Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson has been widely criticised for trying to mount a campaign to 'reclaim' the 'c word'. Davidson's recent unimpressive performances are indicative of Green Party that has abandoned any semblance of a progressive vision in order to curry favour with Labour and New Zealand First.

ACROSS THE POLITICAL spectrum Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson has been dumped on for claiming that women need to 'reclaim' the 'c-word' - and she repeatedly used the word at was ostensibly an anti-racist rally. I'm sure the organisers were delighted. Davidson's defence that she was using her position "to resist misogyny and men using these words against us." has convinced very few. The absence of any of her fellow Green MP's coming to her defence is telling.

While she's been widely criticised for this ill-thought outburst, its a pity none of her critics thought it important to criticise Davidson for her awful parliamentary speech that defended Grant Robertson's neoliberal budget. For those who embrace a left wing politics, it was also absurd - and insulting - that Davidson could also  even claim she had a natural political affinity with democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez. Davidson has never professed to be a socialist of any description.

Davidson's less than stellar performances though are indicative a Green Party that has abandoned any semblance of a progressive vision in its efforts to curry favour with Labour and New Zealand First. That has gone as far as supporting the widely reviled Election Integrity Bill, and then lie about why they are supporting it. On Tuesday not one Green Party stood up to defend the waka jumping legislation during an entire six hour debate on the bill.

With massive fires having broken out in several parts of the world, a direct result of climate change, there is the opportunity right now for the Green Party to highlight that capitalism is destroying the planet. Around the world an increasing number of environmental  parties and groups are emphasising that it’s systemic change or bust. Getting more people to use public transport or being carbon neutral by 2030 is a woefully inadequate response to the crisis that humankind now confronts.

The Green Party, still madly supporting a nonsensical 'green capitalism', is increasingly out of step with the growing number of parties and organisations around the world that now campaigning for an ecosocialist solution to the climate crisis. That includes the United States Green Party, the largest green Party in the world, which in 2016 declared itself to be an ecosocialist party.

The real problem is that capitalist machine, driven by the motor of profit, is wrecking the planet. As long as it continues, as long as we don't produce for sustainability rather than profit,then the crisis will continue and worsen. It should be stated plainly: It’s capitalism that is at fault. But, instead, Green Party co-leader James Shaw talks about the 'opportunities' for New Zealand business provided by climate change.

If Marama Davidson really wants to talk about the 'c-word' she should be talking about capitalism and why we must overcome it we really are to save the planet for future generations. Unfortunately though Davidson and the Green Party have become part of a political establishment that remains a real obstacle in the way of fundamental progressive change. While the planet burns, the Green Party have become an increasingly irrelevant sideshow.




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