Posts Tagged ‘matt mccarten’

Tamihere has some strange friends

Written By: - Date published: 8:02 am, February 26th, 2019 - 20 comments

John Tamihere has been endorsed by Jordan Williams for Auckland’s mayoralty. And his campaign has commissioned the Taxpayers Union to do a cost cutting exercise.

Willie on the unions

Written By: - Date published: 7:05 pm, February 6th, 2017 - 201 comments

“Matt McCarten is one to watch. He’s developing his union. I don’t have much time for [the established unions]. I hope my mate Matt destroys them.” – 2005 – link

Labour’s Auckland Push

Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, August 30th, 2016 - 57 comments

Matt McCarten is to head a new Labour party office in Auckland. The party is going to take to fight to National in the city that decides the election. Yet another bold step from Andrew Little, who is looking more and more like the next PM.

Winning song urges Key to leave politics

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, April 7th, 2014 - 7 comments

Tracy Whatshite, Cadet Reporter, attended the “Bellies” (held at Bellamy’s) and found out who the winners were in this year’s competition for the Best Political Song of 2014. She spoke with the judge Frankie Stevens.

“Competition was particularly intense this year and the top entries included some old favourites, but also some surprizing new comers,” he said.

Labour’s new Parliamentary chief of staff …

Written By: - Date published: 1:22 pm, February 26th, 2014 - 376 comments

David Cunliffe has announced his new chief of staff following Wendy Brandon’s resignation because of ill health.  It is veteran strategist Matt McCarten.

On merit

Written By: - Date published: 1:07 pm, September 29th, 2013 - 35 comments

Which Labour MP has Matt McCarten today described as “Another Cunliffe loyalist rewarded.” and scored 5/10?

Now, which Labour MP got the government on the ropes with a member’s bill to the point that Bill English had to threaten a rarely used and politically damaging financial veto?

Think big & embrace the rot

Written By: - Date published: 9:05 am, January 20th, 2013 - 43 comments

The World Bank has recently issued a report saying NZ needs to focus more on being friendly to multinational corporations. Matt McCarten argues that some multinationals are bad for our health.  And sugary food and drinks are rotting Kiwi children’s teeth.

McCarten on Banks

Written By: - Date published: 11:41 am, July 29th, 2012 - 56 comments

Matt McCarten doesn’t pull any punches, comparing Banks to both Phillip Field and Winston Peters.

McCarten: Waging war on working class

Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, May 22nd, 2012 - 11 comments

Matt McCarten’s latest column is a must read. There is something nasty going on…

Will the Greens lead the next government?

Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, April 8th, 2012 - 195 comments

Two recent pieces in The Herald draw opposite conclusions from recent polls (one of them, alas, is drivel). Matt McCarten asks if National’s free fall, and the rise of the Greens, foreshadows a Green led government in 2014…

Labour moving to the right?

Written By: - Date published: 11:09 am, March 18th, 2012 - 153 comments

Many commentators have interpreted David Shearer’s recent speech as signaling a “move to the right”. I think it’s too early to tell. But if it’s true, I think it’s good news for lefties…

No future in NZ?

Written By: - Date published: 7:14 am, June 28th, 2011 - 205 comments

John Key was elected promising to stop the exodus to Australia. He has failed.  More and more Kiwis, especially the young, are leaving.  And is it any wonder?

Spat on the altar

Written By: - Date published: 7:52 pm, May 10th, 2011 - 19 comments

It was good to hear Mike Williams as the voice of the left on Nine to Noon yesterday. It is high time that someone from the broad left had the mike, to coin a phrase. Mike “spat on the altar” and had a friendly go at his mate Matt McCarten’s strategy for a by-election in Te Tai Tokerau, a kind of joust of the gurus. He thinks Matt made a mistake there, and I agree.

Mana up and running

Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, May 2nd, 2011 - 37 comments

The Mana Party already have a great website that suggests someone who knows what they’re doing is looking after the communications. Well worth taking a quick look.

Hone the victim or the playmaker?

Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, January 20th, 2011 - 106 comments

Hone Harawira is many things but stupid isn’t one of them. He has cleverly created a situation where Tariana Turia and her lackeys have had to attack him for daring to speak truth to power. It’s Hone who has been the protagonist. It’s he who has fronted to the media while Turia has hidden. He’s been planning this and he knows how it will play out.

McCarten on Pike River

Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, December 5th, 2010 - 64 comments

This piece by Matt McCarten has already generated some discussion on Open Mike.  Here are extracts, or click through for the full article.  Matt pulls no punches…

New Left Party coming, or is it?

Written By: - Date published: 12:29 pm, November 29th, 2010 - 100 comments

Matt McCarten is doing the dance of the seven veils on the issue of a new Left Party. He and the other players have been denying they have anything planned but, at the same time, have spoken of the need for such a party, as Labour paddles around in circles, and said they might join were such a party to eventuate. I say go for it.

Hone and the holidays act

Written By: - Date published: 9:57 pm, November 17th, 2010 - 23 comments

Who would have thought that while Hone was talking up Matt McCarten in Mana the other day he was getting ready to vote with National and Act to undermine Kiwi workers’ annual leave and sick leave rights?

Different approaches to campaigning in Mana

Written By: - Date published: 1:40 pm, November 11th, 2010 - 28 comments

The two major parties’ Mana campaigns are a prelude for 2011. Labour is focusing on boots on the ground and a strong candiate making personal contact with voters. National knows their candidate is weak so they’re turning to their one asset: Key. Meanwhile, Matt McCarten’s insurgent campaign is getting Left issues national coverage.

Housing occupation not a stunt

Written By: - Date published: 7:22 am, November 11th, 2010 - 116 comments

Matt McCarten and his team took over a vacant state house in Mana to install a young couple who were previously living in a garage.  Four supporters were soon arrested.  The media are calling this action a “stunt”. To do so is to diminish the significance of the issue to which it was drawing attention.  Call it a protest.  People are living in squalor while state houses sit empty.  Why?

New Left Party?

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, November 7th, 2010 - 209 comments

The rumour mill has been buzzing since a couple of commenters here let slip about Matt McCarten’s run in the Mana by-election. Word around the traps is the campaign will be used to launch a new Left Party with McCarten, Hone Harawira, Sue Bradford and others. It’s an exciting possibility.

Matt McCarten standing in Mana

Written By: - Date published: 2:07 pm, October 27th, 2010 - 96 comments

Matt McCarten is chucking his hat into the ring for the Mana by election.  This is a typically gutsy move by McCarten, but a third candidate on the left simply isn’t going to find the space for a win.  My guess is that he will split the Green vote.  But with Key quietly campaigning in Mana, Labour needs to stay on top of their game. Labour activists — with greetings and thanks to you all — get out there and give it all you have!…

Super City Picks

Written By: - Date published: 1:46 pm, September 26th, 2010 - 18 comments

Matt McCarten’s website for who to pick for a progressive Super City is finally up.  If you’re in Auckland and haven’t voted yet – make sure to have a look.

McCarten not going down without a fight

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, September 5th, 2010 - 33 comments

Almost as an aside, Matt McCarten has announced that he has the “killing kind of cancer” in his column today. Matt is one of the lions of the Left. His union, Unite, has defied the skeptics to become a real success story. Temp and low-paid workers have found an avenue for collective action, and learnt they can win. Matt makes it clear he’ll never flinch from fighting for the workers. Good on ya, mate, we’re with you.

The Supercity & neoliberalism

Written By: - Date published: 12:23 pm, May 17th, 2010 - 8 comments

A passage from Matt McCarten’s article in the Sunday Herald summed up for me not only the approach of Rodney Hide in setting up his Super City but also the neo-liberal project that has been in vogue for the past quarter century. Democracy under the neo-liberal model is, as far as possible, to be a financial transaction.

McCarten on capitalism

Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, November 8th, 2009 - 32 comments

Matt McCarten’s Herald column this week is a call for every working New Zealander to go and see Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story. I haven’t managed to catch it yet, but judging by McCarten’s review Moore’s latest will be a must-see: Some of the points he raises – such as workers having representation on […]

Have the police been inciting?

Written By: - Date published: 12:04 pm, December 21st, 2008 - 52 comments

There is a slowly emerging twist in police spy scandal. The question of incitement and provocation from an agent of the police. Bearing in mind that it is an obvious escalation of paying people embedded deep in any activist organisation, it is something that an agent’s handlers should have been aware of and taken steps […]

Police spied on Unite Union too

Written By: - Date published: 3:09 pm, December 18th, 2008 - 42 comments

Matt McCarten, head of the Unite Union, has just released emails showing police informant Rob Gilchrist gave the police spy unit details about activities being organised by the union as part of their push to abolish youth pay rates and increase the minimum wage. ‘These emails give lie to the police claim that only potential […]

Contrast

Written By: - Date published: 5:36 pm, June 22nd, 2008 - 72 comments

National has been going on about the number of comms staff at the Ministry of Social Development. Rather than ask ‘what do these people actually do that the Government employs them, rather than undertaking other spending or giving bigger tax cuts?’, Bill Ralston parrots the Nats’ line and gives us: “The Ministry of Social Development […]

Matt McCarten from the Herald on Sunday

Written By: - Date published: 12:23 pm, June 16th, 2008 - 15 comments

Worth a read: Remember when George Bush’s administration promised the world that the invasion of Iraq would be over in a few weeks? We were assured that the Iraqis would throw flowers at their liberators, the war would make a tidy profit and petrol prices would plummet. Next time you fill up your car think […]

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