). Letters to the editor can be sent to editor@salient.org. nz. If not satisfied with the response, complaints should be directed to the Media Council (info@mediacouncil. org.nz)

WRITE FOR US

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Will Irvine Editor in Chief Maya Field Sub-Editor Cal Ma Designer

Nate Murray Junior Designer Jia Sharma Music Editor

Taipari Taua Te Ao Māori Editor

Dan Moskovitz News Editor

Darcy Lawrey News Writer

Saad Aamir Contributing Writer

Guy van Egmond Contributing Writer

Walter Zamalis Contributing Writer

Fergus GoodallSmith News Writer

Georgia Wearing Columns Editor

Teddy O’Neill Podcast Lord

Jackson McCarthy Arts + Culture Editor

Mauatua Fa’araReynolds Contributing Writer

Working for Wellington Central

Kia ora, I’m Tam, your local MP here in Wellington Central. I’m working on making this a one-term government (bring on 2026), but until then, hit me up if I can help with housing or tenancy issues, immigration and visas, benefits or income support, or any other issues I can support you with!

wellington.central@parliament.govt.nz | (04) 3891290

Tamatha Paul

Auth by Tamatha Paul, Green MP for WLG Central, Parliament Buildings, Wellington.