Zohran Mamdani and why NZ Left needs to move beyond the low hanging fruit of identity politics and the illusion of awareness
Mamdani says leftwing populist victory can be replicated across US
Zohran Mamdani, in his first major interview since his upset victory in the Democratic party’s mayoral primary in New York shook up US politics, said his brand of campaigning and leftist political stances can translate to anywhere in the US.
Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, stunned many observers by beating Andrew Cuomoon Tuesday night, delivering a devastating blow to the former New York governor who ran a centrist campaign backed by most of the party establishment.
Mamdani told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki that his populist campaign – which focused on inequality and promised radical moves on rent, the price of food and free public transport – could be deployed anywhere in the US as Democrats seek to combat Donald Trump and his Maga movement.
I have been arguing since Bernie Sanders stood against Hilary that the only way to combat Trump’s (and the wider rights) negative populism is popular populism.
Not one poor family is sitting around the kitchen table cancelling each other for misusing pronouns, they are trying to work out how to pay the bills, and when the working poor turn to us on the Left for solutions and see only alienating identity politics dogma being served up as a solution, they turn away in anger at us.
I’ve only been pointing this other since 2016.
Meanwhile the planet burns.
If we’ve all finished alienating possible voters with pure temple politics, how’s about some good old fashioned Broadchurch class solidarity instead?
- Free public transport
- An Iwi back 3rd Supermarket chain.
- First $20 000 tax free
- GST off essentials
- Free Dental
- Free Health
- Free Education
Left Universalism is our goal, subsidising the biggest costs for the poorest people.
The NZ Left needs to move beyond the low hanging fruit of identity politics and the illusion of awareness…
Bregman says one antidote to that fear is “moral ambition.” It’s his term for people who blend the idealism of an activist with the ruthless pragmatism of an entrepreneur to make the world a better place. In his new book, “Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference,”Bregman uses the example of that German shipyard worker and other ordinary people to critique what he sees as a common failing of people on the left: They fall for the “illusion of awareness,” a belief that simply exposing people to injustice will inspire them to act.
“Awareness doesn’t put food on the table. Awareness won’t keep a roof over your head,” writes Bregman, a vegan who has spoken out against animal factory farming. “With awareness, you don’t cool down the planet, you’re not finding shelter for those 100 million refugees, and you won’t make a bit of difference for the 100 billion animals at factory farms worldwide. Awareness is at best a starting point, while for many activists, it seems to have become the end goal.”
…the manner in which social media school chambers have radicalised voters into Qanon militia speaks to a deeper wound and is reminiscent of the way global Muslim youth were radicalised in the 1990s and 2000s thanks to online Jihadist recruitment videos.
Citizens should feel angry and cynical at a system that is rigged in favour of the rich!
The Left should lean into that populism!
We need to focus on how to combat this terrible racist, anti-worker, anti-Treaty, anti-renter, anti-beneficiary, anti-environment Government who are selling out the common good for the interests of their donor friends.
We have to re-establish the egalitarian mission by promoting policy that directly challenges the capitalist status quo in meaningful ways.
Without vision, the Left is lost.
There are 4 magical pillars of the NZ economic ‘success’
1 – Stealing Indigenous land and never paying back the full value.
2 – Selling basic milk powder to China
3 – Selling each other houses and pretending that makes us rich.
4 – Addiction to a low wage economy.
The migration exploitation rules are garbage because NZ loves exploiting migrant labour!
We are addicted to it.
We say locals are too lazy for these jobs when really what we say is locals won’t allow themselves to be exploited as easily as migrant workers.
There is of course a solution here.
Universal Union membership for every migrant worker crossing the border.
That way domestic workers know they are not competing against exploited labour.
That way migrant labour can’t be exploited without the Union stepping.
That way the migrant worker and domestic worker are all protected by the solidarity of the Union.
We don’t want a solution to exploited labour, that’s why Universal Union Membership for migrant workers is ignored and non-solutions like this are promoted.
We need economic resilience, we need community resilience, we need radical reform to strengthen sustainability.
We need more Left Universalism.
We need to lift the tax yoke off working people, beneficiaries and the middle classes and we need to put it on the Banks, the Corporations, the Billionaires and the mega wealthy.
We need more Democratic Infrastructure, not less!
Why do we need these things?
Because the climate is shutting down and we face a bleak future where Billions will suffer and die thanks to catastrophic climate change.
This change will be forced upon us whether we like it or not.
This demands more connections, more bonds that bind us together to emotionally, socially, economically and politically survive what is coming.
Māori communalism is going to teach us a lot.
Here are some thoughts on what the NZ Left should be considering:
The Right to Strike: A 10 day nation wide national strike would achieve more for working people than a dozen elections. We don’t have the right to strike in this country for God’s sakes, stand on your feet or live on your knees!
Iwi backed new Supermarket: Bring in a 3rd player into the supermarket duopoly that is Iwi backed with a focus on cheap prices for consumers, best prices for producers and high wages and work conditions for workers. Take 30% of the Supermarket Industry by force (allowed under the Commerce Commission powers) and use this as the backbone for a new food security system.
Mārae Civil Defence: Use Marae as the backbone of Civil Defence throughout NZ with resources based there alongside new building grants to strengthen those Marae.
Ministry of Green Works: We need to be able to build our own sustainable infrastructure, we need social housing builds and we need vast upgrading of the existing infrastructure to be adaptable to climate change.
New Mental Health First Responders: A whole new branch of first responders to deal specifically with mental health issues to talk people down and seek help rather than calling then Police and arresting people.
Artist Benefit: As part of a degrowth Capitalism model, pay Artists to make public art, use that art as a means to deal with the wondrous grief caused by the destruction of the planet.
Māori Parliament: An indigenous Parliament that amplifies Māori political voices.
Universal Student Union: Allow Student Unions to be the incubators for tomorrows politicians and stop students simply being cash cows for corporate education.
Universal Migrant Union: Stop migrant worker exploitation with universal student membership.
Retirement Village Unions: These scumbag retirement villages abuse their elderly and sick clients, universal Retirement Village Unions would stop them being exploited.
Pensioner Unions: Give our elderly a voice!
Sugar Tax to fund free dental.
Financial Transaction Tax to target speculators
Free Public Transport to lower emissions and make an impact on the wallets of the poor.
Wealth Tax aimed at the super wealthy
Inheritance Tax only realised after death
First $20 000 tax free for everyone
Lower GST to 10% to take the tax burden off the poor
Nationalise Early Childhood Education to lower the cost for working mothers and fathers
Without vision the Union Movement is dead.
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To do this, you need a “left” political party which is more than a grab-bag of interest groups sellotaped together in the hope that this will somehow create a viable political, electoral, entity.
Dont forget to tax MAMAA” (Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet).
A bank profit export tax so aus banks extracting profits from householders are incentivised to reinvest in NZ business.
A higher rate of income tax on primary commodity exports and lower rate on valued added primary product exports.
What’s missing from this manifesto is an economic plan to broaden/stabilize nz economy.
When there is talk of degrowth capitalism – what does that mean? Does it mean your children’s generation will be poorer than your own? Who would vote for that.
If we had a true socialist party that campaigned on these ideas it would definitely get elected.
There would be no child hungry or without shelter
Free Transport
Free Dental
Iwi / Government supermarkets with food cheaper than Pak n Save (and with free food for the poor.)
Free Health
Free Education- including pre school.
Housing provided by the State at a cost of no more than 25% of income after tax.
Free housing for all beneficiaries. And increased payments so beneficiaries can live their best lives.
Guaranteed jobs at the the living wage as a minimum.
Guaranteed superannuation to enable our elders to live well in retirement.
Bring it on!
There’s no better advertisement for the Republicans than a socialist hell-hole in NY.
Other than a deranged, narcissistic president of America that is Andy. The greatest advertisement of them all.
Student unions, unhappily, are not generators of Left power. They are great on fad issues, but unmoved by the sad equations of low wages and burgeoning cost of living, because they hope by qualifying, to escape that trap.
I’m not sure a Māori supermarket would be a solution either – supermarkets increase the alienation of people from productive soil. Something tying community food production into community need might be better.
Supermarkets have to be where the people are and on public transport routes.
Many of the new state houses are on tiny sites that provide little opportunity to grow food.
What about the Maori supermarkets using the land that would be used for car parking as a huge urban garden.
Seasonal fruit and vegetables available year round and perhaps free ranging chickens if space allowed. All completely organic as it was with traditional Maori agriculture.
A chief gardener ( Rangitira Mara) could be appointed to design and manage the crop rotations with the community contributing what time they had available. Children learning with their parents how to grow the food that sustains them.