We will need a revolution at the ballot boxes in 2023

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Right now there are 22,000 desperate Kiwi’s waiting on social housing lists – don’t tell me party pill testing for middle class kids at expensive summer festivals is a fucking priority especially when working class cannabis smokers get nothing.

In 2010, the 388 richest individuals owned more wealth than half of the entire human population on Earth

By 2015, this number was reduced to only 62 individuals

In 2018, it was 42

In 2019, it was down to only 26 individuals who own more wealth than 3.8 billion people.

This isn’t a democracy, it’s fast becoming a feudal plutocracy on a burning planet.
Every aspect of our existence is monetarised for big data to sell us more stuff we can’t afford. We are alienated and anesthetized by a consumer culture that keeps us neurotic and disconnected. Our work, our existence, every move we make are all built to suck money to a minority class that sits above us while under neoliberalism, globalization, financialization, and automation, our existence as individuals has only become more disposable.
NZ will be one of the few lifeboats left and we need to start accepting that as global warming gets worse and worse.
Ultimately, the issue is a full scale reform of the neoliberal state. In the words of the greatest living NZ Unionist, Robert Reid…

…THIS is the real issues in NZ.

We think the masquerade of representative democracy puts us the people in control – it doesn’t! The Wellington Neoliberal Bureaucratic Elite stops transformative change.

A Democracy changes the Government.
A Revolution changes the State.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

We need a revolution from an election.

The foundations of the 35 year neoliberal experiment in NZ have been exposed and found to be cracked to their core, with the climate crisis demanding a radical change, this pandemic is the perfect time to challenge the religious orthodoxy of free market dogma.

This is a unique challenge for the NZ Left ever since Identity Politics over took class politics as the dominant theory on our side of the political divide. It means currently that the Left in NZ are intellectually better prepared to organise a WoC Mommy Blogger Trans Ally free the nipple petition on Action Station than they are to debate the hegemonic structure of neoliberalism.

Woke Identitarians will scream patriarchy, racism and sexism to explain our malaise but the truth is economics and the weaponisation of scarcity is designed to erode class solidarity so that those hegemonic structures remain.

This cancel culture has left the Left intellectually ill prepared to debate the failures of the free market economy and the solutions we must adopt to get out of this.

Labour are notoriously timid when it comes to challenging the neoliberal hegemonic structure because they were the Party that unleashed this far right experiment upon us and the scars of that debate are still raw in Labour’s psyche, luckily for us the economic depression alongside the meltdown of the climate crisis will be so deep and damaging that even Cautious Jacinda and Extra Cautious Grant have no choice but to reform and rebuild.

If they refuse transformative change, the Left must look at a political vehicle beyond Labour and the equally hopeless Greens.

History is watching.

 

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29 COMMENTS

  1. I read the Green party manifest prior to the last election and while there were some nice to have it had no practical application in advancing the country. Perhaps I am wrong and progess is not what we want but if that is the case it needs to be honestly said and just how we live in this brave new world that is in the Green mind. If we are meant to live a simpler life like we perceive was led in the 60s what modern adances do we have to give up . At 72 I can assure you the god old days were not that good if you were not fit and healthy.

  2. This is the downfall of the great Western civilisation of which we are a satellite of. All great civilisations crumble from the inside.

    Whether you are left or right there is no doubt the system is broken. Those who can create change don’t want to because it affects their prospects. In effect the Blairite is as much Nero as Trump.

  3. ‘The foundations of the 35 year neoliberal experiment in NZ have been exposed and found to be cracked to their core’

    In view of the rate at which the US is collapsing:

    ‘Here’s our summary of key economic events overnight that affect New Zealand, with news the pandemic surge in the US is reaching frightening levels….

    ‘….This means there are now -9.7 mln fewer people employed in November 2020 in the US than were employed in November 2019 even though their working aged population grew by +1.1 people over the same time.

    New factory orders fell -3.7% in October from the same month a year ago, and they slipped from the prior month as well (although on a seasonally adjusted basis, they are being reported as being +1% up on a monthly basis). Non-defense capital goods orders brought marginally better news rising +0.4% year-on-year even if they too slipped from September. None of this data represents a recovering economy.

    On the trade front, their October trade deficit for both goods and services came in at -US$63 bln, its second largest ever and only beaten by the awful August result. Their October goods deficit was 21% higher than a year ago, their services surplus was -24% lower. The politically sensitive deficit with China came in at -$30 bln for goods alone and little changed from the same month in 2019.

    This poor data has re-energised Congress. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are currently negotiating details of a roughly US$900 bln plan to support various at-risk sectors of their economy. The stumbling block are the Republicans who have “suddenly” rediscovered their aversion to deficit spending.

    The bricks-and-mortar retail industry is in substantial trouble. A list of 17 recently bankrupt key retail chain names have closed more than 11,000 locations, with sales of more than US$41 bln. Clearly those purchases will happen elsewhere and probably online, but that is still a major hollowing-out.’

    https://www.interest.co.nz/news/108277/us-payroll-growth-weak-us-congress-eyes-large-new-stimulus-canadians-tax-vacant-homes

    it is difficult to imagine the globalised US-dollar-based system lasting until November 2023.

    Indeed, the trajectory of the US is so awful and so-self-destructive it is hard to imagine the globalised UD-dollar-based system lasting until November 2021.

    With America off our backs, there is some prospect of sanity prevailing.

    But don’t expect any sanity from the current crop of snout-in-the-trough politicians and bureaucrats, who currently present the biggest obstacle to genuine progress, and will attempt to hold onto power by any means they can think of.

  4. But we did that, and handed labour a fist full of seats to rule alone. Which they are doing to the joy and delight of their corporate lords and masters.

    No it’s not the ballot box we need to focus on. It’s the individuals and who make up this bureaucracy. We need to name them, and point out the self absorbed petty individuals who think they know better.

  5. Interesting to see some of the reactionaries like Frankus and Trev Canary engaging on this blog platform that our esteemed editor Martyn and other supporters of TDB provide.

    The challenge is what would their Nat party, or Nat party members, do differently from Labour (minus COVID response)? and the answer is very little–stick tightly to the neo liberal Parliamentary consensus, preserve the Reserve Bank Act etc. and keep the joint running on a “for the few not the many” basis.

    The Greens, timid as the current lot are, have the needed approach. Environment first, sheepshagging and industrial Dairying second.

    • In fairness nothing different. I’m not a National apologist far from it. Every time they look to take a step forward, they decide to take a 5k jog backwards. As a long time fan of Judith even she is beginning nauseating in her LabourLite philosophy. From a neoliberal perspective the Blairite is doing even a better job than Key so focussed on holding the middle they are. Act is slowly becoming a default landing zone and will be where I end up if their new batch are worth feeding.

      The problem is this. If you have half a brain whether you are right or left you can see the train wreck coming. Cheap cash can’t last forever (unless you want to turn into Zimbabwe) and at some stage you have to pay the piper. The things we are spending cash on are largely “one offs” and there is only so many BMWs, rental properties, outdoor pizza ovens and house paints you can do. In terms of recurring income streams outside of animal carcasses and their by products, a few boutique low employment industries and tourism (sic) there isn’t much we do. So what happens post Easter is anyone’s guess. I get the feeling however our councils are canaries in the coalmine and we are heading for one hell of a financial hangover.

      Soooo we’ve spent all our money and not even addressed our major issues into the long term such as intergenerational poverty. Its like a welfare family that spends all its money on lotto, alcohol and cigarettes and has nothing left over for school shoes or lunch.

      As someone pointed out this week – is the move to electric cars worth it if the bottom 25% of NZ can’t afford it and we have to fire up Huntly to ensure the lights stay on? Surely some of this money should have been spent on our electrical infrastructure…….

  6. Great words Martyn , even better cartoon by boomer Evans.

    On one point , I beg to differ:
    “Labour are notoriously timid when it comes to challenging the neoliberal hegemonic structure because they were the Party that unleashed this far right experiment upon us and the scars of that debate are still raw in Labour’s psyche”
    No scars , IMO . The current cabal are the spawn of Roger D and neither participated in or researched the debate to which you refer.
    They very much represent the political sector of the Managerial class and are much comforted by surrounding themselves with “The Wellington Neoliberal Bureaucratic Elite” .
    Both are completely incapable of planning/implementing ” reform and rebuild ” as they have no real world experience or template available to them because they don’t know where to look.

    Their well honed ‘tinkering” skill set is probably just enough to prevent the onset of the ‘hungry mob’ , who , as history reminds us , are the one plausible pathway to the Revolution that is required.

  7. Interesting retweet of Shamubeel Eaqub’s graph from the TOP party leader Shai Navot.
    It shows what inflation would really look like if house prices were included over the last 20 years.

    https://twitter.com/SEaqub/status/1332133025841258496

    Even more interesting below the graph is a letter received by Zen Dog from statistics NZ in 2002 confirming THAT LAND WAS TAKEN OUT OF CPI at the end of 1999.

    I tend to agree with Zen Dog’s conclusion that this has rigged the system towards looser monetary policy and with it rising asset prices that the RB has continually exacerbated by slashing interest rates.

    Of note neither Labour nor National have put it back in despite rocketing prices under their tenures since it was taken out.

    • Updated: actually the letter to “Zen Dog” was from Maurice Williamson, the Minister of Statistics in 2002 who was advised by statistics NZ that land (i.e. residential properties) was taken out of CPI after some review was taken in 1997 by some “external advisory committee”, and the aftermath of that was the removal of land from the September quarter of 1999 onwards.

      Hence land inflation has no longer been reflected in CPI for the last 20 years, and therefore not taken into “CPI inflation” consideration each time the Reserve Bank has done it’s numerous interest rate cuts, which then inevitably stoked the land inflation (that was taken out of CPI!), and has made the rate of return for savers almost dwindle away to nothing, and pushed more into speculating on land.

      • Correction: the letter was 2012, not 2002 above.

        Maurice Williamson was Minister of Statistics at the time of the letter (2012), and at the time the letter says land was taken out of the CPI in 1999.

        Minister of Statistics: 1 July 1993 to 10 December 1999,
        then 19 November 2008 to 1 May 2014

    • What annoys me about this is I have been pointing it out for at least 6 years. Shambeel to his credit published an article on Stuff pointing it out also after I repeatedly made the point in comments to his articles about house prices..
      It was not only land prices that were removed, between Shipley and Bolger they also removed the cost of existing occupied houses, and interest rates.
      Removing housing costs from the CPI means there is no monetary mechanism to control them. It was done deliberately so inflation would be lower and so interest rates never had to increase and house prices could sky rocket unabated. and wages are tied to CPI so they were never going to grow in real terms.
      All of this was on Stats NZ for all to see. No one seemed to give a toss. and then I warned StasNZ were going to remove their archives on Dec 4th. No one gave a toss.
      Here’s what you get when you google the page.
      https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjUttr4iL7tAhXOzDgGHfK_CGAQFjAAegQIAxAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Farchive.stats.govt.nz%2Fbrowse_for_stats%2Feconomic_indicators%2Fcpi_inflation%2Fhome-ownership-in-the-cpi.aspx&usg=AOvVaw3YgH0sbU1t_toFlI_6c-vy
      https://www.stats.govt.nz
      You wonder why people get angry.

    • It wasn’t just land prices that were removed.
      Bolger removed the cost of existing houses.
      Shipley removed the cost of land and the cost of interest rates (including mortgages).
      They stitched up the housing crisis right there and then.
      Removing housing and then opening up immigration and foreign investment meant house prices could boom with no increase in CPI, and therefore no increase in interest rates.
      A licence to print money for those in the know.

  8. Well said Martyn. We don’t always agree but that is the nature of reality – sometimes we don’t agree. But on the big stuff – I think so. Pity it appears the vast majority simply can’t or don’t want to understand – ignorance is bliss.

  9. Not at all Bob, Kiwi!s are brought up in short pant!s, and allway!s do as their told, until 23 24 25, they start learning how long pant!s can be and how,look got a job deposit on a home and look who is going to upset this, care.

  10. Have you all noticed how much stock Jacinda puts into stuff that is all about ‘feel good’. Fuck all is actually being ‘done’ as such.
    acinda and her Labour govt will reform and rebuild, they will not grow this country one bit. NZ will go backwards economically. There will be no money spent on the really important stuff! No extra houses will be built in a meaningful way, no money making initiatives to improve income and life in general. Sure, big words about hate speech and endless milking and re-living of tragic events from a year ago. She’s good at that! But other than that…it’s all just a horse shit and pipe dream govt we have.
    As John Key said, yeah yeah mock him all you like folks, but he nailed it bang on when he said she doesn’t ‘do economy’. It doesn’t interest her. Well it better, because that’s how we get all that money that’s needed to make all those things happen Bomber. More houses, better welfare, your global warming fight….it all take heaps of money. And backbone of course, but it’s long been proven she doesn’t have that. Otherwise we’d have CGT by now.
    Sad thing is Bomber, the masses will again give her all the votes she wants. They buy ‘big empty promises ‘any day over ‘getting shit done’. You’ll see.

  11. Maybe I’m in the bubble of the new Stuff but I get the impression a lot of force for the people is being brought to bear on this govt. Jacinda has Grant and Helen to keep her cool. The diff between a perfect CV and the iron forged in Hell of original Labour.

  12. Got a friend, heaps of wealth and shame exploit stuff his employers, lets my thought flow, with another shame exploit thought, and not a thought about our xmas party, fly xmas party here, your friend should true, should learn our wai fly rivers, and care.

  13. Shall we shoot them, them prods, wait for the order, just no need, their has to be. Why us, we you, knowing, their blame english will be our blame.

  14. No need any of this truth to be printed, socialist how long, capitalisms exploit of our humanity its been this knowing,our humanity tovarich, is has always been.

  15. WHAT a thing, workers in a major corporation food distribution are on STRIKE, eh why, got over fear, and truth to stand up. He Kiwi, no, heh you, see learn the truth.

  16. I live in Whanganui, long time, used to cut down xmas trees in the areas of Whanganui!s jail, done it for years, not for fuck the jail inhumain, just cut the tree down.How come why socialist union,well our social humanity.Truth to be known,Tari and Joe, who, Maori Wahinie, got them remember your whanau, got this Maori Party. That!s the truth of our rebirth, this scots socialist trade unionist.

  17. And truth, last posted is truth. No need the truth, ever told a employer, i am here on behal of my employers your union bosses no, my employers in your work shop and your work sites ,they are my employers your workers, my employers who say you have been diddling.NO need publish, no lies,yer pal fisher man,likes fishing,and laments his dog pax,what a sad sack,fried, forget his profit boss,got this socialist and right wing capitalist.Should we tell your friend the best
    wai, to cast a fly, does your friend remember deserve.

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