tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post7201149229734033652..comments2024-03-26T16:16:22.535+13:00Comments on AGAINST THE CURRENT: CHRIS TROTTER'S COUNSEL OF DESPAIRUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-68104801166510892142009-05-17T12:34:00.000+12:002009-05-17T12:34:00.000+12:00And here's a not-so-academic take on it :
I work a...And here's a not-so-academic take on it :<br />I work as a cleaner. I come from a strong union family which always voted Labour but in recent years we have always voted Alliance or (dammit) Maori Party.<br />I live next door to a woman who works in the laundry at a rest home and a guy who works in a factory. Down the road from me a guy who works at Air NZ ..for now<br /><br />Neither of these households gets a newspaper , they think Paul henry is the cats pyjamas, they are deeply racist and in my opinion clueless about the world around them. <br />I know for a fact that both of these households voted National.One of them told me he was voting National "to see what happens , i'm bored with Labour ".<br />They all bought into the Nanny State propaganda too btw.<br /> <br />None of these people "fight" or rail against the ruling classes, they almost adore them, they fawn over Paul Henry, when LWR closes it's worthy only of a shoulder shrug.<br />Their biggest worry is what size flat screen TV they're going to buy and whether there should be an"h" in Whanganui ( bloody maoris who do they think they are ?)<br />The 'noble' working class is dumbed down and fully immersed in the age of stupid.<br />Go down to Hornby mall one day, look around at the number of working class people, unemployed, and what are they doing ? Crowding into the $2 shop or briscoes or the warehouse, filling their trollies with more shit.<br /><br />These people have more respect for Paul Holmes than for Karl Marx and know more about Paris Hilton than about Kate Sheppard<br /><br />Shopping and celebrity is the new Opium.....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-76278941707604762602009-05-16T09:41:00.000+12:002009-05-16T09:41:00.000+12:00What exactly does Trotter believe in?
He describes...What exactly does Trotter believe in?<br />He describes himself as a 'political realist' but that seems to add up to just support for hopeless Labour. He just seems out of touch.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-87300054427696229042009-05-15T10:19:00.000+12:002009-05-15T10:19:00.000+12:00Not the "counsel of despair", Steve, but certainly...Not the "counsel of despair", Steve, but certainly the counsel of a political realist.<br /><br />Of course the working-class fights. The most pertinent question, however, is: "How does it fight?"<br /><br />You cite the case of LWR. But the fight there is purely defensive in nature, and without the slightest prospect of a mass solidarity campaign by the rest of the Christchurch working class, it is doomed to failure.<br /><br />And this is precisely my point. <br /><br />A "class for itself" would not allow the LWR workers to be driven from their jobs. Like the Chilean workers in the early 1970s, or even the New Zealand workers in the late 1930s, a confident and politically agressive working class would mobilise en masse in defence of its most vulnerable brothers and sisters.<br /><br />When you see that happening, Steve, give us a shout.<br /><br />Oh, and you're wrong, Steve, I would have looked forward eagerly for every journalistic dispatch from Karl Marx. Why? Because of his unmatched ability to describe the world as it actually is, without illusions, and to explain why it's that way - and how it can be changed.<br /><br />Marx would not have written hopefully about a working-class with less than 10 percent of its members working for private-sector employers enrolled in a trade union - much less one in which upwards of a third of its members voted for the National Party!<br /><br />Counter-hegemonic activity is what we need most urgently at this time, Steve, not forlorn vigils on ineffectual picket-lines, where cast adrift workers are hailed as heroes - even as they drown.Chris Trotterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.com