The Green Party AGM has underlined the Green's commitment to the neoliberal status quo.

WHILE GREEN PARTY co-leader Marama Davidson likes to regularly present her 'progressive' credentials, her 'progressive politics' didn't stop her up standing up in Parliament and delivering her and the Green's support for Grant Robertson's neoliberal-driven budget - a budget that consigned the very people that Davidson claims to represent to a further dose of austerity.

And that's the problem with the Green Party: they are all mouth and no trousers. Despite all its claims about being 'progressive' and the 'wins' that it has achieved by being part of the coalition government, the Green's have joined Labour and New Zealand First as defenders of the neoliberal faith. What 'concessions' have been made to the Green's have largely been ornamental, and the lofty claims that the Green's  would be a left wing 'brake' on the excesses of Labour and New Zealand have proven to be false.

So while the Green's might big note on a ban on supermarket plastic bags, they continue to reject the reality that capitalism and environmental destruction go hand in hand. If there was any recognition of that at the Green Party AGM it certainly didn't appear in any of the media reports.

Instead the Green Party AGM was more or less happy to accept James Shaw's nonsensical assumption that a environmentally -friendly capitalism is possible. In his maiden parliamentary speech Shaw talked of his support for markets 'setting prices and allocating resources' and he has never deviated from that market view. Only recently he was talking about how New Zealand business could take 'advantage' of climate change. That such a view means Shaw and his fellow Green MP's have consigned the Green's to sleeping with the enemy doesn't appear to be of any concern to most of the membership, at least those who were present at the AGM.

Marama Davidson often expresses her concern for both the poor and the environment but there's nothing particularly left wing or progressive about 'caring' for the poor or the state of the planet. Many conservatives often express similar concerns.

Naomi Klein : System change, not climate change.
The choices that the Green's have made make them indistinguishable from the other parties in Parliament. Instead of opposing the neoliberal consensus they have joined it. The determination of the Green MP's to support the draconian Electoral Integrity Bill is evidence that they will trade off just about everything for a seat at the big man's table. They were under no obligation to support the bill - they have simply capitulated.

There is no gradualist, pro-market answer to the dire ecological problems that we now face and the Green's are living in a fool's paradise if they think there is. It is capitalism or the planet. Many parties and organisations around the world are saying this, as are well known activists like Naomi Klein, John Bellamy Foster and the late Joel Kovel.

It's a pity that the New Zealand Green Party has not recognised that our present economic is destructive to us all. The United States Green Party certainly has. Here's a little of what it says on its website;

"Centralization of wealth and power contributes to social and economic injustice, environmental destruction, and militarization. We seek a restructuring of social, political and economic institutions away from a system controlled by and mostly benefiting the powerful few, to a democratic, less bureaucratic system."

You won't hear similar sentiments being expressed by any of the New Zealand Green MP's.They could have stood and resisted neoliberalism but instead they have adapted themselves to the demands and interests of 'the market'. They have little to contribute to the development of progressive politics in this country.





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