I’ve seen a fair few threads asking about the New Zealand Labour Party and it’s leader Jacinda Ardern, given its historic win last night. Here’s a brief explainer for why she isn’t the second coming of Lenin (or even Michael Joseph Savage).
Ardern is our equivalent of Obama, or Biden, or Buttigieg. She’s very good at saying nothing and sounding meaningful about it. She talks about compassion and will even say that capitalism has failed, but when push comes to shove she walks the same neoliberal path that the Labour Party started down in 1984.
This should not come as a surprise to anyone. She worked as a senior policy advisor under war criminal Tony Blair after the Iraq war. Ardern is our version of Justin Trudeau. Foreigners swoon over her, but she’s a neoliberal through and through.
Here’s an article from our local left media outlet mocking this perception foreigners have of her.
International readers who are vaguely interested in New Zealand’s politics probably don’t actually care all that much that most of what was announced yesterday was heavily contested from many different and diverse perspectives. Going by much of that overseas coverage, it appears that what they’re really interested in reading about is an avatar for a better world, one that they wish they lived in. New Zealand, the country so fantastical that some people don’t even believe it really exists, is a beautiful dream for many people in countries like the USA and Britain that are governed by grotesque oafs.
While Labour has done alright in terms of handling the attack on the mosque in Christchurch, we can’t ignore the county’s racist refugee policy that would make Donald Trump and Australia blush.
Let’s get into the weeds. Prior to COVID, Labour’s budgets were perfunctory and third-way budget, not ‘transformational’ like they try to paint it.
Here’s what NZ socialist Morgan Godfrey has to say about the budget:
Labour's current conservatism reaches its peak in the unintentionally funny Budget Responsibility Rules (BRRs). Under the BRRs the government commits to paying down debt and keeping core Crown spending within certain limits. The Oxford English Dictionary will probably define “neoliberalism” as “the Budget Responsibility Rules” in its next edition. What’s striking, though, is not even English made a commitment like the BRRs, probably recognising they risked constraining any reformist agenda in a hypothetical fifth term. Remind me, who's on the left again?
Ardern’s Labour Government refused to deliver a capital gains tax in the midst of a housing crisis, after setting up a tax working group to recommend that very tax. Furthermore, she can’t even blame it on coalition partners, as she went on to rule out a capital gains tax in her political lifetime. So her recent outright victory in the 2020 election will do nothing for even marginally leftwards movement here, since the restrictions are self imposed.
Look to the attitudes of the unions that survived the 1984 Labour Government. On the eve of the recent budget delivery, all primary and secondary school teachers walked off the job in a mega strike.
This is a government that’s tied its own hands and refused to take on debt to rebuild infrastructure despite credit agencies saying it could comfortably borrow much more. Post COVID, the Government continues to underspend, especially on climate change compared to its peers.
Despite unemployment only looking to return to current levels by 2025, Labour has ignored the recommendations of the welfare working group they themselves commissioned, to immediately and significantly increase the amount paid to beneficiaries. In contrast, the Australian Liberals, their right wing party, doubled welfare payment amounts due to COVID.
The cherry on top is that our welfare agency regularly trawls through beneficiaries’ private text messages for nudes to make sure they aren’t fucking anyone. How’s that for compassion?
While Ardern is more than happy to front up to the cameras when facing crises from external sources, like pandemics, volcanoes, and terrorism, she’s notorious for hiding away when it’s the government’s actions that caused the crises.
Take for example land theft of the native Māori peoples. Faced with a land occupation, she staunchly refused to visit, despite multiple invitations.
Or when the state got filmed trying to take a newborn Māori baby from its mother in the birthing ward, leading outcry, Ardern, along with the Minister for Children, refused to watch the video, or read the resulting report of mothers’ experiences at the hands of the state.
This all leads to the left asking, if she’s going to govern like National, what’s even the point of Jacinda Ardern and the NZ Labour Party?
Great post comrade. It'll be interesting to see what they do now without the NZ First excuse. My expectations aren't high, but I think there will at least there will be some sorely needed criminal justice reform.
I'm pretty happy that NZ First is out though. Bunch of straight up fucking racists led by Maori Uncle Rufus.
Yeah for sure. All criticisms of Labour aside, there's a lot to be happy about these elections. NZ First out, Gerry Brownlee losing in Ilam, Chloe winning the electorate vote, and the Greens doing really well.
The huge problem in NZ is the lack of a real left wing opposition.
You have the green party which are okay, but they aren't that left wing (think Bernie Sanders or AOC) and they also regularly collaborate with Labour in government which isn't great.
All of the left wing groups in this country are tiny, and that may be partially because of our small population but also because there just isn't much of a history and culture of left radicalism here as much as in the UK or US.
It absolutely also doesn't help that everyone here are huge libs who simp hard for moderate social democracy and will dismiss you immediately as a silly pie in the sky radical should you dare suggest anything more.
Ehh she's still better than an american democrat, Trudeau is probably a better example.
Also deficit spending is not nearly as acceptable for small countries than it is for a country like the US or China that is mostly self sufficient.
That's not really true, developed (read: white) countries who issue their own currency can have fairly higher debt to gdp ratios without much more than some grumbling from the ratings agencies.
It's more than just grumbling from the rating agencies, it impacts the value of their currency on the world stage and that hurts working class people in these countries because they import a lot of their necessities.
Do you actually know anything about NZ? Their primary export goods are largely necessities and a lower NZD would make NZ export goods cheaper and promote local industry.
In terms of population they are similar in size to Denmark or Finland, so they are not a poor microstate that couldn't handle even doubling their public debt as a percentage of GDP.
A country of 4 million people will always import a ton of stuff, doesn't matter what country. Yeah they could probably increase their debt somewhat, but MMT is not something a small nation could do under the current world order.
do you have any trustworthy marxist sources i could look up to for more new zealand stuff? my sister lives in australia, and since i don't wanna be too far from my mom i was thinking NZ as it looks better than the shithole that australia is (with all due respect, it looks just like america except with a more evil fauna)
The New Communist Party of Aotearoa has a website up over here and their analysis is usually solid.
I’ve just done a quick search, and this book looks decent for an overview.
And of course, there’s Lenin’s analysis of us:
A country of inveterate, backwoods, thick-headed, egotistical philistines, who have brought their “civilisation” with them from England and keep it to themselves like a dog in a manger.
thanks :party-blob:
A country of inveterate, backwoods, thick-headed, egotistical philistines, who have brought their “civilisation” with them from England and keep it to themselves like a dog in a manger.
lmao my man was fucking savage
Australia is better than the US in most ways, the media reporting for the last decade has been because of the idiotic conservative Government, but you'd get the same overall policies with more woke circle jerking if Australia has a charismatic 'progressive' leader.
Saved this one. Here in Australia we have too many libs that faun over Ardern, it's good to have some ammo in the tank when I try to pull them further left and show that this isn't the best we can have.
I can imagine her majority if based on the governments COVID response is justified. NZ seems to be the only anglo country to not shit itself this year. Otherwise, good luck to the left.
It might also be helpful to point out that in NZ the left-right positions on immigration are somewhat inverted.
The centre right National Party is far more open to immigration (since it benefits business and makes line go up), while center left Labour skews anti-immigration for a range of reasons ranging from protectionism of local labor, to wanting to be lazy fucks about the price of housing, to out and out racism.
In fact, one of the recent previous incarnations of the Labour Party once compiled and published a list of home buyers with "Chinese sounding" last names to prove that the Chinese were buying all the houses.
