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aargh! Issue 13 is out & online

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Issue Thirteen of the Aotearoa Anarchist Review it out. We shine a light on what is happening in Myanmar (or is it Burma?), ask why 'our' flash new P8 reconnaissance aircraft need to have anti-submarine warfare capability, look at the nuclear industry 10 years after the meltdown in Fukushima, examine the implications of introducing COVID passports and wonder how serious Stuff's apology for past racism really is. Plus we have a book review of Rat King Landlord and a recipe.   Get your copy from the shop or download one here .

Book Review - The Trigger, Tim Butcher

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The Trigger, Tim Butcher (London, 2014) A book review by Barrie Sargeant, published in Aargh #4 2014 was the centenary of the outbreak of World War 1. In New Zealand “World War I” means Gallipoli and the Western Front. That’s where most of the ANZACs spent their time so that has become the area of interest in this part of the world. It’s understandable that this has happened but it means other aspects of the war are less known or understood. For example, how did it start?  According to Baldrick in Blackadder “ I heard that it started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich ‘cause he was hungry ”. Nice try, but a bit wrong. The truth is, the assassin was a man called Gavrilo Princip, part of a group of Bosnian nationalists who shot Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand of Austro-Hungary when visiting his empire’s outpost in Sarajevo. With millions of people across whole continents having died or been wounded, very little attention has been paid to Princip as an individual. Who was he and w

Book Review - The Trigger, Tim Butcher

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The Trigger, Tim Butcher (London, 2014) A book review by Barrie Sargeant, published in Aargh #4 2014 was the centenary of the outbreak of World War 1. In New Zealand “World War I” means Gallipoli and the Western Front. That’s where most of the ANZACs spent their time so that has become the area of interest in this part of the world. It’s understandable that this has happened but it means other aspects of the war are less known or understood. For example, how did it start?  According to Baldrick in Blackadder “ I heard that it started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich ‘cause he was hungry ”. Nice try, but a bit wrong. The truth is, the assassin was a man called Gavrilo Princip, part of a group of Bosnian nationalists who shot Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand of Austro-Hungary when visiting his empire’s outpost in Sarajevo. With millions of people across whole continents having died or been wounded, very little attention has been paid to Princip as an individual. Who was he and w

Wars Without End – the land wars in nineteenth century New Zealand by Danny Keenan

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The following is a book review that originally appeared in issue 6 of aargh! (available online here ) A wonderful ease Wars Without End – the land wars in nineteenth century New Zealand by Danny Keenan -  Penguin 2009 Reviewed by Peppertree BY CHOOSING the title Wars Without End , Danny Keenan puts an important conclusion of his book on the land wars right up front. While the gun fighting mainly took place between 1843 and 1872, the battle over land has continued endlessly in the courts, in parliament and in tribunal hearings. In the age of neoliberalism, the armed force have been replaced by hordes of property developers who continue to dispossess people of a place to live. Every chapter of the very detailed book clearly shows how utterly incompatible the British concept of individual property titles and the collective ownership model of Māori society are. The British system with its clearly defined, surveyed and permanently owned plots was imposed on a society where land had always b

Wars Without End – the land wars in nineteenth century New Zealand by Danny Keenan

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The following is a book review that originally appeared in issue 6 of aargh! (available online here ) A wonderful ease Wars Without End – the land wars in nineteenth century New Zealand by Danny Keenan -  Penguin 2009 Reviewed by Peppertree BY CHOOSING the title Wars Without End , Danny Keenan puts an important conclusion of his book on the land wars right up front. While the gun fighting mainly took place between 1843 and 1872, the battle over land has continued endlessly in the courts, in parliament and in tribunal hearings. In the age of neoliberalism, the armed force have been replaced by hordes of property developers who continue to dispossess people of a place to live. Every chapter of the very detailed book clearly shows how utterly incompatible the British concept of individual property titles and the collective ownership model of Māori society are. The British system with its clearly defined, surveyed and permanently owned plots was imposed on a society where land had always b

Cutting Out the Missing Heroes

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Revolutionary Women: A Book of Stencils by the Queen of the Neighbourhood Collective Leila Khaled “A RADICAL feminist history and street art resource for inspired readers!” When we look at the ‘heroes’ of radical and revolutionary history, we see a bunch of dudes. Che Guevara, Mao, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela – the poster boys of any first­year’s revolutionary dorm aesthetic. This book was prompted by the question: “Where are the women?” – and the follow up: “Where are the glamorous, Che­esque stencils of their high­contrast faces?” Well here they are. This project was originally a zine (made in New Zealand at Cherry Bomb Comics in Auckland, 2005). It’s now a book but one produced with heavy awareness of what it means to be a zine project – with focus on anti­copyright, swappability, ease of reproduction and propagation. Though creating a book limits some of these functions, the Queen of the Neighbourhood Collective are transparent in their reasoning – making

Cutting Out the Missing Heroes

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Revolutionary Women: A Book of Stencils by the Queen of the Neighbourhood Collective Leila Khaled “A RADICAL feminist history and street art resource for inspired readers!” When we look at the ‘heroes’ of radical and revolutionary history, we see a bunch of dudes. Che Guevara, Mao, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela – the poster boys of any first­year’s revolutionary dorm aesthetic. This book was prompted by the question: “Where are the women?” – and the follow up: “Where are the glamorous, Che­esque stencils of their high­contrast faces?” Well here they are. This project was originally a zine (made in New Zealand at Cherry Bomb Comics in Auckland, 2005). It’s now a book but one produced with heavy awareness of what it means to be a zine project – with focus on anti­copyright, swappability, ease of reproduction and propagation. Though creating a book limits some of these functions, the Queen of the Neighbourhood Collective are transparent in their reasoning – making

Book review - 'Dear Neil Roberts' by Airini Beautrais

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Maintaining a memory Dear Neil Roberts by Airini Beautrais VUP Press, 2014, ISBN 9780864739735 Reviewed by Ann R Key - review originally published in AARGH! issue 3 I’M NOT from New Zealand, and I'm also not much of a sophisticate when it comes to poetry. I read what I like, skim, or ignore the rest, I can’t really tell you why I like what I do or what is good about it, just that for whatever reason a particular line or idea, mood or thought spoke to me and that was enough. But don’t ask me about structure or form, or poetic traditions because I don’t know. So I might not be the best person to review Airini Beautrais’ new book of poetry, Dear Neil Roberts (Victoria Press, 2014). But I am an anarchist and I have been here in New Zealand long enough that I had been told the story of Neil Roberts before. In case you haven’t, the short version is that on 18 November 1982 anarchist and punk Neil Roberts blew himself up with a bomb he exploded outside the Wanganui Computer Centre. The

Book review - 'Dear Neil Roberts' by Airini Beautrais

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Maintaining a memory Dear Neil Roberts by Airini Beautrais VUP Press, 2014, ISBN 9780864739735 Reviewed by Ann R Key - review originally published in AARGH! issue 3 I’M NOT from New Zealand, and I'm also not much of a sophisticate when it comes to poetry. I read what I like, skim, or ignore the rest, I can’t really tell you why I like what I do or what is good about it, just that for whatever reason a particular line or idea, mood or thought spoke to me and that was enough. But don’t ask me about structure or form, or poetic traditions because I don’t know. So I might not be the best person to review Airini Beautrais’ new book of poetry, Dear Neil Roberts (Victoria Press, 2014). But I am an anarchist and I have been here in New Zealand long enough that I had been told the story of Neil Roberts before. In case you haven’t, the short version is that on 18 November 1982 anarchist and punk Neil Roberts blew himself up with a bomb he exploded outside the Wanganui Computer Centre. The

Against Equality - Visit

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In late February, early March Ryan Conrad from Against Equality will be visiting the country. Currently events are planned in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin. Details of events are on Aotearoa Indymedia . If you would like him to visit your town, send us an email and we will see what can be arranged. Against Equality Against Equality (AE) is an online archive, publishing, and arts collective focused on critiquing mainstream gay and lesbian politics. AE are "committed to dislodging the centrality of equality rhetoric and challenging the demand for inclusion in the institution of marriage, the US military, and the prison industrial complex via hate crimes legislation." In March 2014 many of the resources and pamphlets were put together into one book - Against Equality . Ryan has described it as " the culmination of many years of collective work that challenges the celebratory discourse around gay marriage, gays in the military, and LGBTQ inclusive hate crime legislati

Against Equality - Visit

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In late February, early March Ryan Conrad from Against Equality will be visiting the country. Currently events are planned in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin. Details of events are on Aotearoa Indymedia . If you would like him to visit your town, send us an email and we will see what can be arranged. Against Equality Against Equality (AE) is an online archive, publishing, and arts collective focused on critiquing mainstream gay and lesbian politics. AE are "committed to dislodging the centrality of equality rhetoric and challenging the demand for inclusion in the institution of marriage, the US military, and the prison industrial complex via hate crimes legislation." In March 2014 many of the resources and pamphlets were put together into one book - Against Equality . Ryan has described it as " the culmination of many years of collective work that challenges the celebratory discourse around gay marriage, gays in the military, and LGBTQ inclusive hate crime legi

Book Review - Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction by Colin Ward

The following is a book review that appears in aargh! (issue 2, Sept 2014): THE Chief Librarian at Wellington City Library, Tomasi Lilalia recently said, “ When it comes to political stuff, we just don’t know what to do with all these introductory books about anarchism we have bulging out of our shelves. Frankly, the sooner a revolution comes and makes them unnecessary, the sooner we can get on with stocking books about making your own ice­cream or whatever ”. Yeah OK, that quote is a fake. Truth is, there are few books published in the past decade by mainstream publishers that introduce anarchism in a knowledgeable, sympathetic and accessible way. Veteran (and now sadly deceased) anarchist Colin Ward has compensated for this dearth of material here, in slightly over one hundred pages. He sets out to explain anarchist theory and practice in just enough words to gain the reader’s interest and whet their appetite for further inquiry. Ward’s task is difficult but overall he succeeds. In t

Book Review - Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction by Colin Ward

The following is a book review that appears in aargh! (issue 2, Sept 2014): THE Chief Librarian at Wellington City Library, Tomasi Lilalia recently said, “ When it comes to political stuff, we just don’t know what to do with all these introductory books about anarchism we have bulging out of our shelves. Frankly, the sooner a revolution comes and makes them unnecessary, the sooner we can get on with stocking books about making your own ice­cream or whatever ”. Yeah OK, that quote is a fake. Truth is, there are few books published in the past decade by mainstream publishers that introduce anarchism in a knowledgeable, sympathetic and accessible way. Veteran (and now sadly deceased) anarchist Colin Ward has compensated for this dearth of material here, in slightly over one hundred pages. He sets out to explain anarchist theory and practice in just enough words to gain the reader’s interest and whet their appetite for further inquiry. Ward’s task is difficult but overall he succeeds. In t