I’m class left. I believe the demarkation line of power in Democratic Capitalism is between the richest 1% are their 9% enablers vs the 90% rest of us.
For sometime my feeling has been that the current political spectrum simply isn’t radical enough to adapt the economy, society and culture fast enough to the realities of the climate crisis.
In the upcoming political revolution, left activists are going to need to understand the enemy, and to do that effectively, they need to see the NZ Government vs the NZ State.
The Government are the democratically appointed representatives of the people who act in the interests of the people. The State however is a the unelected bureaucratic neoliberal establishment who act in the interests of themselves and whatever Industry player is desperately attempting to deregulate laws.
Any revolutionary Party must first win representation, and then start immediate battle with the State by reforming it and purging the neoliberal values and then take on the hyper capitalists.
It is only be reforming the State from a neoliberal tool of repression into a genuine structure built for the People’s interests that can you beat the hyper capitalists.
We will know very quickly whether or not the next Labour majority, Labour majority + Green or Labour + Green Government is really going to be transformative leadership we require, because if we don’t see real progress within the first 100 days of the next Government, then we will know Labour and the Greens are not the political vehicle for the radical reform required.
This pandemic has highlighted that when existential extremes occur to us as a civilisation, we immediately look to the state for protection, so let’s just dump the whole free market neoliberal bullshit shall we?
It’s not ‘Socialism for Stealth’ if the entire country is screaming for it.
This pandemic is a universal experience, the shock waves of which are fracturing the free market certainties the hegemonic economic framework has been built upon.
An enormous cultural, economic and political backlash is building and the naked reality is that the climate crisis will be far worse than this pandemic we currently tremble from.
Spending billions on trying to rebuild ‘normal’ is fucking absurd when the market ‘normal’ was what made this pandemic erupt in the first place.
Destruction of natural biospheres alongside jowl to cheek over population and global trade exacerbated this pandemic but the climate crisis will make these 1 in a 100 year events become 1 every 10 years…
JP Morgan economists warn climate crisis is threat to human race
The world’s largest financier of fossil fuels has warned clients that the climate crisis threatens the survival of humanity and that the planet is on an unsustainable trajectory, according to a leaked document.
The JP Morgan report on the economic risks of human-caused global heating said climate policy had to change or else the world faced irreversible consequences.
The study implicitly condemns the US bank’s own investment strategy and highlights growing concerns among major Wall Street institutions about the financial and reputational risks of continued funding of carbon-intensive industries, such as oil and gas.
JP Morgan has provided $75bn (£61bn) in financial services to the companies most aggressively expanding in sectors such as fracking and Arctic oil and gas exploration since the Paris agreement, according to analysis compiled for the Guardian last year.
…the current political spectrum in New Zealand can not radically adapt fast enough to adopt the changes we must make if we are to survive the climate crisis. It will require a radical Political Movement that elects a Party to implement Fortress Aotearoa.
- Move away from intensive farming and look to become domestically self sustainable in terms of food.
- Immediately ban all water exports
- 5 year Parliamentary term.
- Upper and Lower House (Upper House 50-50 split between Māori & Pakeha that can hold up legislation if unhappy about Treaty issues)
- Massive investment into R&D from Government with the understanding research is to benefit NZ first before sold offshore.
- Large scale increase in Navy, Army & Airforce.
- Mass limiting of tourism numbers with increased tourist taxes.
- Only citizens can vote.
- Sustainable immigration and an end to exploitative migrant workers.
- Resettlement Programms for all pacific island neighbours.
- Increase refugee in take to 10 000 per year
- Fully funded public services.
- Mass Green housing rebuild & Renter Rights.
- 100% renewable energy for entire country.
- Massive tree planting across previous farming land.
- Wholesale re-write of state services act to end commercial values.
- Investment into basic pharmaceutical production.
- Financial transaction tax
- Wealth tax
- Multinational tax
- Inheritance tax
On a rapidly warming planet, NZ will increasingly be the life boat for Earth and the tyranny of our distance will become our blessing.
As the climate crisis unfolds more and more people in fury will turn against the current political system too wedded to the economic profits margins of the polluters. It is just a matter of time before the NZ electorate rejects the limitations of the current political spectrum.
If Labour or Labour+Greens are the next Government, we should judge them on their first 100 days legislative plan.
If Jacinda fails to do the real change required we will know that Labour are not the political vehicle required for the radical transformative reform required.
In 2023, for the first time in NZ history, Gen x + Gen Y + Millennials will be a larger voting block than the boomers.
2023 is our date for Fortress Aotearoa comrades.
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The most important issues facing us, and the world generally, at present are global warming and climate change. However, neoliberals will argue that our contribution to these problems is so slight that any action we take against them will have no impact; and this is a strong argument. Probably the best contribution we can is to speak out strongly at international fora. and that makes even more sense now that we have the most charismatic leader that we have ever had. But Jacinda will be severely hamstrung in this regard if, by not taking strong measures ourselves, we leave ourselves open to accusations of hypocrisy. We need to ban the import of internal combustion engine cars as soon as is practicable , and start the process of reducing the numbers of ruminant livestock. On the financial front a UBI would help since, Naomi Klein points out, it makes no sense employing people in “shitty” jobs if its only effect is to cause excessive consumption.
“neoliberals will argue that our contribution to these problems is so slight that any action we take against them will have no impact”
That’s true, but even without neoliberals voicing their opinion, the general public will never accept Martyn’s agenda (most of which aligns with my own thinking) until the system falls right over. The biggest problem to surmount will be that most people are not willing to accept a much simpler lifestyle (or to abandon their asperation for that lifestyle if they are locked out of it) devoid of all our consumer junk, even to avoid probable civilization collapse.
But we are not even close to confronting that issue as most do not recognize there is any real problem with our trajectory at all. If they did, the Greens would be polling much higher, and the Maori Party, Mana and Alliance would never have sunk below the 5% threshold. No wonder the Greens are not promoting a more radical agenda – there just is not the appetite for it.
We can only: 1 – hope that by the time the problems get a bit more obvious to people it is not too late; 2 – organize outside of the political system to build resilient communities that can look after themselves; 3 – support parties as far to the environmental and social left as realistically have a chance of getting into parliament.
Martyn;
The march towards Climate change, desperately now needs us to lower our road transport emissions, – and we need to reduce the current reliance on 96% of our NZ domestic freight being moved only on roads, as it is doing nothing to lower our climate emissions as the new OXFAM report shows NZ is now loosing the battle to lowering our transport emissions.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/300109742/new-zealands-paris-emissions-reduction-target-inequitable-and-insufficient-oxfam-says
Oxfam New Zealand says drastic cuts to emissions are needed by the end of the decade if New Zealand wants to play its part in limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, Marc Daalder reports.
Oxfam New Zealand has blasted the Government’s emissions reduction target under the Paris Agreement, saying it falls short of being consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees over the pre-industrial average and places an unfair burden on developing countries, including our Pacific neighbours, to reduce their own emissions.
So Martyn needs to advocate for a return to rail freight to lower the increasing road freight climate emissions.
.
Martyn said :As the climate crisis unfolds more and more people in fury will turn against the current political system too wedded to the economic profits margins of the polluters. It is just a matter of time before the NZ electorate rejects the limitations of the current political spectrum.
If Labour or Labour+Greens are the next Government, we should judge them on their first 100 days legislative plan.
The problem is that KiwiRail is a ‘keep rail hobbled fiefdom masquerading as pro-rail. Nothing will change until government truly holds KR to account.
Thanks Whacked;
Kiwirail was never setup properly as Helen and Micheal did when they bought it back for the public and by funding a separate under rail agency called “Ontrack” but when Government switched to National the road crazed Minister often called “Tarmac King” Steven Joyce immediately set tit up to fail by robbing the funds set up to keep the rail track in good shape was stolen by Joyce and then set Kiwi Rail up to pay for all maintenance for a rail system that needed restoring after many years since 1993 when it was privatised and Kiwirail could never generate adequate funds to restore the rundown rail system.
If you look at how National had run the roading system they would get any amount to restore roads when needed without adequate costing as they expected of Kiwi Rail so we need to radically change the way we think about shifting freight now as roading is killing the climate and we will all pay for their errors not to redistribute the freight demand to a lower emission target.
No government is the government to do radical change – it’s power outside of parliament that will make it happen. If you go back further in history that the 1980s you’ll see it time and time again – it does require a leader who’s prepared to go with the people and not try and fight them but in Jacinda I’m pretty sure we have someone who will do that.
She will act when she perceives the people have got organised enough to balance the power of the neo-liberal establishment. I don’t think we’re at the point yet but the more people are made to suffer (especially middle class people) the closer we get to that day.
I think so too.
Hmm???
We (including oil company executives) have known for at least 60 years* that the fossil-fuel-based industrial-financial-overpopulation system is unsustainable, and left unregulated would ruin the environment, overheat the Earth and lead to collapse. We don’t need ‘JP Morgan economists’ to tell us. All their declaration does is put the obvious into the semi-mainstream for a few hours (for those who bother to read The Guardian). Maybe a few days.
Meanwhile, ‘everyone’ (including JP Morgan executives and ‘coal face’ workers of the company) just carry on gobbling up resources and generating humungous quantities of life-threatening pollutants.
If that’s not the epitome of insanity, it’s hard to determine what is.
Oh, I suppose pouring humungous amounts of resource into manufacturing nuclear weapons [capable of destroying life on Earth many times over] knowing full well they can never be used must be on a par with fossil fuel insanity.
Yes, The Guardian does a better =-than-most job of reporting environmental meltdown. Elsewhere in mainstream there is no mention of unsustainability or meltdown, just buy, buy, buy. And so, as a consequence of buy, buy, buy, in the not-too-distant future it will be bye-bye.
*’The Unchained Goddess’ -Frank Cappa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lgzz-L7GFg
She sure is unchained. Gaia isn’t going to put up with the greed and stupidity of the plague of apes that can walk upright for much longer.
Needless to say, the mainstream media and the politicians are doing their best to ignore the whole matter, and thereby create mayhem and death on a scale not seen on Earth since the ‘big rock’ hit 65 million years ago.
manufacturing nuclear weapons [capable of destroying life on Earth many times over] knowing full well they can never be used
I hope you’re right about the “can never be used” bit. With a madman at the helm, you never know.
We are closer to nuclear annihilation than we have ever been. This by Nick Turse of TomDispatch, 24th Sept 2020.
Excerpt:
It’s been 74 years since Hiroshima hit the newsstands. A Cold War and nuclear arms race followed as those weapons spread across the planet. And this January, as a devastating pandemic was beginning to follow suit, all of us found ourselves just 100 seconds away from total annihilation due to the plethora of nuclear weapons on this earth, failures of U.S.-Russian cooperation on arms control and disarmament, the Trump administration’s trashing of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and America’s efforts to develop and deploy yet more advanced nukes, as well as two other factors that have sped up that apocalyptic Doomsday Clock: climate change and cyber-based disinformation.
The latter, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, is corrupting our “information ecosphere,” undermining democracy as well as trust among nations, and so creating hair-trigger conditions in international relations.
The former is transforming the planet’s actual ecosystem and placing humanity in another kind of ultimate peril. “Dangerous rivalry and hostility among the superpowers increases the likelihood of nuclear blunder,” former California Governor Jerry Brown, the executive chair of the Bulletin, said earlier this year. “Climate change just compounds the crisis. If there’s ever a time to wake up, it’s now.”
Your main problem in regards to the above would be a lack of cash. Unless you went to a full communist state and the chances of that are nil. Grant’s big “paralytic sailor in the whorehouse” spend up means it will be almost impossible for a significant Political structural change to occur. Unless you want to either get a loan from the Chinese or the world bank……
Blogs like this show there is a realisation here that Labour/Greens are part of the state (just like National/Act) and all establishment parties do is tinker on the edges. That’s a tribute to this site that it isn’t an echo chamber of self flagellation like the standard. Those intelligent on the right realised this part the way through Key’s second term when he walked back policies to remove working for families and interest free student loans due purely to keeping the middle onside. The same political reasons are why Arden/Robertson won’t pull down the establishment. They would rather be Nero than the peasants when Rome is burning.
The election is 2023 will be fascinating however I personally believe there is more chance of a far right than a far left party establishing itself.
Been saying for a while now that the “state apparatus”, let alone the politicians that continue to support it just as it is, is ill equipped to cope with the changing Whurl. And unfortunately, just at a time when we have the best opportunity and reason (one an electorate would accept) for change. And I’m not even that radical, OR one of those bleeding hearts (although others tell me otherwise).
It’s going to be a hard decision this coming October. JA (even given she’s only ever experienced life in the Whurl of the neo-liberal) and half a dozen others (munsters – who to varying degrees put their faith-based ideology in the cistern),and who seem to be carrying the entire load, have proven themselves to be spectacular.
I can’t however, forgive them for some of the shit that’s happened, or that has been left undone – especially when they had the opportunity (including giving themselves the opportunity) to make a difference, and preferred to let the hangers-on, the ‘non-performers’, the incrementalists that were once a sort of OK feature of the past, but that are no longer going to cut it if we wish to survive in a half-decent sussoighty in this lil ‘ole nayshun that punches above its weight. Fuk ’em. Comes a time when the people we elect ekshully need to step up.
[Impressions to date: JA has a stubborn streak; Sepoloni has a mean, authoritarian streak; fa-aaa-ffff-aaaa-aaaa-fffff-f-ff-Foi has a procrastinating rythym streak while his mentor (Galloway) was just going through his mlc; and there are a few others. BUT they do have a few people who should be given a go post-election – that chap from the Rapa for e.g.]
It’s a sad state of affairs when most of the Green policies are superior in many ways to the party one has always supported, but also when their people seem more concerned with assigning gender to various pronouns than they do with actually dealing with the situation at hand.
NuZull will deserve what it gets, and its possible before we have to burn before we are able to recover (or not)
Move away from intensive farming and look to become domestically self sustainable in terms of food.
In Aotearoa we are incredibly lucky in that way. It would take relatively little effort to ensure we were producing all of our basics, and were able to trade excess for food items we’d still want (eg coffee? rice?). But we have to treasure our water, our arable land and pasture, and our kai moana. We have to keep regenerating the land, and go organic.
One other thing is the need to bring our own govt money back home. This business of having our money in an Australian owned bank is ridiculous!
Particularly when overseas banks are being revealed as harbouring all kinds of corruption. BNZ and ANZ named in dirty money transactions.
100% renewable energy for entire country.
Jacinda has committed to that I think? (Complete by 2030, so they need to start immediately.)
Collins however has said she/ they would not go that way.
In 2023 the Gen X cohort will be 40 to 55 years old and no doubt eyeing the property and wealth inheritance they will be getting boomers..im suspecting you wont be seeing them at the barricades haha
in 2003 Gen X will be 40 to 55 years old and already anticipating their wealth and property inheritance they will get from the Boomers…im not expecting to see them at the barricades!!
You mean 2023, but this time Winkie, I agree with you 🙂
The Energy Market Explained
🙂
@cleangreen: do you really mean “loosing the battle” or do you rather mean “losing the battle”.
Your clarification would assist every reader’s comprehension.
Melting Antarctic ice will raise sea level by 2.5 metres – even if Paris climate goals are met, study finds
Jonathan Bamber, a professor of glaciology at the University of Bristol, who was not involved with the research, said: “This study provides compelling evidence that even moderate climate warming has incredibly serious consequences for humanity, and those consequences grow exponentially as the temperature rises. The committed sea level rise from Antarctica even at 2C represents an existential threat to entire nation states. We’re looking at removing nations from a map of the world because they no longer exist.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/23/melting-antarctic-ice-will-raise-sea-level-by-25-metres-even-if-paris-climate-goals-are-met-study-finds
“The Government are the democratically appointed representatives of the people who act in the interests of the people. The State however is a the unelected bureaucratic neoliberal establishment who act in the interests of themselves and whatever Industry player is desperately attempting to deregulate laws.”
What does that even mean? The government made up of the “usual suspects” have consistently acted in the interests of the globalist neo liberal big business. As for the state its beholden to the political interests that rule it. Trying to separate the two is akin to saying the body runs around without any influence from its head. The CP-TPPA for example was passed by political parties in office and enacted by the state.
Real change can only come about from supporting and voting for new parties who don’t represent “more of the same”. Its imperative too that the mechanisms by which government functions in this country are amended especially in terms of human rights and accountability. That said that is unlikely to happen until new parties come to power or some other external factor compels drastic change, such as near climate collapse and resource shortage.
“I’m class left. I believe the demarkation line of power in Democratic Capitalism is between the richest 1% are their 9% enablers vs the 90% rest of us.” a very succinct summing up.
100% right Martyn. The main enemy other than actual capitalism and finance capital, is indeed “within” the state superstructure. A sub level of arseholes that need to go also, to are the 5 Eyes suck-ups in the military and security services.
You write @ MB.
“I’m class left. I believe the demarkation line of power in Democratic Capitalism is between the richest 1% are their 9% enablers vs the 90% rest of us.”
That’s nice for you.
I’m class Human. Not class In-Human. I no longer believe in, nor identify with, the Left / Right narrative because it’s politically archaic bullshit. Left/Right implies that two ideologies vie for who can do best by us.
Which is the aforementioned bullshit. The Right take delight in fucking people over for their money for the frisson’s it gives their little diddles while the almost mythical Left try to stay one step ahead of them. Think octopus being hunted be Pyjama Sharks. Seriously, is a thing.
Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Octopus_Teacher
“Move away from intensive farming and look to become domestically self sustainable in terms of food.”
Really? Is that so? I happen to agree entirely but what’s YOUR qualification for stating that? You slam dirty old white volk farmers whenever you have an increase in blood pressure. And on that basis, and since I am a farmer, you have to qualify why we should agree on something while coming at that from polarised points of view.
“Massive tree planting across previous farming land.”
See what I mean?
“Inheritance tax”
Well, that fucks things up for farmers again.
Farming is a highly family oriented institution, for the want of a better word. I was born onto a farm, grew up on that farm therefore I grew to know our farms intimately but then the manager of the bnz in timaru swindled it from me and my whanau. The fucker’s dead now so I can’t even look forward to knocking him over and giving him a good kicking.
And while on that delicious subject…
Where’s our Utu going to come from? It’s all very well to be able to say that neoliberalism fucked up everything but remember? They still have our money and our blood on the hands. Don’t you think we need to go after vengeance and our money and state paid for assets?
Farming, where possible, must be able to be handed to the young born to it. Otherwise the idea of farming holistically and organically becomes a fucking impossibility in most cases.
I found this a few weeks ago and nearly forgot about it.
It’s a must read for farmers and more so for those who need to eat.
Country Party (New Zealand)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_Party_(New_Zealand)
I liked the first paragraph.
” The Country Party had its origins in the Auckland Farmers’ Union, a branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union which covered most of the upper North Island. In the 1920s, members of this branch increasingly came to believe that the Reform Party, which traditionally enjoyed much support in rural areas, was now putting the interests of farmers behind those of businesses in the city. The Auckland branch was also strongly influenced by the social credit theory of monetary reform, promoted by C. H. Douglas. Many farmers believed that the country’s financial system did not treat them fairly, and that they were being exploited by big-city bankers and moneylenders. ”
I met Cliff Emeny years ago. He was a friend of my fathers when my dad was trying to get his late 1960’s Farmers Union off the ground.
Cliff Emeny had great stories of being captured by the Japanese then tortured after he crash landed his plane in the jungles of Borneo, I think it was.
“In 2023, for the first time in NZ history, Gen x + Gen Y + Millennials will be a larger voting block than the boomers.”
See? That’s a bit fucked. There you go again?
Dividing our society into absurd concepts.
Dividing people into terminally ignorant youth and terminally stupid old is fucking dangerous and not helpful.
I think we’ve had enough institutionalised division for one life time, don’t you?
I know brilliant young people and some pretty fucking frightfully dumb ones too. Just like older people.
@ MB? There are no differences generated by age. Just by experience and a willingness to cultivate an open mind. Forget the boomer and the gens social mythology. That’s dangerous bullshit.
In a time when we must find the strength in our numbers against the In-Humans we must feel as if we belong to this and to each other. Or we’re fucked.
IMO.
Neither the concept of certain age groups being the ‘revolutionary’ force, whilst others are not, nor the martial imagination of a ‘fortress’ has any tangible substance, beyond being catchy, social PR.
If it should, it seems to be outside the humanist values and historical experience of the non-orthodox Left.
What will drive change is the aggregated class structure of the neoliberal system, combined with the ‘exhaustion’ of earth’s resources through endless consumerism.
The anticipated time horizon of 2023 appears artificial; things will crack when a global ‘critical mass’ of ecological devastation and human exploitation is reached.
Whether this will be in 2023, or before or later, we cannot say. But we can get prepared for those times.
In AO/NZ, such preparatory leadership is what we should expect (but presently do not get) from the Green party, or a substitute or parallel open platform.
Anything else is probably in danger of just being linguistic shadow-boxing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrkKZW85ZJA
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