Enormous win for people power at Ihumatao, Jacinda shows real leadership & Willie Jackson sent in to save Labour (again)

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
25
1912

An enormous win announced late Friday for the people power at Ihumatao. The social media campaign that is drawing in thousands from around the country as a cavalcade of righteous Māori grievances from mental health, the Oranga Tamariki scandal, Justice report, health report and 2am WINZ queues collide and breath energy into a modern day land occupation that has caught the authorities by surprise.

Jacinda Ardern has been slow to appreciate how this was going to erupt after a litany of issues generated momentum into this moment of spontaneous activism but she has shown real leadership by declaring no building will occur on the land until there is agreement.

This is a gutsy move by Jacinda and has given her the mana to lead and propose a solution.

Once again, Willie Jackson will be asked to save the Labour Party with Māoridom. He hosted the impressive Oranga Tamariki hui at his urban Marae two weekends ago and he will officially visit the protesters tomorrow and listen to the protectors.

If the activists wanted a better emissary to negotiate with, they couldn’t find one beyond Jackson. Willie’s left wing credentials as an activist and a passionate defender of Māori rights is battle proven and beyond reproach.

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If Jacinda can calm this situation down and find resolution with the same grace she showed at the UN and during Christchurch, she will deserve a second term.

25 COMMENTS

  1. Best analysis I’ve read of the standoff reckons it is, at heart, a class struggle between the rich corporate Maori elite and the poor and disaffected working-class. The MSM is trying to paint it as a generational clash rather than one of class.
    tolerantleftist.blogspot.com/2019/07/ihumatao-class-conflict-in-maori.html?

    • Graham Adams: “… it is, at heart, a class struggle between the rich corporate Maori elite and the poor and disaffected working-class.”

      I’ve read that piece; I agree that this is what it looks like, rather than the MSM perspective.

      It’s been clear for some time that the issues besetting Maori society are down to class. Some of us have commented on the fact that the benefits of Treaty settlements haven’t percolated down to the poorest sector of Maori society. I guess that we shouldn’t be surprised at this: the settlements have happened in the neoliberal environment visited upon us by Rogernomics in the first instance, and perpetuated by every government since.

      It’s a fact of life that – regardless of it having been confiscated – the land in question is privately-owned. The contemporary owners weren’t responsible for any of that history; come to that, none of us now alive is responsible for what was done in the 19th and early 20th centuries. We cannot be expected to carry the blame for what was done back then, no matter how appalled we are by it.

      For this reason, the government ought not to intervene; were it to do so, it risks undermining the private property rights of all citizens, Maori included. We are justified in being very concerned about what might happen next.

  2. “real leadership”? She has been saying all week the government wouldn’t get involved. What’s changed? Amnesty International on site? This is not leadership.

    • This may be what will bring this government down, as NZ First will NOT be amused, while the Greens offer cuddles to the protesters. Jacinda is between a huge rock and a very hard place now, protesters want her to deliver, others want the status quo.

  3. Struggle is always decided by the respective balance of forces, and the numbers were starting to add up at Ihumātao along with solidarity action.

    By next weekend numbers could have been well into the thousands and beyond effective Police control without resorting to force.

    Good luck to Willie etc. and good on Jacinda for waking up at last, but it is not over yet and most will remain on alert.

    This situation has shown again the basic right wing position of most MPs on “Colonial fall out” issues. And that unity between Maori and non Maori is what the NZ ruling class fears most.

    • Maybe that’s what we need in this country – a REAL protest, the likes of what we see overseas where the streets are jammed with tens or hundreds of thousands of people. Not the paltry turnout so many ‘protests’ garner here with a few tens of people waving placards and chanting as they go.

  5. ‘Real leadership’ by perhaps opening up Pandora’s Box and set a precedent that will lead to all previous Maori land ciaims to be challenged, yet again.

  8. I’m not seeing ‘Enormous win for people power at Ihumatao’ yet.

    I hope it is an enormous win. We’ll find out whether it is or not when the properties are built or not. As well as leaving space around a historical site, this strikes me as an early stand in a class war.

  9. The govt have previously already tried to get the relevant parties talking to work out a solution and they are just having another go at getting people to talk to each other.

    “Mr Henare said MPs met with Fletchers, local iwi Te Kawerau ā Maki, and SOUL, but were unable to reach a consensus about how to move forward”
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/395100/ihumatao-protest-govt-will-not-intervene-pm-says

    The Maori council “respectfully asks that all parties involved in the Ihumātao dispute take a step back in order that these matters can be resolved between Maori and by Maori”

    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1907/S00298/ihumatao-statement-from-the-new-zealand-maori-council.htm

  10. The National government did land swaps in the Hutt Valley with private developers who had to build so many social houses in order for them to make a profit and the rest of the houses built were all private all on state land (not fair, not what the land was intended for, houses too dare for those that once lived there, many sold to foreigners new to our country) Why is national so quiet on this issue if we have a look at what they did in the housing area who did their housing polices benefit, why did they knock down and sell so many state houses and land when we had a severe housing shortage why would you do this? people need to keep asking themselves these questions.

    • Developer mates matter more when stealing State House land and existing state houses.
      There is a lengthy waiting list for State houses in the Hutt but Nact organised empty houses about demolition.
      The decisions involve collusion with Housing NZ behind closed doors.
      By the time the public got wind of it the houses had been emptied.

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