There was a meeting held last week in Auckland to discuss whether or not NZ need a new radical Left Party.
I’ve been cancelled approximately 17 000 times since 2016 for thought crimes against woke dogma, so I certainly wasn’t invited and Sue Bradford was.
Sadly for the NZ Left, middle class Identity Politics is now the main cultural influence over Left wing politics and hilariously the reviewer from the Identitarian Spin Off wrote…
A brave and cynical journalist might consider that the core of these groups always seem dominated by middle-class white people who are highly educated and love reading dense books that are really old and long. That journalist might wonder whether some of these groups are more interested in carrying out complex thought experiments and holding virtuous political opinions than actually engaging with the real world.
…yeah, seeing as we have haemorrhaged cis male votes and driven them into the arms of the far right, insights like, ‘we got too many white cis males here, let’s purge them first and start the revolution highlights how fucked as a movement.
Sue was depressingly pragmatic and brought a dose of reality to proceedings.
There’s little chance of it happening she concluded.
She pointed out the desire to rip our leaders to pieces for woke purity tests will always cripple anyone from actually leading.
We need a radical review of capitalism, what we have is a radical interventionist culture war where the woke create regular purity tests.
I’ve set ups two small parties (and joined them together to officially make a 3rd one), so I have some ideas.
The true demarcation of power in a capitalist democracy is the 1% richest + their 9% enablers vs the 90% rest of us.
Identity Politics promotes pure temple politics and burns Broadchurch populism.
Broadchurch populism that promotes fully funded public services funded by taxing the rich.
It is an Economic and Social debate that allows any of the 90% to buy in.
Unfortunately the low hanging fruit of middle class identity politics trumps class.
The modern Left are great at Free the Nipple protests for Vegan Trans Ally Mummy Bloggers, not so good at challenging the neoliberal economic structure.
So how can we get out of the quagmire of alienating Identity Politics and into the Class Left Universal solidarity and Sanders/Corbyn populism?
5%
Look, you could big balls it. This new Left Radical Party with a focus on properly funding public services could aim for 5% Party vote to cross the threshold, but that takes a LOT of money, amazing organisation and real dedication. It’s fucking hard. There is a suggest to lower the MMP threshold, maybe you could try this if the entry was 3%, but 5% is a mountain so few Parties have managed to climb and sustain.
Win an Electorate
You could coalesce around an electorate and attempt to gain access to Political representation and any MMP coat tailing – but that requires an incredible candidate who can seriously aim
Use Woke tactics against the Woke:
One of the things the woke are amazing at is burrowing into command and control of protest organisations and taking them over while piously purging anyone who isn’t their definition of inclusive.
We saw them do it with the Auckland Pride Parade, the Auckland Students Climate Change, movement and we are seeing it inside the Greens right now.
Imagine the following:
A collective of class activists inside Labour, Greens and Maori Party who join a ‘Radical Economic Justice Front’.
This ‘Radical Economic Justice Front’ put together a 10 point radical economic policy promise and collectively push within Labour, Greens and Maori Party to agree to adopt that 10 point policy platform if they win the 2026 election.
Bypass there alienating woke activists altogether and collectively work inside the Parties themselves by stacking local branches and pushing them to adopt The Aotearoa New Zealand Peoples Economic Justice Pledge which the ‘Radical Economic Justice Front’ would promote the hell out of and sell to voters.
The Aotearoa New Zealand Peoples Economic Justice Pledge
- Free Public Transport
- Free Dental
- First $20 000 tax free, lower GST to 10% while implementing Sugar Tax, Financial Transactions tax, Billionaire Tax.
- State Houses for life
- Massive rent to own building spree
- Ministry of Green Works
- 100% renewable cheap electricity
- Food security
- Radical environmental adaptation
- More schools, more hospitals, more education, more public health
Labour, Greens and Maori Party must work together if we have any hope of beating this hard right, racist, climate denying, beneficiary bashing, disabled abusing Government.
If we don’t work together we are doomed to have these vandals remain and cement into place their damage.
For any party like you suggest to succeed they would need to show vocal support for (i hate this label but use it for clarity) “cis males” and decry the attacks made almost daily upon them. The problem then would be the woke inside labour and the greens would label it far right and refuse to work with it. A great idea but doomed to fail until the radical woke in Labour and the Greens are purged. Which is unlikely before 2026.
I’ve never noticed attacks on this cis-male. Yep, it is us white males who are being persecuted. Crap for idiots.
Culture and class wars can go along together. I’m not in favour of leaving behind minorities for one minute.
Although Labour could do this with a lot of work, the Greens are toxic and TPM are just nuts. Perhaps a Labour TOP ticket?
The combination of Labour/Greens/TPM would ensure a right wing Government for life.
Farmers? Unite with Maori then chuck the foreign owned banksters out ( After asset stripping then imprisoning the fuckers as required first ) then form and urgency-unit to take care of basic infrastructure and supply of services then go up every bank, every politician and every rich lobbyist here from, say, about 1910 then release all data, all findings and all cash stashed away in off-shore accounts and assets over to our homeless and hungry first. Aye boys?
So basically just the Maori party platform? Checks out. Labour is an extremist neoliberal party, the Greens are mostly weird freaks nowadays, the Maori party is a better bet for even those who couldn’t care less about Maori issues than either.
Labour is an extremist neoliberal party – What? There is nothing extremist about the incrementalist Labour party – and while there is some remnant of neoliberalism, it is nothing compared to the current government with ACT being the king of neoliberalism followed closely by National and, to a lesser degree, Winston First.
Green are weird for straight folk – but not really that unusual – for that look at Winston First!
Everything has already been privatized and destroyed, Bob. What are Labour calling to nationalize, to bring our economy back from the brink? The dirty rat Hipkins won’t even talk about taxing rich enthusiasts for harvesting the blood of the young like Peter Thiel more.
Chipkins is a handbrake on Labour. he really, really f****d it up by making a Captain’s Call on not supporting, Parkers Taxation Policy.
A good start, perhaps, would be stop calling such ideas radical left. All this is nothing more than, “What would Norman Kirk do?” if he were alive today and not in 1974.
Same problem in Australia as here: Australia’s Failed Housing Experiment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65H5CzSAIQ8
@No1karez
51 minutes ago
It’s a real shame how much politicians have ruined our country and just the thought of young Australian families living in tents is absolutely shocking and I feel so bad for those families
@user-bj7gg9es7h
7 minutes ago (edited)
I woke up a long time ago. Ditched Australia 10 years ago. Live in Asia, built a 5 bedroom 3 bathroom house on 1,000 square meters of land with a 20 metre frontage for $100k including the land. Cost of living is much cheaper and the weather is warm all year round. House prices in Oz, yeh nah, that’s for those who want to work paying it off for the next 30 years, forced savings or forced slavery for next 30 years.
The government sold out Australia when they introduced negative gearing.
What’s the solution : Get ride of negative gearing, place a flat rate of 20% Capital Gains Tax on all properties (no discount), and you will have a steadily growing property market for all afford and live in, but greed outweighs that, doesn’t it.
Ah the lucky country once it was, a long time ago.
Biko Konstantinos
Anthony Albanese: We’re boosting rent assistance by 10%
9 hours ago
This is farcical in my opinion. There are so many things the government could do to put downward pressure on rent prices – and this is their best solution. Start by slashing out of control immigration levels.
@Ozee316
9 hours ago
The previous NZ government did this for 6 years. Most of the money went to landlord profits and rents are sky high.
@Deano00777
8 hours ago
Another Band-Aid. Now landlords will raise rents by 15%
@Joy-Girl
8 hours ago (edited)
Hi Biko I don’t think any politician wants to repair the housing crisis they created to plunder for themselves. You speak truth, I’m surprised that the algorithms haven’t shut you down yet as a threat to their scam. Here in SA my rent assistance is regularly reassessed and like magic my house value rises and then my community housing landlord takes my rent assistance and uses it to pay their office staff instead of building housing. It’s been happening over a decade now ️
@Anthony-uk4fq
9 hours ago
Great idea, just give more money to the landlord’s and the wealthy 1%
https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxkqhHTWFseGn4iNMduPvs-fBBxc5qqFo3
NACTACTNZF give Landlords a $2.9 Billion Tax Break which also benefit’s our PM Christopher 7 Pads Luxton.
Martyn – Not sure we (NZ) need another Left Party…perhaps, the current Left Parties could serve the Left community better, and not just themselves.
That is the better option, creating a new party merely dilutes what is already a weak broth.
What an hypothesis? You do know that Left or Right is ideology NOT people.
” ..serve the Left community better, and not just themselves.”
How would you even screen the community as the recipients of Government policy for this nonsense to be true ?
Citizen – ” Hi , I’d like to rent a property?”
Realty Agent – ” Are you Left or Right ? If you’re Left , F* O !”
Citizen- ” Can you help me with minimum family income payment application. ”
Winz Agent – ” Are you Right or Left ? If you’re poor and in the Right community F# O ! ”
Citizen – ” Hi , can I talk to someone about toxins in my water supply from the neighbouring factory?
EPA – ” NOT if you’re Right leaning ? ”
ALL people are recipients of shit policy, regardless of leanings. Don’t keep spinning SHIT Nathan or people will suspect you’re Luxie’s PR sock puppet.
Actually deliver real & meaningful change for everyone.
Well said Nathan.
IMO, TPM should cease to exist as a political entity because its easy for David Seymours & Shane Joneses of the right to score huge political capital by pointing the finger even when there is nothing to point at! TPM are easy targets for the right to score political capital and if the left have any chances of winning the next election unless Coc fucks up even worse by than identity politics will be the left’s’ downfall. I’m Maori & voted TPM in this current election but I’m also a realist in this regard.
TPM could deliver for Maori if it had better candidates – put yourself forward.
Quit splitting the Left’s voting block , win an election first , then once in power smack the radical change into play.
Softly, softly catchy monkey.
Labour are still National Lite and adhere to Neoliberal Philosophies. Still just like Pepsi & Coke, one is blue one is red.
Prisoners get most of the policy items listed in the ” Aotearoa Peoples Economic Justice Pledge”
Free public transport
Free Dental and free general healthcare.
Tax free income
State House for life
Free electricity
Food security
Radical environmental adaption. (Own room if requested)
The government needs to start treating the rest of us as well as we treat our prisoners.
Same but without the wire.
As a white middle class bloke my opinion is worth precisely squat but here is what John Key would say….”…Bwahaha….the woke movement is the greatest invention of neoliberalism since Roger Douglas got our shit together…”
Martyn you know this already but the left MUST stop dancing the wokey tokey and welcome everyone back under the tent and address the big issues. Until then it’s all fucking pointless and the left is wasting its time.
The realist in me will wake up in 8 and a bit years’ time and hope that things might change. Unfortunately the pessimist in me says that the woke bollocks has locked in a Holyoake term for this ungodly trinity.
Let’s Talk About Tax
Yes, Labour can restore its woeful tax position.
In 2019, at the height of her popularity and despite her campaigning on it for over three years, Labour’s Jacinda Ardern ruled out the capital gains tax that her own tax advisory group had just recommended.
https://thestandard.org.nz/lets-talk-about-tax/
Woke Labour, still following Neoliberal dogma.
The most important “need” to fulfill after the “what” policies s are decided is the how, where, when and who will deliver the message in a way that it will sell and convince this to a large enough number of voters to form a government.
Ideas and policies are fine but the delivery and the ability to ignite desires needs to be addressed. You will get the populace positively salivating to get implementation, if you get the delivery and a “tension for change” benefit that is worth voting for.
All political parties are particularly bad at marketing and selling their policies. Perhaps the most fundamental sales advice is that people DO NOT buy based on fear. You cannot goad a buy in with a fear message. There has to be a “reward” (improved living condition?).