Mike Moore 1949-2020: Working class battler to neoliberal architect
One of the original members of the Fish n Chip Brigade that built the neoliberal NZ we know today has passed.
There will be fine words given, kind stories and attempts by Journalists who weren’t even born when he was PM trying to sum up his legacy.
For me he is the Working class battler who became one of the neoliberal architects and despite almost winning the 1993 election after a devastating 1990 loss, his leadership was toppled by an ambitious Helen Clark and he moved further right in terms of globalisation and free trade.
He was a tragic political figure, caught between his working class union background and his refusal to believe the political ideology he had unleashed upon NZ alongside Roger Douglas had permanently damaged those communities he called home.
His championing of free trade was less an intellectual crusade as it was a refusal to acknowledge he was wrong. It’s a bit like how Don Brash can’t admit his one nation philosophy was bitterly racist and manufactured and desperately keeps trying to sell Hobson’s Choice as some type of pseudo history that has value.
Moore’s legacy can be felt in our overtourism and the spiritual belief in the free market we often see from MFAT.
Mike was the last real working class Prime Minister NZ is ever likely to have, and while I salute him getting there, his attraction to big flashy ideas was an inferiority complex that makes his legacy problematic to the people he loved so much
I hope you find the peace you deserve Mike.
RIP.
You say it honestly and well Martyn. Like so many good people, sad that he got caught up with the wrong crowd.
He was the wrong crowd – Fish n Chip Brigade.
Unfortunately i will never forgive nor forget what he was an enthusiastic part of.
… ” His refusal to believe the political ideology he had unleashed upon NZ alongside Roger Douglas had permanently damaged those communities he called home ” … , – and , – ” His championing of free trade was less an intellectual crusade as it was a refusal to acknowledge he was wrong ”…
————————————–
Is all we need to know about Mike Moore.
That was his legacy.
Destruction.
There have been plenty of turncoats down through history and there’s no need to try and soften what they did or excuse it. He knew EXACTLY what he was damn well doing. As did Bolger when he was PM of National. To then try and turn around and say they didn’t and that they were some sort of naive / unintelligent Pollyanna’s where butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths is to say we the public are that gullible we’d vote in any old dipshit. Perhaps we have, – but in the case of those traitors in the 4th Labour govt we voted them out on Nationals promise to reverse Labours insane policy’s. And then National gave us shitter’s like Ruth Richardson and her ‘Mother of all Budgets’ and her odious Employment Contracts Act and carried on the same disgusting rape of this country.
And if anyone wants to see the arrogant anti democratic thugs in power in both Labour and National at that time, – just google demonstrations against the ECA ( called the Bill in the demonstrations ). There were hundreds of thousands of workers involved. And still they ignored us under orders from the likes of the Business Roundtable (now the NZ Initiative ). Who in turn got their orders from the London based Mont Pelerin society.
Look it up for yourselves.
Actually , – I’ll save you all the bother :
Defeat the Bill! The struggle against the Employment Contracts Bill, 1991
https://iso.org.nz/…/defeat-the-bill-the-struggle-against-the-employment-contracts-bill…
And here’s where it all started – take special note of the names enlisted in the Mont Pelerin board members from NZ , – none other than Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson.
Mont Pelerin Society Directory – DeSmogBlog
https://www.desmogblog.com/…/Mont%20Pelerin%20Society%20Directory%202010….
NEW ZEALAND
_____________________
Hon. Sir Roger Douglas
1998, Life Member
Mrs. Hanne Janes
1990
Mr. Roger L. Kerr
New Zealand Business Roundtable
1986
Honorable Ruth Richardson
Director
Ruth Richardson( NZ Ltd )
1996
Dr. Bryce Derek Wilkinson
Capital(Economics Limited)
2000
It sickens me that some will try to justify such as these, as you wrote,…
… ” There will be fine words given, kind stories and attempts by Journalists who weren’t even born when he was PM trying to sum up his legacy ”…
Especially the part about ‘ journalists who weren’t even born ‘ – who never saw the destruction, who don’t understand why we have such a poverty ridden nation today , cant reverse it and didn’t have the best damned years of their working life f@cked over by these thieving traitors.
And you know what galls me and so many others who know the truth?
There’s still plenty more of those traitors walking round free in this society who’ve never been brought to trial . A fair dollop looking like grey haired dottery old fools- but don’t let that deceive you. The damage they did to our society was immeasurable save for the mass poverty we see today,- and the largesse of their swollen bank accounts built on that theft.
No,.. I cant say I rejoice in anyone’s passing,… but you wont find me getting all misty eyed about the past concerning Mike Moore.
Or his contemporary ‘mates’ in parliament.
Well said Martyn and WILD KATIPO.
Sadly, all political parties are still riddled with traitors and acolytes of neoliberalism…which is synonymous with pillaging and polluting the commons for personal gain whilst deceiving the masses.
Mike Moore died the epitome of the unrepentant ideologue. Like Marxists he meant well, no doubt even gulag apparachiks believed that they were doing the right thing. I’m not sure he ever really thought the whole thing through, I’m not sure he was intellectually capable. More a cheerleader blind to the stark reality of his creation. He may have meant well but ultimately he left a trail of destruction. If there is an afterlife he’s in big trouble.
He’s eating fish and chips we David Lange now.
“He was a tragic political figure, caught between his working class union background and his refusal to believe the political ideology he had unleashed upon NZ alongside Roger Douglas had permanently damaged those communities he called home.”
Agreed. Nonetheless, I’m bit sad at his death. I’m old enough to remember when he was first elected; there was so much optimism, with the new cohort of young people being elected to Parliament. Although he’s younger than I am, we were contemporaries of a sort.
All that hope: but look where we are now!
Fish and Chips for eternity, how boring a life thereafter.