Author: Neil Ballantyne

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The night is darkest before dawn

As a Pākehā Scotsman who spent most of his festive seasons in the northern hemisphere, I associate Christmas (and Pākehā New Year) with a time of darkness and renewal, with a pivotal pause and reflection point before making resolutions for the year ahead. In Aotearoa, that pivotal point in our annual journey is better reflected with the Māori New Year in June/July. I thank Tangata Whenua for sharing the gift of Matariki. Having said that, old habits are hard to shake off, and – as my comrade and friend Ian Hyslop has said – the slow days between Christmas and New Year are a time for reflection.

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Kotahitanga: From above and below.

It was good to read that Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer suggested that we “get past ourselves” and collaborate with others, highlighting ongoing policy coordination with the Green Party and the Labour Party. Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick stated, “We’re meeting regularly as the leadership of the Greens, Te Pāti Māori and Labour and identifying where those areas are for collaboration”.

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The legacy of Erik Olin Wright: Emancipating Aotearoa

This blog post introduces an article that appeared in the latest issue of the journal Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work. In that article, I offer an overview of the legacy of Erik Olin Wright (1947–2019), who was, until his untimely death in 2019, a professor of sociology and an analytical Marxist based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the USA. Wright developed a framework for what he called emancipatory social science. In this blog post, I explore one dimension of that framework – his five strategic logics for change – and consider its relevance for Aotearoa today.

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Close the racist boot camps!

Today, Oranga Tamariki, opened its first pilot “Military-Style Academy” (aka boot camp) – under the watchful eye of the ACT Party’s Minister for Children, Karen Chhour – fulfilling the promise of the coalition government to get tough on youth crime.

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Practising nonviolent direct action

I wrote the following blog post for a Palestinian human rights group and for activists involved in campaigning for a ceasefire and an end to the genocide in Gaza. As the genocide continues, there may well be a need to adopt more assertive tactics. However, many other campaigns contending issues impacting the rights and well-being of the people of Aotearoa may also benefit from considering nonviolent direct action as a part of their repertoire. The resources listed at the end of this post will be of value to those involved in activist education and to social work educators who want to include nonviolent direct action (NVDA) in the social work curriculum.

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