Lessons from PRIDE – Comrades – if we want transformation it will require the People putting forward the manifesto

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There are many, many, many reasons we as progressives should be deeply disappointed by the Triage Budget Labour rolled out this week.

Mike Treen is right about it’s lack of real vision for workers, Dr Susan St John is right about its lack of vision towards welfare and John Minto is absolutely right about its State Housing illusion.

But Chris Trotter is equally right that Labour’s caution even in pandemic has earned them the possibility of a majority Government.

As TDB has been pointing out from the beginning, the economy can’t get back to where it was until a vaccine is available and until that time (2 years away), the State will need to step in and directly employ people to keep the economy from collapsing and THAT is what the Plan B Death Cult Capitalists fear the most, it’s not ‘Socialism by Stealth’ when the entire country is screaming for it.

The 35 year neoliberal experiment is under threat and people will demand a State that protects them, not leaves them to the vagaries of the free market and this terrifies the Plan B Death Cult Capitalists.

To survive the next phase of this pandemic, the Labour Government MUST consider huge ideas to get us through the economic destruction until the vaccine is available.

A Left wing conference is needed to consider the following…

Agenda: NZ economy until a vaccine is ready
Mass State Housing Rebuild – The only way to force slumlord landlords to upgrade their slums is remove the desperation of the market. 30 000 new state houses would do that and create mass jobs while upgrading the entire housing stock.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

Mass mixed forest replanting – we need this for climate change and mixed tree planting would create huge new jobs.

Ministry of Works – It’s time to stop managing and actually doing, recreate the Ministry of Works and put them to work building state houses and planting trees.

Nationalise Fletchers – This will be the bones of the new Ministry of Works.

Universal Union Membership – There has NEVER been a stronger case for Universal Union Membership, it has been the unions protecting essential workers, the unions arguing for their safety, the unions who have stepped in when bosses have ignored their obligations. Until a vaccine is available ALL workers should be members of Unions to ensure their rights are protected.

UBI – For the self employed a UBI will be the difference between surviving and not. We should have one until a vaccine is available. Labour looked at this during their ‘Future of Work’ conference before they got elected.

Extension of Benefits – Stop the toxic culture in WINZ, immediate reform so that those needing welfare can gain it immediately and lift the benefits minus the draconian punitive stuff until a vaccine is found.

Community Resilience & Whanau Ora – Vast increase of budget to community groups to directly build sustainability into their communities.

Taxation –

      • Financial transaction tax
      • Wealth tax
      • Multinational tax
      • Inheritance tax
      • Capital Gains Tax

…Labour must do something meaningful on the economic front because voters who applaud Jacinda today for protecting them from death that didn’t happen will be burning her tomorrow when there are no jobs.

But they can’t and won’t make these changes if we the people don’t push them.

I was fortunate enough to recently watch the wonderfully warm film, PRIDE, that detailed how the 1980s rainbow community saw their struggle as part of the struggle the miners were facing in Thatcher’s Britain. It was a reminder that those offside with neoliberalism needed to actually recruit and win people over across united fronts. In the era of social media schisms and the narcism of petty difference, such solidarity doesn’t exist in the NZ Left, but it urgently requires it.

If the Left want to rebuild the country in the equality, environmental and social ways it MUST be rebuilt in, then we have to come up with the ideas and build a collective platform to promote that People’s Manifesto.

Jacinda & Grant can save us from a virus dystopia, but they’re too busy keeping our head above water surviving that pandemic to imagine utopia.

That’s up to us.

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11 COMMENTS

  1. No it’s the woke social justice warriors that need to answer the question that after calling for the resignations of Jacinda, Grant Robertson, Trevor Mallard, a couple of Labour Presidents, Willie Jackson, Winston Peters, Ron Marks, Andrew Little, David Cunliff and Phill Goff. After trying to destroy liberal democracy who then among all the woke social justice worriers can then go on to heal left wing politics, create unity and win an election? Yknow I just don’t believe based on the eviedeince that woke social justice worriers have the physical capabilities to think this far ahead.

  2. Are criminals made or are they born?

    A little bit of history. William H Bonney , alias Billy the Kid, was cast out of home , and came under the protective wings of an English cattle rancher named John Tunstall. Tunstall employed Billy and many other social misfits, tutored them in literacy and provided wages and stability.

    Tunstall was soon after murdered by the Dolan / Murphy syndicate who had the financial backing by those in Santa Fe. Rich bankers and financiers.

    Bonney and the remains of Tunstall’s men were taken on under much trepidation by the local magistrate to become the ‘regulators’- to keep in check the rapacious monopoly of the Dolan / Murphy faction of land and cattle barons. They overstepped the mark and incurred the ire of John Chisum, – a former supporter of Tunstall and MacSween ( Lincoln county magistrate).

    The rest is, – as they say , – history.

    Now, – how does this even vaguely relate to our situation in the year 2020 in New Zealand? Probably not very much. But it DOES illustrate the vagaries in which we find ourselves. For 35 years years we have been subject to a predatory ideology that has made criminals out of our most vulnerable, that has committed grand theft of the commons, that have captivated our media and told us there is no alternative.

    All of it lies.

    As this govt has shown it to be.

    There IS money , there IS a better way , and there ARE initiatives that can be taken that IS an alternative to the neo liberals false claims of TINA and their monopoly’s by stealth . Such as Martyn Bradbury’s recommendations above.

    And I’m sure William Bonney would have approved.

    Blaze of Glory
    https://youtu.be/ylvuRp2IG-g?t=26

    Sure Bonney was an outlaw and eventually , a killer. But what titanic forces set him on that path? And how many New Zealanders have been wrongfully criminalized , have lost all including family , fortune and wealth because of 35 years of neo liberal criminal activity?

    Think this is just romanticism or philosophic twaddle?

    Then just remember the Pike River 29 , you neo liberal bastards.

    • @ WildKatipo: “The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.” Hubert H. Humphrey, US Democratic Party Presidential candidate 1968.

  3. after months of observation ive come to believe that social ‘ distancing is key and with it , the virus can’t spread and if so , it would have meant that the economy would never have had to shut down the way it did . again i only say this in hindsight .

    but what this means is that when it needs to be implemented , social ‘ distancing is now critical for NZ’s economic survival .

    i’ve already commented about my fury over how he was threatened with violence at a road block but since then this story has came out and so now i think this chap here is going to have to be made an example out of for breaking distancing rules so blatantly .

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12333489

    $1000 fine ?

  4. There won’t be a vaccine that offers long lasting immunity and it’s simplistic idiocy to plan on the basis of a vaccine being found.

    The better, and more logical approach, is to plan on the basis that there will not be a vaccine. This means keeping our borders closed, and charging foreign tourists who wish to come to NZ, a quarantine fee. I am in favour of re-tooling Queenstown and turning it into a quarantine city, in a similar fashion to what NZ did with Rotorua. Obviously with strict processes and PPE for workers in place.

    If in the extremely unlikely event that there is a vaccine, then that can be seen as a bonus, and a requirement that individuals must show proof of vaccination to leave / enter NZ is easy enough to implement.

    • No the boarders can open under certain conditions. First of all I for one am not confusing a vaccine with a cure. Yknow if we can give people who are vulnerable to immune suppressant viruses a fighting chance by immunising 80% of the population and following that up with agressive centralised institutional track and trace and quarantine measures with all the funding then we will be able to live relatively comfortable lives.

    • James
      Not exactly but closer to it than most other comments.
      Apart from utterances of politicians and reporters, no other solid information on vaccines gives any guide as to how exploring the likelihood of developing a vaccine for covid19 without dire side effects is possible.
      2002-3 SARS was a nastier conavirus and in spite of the many years of research since an effective vaccine for SARS has not surfaced.
      SARS was contained by isolation, closing down travel and managing to keep cases confined to states with adequate health infrastructure to isolate.
      We have largely ignored that and now Covid19 is into Africa.
      Civid19 will not be contained globally so yes close our borders.

  5. Here’s a guy that annoys the heck out of me with all his finger movements and his up close and personal literally ‘in your face’ presentations…but is absolutely well worth watching, the guys name is Trey Smith,…and his unique presentations surrounding the Nephilim and ancient history, for any of those interested.

    I disagree with his theory’s on neanderthal , as I believe Danny Vendramini’s ‘them and us’ is closer to the mark, but the rest of it,… is pure dynamite.

    Danny Vendramini
    Neanderthal: Profile of a super predator
    https://youtu.be/mZbmywzGAVs?t=2

    Nephilim- Trey Smith
    https://youtu.be/1zz8_MxcnzY?t=6485

    I believe ancient history, archaeology, literature and other related fields are well worth the pursuit, as it gives clues and answers to the so called modern way of life we ‘think’ we are leading. But without that history, we are as without direction as a ship with no rudder,… I’d encourage anyone with the interest and a few hours to spare to have a perusal.

    Nothing to do with the current topic at hand , but perhaps,… it actually is in a very roundabout sort of way !

  6. Maybe she could address these mistakes made by her party? “When the Fourth Labour Government was elected.
    A massive upheaval took place by the Lange Government with the help of Roger Douglas which, included more private business models within government, a reduction in universal payments such as child benefits and an increase in targeted benefits, set at low rates and designed to only be a ‘safety net’.

    The goal of this macro-economic restructuring was to create more efficiency. The result was a rise in income inequality, which was indicative of other sweeping changes towards punitive, and profit seeking, policy models within health and welfare”.
    So what has changed?

    The 5th Helen Clark Labour Government failed to address all of this even though the mantra of the day was all about, “Closing the Gaps” but they got carried away with making the middle class rich instead by making them all landlords and SME business owners whilst the gaps of inequality got bigger and maori were relegated to the back of the queue, right behind the migrant house buyers. Gen X became the lost generation as are gen Y and the Millennials are about to find out and be rubbed out.

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