Anti-Capitalists Condemn Changes To The Holidays Act

The local government candidates of the Anti-Capitalist Alliance, including the party's five mayoral candidates, have condemned the changes to the Holidays Act. The changes will prevent workers getting penal rates when sick on a public holiday, and give the employer the right to request a medical certificate before three days have passed.

"We strongly oppose this attack on workers by employers and the Labour government which serves their interests. Most workers are only allowed five sick days a year, whereas the politicians have months off at a time and employers can come and go from work as and when they please.

"While the Labour government is concerned with closing an 'anomaly' in the law, which actually allows workers a tiny bit of leeway, the Anti-Capitalist Alliance says that the real anomaly is the disproportionate amount of wealth and power in the hands of the rich.

"In the past year, the richest 187 people in the country saw their wealth increase by around $4 billion. That's more than would be earned by 100,000 workers on the average industrial wage. And it's more than 200,000 low-paid workers would have earned last year.

"It says a lot about the priorities of this government that they have presided over growing social and economic inequalities and are now rushing to take away one little crumb that workers still have."

ACA mayoral candidates

Daphna Whitmore for Auckland 021 186 7450

Nick Kelly for Upper Hutt 027 491 8749

Steven Hay for Wellington 021 210 4414

Paul Hopkinson for Porirua 021 454 037

Sam Kingi for Christchurch 021 125 0819

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>