The Freedom Shop Aotearoa

A talk and discussion about class in today's Aotearoa, and launch of the Freedom Shop's new pamphlet 'Class War in the 21st Century'. 6pm, Wednesday, August 23rd The Freedom Shop/Book Haven 160 Riddiford Street Newtown Whanganui-a-Tara Class was the issue that originally defined 'the left', but the left doesn't talk much about class these days, sometimes addressing class issues using euphemisms, sometimes avoiding it all together. Sam Buchanan, author of the new pamphlet, will talk about how class manifests itself today, and how domination of the left by the Professional-Managerial Class has led to class issues being ignored and other progress being hindered. Snacks and drinks. Grumpiness welcome. No throwing things.

Planning for Plan B 2024 is underway and we need your help! Deflated Waihopai spy base, 2008 (art by Hannah) We've teamed up with  Wellington ZineFest  again and for 2024 we're commissioning twelve new original images from local creatives to commemorate key dates in this country's radical history.  To pay the artists we've set up a  PledgeMe  campaign. We want to be able to acknowledge their creativity and mahi and help them continue with their creativity - so check out the  Pledge Me . The funds raised will go directly to the artists, and anyone who donates will get access to preorders for Plan B 2024, plus zines, stickers and postcards for higher rewards. Plan B has been going for five years now; the first one we got out was Plan B 2019. From 2019 to 2022 it was solely done by the Freedom Shop and was a stapled A5 booklet but for 2023 we partnered with Wellington Zinefest and got more creative. Zinefest got funding and we created a ring-bound dramatic black and white

If one wanted to see the perfect illustration of racism in action, this week’s news coverage provided it. Two maritime disasters happened this week. On Sunday, a submersible boat with 5 people on board lost contact with its mother ship in the Atlantic. A search is under way. Then on Wednesday, a boat with 59 people sank in the same ocean. 35 people drowned. 

The Freedom Shop is well and truly well-stocked at the moment. Within the last few weeks we've had boxes of books arriving from AKPress, PM Press and Kersplbdeb - along with more treasures from BWB...   We've got David Graeber, George Orwell, Noam Chomsky, Silvia Federici, Angela Davis, Murray Bookchin, the suddenly famous Andreas Malm, the classic alt-Tintin volume Breaking Free and even a new edition of Thomas More's Utopia. We've got utopian AND dystopian Sci-Fi from Ursula LeGuin, Octavia E Butler, Kim Stanley Robinson, Vandana Singh, Eileen Gunn and John Shirley. There's something for everybody, and we haven't even got around to opening two of the boxes.  

Come and join a discussion about the new Bill The new Immigration (Mass Arrivals) Amendment Bill is before Parliament right now. It includes new detention powers against asylum seekers and also adopts the Australian 'no entry by boat' policy by discriminating against asylum seekers who arrive by sea. Western countries, like New Zealand, use refugees to make them look good but it's the western countries that are the primary drivers of the problems causing people to flee and then the same countries do their best to prevent people from arriving there.  Join us for a discussion about this bill and the bigger picture, the reality of western states policies to refugees and the constant erosion to the right of asylum. Thursday 20 April 6.30pm at Freedom Shop, 160 Riddiford St, Newtown