tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72574935505315691802024-03-19T19:50:20.823+13:00AGAINST THE CURRENTUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3192125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-47532409080321745072024-03-19T19:49:00.001+13:002024-03-19T19:49:32.002+13:00CHUMBAWAMBA: TUBTHUMPING<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2H5uWRjFsGc?si=sCnklCD1JP1LmH7F" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-78437638506686979282024-03-19T19:37:00.002+13:002024-03-19T19:37:32.987+13:00ZIONIST HYPOCRISY<p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #990000;"></span></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMcfvf4-JgXpxPF-BFfjLs47nSlE_gLQSvgQ3tkRhsth0eym41DVhCoUdWIM9_hPxg0n9xDmyqcV_pk5JQlG8RVNtiim-qwIJBHrz8DFbu4avFoKjDfTG2URqGGndiKAQI2R5zzpT-EORar2Yl1tG1N5bFH42UqUFXJVyL-mZ377N-mw93ItddFcHI1rk/s404/cumin-moses.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="404" data-original-width="404" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMcfvf4-JgXpxPF-BFfjLs47nSlE_gLQSvgQ3tkRhsth0eym41DVhCoUdWIM9_hPxg0n9xDmyqcV_pk5JQlG8RVNtiim-qwIJBHrz8DFbu4avFoKjDfTG2URqGGndiKAQI2R5zzpT-EORar2Yl1tG1N5bFH42UqUFXJVyL-mZ377N-mw93ItddFcHI1rk/s320/cumin-moses.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></span></div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Both Juliet Moses and David Cumin have been heavily involved in trying to smear Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick as anti-semitic. But neither Moses nor Cumin have had anything to say about Winston Peters comparing Maori co-governance to Nazism. </b></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><br /><br />TWO OF ISRAEL'S chief propagandists in New Zealand are Juliet Moses and David Cumin. They have strenuously defended Israel's genocidal military campaign in Gaza ever since it began, often firing accusations of anti-semitism at Israel's critics. </span></span><div><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Recently, they have both been heavily involved in attempts to smear Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick as anti-semitic. They have gone as far as to seek an apology from Swarbrick because of her use of a popular Palestinian rallying call, 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free'. <br /><br />Given their antipathy toward Chloe Swarbrick, it would not be unreasonable to expect that they would have had plenty to say about Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters comparing Maori co-governance to Nazism. But they have both reamined silent.<br /><br />It has been left to Ben Kepes, a spokesperson for the New Zealand Holocaust Centre, to make public comment. He has told the media that politicians need to be 'careful with their words' when it comes to speaking about the Holocaust or Nazi era.<br /><br />Kepes said that the Holocaust was a 'singular event in history' which should not be used for other political ends.<br /><br />But why no comment from either Moses or Cumin? According to Kepes, they have both been 'indisposed'. They have, however, continued to post to X.<br /><br />Perhaps the real reason they have both refrained from criticising Peters is that he is a conservative politician with a more sympathetic view of Israel. But if you are, like Chloe Swarbrick, a critic of Israel and oppose its genocidal military campaign in Gaza, then the gloves are off as far as Moses and Cumin are concerned.</span></span><p></p><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-9708271183141649662024-03-16T15:38:00.001+13:002024-03-16T15:38:40.677+13:00WHAT IS HAPPENING IN GAZA IS MARCH 15 MANY TIMES OVER<p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzqkPGSEYZq_irI6_c_9cR0MxEqam_lxzTQ0ISbvwPqSKYEb9H05gn31hrLW91Mj79e2vbRnWwHpVALmO9ju0mZbBfQTRn_9P82NdWswC0MCQG58l92jGwxo706WRGMtzWE2Aj8eZ0SiiKj96dzhXGDagzZkuuQddIB_JWZFQSa82-dOCRTrCgJYOfYNY/s640/gaza.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzqkPGSEYZq_irI6_c_9cR0MxEqam_lxzTQ0ISbvwPqSKYEb9H05gn31hrLW91Mj79e2vbRnWwHpVALmO9ju0mZbBfQTRn_9P82NdWswC0MCQG58l92jGwxo706WRGMtzWE2Aj8eZ0SiiKj96dzhXGDagzZkuuQddIB_JWZFQSa82-dOCRTrCgJYOfYNY/s16000/gaza.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Six Palestinians were among those killed on March 15, 2019 in Christchurch. Although the Government might of marked the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack that killed 51 people, it largely continues to ignore the genocidal military campaign Israel is waging against two million people in Gaza. What is happening in Palestine today is March 15 many times over, writes <i>Josephine Varghese</i>. This article was first published by the<a href="https://democracyproject.nz"> Democracy Project</a> in October last year. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0274ZA6XCUYBAf3G0cydh27k30cPcEkDX6GmdoSJsZXP7NVycP_RUnIJHXxF_P0ZN7mvANVQonDeWnIKTdQMJ2t-A2Sq14ltpi09-a1p2JvSPUwy3qMdH2cScp_FW6jw3bIu_j2O9QgC0qDL3eXX1G1Cq5e2YbcXJFpJzphMoky9Q49RVPGFQDffiZ0w/s150/Untitled%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="150" data-original-width="150" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0274ZA6XCUYBAf3G0cydh27k30cPcEkDX6GmdoSJsZXP7NVycP_RUnIJHXxF_P0ZN7mvANVQonDeWnIKTdQMJ2t-A2Sq14ltpi09-a1p2JvSPUwy3qMdH2cScp_FW6jw3bIu_j2O9QgC0qDL3eXX1G1Cq5e2YbcXJFpJzphMoky9Q49RVPGFQDffiZ0w/s1600/Untitled%201.jpg" width="150" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Six Palestinians were among those killed on March 15, 2019, in Christchurch. At the time, New Zealand government and media insisted that they were with the victims of violence. “This is not who we are” the Prime Minister insisted. “They are us”. Yet the horrific plight of 2 million people under siege in Gaza seems to be falling on deaf ears. The New Zealand government has failed to demonstrate its stated commitment to human rights and international law on the Israel-Palestine issue.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">During a protest march organised in the aftermath of March 15, I talked about how the violence displayed by the terrorist on March 15 was inextricably connected to the dominant Western (colonial) worldview and the institutionalised foreign policy of Anglo-European nations. I argued that in opposing the terrorist violence of March 15, we must also oppose the operation of Islamophobia, neocolonialism, and racism at institutional and structural levels globally.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">On March 15, in what was described as “the darkest day” in modern New Zealand history, 51 innocents lost their lives. In Iraq, the 2003 war caused by the United States, the United Kingdom and their allies led to a million deaths and many million more displacements. There were no displays of solidarity with Iraq from Western governments (as we see today with Ukraine). The nations that committed the illegal invasion were not banned from international sporting events nor subject to sanctions or charges from the International Criminal Court, despite widespread reports of war crimes and human rights abuses. The sons and daughters of working class American and British families also fought and died in a war that only benefited the shareholders of the military industrial complex and oil lobby who largely control US foreign policy.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">USA and allies thereafter intervened in Syria and Libya and continued their occupation of Afghanistan. They were also involved in multiple coups around the world, including the removal of Bolivia’s first indigenous President, Evo Morales and the recent removal of Imran Khan in Pakistan. They continue to impose suffocating sanctions on multiple developing nations including Iran, North Korea, Zimbabwe and Venezuela, causing unimaginable suffering for common people in these countries.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">There is a clear double standard in the so-called rules based international order. And the double-standard is not random. It follows the power-structures established through 400 years of Anglo-European colonialism-capitalism (hyphenated to show the overlap between the two systems).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">There are two ways of understanding racism and discrimination. One is an individual-centred approach and the other is an institutional/structural approach. The dominant debates around racism in the West disproportionately focus on individual racism, that is, the prejudices and biases that are expressed at an inter-personal level. Although individual racism is a problem, it is only the tip of the iceberg. The far-reaching impacts of racism are effected through structures (policies, laws, media narratives, global institutions etc) that frame local and global politics.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Institutional racism as we see it in the world today has its origins largely in European colonialism, which continues into the 21st century through neocolonialism. It refers to the racism that is embedded within established institutions (eg: govt policy, media, laws etc). It is reproduced by both ‘liberal’ and conservative governments in the West, for instance, Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Jacinda Ardern, Barack Obama, Rishi Sunak, George W. Bush, and Tony Blair. All these leaders have supported the Western establishment’s institutional racism, the best expressions of which can be found in Western foreign policy.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">So, for instance, Jacinda Ardern, in her response to March 15 vehemently opposed individual racism/islamophobia. However, her foreign policy took New Zealand much closer to the United States and its allies, who are among the worst perpetrators of institutional racism across the world, whose foreign policy has led to the death and displacement of millions of people in the Middle East and North Africa in the 21st century alone.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><b>CONNECTIONS WITH THE SITUATION IN GAZA</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The plight of the people in Palestine is a textbook example of the operation of institutional racism and colonial violence. The Palestinian people have been displaced from their homes and lands through a decision made by Britain (their former coloniser) and its allies, without democratic consensus. Thereafter, being ghettoised into increasingly narrow enclaves, heavily militarised and controlled by the Israel Defence Force (IDF).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">In the aftermath of the Second World War and the horrifying Holocaust on Jewish people by European fascists, the top-down establishment of the state of Israel led to the dispossession and displacement of Palestinians who had little to do with the horrors of the Holocaust.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ56DS7SAtua8IqG9-sVpe5EQimQpx8uLs5OYKw7nrxT-Dek2QLzJgwiapFS9lBFDCbuzfBaaj3QSBKXmO9G7Yo1VNETcokdcNFr2g0agjq6KYM6p51t9XTjvO8B6g1DPgnhCeT6UIndoI1AJ6iGff5FyE8-XCUR0QsHGsPpLHmCQBJUa2R7k1cPxywzE/s430/mosque.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="423" data-original-width="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ56DS7SAtua8IqG9-sVpe5EQimQpx8uLs5OYKw7nrxT-Dek2QLzJgwiapFS9lBFDCbuzfBaaj3QSBKXmO9G7Yo1VNETcokdcNFr2g0agjq6KYM6p51t9XTjvO8B6g1DPgnhCeT6UIndoI1AJ6iGff5FyE8-XCUR0QsHGsPpLHmCQBJUa2R7k1cPxywzE/s16000/mosque.jpg" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Many observers have argued that since its establishment, Israel has been a crucial economic and military outpost securing Western interests within the Middle East, a region with huge strategic and economic significance globally.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Regardless of how one understands the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Palestinian experience is one of human suffering, dispossession, and subjugation. How, then, can one expect peace to be achieved, under repression and injustice?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Peace and conflict studies scholar Johan Galtung discussed two concepts of peace. Negative peace and positive peace.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Negative peace refers to a situation where direct violence is absent. However, negative peace hides indirect/structural violence (unjust political and economic systems) within it. The presence of structural violence makes negative peace highly unstable, and susceptible to direct physical violence.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Positive peace, on the other hand, refers to the absence of both direct and structural violence. In other words, positive peace refers to the existence of justice. Only under circumstances of positive peace, can there be long-lasting stability and prosperity for all.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Since 1948, there has never been a period of positive peace for Palestinian people. Unless and until the fundamental human rights of Palestinians are upheld and injustices addressed, there cannot be a resolution to the conflict in Palestine.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">In the media and from powerful politicians, time again we hear dehumanising narratives about Palestinians. The language and rhetoric used is starkly similar to colonial narratives about non-western peoples and similar to the language used by the March 15 terrorist.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">In the last two weeks of IDF’s siege on Gaza, over 4000 Palestinians have died. Even before Hamas’ October 7 deadly attacks in which over a 1000 Israelis were killed, the IDF was brutalising civilians in Gaza and the Westbank. In the Westbank (where Hamas does not operate), this year alone, 38 children were killed by the IDF.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">What is happening in Palestine is March 15 many times over. We cannot be silent. Attacks on places of worship (churches, mosques), hospitals, schools and markets both before and after the Hamas strikes are unacceptable.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">I join millions of Jews around the world who advocate for peace and de-escalation through an immediate ceasefire and a peace process which will lead to the recognition of Palestinian statehood.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Justice is the seed. Peace is the flower.</span></p><p><b style="color: #990000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Dr Josephine Varghese is a Lecturer in Language, Social and Political Sciences at the University of Canterbury. </b></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-48176401970478977052024-03-15T16:26:00.001+13:002024-03-15T16:34:42.790+13:00EVEN TODAY, CHRISTOPHER LUXTON HAS NOTHING TO SAY ABOUT ISRAEL'S WAR CRIMES IN GAZA<p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLh_ETImeVRAT1cpvbLpjz0cZ318eKXYZ2aEIchhR7uIlFfZd3kDZj7LksNdEUsxySV97cVahCcSE3689j5ZyJjt8driWJS1ZwzD_eNWAWObpMZXKvvY2_lYolvTbk-j6w_Hd7tGH3H6m25IYAnEHiGQK-4HonuFSqrBHDaCKmFq53EHjLT8Xy4yFGLtA/s400/US-Ambassador-at-Large-International-Religious-Freedom-Rashad-Hussain-1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLh_ETImeVRAT1cpvbLpjz0cZ318eKXYZ2aEIchhR7uIlFfZd3kDZj7LksNdEUsxySV97cVahCcSE3689j5ZyJjt8driWJS1ZwzD_eNWAWObpMZXKvvY2_lYolvTbk-j6w_Hd7tGH3H6m25IYAnEHiGQK-4HonuFSqrBHDaCKmFq53EHjLT8Xy4yFGLtA/s16000/US-Ambassador-at-Large-International-Religious-Freedom-Rashad-Hussain-1.jpg" /></a></b></span></div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Today marks the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on two Christchurch mosques, which resulted in fifty-one deaths. Prime Minister Christopher Luxton has been joined in Christchurch by Rashad Hussain, the US Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom. It comes at a time when Israel's barbaric genocidal military campaign in Gaza has resulted in over 30,000 deaths. </b></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">IT IS, of course, only appropriate that the Government should mark the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. Both Prime Minister Christopher Luxton and Judith Collins, who is leading the Government's response to the terrorist attack on the Christchurch mosques, are in Christchurch today. They have been joined in the city by Rashad Hussain. He is the US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">But Rashad Hussain is also the representative of a U.S. administration that has enabled and allowed Israel to commit genocide in Gaza. Almost all of Gaza is Muslim, with Arab Christians making up a tiny 0.2 percent of the population or approximately 2,000 people. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">While Hussain (who is also Muslim) might have expressed his sincere sympathies for the fifty-one Muslim worshippers who lost their lives on that tragic day five years ago, his sympathy has not extended to the over 30,000 people who have been slaughtered by the Israeli military in Gaza.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Hussain is on record as having condemned the 'terrorist attacks' on 7 October as 'barbaric' and 'inhumane' but there has no similar condemnation for Israel's barbaric and inhumane attack on Palestinians living in Gaza. Hussain has remained silent.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">He told the local media that he was inspired by the local Christchurch Muslim community and the 'understanding and love' it had displayed in the face of the 'violence and unspeakable hatred, and tragedy' that visited them five years ago.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">But, not surprisingly, our conservative media has chosen not to ask Hussain about 'the 'violence and unspeakable hatred, and tragedy' being played out in Gaza in 2024.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">And while Christopher Luxton might have been ready to speak about an atrocity committed in Christchurch some five years ago, he continues to have little to say about the atrocities being committed by the Israeli military in Gaza today. Even the deliberate starving of Palestinians trapped in Rafah has not compelled Luxton to comment.</span></p><div><br /></div><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-43881497795344524432024-03-13T20:09:00.001+13:002024-03-13T20:16:35.027+13:00CHLOE SWARBRICK: REVOLUTIONARY OPTIMIST<p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihdkw-QwzRtKYouA8QukPI09Km7uUNsxa-rvjk2cnHnPNEakoxuWLhBTiWnJKSi-cysMZz4kfC0m528KHlkenfctYbLWeOfJuT9HltoaOLsRZeNjHvtjr_HfOQo13cNhQxkiwFfc30mw7ba5Vmud8F7BlfLVyQKgurDC-ZEDCBjzTuHvfPTn3GZVGql5w/s450/chloe.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihdkw-QwzRtKYouA8QukPI09Km7uUNsxa-rvjk2cnHnPNEakoxuWLhBTiWnJKSi-cysMZz4kfC0m528KHlkenfctYbLWeOfJuT9HltoaOLsRZeNjHvtjr_HfOQo13cNhQxkiwFfc30mw7ba5Vmud8F7BlfLVyQKgurDC-ZEDCBjzTuHvfPTn3GZVGql5w/s16000/chloe.jpg" /></a></b></span></div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick has been accused of being a 'revolutionary zealot'. But, in reality, she's been expressing the views of a revolutionary optimist.</b></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A CONSERVATIVE commentator recently accused Chloe Swarbrick of something he claimed was 'revolutionary zealotry'. The Green co-leader has foolishly argued that our economic and political system is broken and radical action is required to replace it with something better. This, apparently, is daft talk. But entirely coincidentally, on the very same day that Swarbrick was confirmed as the new Green Party co-leader, Chris Bishop was telling Jack Tame on<i> Q+A </i>that he and his coalition government made no apologies for being 'radical'. The leader of the House and the Minister for Just About Everything - he presently holds five portfolios - told Tame that the status quo had failed and his government was going to bowl it over.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">But there have been no accusations of 'revolutionary zealotry' or even 'extremism' thrown at Chris Bishop from mainstream commentators. Indeed, many have been supportive and congratulated the Government for 'getting things done'. Perhaps that's because they are in favour of a so-called 'radicalism' that tilts the playing field even further in favour of those who presently benefit from our broken economic system. If this coalition government can in any way be described as 'revolutionary', it is that it seeks to unshackle capitalist interests from the centrist constraints that the previous Labour Government tried to impose. 'New Zealand is open for business' shouted NZ First MP Shane Jones in Parliament last week and the rest of us are supposed to just lump it. Or, as Jones has also said, we can vote them out in three years' time if we don't like what they have done. But why should they be allowed the breathing space to go ahead and trample over the interests of most of us? Why should we play according to their rules? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">In the face of a renewed neoliberal offensive, there may seem to be, on the surface, little reason to be optimistic about the future. Chloe Swarbrick herself has in several recent interviews, talked of the disillusionment she has encountered in the community. Indeed, it was one of the first things she talked about in her speech marking her election as Green Party co-leader: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">'This week, the Government completed their cruel and, frankly, bizarre 100-day programme. They know that many of the things they have done will make things worse for people and planet and they’ve told New Zealanders that they don’t care.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">'We’ve heard from people across the country of their deep despair. That’s precisely what this Government wants from you: to switch off. Don’t.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">'The coalition wants you to think better is impossible. They want you to acquiesce to oil, gas and mining lobbyists’ wishlists to destroy our natural environment. They want you to give in to their bonkers agenda that’ll see more people die from smoking to fund landlords’ tax cuts. They want you to believe all politics and politicians are the same – it benefits them and their donors for you to switch off.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">'Don’t let this Government’s bully boy behaviour silence you. Let it motivate you. We’ve been here before with regressive conservatives. It was organising by regular people that changed the course of history.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Rather than expressing 'revolutionary zealotry', Swarbrick is expressing revolutionary optimism. It has its origins in the socialist tradition and has a proud history. Thinkers like Antonio Gramsci emphasised its importance. He famously coined the phrase 'pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will' to encapsulate the need to recognise present realities while remaining committed to shaping a brighter future.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">There is a difference between blind optimism and revolutionary optimism. While the optimist says that everything will work out in the end, revolutionary optimism says that the future remains a contested terrain. The American author and commentator Rebecca Solnit <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jul/15/rebecca-solnit-hope-in-the-dark-new-essay-embrace-unknown">writes</a>:<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixvmMzDJKQTDEfZjWFUCPnyenf1H9mihzSRsBdK9fs89JfatSK83tzz2xhQdZVDEWSXzxnhRwZFfCYOtTE3MwAIZ1gH-j33ynZwub1Jt7fmQalNHF9ROyaxwjBkikqvPzfExW84t6AHqmJoVSnTqT9NgQdphIlAjSKW4VLvf6_Xqdmo9g32Lvd9xNqJrw/s400/rebecca.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixvmMzDJKQTDEfZjWFUCPnyenf1H9mihzSRsBdK9fs89JfatSK83tzz2xhQdZVDEWSXzxnhRwZFfCYOtTE3MwAIZ1gH-j33ynZwub1Jt7fmQalNHF9ROyaxwjBkikqvPzfExW84t6AHqmJoVSnTqT9NgQdphIlAjSKW4VLvf6_Xqdmo9g32Lvd9xNqJrw/s16000/rebecca.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">'Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognise uncertainty, you recognise that you may be able to influence the outcomes – you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others. Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists. Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists adopt the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting. It is the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand. We may not, in fact, know them afterwards either, but they matter all the same, and history is full of people whose influence was most powerful after they were gone.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The late Howard Zinn, author of <i>A People's History of the United States</i>, observes:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">'There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment will continue. We forget how often we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions, by extraordinary changes in people’s thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The writer Ursula Le Guinn said something similar. Chloe Swarbrick quotes her in a column she wrote for the<i> NZ Herald </i>in February 2022:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">'We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings."... Do we want to keep tinkering, or do we want a brand new deal? Are we willing to reset the rules?... It's not going to happen overnight and it's not going to be easily handed over, but history tells us we can, and the demands of the future require we must.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">These are undoubtedly difficulty days for the working class, but it is important to face such days with hope. Whether it's confronting the Government for pinching money out of the pockets of beneficiaries and the poor or fighting its policies that prioritise the interests of capital ahead of the environment, revolutionary optimism fuels resilience. It isn't blind idealism, it’s a strategic stance. It acknowledges the harsh realities while daring to envision a world transformed. It insists that there remains a world to win.</span></p><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-52682031917183469752024-03-11T15:31:00.000+13:002024-03-11T15:31:59.863+13:00GAZA : UNPRECEDENTED WAR CRIMES<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/REnN_dLtrLA?si=_9xDNLhtkTzEz8S3" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0eQ7WBq0NdyryJKbf62M8sQnGu9EPAOEMUynmHuOz5VkK_T_J1GvCilUpfyG44aYxrPHOiXsdmy83MjjGh9H77_0PAoBRwdBEGlFkZaGnswULQAjp3mDuXVPWY9f8HNSNXxABDyoMw7ek6qEtNB4p-hwNJwwASSBNivoAVFjrq5fVjTf2AlmHJuqNIRo/s410/GAZA.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="273" data-original-width="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0eQ7WBq0NdyryJKbf62M8sQnGu9EPAOEMUynmHuOz5VkK_T_J1GvCilUpfyG44aYxrPHOiXsdmy83MjjGh9H77_0PAoBRwdBEGlFkZaGnswULQAjp3mDuXVPWY9f8HNSNXxABDyoMw7ek6qEtNB4p-hwNJwwASSBNivoAVFjrq5fVjTf2AlmHJuqNIRo/s16000/GAZA.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">HAVING JUST returned from nearly a month treating the wounded in Gaza, emergency physician Dr. Thaer Ahmad talks with Abby Martin about the abduction/torture of doctors and hospitals under constant siege. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Dr. Ahmad also sets the stage for the coming crisis of starvation. Dr. Ahmad is the Global Health Director at Advocate Christ Medical Centre in Chicago. <br /><br /> EMPIRE FILES: <a href="https://linktr.ee/empirefiles"><b>PODCAST + MERCH + SOCIALS + PATREON + EXCLUSIVE CONTENT </b></a></span><a href="https://linktr.ee/empirefiles"><br /></a></span><br /></p><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-50546508607331531132024-03-08T07:37:00.004+13:002024-03-10T11:18:00.404+13:00CHRIS TROTTER'S LONG MARCH TO THE RIGHT<p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #990000;"></span></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1TB-e7SINsrnZfHkSOXTlxsdpJO0bm0C-lLjK2Jg-T2NPvYBszedH-q4C8ao48CSfu8SlXUG3d386R_InQwSUZ_MTInYMkGgMgwx9sgNab2aiMEQHNg3LNSdRCnXsM9zNPw_W-Azxt_nESU3P1rgtr_iBeD4u2XT7CVDRQSzkMPxaae71QVPwj-daZjI/s432/ctrotter.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="379" data-original-width="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1TB-e7SINsrnZfHkSOXTlxsdpJO0bm0C-lLjK2Jg-T2NPvYBszedH-q4C8ao48CSfu8SlXUG3d386R_InQwSUZ_MTInYMkGgMgwx9sgNab2aiMEQHNg3LNSdRCnXsM9zNPw_W-Azxt_nESU3P1rgtr_iBeD4u2XT7CVDRQSzkMPxaae71QVPwj-daZjI/s16000/ctrotter.jpg" /></a></b></span></div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Political commentator Chris Trotter has abandoned what remains of his social democratic politics and embraced the politics of the right.</b></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #990000;"><br /></span><br /><br />CHRIS TROTTER has packed up his ideological kitbag and strode off to the right to set up base among his new friends at the National-led coalition government and at conservative media outlets like ZBPlus and The Platform. But he still seems determined to explain to a left that he has abandoned, just how wrong it is about mostly everything. That the left is no longer listening to him hardly seems to matter; it is as if Trotter is seeking to justify his lurch to the right by explaining to his readers how stuffed the left really is. But how many will be convinced enough to keep reading him?<br /><br />In recent times, he has accused the left of 'self-loathing' because of its continuing support for the Palestine liberation movement and the people of Gaza. According to Trotter, this is nothing more than support for 'non-progressive religious/political movements' like Hamas. <br /><br />Even the election of George Galloway as the MP for the UK seat of Rochdale has earned Trotter's ire. He has suggested that Galloway's victory is being 'hailed as a triumph by the sort of leftist who no longer sees white workers as a progressive force.' The Canterbury Socialist Society says that comments like these are 'brain-dead' and I agree. The grossly racist and anti-Muslim sentiment expressed in such a view is also obvious. It's grimly inevitable that Trotter thinks that the slaughter of over 30,000 innocent men, women, and children in Gaza are merely the result of Israel acting in 'self-defence'. <br /><br />Although Trotter likes to reference his role as a foundation member of NewLabour and his support for the Alliance as evidence of his left-wing credentials, that was many, many years ago. In truth, his recent politics have never extended beyond support for the Labour Party and the occasional flirt with the Green's. He has always been hostile to those (like me) who have argued that the Labour Party is a political dead end for the left. Ironically, and at the risk of blowing my own trumpet, Trotter's departure for the right confirms that people like me were correct in our view.<br /><br />Trotter held out great hopes for Labour under the leadership of Jacinda Ardern. While some of us warned that Ardern had never exhibited anything other than the instincts of a centrist politician, Trotter fondly envisaged a bright non-neoliberal future for New Zealand under a progressive Labour Government. That it never came to pass has proven to be too much of a bitter pill for him to swallow. Labour's recent embrace of such thorny issues as Maori co-governance and gender ideology, has only confirmed to Trotter that Labour is no longer a political party he can identify with and support.<br /><br />And the right has been all too ready to embrace someone that the Democracy Project still absurdly claims is 'writing from the left'. Trotter's new conservative politics means he has been welcomed by right wing outlets like ZBPlus and The Platform, who may of otherwise largely ignored him. Now in his mid-sixties, Trotter wants to still engage with public life even if it is as a conservative commentator who frequently dumps on the left. And, as Scott Hamilton has <a href="https://buttondown.email/Fightback/archive/fear-of-a-maori-planet-chris-trotters-single/">observed</a>, 'The right-wing platforms Trotter now produces work for are happy to call him the true voice of the left.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> But just as Kenny G is only seen as a jazz musician by people who don't
listen to jazz, and Jim Morrison is hailed as a great poet by folks who
don't read poetry, so Trotter is nowadays seen as leftist only by those
hostile to the left. His story is sad, but also instructive.'</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />And, just as important for Trotter, the right offers him validation of his reactionary view that the possibility of progressive change is now only a forlorn hope. He remains troubled by 'extremists' like Chloe Swarbrick who are seeking to do more than just tinker with a failed economic and political system. The left, much to Trotter's alarm, is slowly moving beyond the old social democratic and incremental politics he is familiar with and has spent his entire political life defending. Like a grumpy old man, Trotter waves his walking stick at Chloe Swarbrick and berates the likely new Green Party co-leader for her 'revolutionary zealotry'. <br /><br />Chris Trotter has found political solace with the forces of the right. Its strength - and weakness - is that it doesn't have to provide a manifesto for a new future. Instead, for Chris Trotter at least, it offers him a return to a past that no longer exists and cannot exist again. Listen closely to Trotter's new hero, the anti-socialist Winston Peters, and the message is 'let's go back to the way things were'. <br /><br />But 'going back to the way things were' means, in reality, defending and enforcing the interests of capital. The culture wars may well prove to have been a disastrous distraction for the left, because it is the economic terrain where the new struggles are likely to occur. And that, inevitably, means a return to a class-based politics. Chris Trotter, though, has chosen to throw in his lot with those to who seek to enforce the interests of the ruling class. </span></span><br /><br /><p></p><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-66418887778850510952024-03-06T14:08:00.002+13:002024-03-07T07:30:52.892+13:00THE REAL EXTREMISTS ARE IN THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7HVxHyx3A34?si=k9_9fSsPcPWjrjKb" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>
<p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #990000;"></span></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Is1UjdgZjGOQWG2WIGwj1gn48aMc9f9_Cleq8dxoytg3s44WOwp2gT-KOYnYaYt7J5r60GNKBStwBMNn0zVTc0PmDKUA0Lx5ATo7QtTfquuK8jXCCOObM3IxQ2-JhmKQJjEQ_BdV8Qzd7LY_VRp4yUB3dbT-Xm666dKJI8q0IOaR_J3SW9qDAGeaoqo/s430/TELEMMGLPICT000368675252_17092882142190_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqihVibxPbOwKDCDIL8LViR75qh9cfU8a8nPeLP9jiHHc_result.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="269" data-original-width="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Is1UjdgZjGOQWG2WIGwj1gn48aMc9f9_Cleq8dxoytg3s44WOwp2gT-KOYnYaYt7J5r60GNKBStwBMNn0zVTc0PmDKUA0Lx5ATo7QtTfquuK8jXCCOObM3IxQ2-JhmKQJjEQ_BdV8Qzd7LY_VRp4yUB3dbT-Xm666dKJI8q0IOaR_J3SW9qDAGeaoqo/s16000/TELEMMGLPICT000368675252_17092882142190_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqihVibxPbOwKDCDIL8LViR75qh9cfU8a8nPeLP9jiHHc_result.jpg" /></a></b></span></div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>The election of longtime socialist and activist George Galloway as the MP for Rochdale prompted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was not elected to his position, to talk of 'extremists' trying to divide Britain. But the real extremists are sitting in the British Parliament.</b></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><br />IT WAS extraordinary, almost surreal, to watch UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was not elected to his position, stand outside 10 Downing Street and attack the election of George Galloway as the MP for Rochdale. Describing it as a 'dark day for democracy', Sunak chose to ignore that Galloway had been democratically elected by the people of Rochdale, thumping the Conservative, Labour, and Liberal Democrat candidates in the process. The people had spoken, but Sunak, the self-proclaimed champion of democracy, decided that he wasn't going to listen to them. Many people around Britain would have taken note of the troubling undercurrent of authoritarianism that ran under Sunak's hysterical comments.<br /><br />But, digging an even bigger hole for himself, Sunak warned of 'extremists' that threatened Britain as a 'modern, pluralist' country. His comments followed those of a number of Conservative MP's that were little more than blatant attempts to whip up anti-Muslim sentiment. According to Suella Braverman, ‘Islamists are now in charge’ of Britain. Robert Jenrick told the House of Commons that ‘we have allowed our streets to be dominated by Islamist extremists.’ And another Conservative MP, Lee Anderson, went on a radio show to claim that the Mayor of London (also a Muslim) was the puppet of Islamic extremists: 'Islamists have got control of Sadiq Khan, they’ve got control of London… He’s given our capital away to his mates.’<br /><br />Sunak's comments about 'extremism' were yet another attempt to smear the Palestine solidarity movement as a vehicle for shadowy and violent Islamist forces. This comes at a time when popular support for Israel's brutal, genocidal military campaign in Gaza continues to dwindle in Britain. The most recent polls show that the majority of the British public want an immediate and permanent ceasefire.<br /><br />It is George Galloway, a long-time supporter of the Palestinian cause, who is in step with the British public and not Rishi Sunak. The real extremists are the British politicians (including Labour leader Keir Starmer) who support genocide in Gaza but who do not want to be held accountable for their views and actions.<br /><br />As British Labour MP and socialist Zarah Sultana has written, the fight continues to win a world free of injustice and oppression:<br /><br />'That’s the fight to build a world where everyone — Muslim and Jew, Christian and Hindu, those of all faiths and none — can live with freedom and dignity. That’s a world where no one has to worry about wearing a hijab, kippah, or turban in public, where everyone has liberty to lead a flourishing life.<br /><br />'That is a universal call for freedom, and we mustn’t lose sight of its most urgent demand. As the bombs continue to fall on Gaza and the world’s eyes turn on Rafah, we can’t let their Islamophobia distract or divide us. Clearer and louder, undimmed and unbroken, we must continue to call for a free Palestine.'</span></span><div><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><br /><p></p><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-86385367703957896632024-03-06T09:11:00.002+13:002024-03-06T09:16:14.367+13:00HOW TO STOP WORLD WAR III<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FfSS-dzucsU?si=QKXt9TW2spX7Zfz-" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw3TYU6Ua5meoTJecFszASAFfINwsf5CAHDOY4jJPPxYhqzKsfMPFX6Ip3Wq96KGQaQaYwhSjDDYNtiK7zFd619-hykCo4RydT4dMno3DBvEmXvduiEEmGToAc7ygeHu-iMBDndHOeyZy6-elvKqsrNkrd2fdVttw-MMadw-P34b_MSuJyVnFa25NHoPk/s400/abby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw3TYU6Ua5meoTJecFszASAFfINwsf5CAHDOY4jJPPxYhqzKsfMPFX6Ip3Wq96KGQaQaYwhSjDDYNtiK7zFd619-hykCo4RydT4dMno3DBvEmXvduiEEmGToAc7ygeHu-iMBDndHOeyZy6-elvKqsrNkrd2fdVttw-MMadw-P34b_MSuJyVnFa25NHoPk/s16000/abby.jpg" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">THE ORIGINAL goal of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), according to its first Secretary General, was 'to keep the Soviets out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.'</span></span><p></p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Today, the Soviet Union is gone, the United States is dominant, and Germany is industrialising. Has NATO achieved its goals? If so, why does it still exist? And why did Fidel Castro call it 'the most perfidious instrument of repression known to mankind'?<br /><br />For Episode 6 of <i>The International</i>, a world-spanning video series brought to you by<i> Jacobin</i> and the <a href="@ProgIntl">Progressive International</a>, journalist Abby Martin examines NATO’s global footprint and explains why this 'defensive alliance' might end up causing World War III.<br /><i><br />Jacobin</i> is a leading voice of the American left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture. Find out more at its <a href="https://jacobin.com/">website</a> and on <a href=" https://twitter.com/jacobin."><i>X</i></a>, formerly Twitter. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><span><a href="https://jacobin.com/subscribe/?code=J... Transcript">Subscribe</a> to <i>Jacobin</i> in print for just $US10</span>.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /><span><span><br />The Progressive International unites, organizes, and mobilizes progressive forces around the world. Find out more<a href="https://progressive.international/"> here</a>.<br /><br />Subscribe to Abby Martin at the<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@EmpireFiles"> Empire Files</a></i>. <br /> </span></span></span></span><p></p><p><br /></p><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-53524016643019273492024-03-02T06:00:00.003+13:002024-03-02T15:52:12.239+13:00'THE BREAD MASSACRE': NO RESPONSE FROM THE NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje0wKpNcjTCiPVyPKdG7dBAlL6fXitl7k7WKtTV67BTvWRXgD31V_FnYqJrC45y1qJk5oLWeDJOjwCcyMisrsnGnBrt83MT53Bwp5Scs9cH9tjbpwnAFk_SmdjpeWBw_kAk28FRGZ3Wsz7FvigJLkT3Lt5RLFgAc-2_nhfVyYhEvop11_AX6wUIR6YcnM/s640/gaza.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje0wKpNcjTCiPVyPKdG7dBAlL6fXitl7k7WKtTV67BTvWRXgD31V_FnYqJrC45y1qJk5oLWeDJOjwCcyMisrsnGnBrt83MT53Bwp5Scs9cH9tjbpwnAFk_SmdjpeWBw_kAk28FRGZ3Wsz7FvigJLkT3Lt5RLFgAc-2_nhfVyYhEvop11_AX6wUIR6YcnM/s16000/gaza.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #990000;"> <br /></span></b></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">The New Zealand Government has branded the political wing of Hamas 'a terrorist organisation', but continues to accommodate itself to Israel's brutal genocidal war which has already claimed over 30,000 Palestinian lives.</span></b></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNGoEuAkni7AvgiiWSJ3wNMwcEMyjODPJt0BgBmlX-ObpF3yKOGK27Zo5F0hdebIUoFHORQsUYneIWmbGqmNMfIQvO6XCqy8Fa7Cs13siCtlfFZR182qqJbtHGB_KLj-yxnaBLVTB9dq2kMUlbX1Al1rpCVTE8tnk_4WtAhaZDU5Y91BXfvbkVJscGl8k/s462/410250854_399636072490186_4016272537984634809_n.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNGoEuAkni7AvgiiWSJ3wNMwcEMyjODPJt0BgBmlX-ObpF3yKOGK27Zo5F0hdebIUoFHORQsUYneIWmbGqmNMfIQvO6XCqy8Fa7Cs13siCtlfFZR182qqJbtHGB_KLj-yxnaBLVTB9dq2kMUlbX1Al1rpCVTE8tnk_4WtAhaZDU5Y91BXfvbkVJscGl8k/s16000/410250854_399636072490186_4016272537984634809_n.jpg" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">ON THE SAME day that the New Zealand Government decided that the Palestinian people should also be denied any political representation and branded the political wing of Hamas 'a terrorist organisation', Israel was committing another atrocity in Gaza. It will be forever known as 'The Bread Massacre' and will serve to steel a new generation of Palestinian liberation fighters. Another war crime was committed, with Israeli troops firing on hundreds of starving Palestinians waiting in line for humanitarian aid, including flour for bread. Most reports say that as many as 150 Palestinians were killed, with over 700 wounded. The death toll can only continue to mount.<br /><br />But no condemnation of this massacre has been forthcoming from the New Zealand Government. Even the fact that Israel continues to flout the rulings of the International Court of Justice, has not been enough to stir the Government into any meaningful response. <br /><br />But by focusing on Hamas, the New Zealand Government denies the long decades of oppression and violence that the Palestinian people have been subjected to from the rogue Zionist state. In Israel’s version of events, and accepted by western governments, the war only began on October 7, when Hamas fighters attacked Israeli military bases, settlements, and towns in the south of Israel. No other date or event before the Hamas attack matters to Israel, the West, and a corporate media covering the war with so much concern for Israel and complete disregard for the atrocities it is committing in Gaza.<br /><br />Palestinian voices that insist on discussing the Gaza war within proper historical contexts are ignored. The ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948, the occupation of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, the siege on Gaza in 2007, all the bloody wars before and after – are denied platforms. Branding the political wing of Hamas 'a terrorist organisation' is part of denying Palestinian people a voice. <br /><br />And compare Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's lack of response to 'The Bread Massacre' compared to that of President Gustavo Petro of Colombia. He has been unequivocal in his condemnation: <br /><br />'The killing of over a hundred Palestinians while they are begging for food is called genocide.'</span></span><p></p><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-24801808268621354652024-02-28T16:11:00.004+13:002024-03-01T05:50:58.061+13:00ANOTHER ROUND OF BENEFICIARY BASHING<p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgsoGH1O33N3SNdx8wzKHeW0K8igmVrZ2e0UA2Ee3qYd3Vu8HBtJgHsbvczamoUd2NTk7ky0KDVc7kFoqnjfT9EwvQ0C47mFpgWXXG4OGUipovWMLmnUNfS0r7iJQpM8rZNz2Qqfo8P2NXLHiTg5JObmRqnMkIBzAquaOIslwX4lArUpsg47JHWJpx_6c/s450/luxon.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgsoGH1O33N3SNdx8wzKHeW0K8igmVrZ2e0UA2Ee3qYd3Vu8HBtJgHsbvczamoUd2NTk7ky0KDVc7kFoqnjfT9EwvQ0C47mFpgWXXG4OGUipovWMLmnUNfS0r7iJQpM8rZNz2Qqfo8P2NXLHiTg5JObmRqnMkIBzAquaOIslwX4lArUpsg47JHWJpx_6c/s16000/luxon.jpg" /></a></span></div><b style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">The National-led coalition government has launched another attack on beneficiaries. The victims of neoliberalism have, apparently, 'obligations' to those who have benefited from the economic status quo.</b><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">OVER THE past four (four!) decades, successive New Zealand governments have tilted the playing field well and truly in favour of our wealthy elite. This has predictably led to a continuing widening of the gap between the haves and the have nots. In 2020, the wealthiest 10% had 59% of all the country’s assets, and the middle classes around 39%. That left the poorest half of the country with just 2%. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The growing level of inequality and poverty led to economist Shamubeel Eaqub to observe in 2022 that New Zealand had seen 'the rise of the landed gentry', where wealth is increasingly inherited.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">But one of the many perverse ironies of neoliberalism is that those who have been its victims are said to owe something to those who have grown ever wealthier under 'the free market'.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">With the Government announcing the ratcheting up of the sanction's regime, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has tubthumped that 'the free ride' is over for beneficiaries who take' advantage' of the taxpayer. Once again, the insidious propaganda about 'the undeserving poor' is being peddled by yet another neoliberal government. This is meat and drink to National's middle-class base, not to mention the bravely anonymous callers who flock to talkback radio and rail at feckless beneficiaries 'lying in bed all day'. Although they are deemed to be irredeemably lazy, they are, apparently, also responsible for the crisis of late capitalism. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">But the idea that the poor owe something to a system that has abandoned them goes a long way back. In 1997, for example, Winston Peters, as Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer in another National Government, proposed a 'Code of Responsibility'. It would, he said, be a means 'to provide beneficiaries with a plan that details what the government expects of them in exchange for the help they receive from taxpayers'. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">In 2024 that 'help' has also come in the way of indexing benefits to inflation rather than wages. The Government's own officials have warned that this is likely to push a further 13,000 children into poverty. The money pinched out of the pocket of beneficiaries will be used to help pay for the Government's tax handout to the middle class, an election promise that Finance Minister Nicola Willis is clearly struggling to meet. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Both Labour and the Green Party have attacked the Government's imposition of a more severe sanctions regime. But it's questionable that either party can presently claim to have the interests of beneficiaries at heart, given their track record. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The former Minister of Social Development Carmel Sepuloni has referenced the report of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group which details how sanctions don't work. But, in 2018, she rejected its recommendation that the sanctions regime be dismantled. She also rejected the majority of its recommendations, including the recommendation that benefit levels be immediately and substantially increased. She was supported by Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">RNZ's Tim Watkins wrote at the time:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">'Welfare Minister Carmel Sepuloni agrees the welfare system is not working. Marama Davidson agrees the welfare system is not working. And then they commit to ignore the report's big recommendations.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">They say no to up to 47 percent benefit increases, preferring "a staged implementation". The call for "urgent change" is rejected. Remarkably, Ms Davidson has put her quotes into the same press release, tying the Greens to this approach, when they could have been dissenting from the rafters.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">In 2022 an exasperated Bryce Edwards wrote: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">'What will it take for this Labour Government to start paying attention to the worsening state of economic inequality in New Zealand? The evidence is mounting that, under Labour’s watch, the problem of wealth and income inequality is spiraling. But the signs are that Labour ministers have put this crisis into the “too hard basket”.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The reality is that Labour, when it had the opportunity, failed to act on behalf of beneficiaries and the poor. Instead, the playing field was tilted further in favour of corporate interests and the wealthy. And throughout its six years in office, Labour was loyally supported by the Green Party.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Beneficiaries will be rightfully cynical of both Labour and the Green's, now claiming to be their allies but who did so little for them while in power. And now they are in the midst of not only a cost-of-living crisis, but also facing a government that seeks to impose the economic burden on those who can least afford it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Both Labour and the Green's will have to convince beneficiaries and the poor that both in terms of policy and action, that they are seeking to be something other than defenders of the status quo and those who benefit from it. Labour is unlikely to be capable of that task but at least the likely new co-leader of the Green Party, Chloe Swarbrick, has signalled she is not interested in leading a party that remains timidly centrist. But it will take much to convince beneficiaries and the poor that the parliamentary road to real change has not already been permanently sealed off and they are merely, and once again, being used as a political football by the Government and the opposition parties to score points with. </span></p><div><br /></div><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-4127549138282295892024-02-23T07:53:00.002+13:002024-03-01T09:35:15.019+13:00GRANT ROBERTSON: A LOYAL LIEUTENANT OF CAPITAL<p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEile4SjggdWTy-MYYG450JEvbpsfP46L_qKUTVBSIuoDD0_XUrYmYLH4WnAIOl6Dix_5jwJXg0uQxhqc681XdSWothZk8LbbjfiwC_dCgs6ugkNRsjPtE6MI0SsRvjUKUi-vRqyxxxXoBwpbKaMG0eG4hUR_peQYnj4LcPkYkbemS8KUKoPMeNtV3Uy6FU/s447/grant%20roberston.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEile4SjggdWTy-MYYG450JEvbpsfP46L_qKUTVBSIuoDD0_XUrYmYLH4WnAIOl6Dix_5jwJXg0uQxhqc681XdSWothZk8LbbjfiwC_dCgs6ugkNRsjPtE6MI0SsRvjUKUi-vRqyxxxXoBwpbKaMG0eG4hUR_peQYnj4LcPkYkbemS8KUKoPMeNtV3Uy6FU/s16000/grant%20roberston.jpg" /></span></a></span></div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Announcing his retirement from parliamentary politics, former Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said that 'he had been proud to serve.' But who, exactly, did he serve? </b></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">IN THE SAME WEEK that Labour leader Chris Hipkins was praising former Finance Minister Grant Robertson for a job well done, it has been revealed that child poverty significantly increased for the year to June 2023 and during Labour's last year in office. The number of children in homes classified as experiencing material hardship increased 2 percent to 12.5 percent compared with the year to June 2022. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">It was left to former Minister for Social Development and Employment, Carmel Sepuloni, to explain the figures. She could not. 'We threw everything at the problem', she insisted. This is far from being true.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">We can detail the figures and haggle over the statistics, but they often only help to obscure the forest from the trees. The unvarnished truth is that, despite Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promising to lead a government focused on economic transformation, very little changed. The Labour Government, supported by the Green's, merely tinkered. Working people were, again, like Oliver Twist, left pleading for more. The new child poverty figures only serve to underline the fact that the Labour Government continued to deliver out thin gruel for the working class its so-called 'socialist' MPs claimed to represent.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">And, presiding over it all, was Finance Minister Grant Robertson. While he wrote, in a nod to New Zealand's myth of egalitarianism, that he wanted to give everyone 'a fair suck of the sav', in reality he was a resolute defender of the neoliberal status quo. This was fully in evidence during the Covid pandemic. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Capitalism can only survive through perpetual motion, and the pandemic threatened to bring the whole system tumbling down. Robertson rode to its rescue, providing unlimited support to big businesses and financial institutions. In stark contrast, working people and the poor received next to nothing.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">As commentator Bernard Hickey observed in January 2022:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">'The Labour Government, supported by the Greens, presided over policies that accidentally on purpose engineered the biggest transfer of wealth to asset owners from current and future renters in the history of New Zealand...the Government’s Covid policies made the rich almost $1t richer, while the poor were allowed to get $400m further in debt to the Government itself, and were forced to apply for more than twice as many food parcels in our largest city.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Robertson helped to save the system and little wonder he was warmly welcomed into corporate boardrooms throughout the country. But he also unintentionally helped to expose the cracks in a creaking and failing economic system. These new fragilities have been exposed by a cost-of-living crisis. But it is only a cost-of-living crisis for those who can least afford it. The corporate sector continues to record big profits.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">This is the economic legacy of Grant Robertson.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">IN 2022 THE late Ricky Houghton of the Korowai Trust warned that civil disobedience may well become the only viable option for people unable to survive any other way.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">'The people who 'have-not' will be taking what they need - and food is a basic human right - they will be taking from those that have. It has to be fixed; the government has to intervene.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The difficulty is that for more than four decades, the state has continued to withdraw from doing the things that support a healthy society and a vibrant economy, all in the name of capital.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The new National-led coalition government will be no different than the neoliberal governments that have come before it. But as it drives more people into poverty, the anger and frustration in the community will continue to mount. It is a powder keg waiting to explode and that's likely to happen when the Government least expects it. </span></p><div><br /></div><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-7443404923317553392024-02-19T16:59:00.002+13:002024-02-20T06:25:00.662+13:00BASHING CHLOE<p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS62YKFe11gjJd-Xz_-urPZrhx2WiNp739_U_ZrmMCFq8v3e-GxHX5MnOd9_dwVDEk4CCIJKbkAS5HO-ZnMs3xX0fZzrZWTwQ6NWuyGbIKHkpZf1YRr1phvhDCYtGk1ourmOEvNz1iYZmHZ7uu8wPHRZHhnSyHLJXrP4meOi36PDn0bEMtbNZVZX9I-Z8/s640/chloeswarbrick.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS62YKFe11gjJd-Xz_-urPZrhx2WiNp739_U_ZrmMCFq8v3e-GxHX5MnOd9_dwVDEk4CCIJKbkAS5HO-ZnMs3xX0fZzrZWTwQ6NWuyGbIKHkpZf1YRr1phvhDCYtGk1ourmOEvNz1iYZmHZ7uu8wPHRZHhnSyHLJXrP4meOi36PDn0bEMtbNZVZX9I-Z8/s16000/chloeswarbrick.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Political commentator Chris Trotter has endorsed the National-led coalition government. Last week, in his new conservative role as a defender of the status quo, he attacked Green MP Chloe Swarbrick for being a political 'extremist'... </b></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTxz-zYEa3fTD9ZrjwlTP7905Qo-FcDB6dK2LyErO9OZjKaG6je_sZjlyPOaRgsKGqmv8gPps8uEEZLLIvWcSxiY1GiYp5hxcedHkN4vQka-9tLIPCwx5iXYHWOO1-ncv0JycU3jhAEk2XbqETQrLLb8f0tOYzw4eF53PEWa_qNAr8KZVch3-kfsH55_4/s400/trotter.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="391" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTxz-zYEa3fTD9ZrjwlTP7905Qo-FcDB6dK2LyErO9OZjKaG6je_sZjlyPOaRgsKGqmv8gPps8uEEZLLIvWcSxiY1GiYp5hxcedHkN4vQka-9tLIPCwx5iXYHWOO1-ncv0JycU3jhAEk2XbqETQrLLb8f0tOYzw4eF53PEWa_qNAr8KZVch3-kfsH55_4/s16000/trotter.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">IT WAS not a coincidence that soon after Chloe Swarbrick announced her intention to run for the vacant position of Green Party co-leader, the local Zionist lobby moved against her. Her use of a Palestinian rallying call at a demonstration, over two months previous, was suddenly of renewed interest. Once again, Swarbrick found herself being accused of 'hate speech' and 'antisemitism' by the very same people defending the slaughter of innocent men, women, and children in Gaza. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Of course, it is a well-worn tactic of the well-funded Zionist lobby to attack critics of Israel as 'anti-Semitic'. Even Jewish critics of Israel are routinely accused of 'antisemitism'.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">But, against the backdrop of Israel's brutality in Gaza, accusations of 'antisemitism' against Israel's critics are wearing thin. The sight of local Zionists like David Cumin and Juliet Moses accusing the popular and well-liked Chloe Swarbrick of 'offensive' behaviour while they themselves continue to defend Israel's war crimes has been grotesque. It has probably only convinced ever more people that Zionists like Moses and Cumin have had their humanity extracted in favour of an unthinking loyalty to a neo-fascist ideology. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Arriving late to the 'Let's bash Chloe circus' has been former left wing commentator Chris Trotter. Despite professing to a Christian faith, the slaughter of thousands of innocent Palestinians has apparently also left Trotter unmoved. It is worth noting that he is on the board of the Zionist-controlled Free Speech Union. It has not only failed to condemn Israel's actions in Gaza but has remained silent even as Israel has continued to deliberately target journalists in Gaza. According to UN reports, since 7 October, over 122 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, and many more have been injured. Trotter himself has never made any mention of this. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">In a column first published by the <i>Otago Daily Times</i> on Friday, February 16, Trotter attacks Chloe Swarbrick from another direction. With the Green Party MP signalling that she would like to see the Green Party adopt a more consistent progressive politics, he has accused of her not only being a revolutionary zealot but an enemy of 'democracy'.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">These are absurd accusations. What Swarbrick has actually said is that she is not interested in defending and maintaining the status quo. Why? Because she says 'Conventional, incremental politics has failed to rise to the challenges we face — those intertwined climate, inequality, biodiversity, and housing crises.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">While Trotter would like his readers to believe this is an 'extremist' position, it is a widely held view that much of the left worldwide has already embraced. In campaigning for a Green New Deal, for example, US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has expressed a similar view to that of Swarbrick's: 'We must confront the economic order and try to replace it with something that is rooted in both human and planetary security, one that does not place the quest for growth and profit at all costs at its centre'.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Similarly, Naomi Klein, author of <i>Everything Must Change: Capitalism versus the Planet</i>, has observed that, 'When we talk about climate change, we have to accept the fact that we’ve waited so long, procrastinated so long, we’ve allowed the problem to become so much worse. We’ve now reached a point when no non-radical options are left on the table.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">It is Trotter who is out of step with political developments, not Swarbrick. But his attack on the Green MP comes at a time when he has abandoned Labour and endorsed the new National-led coalition government.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Chris Trotter's support for the left has always been problematic, and it has never extended beyond support for the Labour Party. But, in the aftermath of Labour's election defeat, he has finally given up on Labour as well. After years of preaching that the only sensible and pragmatic course of action for the left was to continue supporting Labour as 'the lesser evil', Trotter himself has, ironically, given up on that failed strategy as well. He has finally woken up to the fact that Labour is a political dead end. But because his ingrained conservatism prevents him from moving to a more consistent socialist or progressive politics, his new best friends are now Chris Luxon, Winston Peters and David Seymour.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Unsurprisingly, Trotter's new right-wing views have been embraced by conservative media outlets ZB Plus and The Platform. Bizarrely though, his attacks on the left are being collated by the <i>Democracy Project</i> under the heading 'From the Left'. That's prompted Martyn Bradbury of <i>The Daily Blog </i>to write: 'How does <i>Democracy Project</i> keep pretending Trotter is left wing anymore? It’s like pretending ACT is a friend to the working classes.' Bradbury and Trotter were once close political allies.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">While Chris Trotter might accuse Chloe Swarbrick of being an 'extremist' it is he who is the true extremist. Swarbrick is by no means perfect, but she is convinced that there remains a world to win. In stark contrast, Trotter's extremism lies in continuing to defend the present economic order that has not only benefited the few at the expense of the many, but threatens to kill the planet as well. </span></p><div><br /></div><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-25110963114210612702024-02-15T05:11:00.005+13:002024-02-15T08:23:10.407+13:00SEAN PLUNKET AND THE PLATFORM: FAUX RESISTANCE<p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwvzl0GJvgDNOMnOSzy7_2C_hx1YsW7pgbZCVmZHNd46jK8mVHc-YR-7_2UDreQzdCsNnxIq6FmfJZpskstDtwj3VBVAqjxvLyVO6xzEP6_dkiUVW-l4AwpjHDEf-z9Z-DqTTOb4VoE1I8U66yZnnNA3edYXW_HiHdIqoe6ukb5fZV8p-IjDmlLGUk8zg/s450/plunket.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwvzl0GJvgDNOMnOSzy7_2C_hx1YsW7pgbZCVmZHNd46jK8mVHc-YR-7_2UDreQzdCsNnxIq6FmfJZpskstDtwj3VBVAqjxvLyVO6xzEP6_dkiUVW-l4AwpjHDEf-z9Z-DqTTOb4VoE1I8U66yZnnNA3edYXW_HiHdIqoe6ukb5fZV8p-IjDmlLGUk8zg/s16000/plunket.jpg" /></a></b></span></div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Sean Plunket and his on-line radio station The Platform want you to 'join the resistance.' But what exactly are they 'resisting'?</b></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">WHILE SEAN PLUNKET might have Tuaranga rich listers Wayne and Chloe Wright to thank for providing the financial backing to start up and run his on-line radio station The Platform, he owes Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Government a vote of thanks for providing him with the reason to exist. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Launched in September 2021, The Platform was a conservative reaction to the identity politics that Jacinda Arden came to represent, and which swept through both the state sector and the political and social milieu that gravitated around the Labour Government. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The Labour Government, especially in its second term when it governed alone, had the decisive and historic opportunity to be a government of the many, and not the few. Instead, it substituted identity politics for class politics. Matt McCarten, formerly Labour’s Chief of Staff under David Cunliffe and Andrew Little, observed that Labour had been taken over by the middle class and its concerns: 'They look down on the working class. ‘We love the poor, but they smell.’ Because they’re not part of them. They’re in the leafy suburbs, the hip suburbs, the Grey Lynns of this world. And they don’t live amongst the working class, they’re not of them. They are missionaries. That’s what Labour does, ‘we do nice things for people. But we don’t rock the establishment, we don’t rock the middle classes. We keep them quiet.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The irony is that Matt McCarten and Sean Plunket shared a common dislike and mistrust for what became shorthanded as 'woke politics'. But they came from two different political directions. While the traditional or class-based left attacked Labour for its managerialism that represented no threat to the economic status quo, the right saw Labour's - and the Green's- woke politics as the vehicle to undermine the Labour Government and help return the National Party to the Treasury benches. Certainly, Labour's liberal and middle-class supporters helpfully supplied the right-wing with plenty of ammunition that it could fire right back at it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Week in and week out, The Platform - and Plunket in particular - tubthumped its opposition to woke politics. And even though the on-line radio station is another capitalist-owned media operation, Plunket also liked to play up its so-called 'outsider' status. Unlike the mainstream media, he argued, The Platform was 'politically independent' and had not succumbed to the identity politics of the Ardern government. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">But if the liberal left and the conservative right fought it out on the terrain of such issues as co-governance, decolonisation, gender ideology and corporate feminism, there was little between the two camps over economic issues. Neoliberalism would continue to prevail. Yet it was economic issues, such as the rising cost of living and the lack of affordable housing, that weighed heaviest on the lives of working people. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Jacinda Ardern was able to pose on the international stage as a left wing progressive, but domestically she acted as just another centrist defending the status quo. Under her Labour Government there was an unprecedented transfer of wealth to the rich which, as commentator Bryce Edwards <a href="https://democracyproject.nz/2021/07/28/bryce-edwards-political-roundup-labours-sacrificing-of-the-poor/">observed</a>, led to the 'sacrifice of the poor'. And, as John Moore <a href="https://democracyproject.nz/2023/02/19/wokemoore/">pointed</a> out, 'Moderate social reforms and a lack of economic transformation don’t really cut it for those who are both socially and materially oppressed.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">A change in leader and a declaration that Labour was refocusing on 'bread and butter' economic issues was not enough to save it on election day and now Sean Plunket and The Platform have got the government they wanted.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Less than three months since the new government was installed, The Platform is looking less like the anti-establishment rebel that it claimed to be under the Labour Government and looking a lot more like a loyal cheerleader for the National-led coalition government. In its largely uncritical loyalty to the government, it is displaying exactly the same political partisanship that it used to accuse media outlets like Stuff and RNZ of under Labour - and which it still has in its sights.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Even so, The Platform is inviting people to 'join the resistance'. But what, exactly, is it 'resisting?' So far, The Platform has expressed no resistance to tax cuts for the middle class while beneficiaries are to be subjected to a harsher and more punitive sanctions regime that will plunge more people into desperate poverty. Nor has it shown any interest in resisting the 6.5 percent austerity cuts (quietly increased to 7.5 percent) and which will throw more people out of paid employment. It has also not resisted the Government's moves to diminish New Zealand's independent foreign policy as it aligns the country ever more closely to the United States. Nor has it expressed any 'resistance' to Israel's brutal genocidal rampage in Gaza. Indeed, Plunket has proved to be a supporter of the Zionist state and an apologist for the war crimes it has been committing. And as for existential issue of climate change, Plunket is a climate change denier.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Given that Plunket has whooped it up and declared that the Government is popular despite the best efforts of 'the legacy media' to pull it down, it's all too apparent that The Platform has become just another megaphone in the conservative noise machine. The pertinent observation of the late John Pilger is appropriate here: 'Journalists are never real journalists if they are agents of power, no matter how they disguise that role. Real journalists are agents of people.'</span></p><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-57855254907483602472024-02-12T11:00:00.001+13:002024-02-12T14:03:22.148+13:00CHLOE SWARBRICK: FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE<p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #990000;"></span></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #990000;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq8ziHqMLi_HShvyF4NrcSckDZf3kBK045ovxvdbZqjiKS0hXLpugMtsmlVGwdfEbBvjBmP09mwrfpHkAxFtgoEzEv492oNmQzT6OzGPm9pQWQ7SIkhQwrUrVvHmSQTsLoicOgdMoDEq8zs2ohm7wFFu47hmAnT9zr1hYvL0eoyUzAd_aBPCRTftGyEok/s500/swarbrick.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="471" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq8ziHqMLi_HShvyF4NrcSckDZf3kBK045ovxvdbZqjiKS0hXLpugMtsmlVGwdfEbBvjBmP09mwrfpHkAxFtgoEzEv492oNmQzT6OzGPm9pQWQ7SIkhQwrUrVvHmSQTsLoicOgdMoDEq8zs2ohm7wFFu47hmAnT9zr1hYvL0eoyUzAd_aBPCRTftGyEok/s16000/swarbrick.jpg" /></a></span></b></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">According to TVNZ's Jack Tame, Chloe Swarbrick 'upset Jewish people' because she used a popular Palestinian rallying call. But the people complaining about the Green MP are the same people who have been defending Israel's genocidal military campaign in Gaza.</span><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><br />THE ISRAELI far right regime is preparing to send the military into the city of Rafah where 1.9 million people are living in desperate conditions and, in the face of western inaction, only an unspeakable catastrophe awaits them. But on Sunday's <i>Q+A</i> TVNZ's Jack Tame had other things on his mind. He wanted to know if the likely new co-leader of the Green Party was prepared to admit that using the Palestinian rallying cry 'from the river to the sea' had been wrong because it had upset a number of 'Jewish people'. There were hints that antisemitism was at play. <br /><br />Tame normally does his homework, but either he went into this interview ill-prepared, or he has come under the sway of his pro-Zionist mates at Newstalk ZB. Certainly, the views and the attitudes he expressed bore a striking similarity to those of Zionist cheerleaders like Heather du Plessis-Allan, Tim Beveridge and the editor of ZB Plus Philip Crump, not to mention his columnists Chris Trotter and Ani O'Brien.<br /><br />What was Tame trying to achieve? As Swarbrick tried to point out - on several occasions - genocide was being committed in Gaza, and she was being interrogated about a popular Palestinian rallying call. Perhaps Tame had got his priorities wrong?</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has observed, 'from the river to the sea' is 'an aspirational call for freedom, human rights and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction or hate.' The use of the phrase is an act of Palestinian resistance, the same resistance that Israel seeks to destroy in Gaza. Tame though wasn't prepared to explore this reality staring him in the face. He clearly had an agenda to pursue, and instead he talked of 'Jewish people' who were 'upset' that Chloe Swarbrick should chant the phrase at a demonstration.<br /><br />Listening to Tame the viewer might have been left with the impression there was a groundswell of local Jewish opposition to Swarbrick. But that's far from the truth. In fact, the 'Jewish people' who have been complaining about Swarbrick the loudest are the same people who are defending Israel's genocidal military campaign in Gaza. They include David Cumin of the so-called Israel Institute of New Zealand, which has links to the Israeli Government. Similarly, Juliet Moses, who has described Swarbrick's use of the phrase as 'offensive', is the public face of the New Zealand Jewish Council, an undemocratic Zionist controlled group that many local Jewish people do not recognise or support. It is grotesque that Moses can defend the slaughter of innocent children in Gaza yet is offended that Swarbrick should actually declare her opposition to Israel's atrocities.<br /><br />Also complaining loudly about Swarbrick, and hoping to score political points, has been ACT leader David Seymour. He has been asking for an 'apology' from Swarbrick. This is the same David Seymour who, in his silence, has countenanced the slaughter in Gaza. <br /><br />Jack Tame, in the end, fell into the trap of equating Zionism with being Jewish. Or perhaps he's under the impression they are one and the same. They are not. Zionists like David Cumin and Juliet Moses conflate Judaism with Zionism and suggest the state of Israel embodies the self-determination of all Jews. That leads them to attacking Jewish people as 'antisemitic' because they are opposed to the apartheid regime in Tel Aviv and its war crimes in Gaza.<br /><br />The accusations directed at Chloe Swarbrick by Jack Tame are part and parcel of an antisemitism that has been grossly misrepresented by the Zionist lobby in order to attack protesters who oppose Israel's barbaric actions. <br /><br />As Marilyn Gerson of Sh'ma Koleinu (Alternative Jewish Voices (NZ)) <a href="https://ajv.org.nz/2024/01/18/the-language-of-protest-and-the-lessons-of-memory/">observes</a>: <br /><br />'When ceasefire is equated with genocide or when the very sight of Palestinian protest is unbearably triggering, the speaker is making their own fragility the point of their statement. They are speaking of their own intolerance. We ask, what is the matter with you that you equate the cessation of violence with the very worst form of violence? More than one percent of Gaza’s people have been killed, the population is being starved, and the cities are rubble – and you have fainting spells at the sight of a flag?'<br /><br />We might add that the proponents of Zionism have apparently also been having fainting spells because Chloe Swarbrick stands resolutely opposed to Israel's brutal military campaign in Gaza.</span></span><br /><br /></p><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-91269742651877552532024-02-09T16:57:00.001+13:002024-02-09T23:42:51.934+13:00BIDEN AND NETANYAHU: 'NOTHING'S GONNA STOP US NOW' (GENOCIDE REMIX)<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dEG76hlnhNw?si=TvsFlEMI2NzVcfhK" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPSeIClwRwIVGHKJj-i_W1wYNIEjY41to1wVP8xvZhhGtCy5uN-gVyVlAc_ll5GeqWxLYOh3JYfBpoPkW1YzsMaaPB2fFMY3iavw9K9P6aDyr5e5VCs3DR0eSE3KgAdMjC8jMjfS93xMf-VXLlrJ1S-jGZlqmmANX0gc7sUZLaOQRRx9WbuarCrTqkVbU/s400/biden.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="209" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPSeIClwRwIVGHKJj-i_W1wYNIEjY41to1wVP8xvZhhGtCy5uN-gVyVlAc_ll5GeqWxLYOh3JYfBpoPkW1YzsMaaPB2fFMY3iavw9K9P6aDyr5e5VCs3DR0eSE3KgAdMjC8jMjfS93xMf-VXLlrJ1S-jGZlqmmANX0gc7sUZLaOQRRx9WbuarCrTqkVbU/s16000/biden.jpg" /></a></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">ACCORDING TO YOUTUBE, posting a parody of Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu, breaches 'community standards'. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The song and video were inspired by Benjamin Netanyahu's statement, 'Nobody will stop us -- not The Hague, not the axis of evil and not anybody else,' and Joe Biden's unwavering support of Israel's war crimes. <br /><br />The lyrics are by Katie Halper and Daniel Mate. The song used is 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now' co-written by Diane Warren and Albert Hammond and recorded by Starship.<br /><br />Check it out.</span></span><br /><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-50466769928456182652024-02-07T21:41:00.002+13:002024-02-07T21:54:29.279+13:00TRACY CHAPMAN: TALKIN' ABOUT A REVOLUTION<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5RpJDllnogo?si=RgxvnKjyJReyRRkP" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYaA5BwSBNPTej53hKYA4oNge_Q1wMtsGSnd-f4XVCCWwQmZSZBerbLSAC7HXQCQcW2bKw35wVkutXOS-wlev0KpQH4KJ5W6HjKF_0QlGO8sXOmaBWbIub1a7r4DXKXjvxKKXFN6wxZ0l894VPRGDHuHB9b1U3XM-bf1y7ijCWoXRc5yd82CmB_1TAln8/s450/chapaman.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYaA5BwSBNPTej53hKYA4oNge_Q1wMtsGSnd-f4XVCCWwQmZSZBerbLSAC7HXQCQcW2bKw35wVkutXOS-wlev0KpQH4KJ5W6HjKF_0QlGO8sXOmaBWbIub1a7r4DXKXjvxKKXFN6wxZ0l894VPRGDHuHB9b1U3XM-bf1y7ijCWoXRc5yd82CmB_1TAln8/s16000/chapaman.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">THANKS TO TRACY CHAPMAN performing 'Fast Car' with country singer Luke Coombs at the 2024 Grammy Awards, it looks like a whole new audience has been introduced to the music of the fifty-nine-year-old singer-songwriter.<br /><br />Coombs had a major commercial hit with his cover of the thirty-three-year-old song. But since Chapman's appearance on the Grammy's, her original version has rocketed to the top of the charts.<br /><br />Perhaps the opening track to her self-titled debut album will also enjoy a revival. But while 'Fast Car' is a gritty depiction of working class life, 'Talking About a Revolution' goes a step further and talks of class struggle and warns that 'poor people gonna rise up / and take what's theirs.'<br /><br />In 1988, when 'Talking About a Revolution' was first released, it was hailed as a major political and social anthem. Over three decades later, it still speaks to the frustration and anger of a disenfranchised working class. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span><br /><p></p><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-21463176541439716692024-02-04T15:47:00.005+13:002024-02-04T16:50:07.860+13:00CHLOE SWARBRICK AND THE GREEN PARTY: A SEA CHANGE IN NEW ZEALAND POLITICS?<p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMKw_W5ctk45LvBgTSRTUwGyXLxQZN72aZXQ9bVMIpf6my8IECwHYH5IrH2kmcV5ifCheh3Wil_aj6biHmwFqO68E7cAL1d1IoJc21ACgmZtP24g2FMYQEMZTVwZBAWk6l6OkAtHbYebITkmhVydR0K_b4TAWIwML8z3U55B3zLwGPR8hcya5YOCQwD3g/s640/chloe%20swarbrick.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMKw_W5ctk45LvBgTSRTUwGyXLxQZN72aZXQ9bVMIpf6my8IECwHYH5IrH2kmcV5ifCheh3Wil_aj6biHmwFqO68E7cAL1d1IoJc21ACgmZtP24g2FMYQEMZTVwZBAWk6l6OkAtHbYebITkmhVydR0K_b4TAWIwML8z3U55B3zLwGPR8hcya5YOCQwD3g/s16000/chloe%20swarbrick.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>The election of Chloe Swarbrick as Green Party co-leader may signal the beginning of a political movement for change, no longer constrained by a centrist Labour Party.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">WHILE CHLOE SWARBRICK acknowledged James Shaw's work as co-leader of the Green Party, that's as far as it really went. In announcing that she was standing for the co-leadership position left vacant by Shaw, she also made it clear that she was not interested in continuing to hug the centre line as the Green Party has done throughout the nine years that Shaw remained at the helm. In her brief comments to the assembled reporters, she said that she wanted the Green Party to play a major role in a reinvigorated 'left movement' focused on bringing a Green led - and left wing - Government to power. After years of a dour and miserable centrism that has only protected the status quo, it was certainly refreshing to hear a potential political leader talking about 'real-world, people-powered change.' It's not entirely surprising then that the right has already sought to undermine her. In evoking 'Chloemania' the right seeks to associate her with the empty spectacle that 'Jacindamania' proved to be. But Swarbrick is made of sterner stuff than the feckless and centrist Ardern.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The differences between Swarbrick and Shaw could not be greater. Shaw pursued his corporate environmentalism and blamed climate change not on the exploitation of the planet by an economic system driven by profit, but on 'people'. Swarbrick, in contrast, has always objected to the view that the very economic system that is chewing up the planet can be harnessed to save it. She told reporters that government decisions 'have been often constrained by systems designed to give power and privilege to the few. But this system is man-made, and it can and must be remade.'</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">And while Shaw irritated many Green Party members by boasting of minor tweaks as major victories, Swarbrick's rejection of incrementalism will be welcomed: 'Conventional, incremental politics has failed to rise to the challenges we face - those intertwined climate, inequality, biodiversity and housing crises.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf9CJmgflj5buOLREGqYauoclZU_VHLSSMzFRfghqSW0_aBXQRZn4zo9R1vmdaNJoi5e7yP5HEcm-bMNWWOxYHjLO0mLWXdleeMoelRLOe8Y7namJA9678WPYKhWGVFDgVnX6IsTx85jscmHoYRQzd8NF5nHsp52ftsG_y4PGXeQtH9Yj8qnlJrW60f58/s400/chloesw.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf9CJmgflj5buOLREGqYauoclZU_VHLSSMzFRfghqSW0_aBXQRZn4zo9R1vmdaNJoi5e7yP5HEcm-bMNWWOxYHjLO0mLWXdleeMoelRLOe8Y7namJA9678WPYKhWGVFDgVnX6IsTx85jscmHoYRQzd8NF5nHsp52ftsG_y4PGXeQtH9Yj8qnlJrW60f58/s16000/chloesw.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">We live in a country where politics has been interpreted as what governments do to us, and it has been of little benefit to ordinary New Zealanders. Swarbrick also recognises that the ability to bring about real change will be limited if it's not coupled with an organised movement that has the ability to shape politics from the bottom up. She told reporters that, in her view, the development of a grassroots movement means:<br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">'...more Green members across the country, running local campaigns and implementing local solutions. It means more Greens Local Body members, Councillors and Mayors. It means more Greens MPs in Parliament and, ultimately, our nation’s first Green-led Government....I am stepping up, and I am asking everyone across this country to realise their power to do the same because bad things happen when good people stand idly by.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Grassroots activism can form the basis of a democratic socialism built from the ground up but, if it's going to work, it has to focus on the issues that are of concern to ordinary people. It would not have escaped Swarbrick's notice that the Green Party had a successful election campaign largely because it focused on the economic issues that resonate with ordinary working class New Zealanders, such as the rising cost of living and the lack of affordable housing. That means ditching the identity politics that have only served to sow division among the very people that Swarbrick wants the Green Party to represent.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">It's unlikely that any Green Party co-led by Swarbrick will prostrate itself before Labour Party, as it did during the James Shaw-Marama Davidson era. Her comments that Labour is one of the 'legacy parties' that 'do not represent the future of the country,' should be taken as a clear warning to Labour that the Green Party under Chloe Swarbrick plans to supplant it as the natural party of the left. Labour is in danger of sliding into political irrelevancy. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">But the Labour leadership has been unwilling to accept that it was its limp centrism that led to its heavy election defeat. In December, leader Chris Hipkins told RNZ: 'Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. The tide comes in, and the tide goes out.' </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">It's almost as if Hipkins still believes that neither he nor Labour can be held responsible for its defeat. It just happened. Just like that. Hipkins may well still believe that it's business as usual, but with the Green Party led by a young and popular new leader who has vowed to shake things up, Labour may well find that the tide has gone out on it permanently. </span></p><div><br /></div><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-6337499556597396762024-02-04T15:45:00.000+13:002024-02-04T15:45:08.850+13:00TARIQ HABASH: 'I CANNOT REMAIN SILENT'<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Pe5rZR_CYl0?si=ek05gcmtVGx9Afls" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe>
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUWCtfZtJQrBqyKHgiDCw3SWItIaZiXdTNIcy_ZSV5X5eBRl_BE_nuXpylq0T6PQ7FZ4lVFBLoFTq9OmlnYCaCqyrKZpwLxw1DO1x0c7PdaklXoGxuq7oVo50zvYhFVUfQ7CU_AogXdtC84oCw4TF0E07o74br11E2xPONk3gqx0EaaaKE0G9CKXbxtic/s533/graffiti.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUWCtfZtJQrBqyKHgiDCw3SWItIaZiXdTNIcy_ZSV5X5eBRl_BE_nuXpylq0T6PQ7FZ4lVFBLoFTq9OmlnYCaCqyrKZpwLxw1DO1x0c7PdaklXoGxuq7oVo50zvYhFVUfQ7CU_AogXdtC84oCw4TF0E07o74br11E2xPONk3gqx0EaaaKE0G9CKXbxtic/s16000/graffiti.jpg" /></a></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">IN EARLY January Tariq Habash, a senior U.S. Education Department official and a Biden appointee, resigned his position. He was the first government official of Palestinian origin, to resign in protest over the U.S. enabling Israel to commit genocide in Gaza. </span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">In his resignation letter that he shared with media outlets Habash wrote:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">'...the actions of the Biden-Harris Administration have put millions of innocent lives in danger, most immediately for the 2.3 million Palestinian civilians living in Gaza who remain under continuous assault and ethnic cleansing by the Israeli government...I cannot stay silent as this administration turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed against innocent Palestinian lives, in what leading human rights experts have called a genocidal campaign by the Israeli government."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Tariq Habash speaks with Abby Martin of the<i> Empire Files</i> about his decision to resign. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div><br /></div><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-45755467333637431402024-02-02T12:12:00.001+13:002024-02-02T12:13:20.885+13:00THE NZ FREE SPEECH UNION AND GAZA: SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL, SPEAK NO EVIL<p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSZG7RrSN6VdlXWr7Q-ua3GsPYUMmMpBAw2mqE9aYeZCmG4ywa2eZWizF_uUMgb38oj3FnkwtNn729_foqvUlDdv5x-wAN8KMfK9XbxPej7-rGirD_iR_eS5b2IJ-0tFLhyphenhyphenxARtPQxsGr4bH53yO5eSgyRneE8NgXinnyax9EKp-DkUcat_VXoxDSmhtk/s640/journalists.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSZG7RrSN6VdlXWr7Q-ua3GsPYUMmMpBAw2mqE9aYeZCmG4ywa2eZWizF_uUMgb38oj3FnkwtNn729_foqvUlDdv5x-wAN8KMfK9XbxPej7-rGirD_iR_eS5b2IJ-0tFLhyphenhyphenxARtPQxsGr4bH53yO5eSgyRneE8NgXinnyax9EKp-DkUcat_VXoxDSmhtk/s16000/journalists.jpg" /></a></span></div><b style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><p><b style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></b></p>Israel has deliberately targeted journalists in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, resulting in over 80 deaths. But, despite claiming to be a champion of free speech, the New Zealand Free Speech Union has remained silent throughout. When it comes to Israel, the FSU seems to work on the principle of ' see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil'.</b><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Calibri; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggFRqCdOqbfLq6F0QFCIMhvDeMl51QF68hZ33TzIxoyF9gWf-vbsNvX3GFNwSBEdm9nLa5CPJ3cLuhjHEBCWHP4-DZ67UQBArQqwg_ca5teUF0Ant5Uwnfpo4gbxd0vfVyi7PCzDlLjtDv0QcBmJDG9ZITGBh2o_v_-nwJ_8heUvuT0fXW5LKb9uCAugY/s400/cDr0ngu0_400x400.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggFRqCdOqbfLq6F0QFCIMhvDeMl51QF68hZ33TzIxoyF9gWf-vbsNvX3GFNwSBEdm9nLa5CPJ3cLuhjHEBCWHP4-DZ67UQBArQqwg_ca5teUF0Ant5Uwnfpo4gbxd0vfVyi7PCzDlLjtDv0QcBmJDG9ZITGBh2o_v_-nwJ_8heUvuT0fXW5LKb9uCAugY/s320/cDr0ngu0_400x400.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">FORMED IN 2021, the New Zealand Free Speech Union has worked hard to present itself as a mainstream advocacy group, without any ideological bias, that resolutely defends the right to free speech. On the front page of its website it asserts: </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">'Human beings cannot flourish unless they are free.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">'We protect, expand, and fight for New Zealanders’ rights to freedom of speech, conscience, and intellectual inquiry. We envision a flourishing New Zealand civil society that values and protects vigorous debate, dissenting ideas, and freedom of speech as cultural cornerstones.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">But Israel's brutal military campaign in Gaza has revealed that the FSU is not quite the staunch defender of free speech it likes to claim it is. Not only has it remained silent as Israel has waged war against the Palestinian people, but it has also remained silent even as the Israel military have deliberately targeted journalists in Gaza. Despite wearing 'PRESS' flak jackets, the kind worn by journalists covering active war zones and respected under the laws of war, they still have been targeted by the IDF.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Although the figures are always being updated, according to a recent preliminary investigation of the Committee to Protect Journalists, 83 journalists and media workers have now been confirmed dead. A further 16 journalists have been injured and three journalists remain missing. A further 23 journalists have been arrested by the Israeli military and their present whereabouts remains uncertain.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">CPJ says it is also investigating other unconfirmed reports of journalists having been killed or detained.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The death toll of journalists from Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has surpassed the number of reporters killed around the world in 2021 and 2022.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">It has also gone generally unreported in western media outlets that the majority of journalists killed by Israeli forces have been reporters for non-Western news outlets, including several Palestinian news organizations. The lack of any real response from the western media to this blatant attack on press freedom has only highlighted that western media, in its coverage of Gaza, has not been kind to the Palestinian people.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Despite the ongoing silencing of journalists by the Israeli military, the Free Speech Union has said nothing. Nor has it had anything to say about how the attack on press freedom has had serious implications for how journalism is conducted in Gaza and whose stories aren’t being told.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The FSU's failure to speak out is easily explainable; it is a supporter of both Israel and its actions in Gaza. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The eight-person board of the FSU is dominated by supporters of the far-right regime in Tel Aviv.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">A founding member is Zionist David Cumin. He runs the so-called 'independent' think tank, the Israel Insitute of New Zealand, which continues to defend Israel's actions in Gaza. In 2023 Cumin attempted to intimidate several New Zealand academics into not criticising Israel. Yet, despite a claiming to be a champion of free speech, the FSU has took no action against him. Interestingly, despite his authoritarian attacks on New Zealand critics of Israel, media outlets like Newstalk ZB and The Platform continue to interview him for his 'perspectives' on Gaza.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Other pro-Zionist board members include media commentators Chris Trotter and Ani O'Brien. Both write for ZB Plus, a subscription-based spin off from Newstalk ZB. Not coincidentally it is edited by Philip Crump, another supporter of Israel. Trotter is also a regular on The Platform where he and the heavily pro-Zionist Sean Plunket engage in conversations that amount to little more than mutual appreciation sessions. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Other FSU board members who support Israel are lawyer and former ACT MP Stephen Franks, Jordan Carter of the Taxpayer Union, and lawyer Roderick Mulgan.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">On January 31 the FSU posted to X that 'it was thrilled the FSU will be in our first High School this week, speaking with students about the importance of free speech for a peaceful, prosperous, open-minded future!' </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">It is only fair that students should be made aware - but probably won't be - that the FSU is a Zionist controlled group and that it has not condemned the murder of over 80 journalists in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli military. The young people concerned, some who have probably participated in some of the many pro-Palestine demonstrations throughout the country, may not want to be associated with a group that condones genocide. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTp1o_M8zK77NHSAPoXTN12eq3H_okDarLlTrKZl7EMM8tw_7J-rkAr6XwtG8eVbDR4hpj_RVqhWVdD8FlRx5ce4CpEyLjQyKJ47fcM5i33sGquYTVCPOKn8jrsLf03JnQItDlWg1B9Y6bT1eKhqeppVfEFh9nI5SosmTz3wmR0wW-yabkGN7VeJJP0qI/s365/mcgimpsey1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="350" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTp1o_M8zK77NHSAPoXTN12eq3H_okDarLlTrKZl7EMM8tw_7J-rkAr6XwtG8eVbDR4hpj_RVqhWVdD8FlRx5ce4CpEyLjQyKJ47fcM5i33sGquYTVCPOKn8jrsLf03JnQItDlWg1B9Y6bT1eKhqeppVfEFh9nI5SosmTz3wmR0wW-yabkGN7VeJJP0qI/s320/mcgimpsey1.jpg" width="307" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">DESCRIBED AS being responsible for FSU's 'legal drafting and research', William McGimpsey is not only a supporter of Israel's genocidal military campaign in Gaza, he's also a white supremacist. He has been described as 'a very dangerous person' on X.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">McGimpsey is an advocate of 'Great Replacement Theory', the same ideology subscribed to by the Christchurch terrorist, and which resulted in 51 people being murdered at two Christchurch mosques in 2019. His 'manifesto' was titled 'The Great Replacement'. It largely consisted of racist, white nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiments.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The same sentiments have been expressed by McGimpsey. He has posted to X: 'The idea that you can just mix peoples from all over the world together in a single nation and everything will carry on as normal is a radical, utopian experiment being forced on the people of the world against their will - it's also the primary cause of most of the division, conflict, and decline within Western nations.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">McGimpsey has also tried to argue that the battle for free speech is also a battle against mass immigration. In fact, McGimpsey's neo-fascist views represent an attack on free speech because he opposes the political and cultural diversity that constitutes a modern day liberal democracy.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">His attempt to popularise such extreme right-wing views using the FSU as a vehicle, raises further questions about the FSU and its political agenda. It's an organisation that claims to be mainstream but harbours Zionist and far right views that allow white supremacists like McGimpsey to operate within it and with impunity. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">McGimpsey shares with board members of the FSU a callous disregard for the people of Gaza. They are, after all, not only non-white and of a different culture, but they have also dared to struggle for over 75 years against their oppressors - Western imperialism and its Zionist ally in the Middle East. They must, then, be annihilated. </span></p><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-30033045683304546592024-01-28T22:28:00.015+13:002024-01-30T16:14:23.871+13:00THERE IS MASS MURDER BEING COMMITTED IN GAZA<p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHLJAEtl6WGH6Tx9wRuBoJuHyWKKYCs_vpa63W_8LdOumMlEZwV7A2HzGRfUG5IfRuTjOStolbhPqYfpa8Yoxph1Ua57R1l7a_jsH_eP2NIU1UR_G8hxTpMkXibdbd6A75OQTGDa0S70VvG69wNKGK1pFtQBvpMAc-Wjube-r0yv4dP2XQrM27UIjRxhQ/s640/icj_gaza.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHLJAEtl6WGH6Tx9wRuBoJuHyWKKYCs_vpa63W_8LdOumMlEZwV7A2HzGRfUG5IfRuTjOStolbhPqYfpa8Yoxph1Ua57R1l7a_jsH_eP2NIU1UR_G8hxTpMkXibdbd6A75OQTGDa0S70VvG69wNKGK1pFtQBvpMAc-Wjube-r0yv4dP2XQrM27UIjRxhQ/s16000/icj_gaza.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Now that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has decided that Israel has a genocide case to answer, will New Zealand politicians continue to claim that Israel is just defending itself? And is it appropriate to send troops to assist United States to bomb Yemen that will only ensure that the carnage in Gaza continues? And now that the ICJ has agreed that South Africa has made a plausible case that Israel is committing genocide, will the New Zealand media finally acknowledge it? </b></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Calibri; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPkaYirXTIvYqoYQT0ywfZAIdQUljfKwlu88_ed6_qPIzswje9xHMTMFV_PPx2p3tMuTz8ImIW4Tax3WK6QNTmpW5MCgseo9jaXCmZBB2q4l8I9Hn3g1BZQrItOMFgVJJQiFvQ73ljff3uDz8HEtgLYVSBzBkSMVTfpQNELa2qoPI2yeiDCc0XKa0t2cc/s420/gazaprotest.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPkaYirXTIvYqoYQT0ywfZAIdQUljfKwlu88_ed6_qPIzswje9xHMTMFV_PPx2p3tMuTz8ImIW4Tax3WK6QNTmpW5MCgseo9jaXCmZBB2q4l8I9Hn3g1BZQrItOMFgVJJQiFvQ73ljff3uDz8HEtgLYVSBzBkSMVTfpQNELa2qoPI2yeiDCc0XKa0t2cc/s16000/gazaprotest.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The International Court of Justice, by an overwhelming majority, has decided that South Africa had made a plausible case that Israel is committing genocide against the people of Gaza.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">That decision has exposed the rank hypocrisy of western politicians. Ignoring the carnage that we have all witnessed on our television and computer screens, they have encouraged Israel to commit war crimes by claiming that it is only 'acting in self-defence'. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">That has been the narrative routinely trotted out by many New Zealand politicians including the leaders of National, Labour, New Zealand First and ACT. The honourable exceptions have been Te Pati Maori and the Green Party. As far back as October Te Pati Maori was calling for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, following the example set by South Africa. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">On January 18, several days before the ICJ announced its ruling, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon again repeated that Israel had 'a right to defend itself'. But he also added that it also had 'a huge obligation to make sure that it is compliant with international law.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">But, just five days later, Luxon announced that the Government was deploying six defence force members to assist the United States to bomb Yemen, in what will only prove to be a futile effort to defend commercial ships against Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">With the United States and other Western government's complicit in supporting Israel's brutal military assault on the people of Gaza, the Houthis have repeatedly stated that the attacks are aimed at applying economic and political pressure on Israel to submit to a ceasefire. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">In short, the root cause of the hostilities in the Red Sea is Israel's ongoing military onslaught in Gaza. New Zealand, in joining with the United States, is doing nothing but encouraging Israel to ignore the ruling of the ICJ. That ruling states that Israel must take urgent steps to avoid the killing and harming of civilians and that it should also avoid creating conditions in Gaza that might make life impossible for Palestinians in the territory.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">How long will politicians like Christopher Luxon, David Seymour and Winston Peters continue to insist that Israel is only acting in 'self defence' in the light of the ruling of the ICJ? How long will they continue to turn a blind eye to Israel's war crimes when every action it takes in Gaza, including the bombing of civilian homes, the continuing denial of food, water and power to Gaza's population, and the bombing of the so-called 'safe zones' will be listed and investigated as evidence of a genocide? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The ICJ has issued a warning about Israel's actions in Gaza and New Zealand politicians who have been eager to defend its barbarism should take note.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJAx6WsI9kgcREOtVvbAB0o2ZesjGf9hhCMORrzWeKKWkrQ6Pd5ZbVJI52i7XqJEYw_bkbVZwJnCv_M9gzhdUhtyXLaFZujxu2rV5ybNGWFu9aTu3-uGlUyi4CSwtvevT-3lD4H780nMIRgm1O2VKduxF12PYHLk8kGPD97sRXKVwH-rZBAiu5UKOyQD0/s420/rnz01.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="317" data-original-width="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJAx6WsI9kgcREOtVvbAB0o2ZesjGf9hhCMORrzWeKKWkrQ6Pd5ZbVJI52i7XqJEYw_bkbVZwJnCv_M9gzhdUhtyXLaFZujxu2rV5ybNGWFu9aTu3-uGlUyi4CSwtvevT-3lD4H780nMIRgm1O2VKduxF12PYHLk8kGPD97sRXKVwH-rZBAiu5UKOyQD0/s16000/rnz01.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">THE DECISION of the ICJ is also an embarrassment for the New Zealand mainstream media that, when it has not been ignoring Gaza, has sought to defend Israel's actions. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">While the ICJ says that it is 'plausible' that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, the New Zealand media has barely been interested. In recent times it has shown more enthusiasm for pursuing former Green MP Golriz Ghahraman for alleged shoplifting than reporting on the slaughter of innocent men, women and children in Gaza. This comes at a time when thousands of New Zealanders are demonstrating every week, demanding that the Government call for a ceasefire. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The reluctance to criticise Israel may be because the New Zealand media has proven to be no friend of the Palestinian people. New Zealand's only nationwide talkback station, Newstalk ZB, barely mentions Gaza. When it does, it is only to allow hosts like Tim Beveridge to express their support for the Zionist state.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Newstalk ZB's digital spin-off, ZB Plus, has remained silent on events unfolding in the Middle East. That's not entirely surprising since it is edited by the conservative Philip Crump who is a known supporter of the Zionist regime in Tel Aviv. It is also not surprising that he has invited other Zionist supporters, like former left wing commentator Chris Trotter and Judith Collins' former press secretary Ani O'Brien, to provide opinion columns for ZB Plus. O'Brien's most recent column was a hit job on Golriz Ghahraman, a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">RNZ's coverage of events in Gaza has been better, but it has still been woeful. Under the editorial direction of CEO and editor-in-chief Paul Thompson, it has always shown little inclination to question the foreign policies of the government of the day. And such is the case with Israel and Gaza.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">In November, former RNZ journalist Mick Hall <a href="https://mickhall.substack.com/p/new-zealands-national-broadcaster">reported</a> that RNZ had "justified removing references to 'genocide' unfolding in Gaza made by a Palestinian guest on a podcast because it would have otherwise “stolen valuable time”.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">RNZ's podcast<i> In Detail</i> interviewed Palestinian-New Zealander Tameem Shaltoni, who has relatives in Gaza. It also interviewed Ben Kepes, a New Zealand businessman and son of Holocaust survivors.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Shaltoni later complained that his references to genocide being committed in Gaza were edited out of the podcast. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">RNZ head of content Megan Whelan responded that claims of genocide were simply 'outside the ambit' of the podcast in question and that airing references to genocide would have been editorially difficult because it 'would have stolen valuable time away from the guests as it would have meant defining genocide, providing context for the listener and offering a right of reply.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">Mick Hall reported that Shaltoni told the podcast <i>1 of 200 </i>that he believed the media 'didn’t want to countenance the idea of genocide because it contradicted the Western narrative that there was a war between Israel and non-state actor Hamas.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">RNZ's coverage of ongoing events in Gaza continues to be questionable. There has been little attempt to provide alternative views to the Government's narrative. Last week, it went as far as misrepresenting the ruling of the ICJ. While it said that Israel did have to answer to the charge of genocide, RNZ falsely <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/news-bulletin/story/2018923698/radio-new-zealand-news">reported</a> that the ICJ had found Israel 'not guilty' of genocide. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Note:</span></b> Since I posted this story last night, RNZ has removed the news broadcast that claimed the ICJ had found Israel 'not guilty' of genocide.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">Further</span></b>: RNZ has since <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/corrections/507856/international-court-of-justice-ruling-on-israel">posted </a>a correction on its website. It states: </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">'RNZ news bulletins on Sunday, January 28, reported Israel had been found
not guilty of genocide by the International Court of Justice. However,
the court did not make a specific ruling on whether genocide had
occurred, but said there was a plausible case against Israel under the
1948 Genocide Convention.'</span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjubg-hcO67VxHRXnzvcTuFav4sWwtoPm4fcbQo-DxYTl-AcsILV5fCOiOwjHuFhsde9LvD2tc4GOST8wq-omsnFvOBRzEKsqwx54cLyPEvMTtawYH0foDidF3el73K6ozpdDRKSYC4v3ssx4z49Aw9qbTIx3kLBjyXDco4IiwvOX9_dXqYHi5RZYzYll0/s640/rnz1.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjubg-hcO67VxHRXnzvcTuFav4sWwtoPm4fcbQo-DxYTl-AcsILV5fCOiOwjHuFhsde9LvD2tc4GOST8wq-omsnFvOBRzEKsqwx54cLyPEvMTtawYH0foDidF3el73K6ozpdDRKSYC4v3ssx4z49Aw9qbTIx3kLBjyXDco4IiwvOX9_dXqYHi5RZYzYll0/s16000/rnz1.JPG" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><div><br /></div><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-12205459663479491132024-01-27T06:47:00.002+13:002024-01-27T07:05:53.998+13:00INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE: ISRAEL HAS A GENOCIDE CASE TO ANSWER<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZpHeufqoQS62_D1mwDutzuUG-P_FYy6WWCtWIQaJ-tghTJy3mOsD4o1GS_iYqsUq_PbX-UTwBzrNUbJ1kPDfIPs8iTEYjsW82fhlNNXk-S4qEmimnevQVenAphhztl1HGBRzlvse7OiVOCIXCpSJ_Q7k-XyUmL-zwx_fvIzXum4RmcnCtrL1lGhHv14U/s450/gaza.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZpHeufqoQS62_D1mwDutzuUG-P_FYy6WWCtWIQaJ-tghTJy3mOsD4o1GS_iYqsUq_PbX-UTwBzrNUbJ1kPDfIPs8iTEYjsW82fhlNNXk-S4qEmimnevQVenAphhztl1HGBRzlvse7OiVOCIXCpSJ_Q7k-XyUmL-zwx_fvIzXum4RmcnCtrL1lGhHv14U/s16000/gaza.jpg" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #990000;">The International Court of Justice has agreed with South Africa that Israel has a genocide case to answer and ordered that the Israeli Government ensures that its military does not commit violations of the Genocide Convention. The New Zealand Government must call for the immediate and unconditional implementation of the ICJ's ruling. </span></b></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><br />WHILE THE International Court of Justice did not call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, its ruling represents a major step toward ensuring one. While many Palestinians wanted the ICJ to order an immediate ceasefire it still represents a major defeat for Israel, the United States and its supporters like New Zealand. A Palestinian journalist says that the ICJ's ruling means that 'Israel's immunity has ended, and this is the beginning'.<br /><br />The ICJ has effectively agreed with South Africa that Israel has caused indiscriminate death and destruction in Gaza. It recognises that the carnage in Gaza plausibly constitutes genocide. It has ordered that Israel 'take all measures within its power' to abide by the terms of the Genocide Convention. The ICJ has also called for immediate humanitarian assistance and the provision of basic services. And, in a telling insight into the ICJ'S thinking, it has ruled that Israel should prevent the destruction of evidence that shows violations of international law. It has ordered Israel to submit a report that outlines all the steps it has taken to implement its ruling. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In an early statement, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has already signalled that his far right government will simply ignore the ruling of ICJ. The question is whether the United States, in particular, will let Israel trample over international law and allow the carnage to continue.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What will be the response of the New Zealand Government? If recent history is any indication, it will continue to be guided by the actions of the United States. This is not good enough. If Prime Minister Christopher Luxon wants to credibly claim that his government respects and upholds international law, then it must call for the immediate and unconditional implementation of the ICJ's ruling, and demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. It should not be awaiting its instructions from Washington.<br /><br />And given that the ICJ has ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide from occurring in Gaza, New Zealand should not be helping Israel to commit them. It should reverse its decision to send New Zealand troops to assist the United States to bomb Yemen. The Houthis have said on several occasions that it will cease disrupting global trade once Israel stops bombing Gaza.</span></span><br /><br /></p><p></p><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-76473118423308508062024-01-24T06:26:00.008+13:002024-01-24T17:51:02.859+13:00NEW ZEALAND: A FAITHFUL SERVANT OF THE UNITED STATES<p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinPdqF2iTsIk07R18To1UfbaoMOUogbhR3BMp67d3fLxxYjImCJAmzN9u1OQus7f0sHYhL8UcK9e2e_6-sJNATGF_FY3rXLapXxjnK8Gd5Bss15n_4uDuYc8yQgGA3QE8tUlNhSVyy81Imu6qtmlcsOy-TBI6bY890okEI6ctAnhpU9e2f3wb4LBTDJ7I/s450/yemen.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinPdqF2iTsIk07R18To1UfbaoMOUogbhR3BMp67d3fLxxYjImCJAmzN9u1OQus7f0sHYhL8UcK9e2e_6-sJNATGF_FY3rXLapXxjnK8Gd5Bss15n_4uDuYc8yQgGA3QE8tUlNhSVyy81Imu6qtmlcsOy-TBI6bY890okEI6ctAnhpU9e2f3wb4LBTDJ7I/s16000/yemen.jpg" /></a></span></div><b style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica;"><span style="font-size: medium;">New Zealand could have allied itself with South Africa and its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Instead, the Government has chosen to ally itself with a United States that is allowing the slaughter in Gaza to continue and is firing missiles into Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world.</span></b><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">GIVEN THAT the New Zealand Government has already signalled</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> to the United States that it supports Israel's genocidal military campaign in Gaza, no one should be surprised that, at its very first cabinet meeting of the year, it agreed to sending troops to a widening conflict zone.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">The Prime Minister emphasised at yesterday's press conference that no New Zealand troops would be entering Yemen. Big deal. In case Luxon hasn't noticed, there are no ground troops in Yemen and the United States has no intention of sending in troops. That would be madness. This is all about hitting Yemen from afar; missiles are being fired into the country from US and UK warships and submarines. The job of New Zealand's six-member team is to assist with sending those missiles to those targets. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">But President Joe Biden has already conceded that the strikes against the Houthis are not deterring the groups' attacks in the Red Sea. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon however must know something that Joe Biden doesn't because he claimed that the missile attacks were all about 'the self-defence of shipping'. Foreign Minister Winston Peters, who is proving to be a real courtier of the American Empire, claimed that 'These efforts support international security and the free flow of trade on which New Zealanders rely.' But as Beirut-based journalist Rania Khalek has already observed: 'Yemen isn’t even targeting ships destined for New Zealand, this makes no sense! Also, you’re cool with bombing people over … shipping delays to customers??? Late-stage capitalism is as embarrassing as it is barbaric.'</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">For Luxon to claim that the military attacks on Yemen are somehow separate and distinct from Israel's ongoing genocidal military campaign in Gaza is ludicrous. He is trying to gaslight us because New Zealand has now joined the United States in a direct military confrontation with Ansarullah, the de facto government of Yemen. It has for weeks maintained a naval blockade to prevent commercial ships from reaching Israeli ports. Ansarullah has made clear on several occasions that its intervention in the Red Sea is aimed at exacting an economic cost on Israel for the genocide in Gaza, a form of pressure to bring the bloodshed and humanitarian catastrophe to an end.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;">While the New Zealand Government have declined to acknowledge the real source of the conflict in the Red Sea, the attacks on shipping could end almost immediately if the United States forced Israel to submit to a permanent ceasefire. It won't do that. Instead, it is allowing the slaughter in Gaza to continue, as well as risking a wider regional war that there will be no coming back from. That the New Zealand Government has chosen to ally itself with the United States is reprehensible.</span></p><div><br /></div><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-55169112718379392322024-01-23T17:55:00.002+13:002024-01-25T14:23:42.513+13:00DONALD TRUMP: FIRST AS TRAGEDY, SECOND AS FARCE<p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #990000;"></span></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicxw9aebofqf0eMHWykuwou8jKPLL7t0JV2LTi59pDlfD634GNBc88wQdTzZmFW-XE-axeUZgCnMI00CFIdt6JRpDjPhiD70iDdJtnZnHwtHBm6NDFCMzaXtxoAfRrj1t3D1BBDptogj6FNgOlT6peGzBtxB-lhVlfIOg6_rQn_voc4eG9R84Geem0hOs/s500/BIDEN.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="334" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicxw9aebofqf0eMHWykuwou8jKPLL7t0JV2LTi59pDlfD634GNBc88wQdTzZmFW-XE-axeUZgCnMI00CFIdt6JRpDjPhiD70iDdJtnZnHwtHBm6NDFCMzaXtxoAfRrj1t3D1BBDptogj6FNgOlT6peGzBtxB-lhVlfIOg6_rQn_voc4eG9R84Geem0hOs/s16000/BIDEN.jpg" /></a></b></span></div><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>The <a href="https://stepasidejoe.org/">Step Aside Joe</a> campaign says that Joe Biden's 'prospects for winning re-election appear to be bleak, even in the face of GOP extremism. With so much at stake, anointing him as the Democratic Party’s 2024 standard-bearer would be a tragic mistake.' But it looks like the Democratic Party is about to make that mistake. </b></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>SHORTLY AFTER Joe Biden won the US Presidency in November 2020, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spelt out the dangers that the United States faced if Biden did not get it right:<br /><br />'If people's lives don't feel different under President Biden, we're done. You know how many Trumps there are in waiting? I'm tired of incremental change - bullshit little ten percent tax cuts. I think, honestly, a lot of my dissent within the Democratic Party comes from my lived experience. It’s not just that we can be better, it’s that we have to be better. We’re not good enough right now.'<br /><br />Although AOC is one of the sharpest political minds around, it's likely that even she did not anticipate that the same old Donald Trump would be the Republican's Presidential candidate in 2024. <br /><br />With Florida Governor Ron DeSantis having announced the end of his campaign and then proceeded to endorse Trump, only former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley stands in the way of Trump getting another tilt at the Presidency. But it's extremely unlikely that she will be able to stop the Trump juggernaut. In Iowa's Republican primary a fortnight ago, Trump collected more than 50% of the vote, double the vote for both DeSantis and Haley combined.<br /><br />Despite the fact that Trump sought to undermine and discredit the 2020 election result, and which led to the storming of Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, and despite the fact that he faces 71 charges in four criminal cases, he will almost certainly be the Republican Party's presidential candidate to take on Joe Biden in a 'rematch'.<br /><br />And, unless forces outside the election arena block Trump's bid, he is likely to become US President again. Biden has never been weaker. As AOC predicted four years ago, working people have a negative opinion of a Democratic president who has delivered more of the same. Poll after poll confirm that people are unimpressed with Biden's handling of the economy. While there have been some isolated bright spots, like a falling unemployment rate, after long years of widening economic inequality and insecurity, folk are not prepared to support Biden simply because a few economic indicators have ticked upward for a brief time. <br /><br />When sweeping economic change is required, Biden has tinkered instead. AOC's own organisation, the Democratic Socialists of America, has observed that Biden has not championed '... the kinds of decommodifying and worker-empowering reforms that socialists actually think people are entitled to: single-payer health care, free college for all, a real green jobs program to fight climate change while promoting full employment, a massive expansion of social housing, a shorter work week, etc. These are all things that would materially improve people’s lives and make the economy suck much less for most people. We also hope they would empower workers to organize and demand more at their jobs, and help us build the political forces that can eventually win greater democracy in the workplace and over the economy as a whole.'<br /><br />The American working class is still awaiting the US president who will act on their behalf of their interests rather than those of Wall Street. But, despite his unpopularity, the Democratic Party establishment are sticking by their man. They seem prepared to simply ignore that the majority of activists who worked hard to get him elected in 2020 now have little enthusiasm for Biden due to his policies on such crucial issues as climate change.<br /><br />And his support for Israel's genocidal military campaign in Gaza has seen Biden's support among the Muslim community and among millennials sink through the floor. As one American Muslim has <a href="https://inthesetimes.com/article/muslims-palestinians-vote-biden-2024-election-bhatti">written</a>:<br /><br /> 'I am done voting for the lesser of two evils. I will not vote for Joe Biden in 2024. <br /><br />'The man who offered his “rock solid and unwavering” support to Israel’s genocide of two million Palestinians in Gaza will not get my vote. <br /><br />'The man whose administration circulated memos prohibiting staffers around the world from calling for de-escalation or restraint in the face of ethnic cleansing cannot remain president. <br /><br />'The man who is spending billions of our taxpayer dollars to fund an Israeli war machine that considers Palestinians “human animals” and denies drinking water and food to a million Palestinian children belongs at The Hague, not the White House.<br /><br />'The man who lied about having seen photographic evidence of atrocities that never took place, and strengthened the rhetoric that is spurring anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian attacks in the United States, is not my candidate.'<br /><br />But such is the political myopia of the Democratic Party establishment, it will not even contemplate choosing a candidate who could champion a progressive agenda and be a considerably stronger candidate than the uninspiring 81-year-old Biden. Like they did in 2016, when they chose corporate Democrat Hilary Clinton over the immensely popular Bernie Sanders, the decision of the Democratic Party establishment to stick with Biden means they have effectively consigned America to another four years of Trump. As Karl Marx observed, 'History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></span></span><br /><br /><p></p><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7257493550531569180.post-22108117293130962082024-01-18T07:35:00.010+13:002024-01-24T17:52:30.600+13:00CHLOE SWARBRICK : "WE CAN DO THIS ECONOMY THING A LOT BETTER"<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6jSxDxgwpddq5L6VLUBczcb4yVF4znnNTgo6wsdBrmJASgU8_hFaxSwgoDcGsLG9_dWV6otRFso-WRzbZiL0pNEyqKqiFuNYSWsOMGxS6Y-NQSih17EsN-J_FeH2AjhN0nut812kgEJVhQCJcEZ9EkYkz4RIE1cHdW80bB5k_tEMWseUgZ-m0vzd_lEo/s640/chloe%20swrbrick.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6jSxDxgwpddq5L6VLUBczcb4yVF4znnNTgo6wsdBrmJASgU8_hFaxSwgoDcGsLG9_dWV6otRFso-WRzbZiL0pNEyqKqiFuNYSWsOMGxS6Y-NQSih17EsN-J_FeH2AjhN0nut812kgEJVhQCJcEZ9EkYkz4RIE1cHdW80bB5k_tEMWseUgZ-m0vzd_lEo/s16000/chloe%20swrbrick.jpg" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: helvetica;"><p><b>The corporate media might have relentlessly pursued Golriz Ghahraman, but it paid scant attention to an address that Green MP Chloe Swarbrick made to Parliament in December. It has since been picked up by a British journalist and caught the attention of a major US progressive website.</b></p></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">WHILE GOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN has been the focus of the media's attention for the past several days, another Green MP received next to no attention from the corporate media for a speech that has recently been picked up by the overseas media. Of course, there was exactly zero political capital to make from Chloe's Swarbrick's speech to Parliament in December. She posted an</span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C1LLVd-S8CM/" style="font-family: Calibri;"> extract</a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> from it to her Instagram account. It has since had over 95,000 views. This is what she had to say:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">'We don't live in a game of Monopoly which, by the way, as invented in the early 1900's to actually teach children of the pitfalls of an economy that is premised on land speculation and luck. Yet, hey presto, what do we have to this day? I'd just like to quote from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hawken">Paul Hawken </a>who says we have an economy where we steal the future, sell it in the present and call it GDP.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">'GDP, of course was invented by a guy called Simon Kuznets who took it to the US Congress in the 1930s and was like, hey guy's, here's a really good way to measure economic transactions on a micro level within our economy - but, god forbid, do not use it as a measure of what he called welfare and we now call well-being. That's because the baseline measure of just those transactions does not give us any meaningful insight into the value of those transactions, whether we actually want them in the first place, whether they actually benefit people and the planet or the distribution of these of transactions. That is, who benefits from these transactions because, Mr Speaker, the squiggly line of GDP can go up but we also know too full well so too can homelessness, so too can the destruction of the environmental fundamentals that are necessary for life as know it. So Mr Speaker, the kind of premise from the Green Party here is that we can do this economy thing a lot better'.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Swarbrick's Instagram post was picked up by British journalist David Vetter who posted it to X (formerly Twitter) with the comments: 'Watch Aotearoa New Zealand MP Chlöe Swarbrick deliver the most formidably cogent summary of the 20th-century economic order—and how it ruined everything. I genuinely don't think I've seen—or read—a more concise and effective summary than this. Even today, 'Greens' are portrayed by our media as pie-in-the-sky dreamers, while the besuited worshipers of an ideology wholly divorced from the observable universe are regarded as pragmatic geniuses. It's what you might call total reality inversion.'</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Chloe Swarbrick's observations on GDP have since been picked up by the progressive US website</span><i style="font-family: Calibri;"> <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/new-zealand-gdp">Common Dreams</a></i><span style="font-family: Calibri;">. Journalist Jessica Corbett writes of Swarbrick:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">'In addition to the climate emergency, her legislative priorities have included cannabis decriminalization, election access, mental health services, and a wealth tax. Swarbrick said in June that "wealth in Aotearoa is concentrated in the back pockets of a wealthy few. It's time we get on and fix this.'<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But Swarbrick's views on the economy continue to sit uncomfortably within a Green Party whose present leadership continues to pledge the Green Party's loyalty to the free market model, as it did throughout the six years of the Labour Government.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZdPeqpJxdAiGCRwMG7IMWo0K3ffyW9Hv-Nq5oooL0BYXPnUZhFMkA3Z9hBWZ3JTRqguMBKIQGbaB6zJIbhn6zDxa-YuO_75_Wr5apMlNrIRczDjjmVOBMcVxxMT2a0jVNq8eNja1cPIYeujaMwOfOW7uQ1rbMc7AsqAxN68oZYOvQlUvqr-rx3AxLtGo/s450/chloe01.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="227" data-original-width="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZdPeqpJxdAiGCRwMG7IMWo0K3ffyW9Hv-Nq5oooL0BYXPnUZhFMkA3Z9hBWZ3JTRqguMBKIQGbaB6zJIbhn6zDxa-YuO_75_Wr5apMlNrIRczDjjmVOBMcVxxMT2a0jVNq8eNja1cPIYeujaMwOfOW7uQ1rbMc7AsqAxN68oZYOvQlUvqr-rx3AxLtGo/s16000/chloe01.JPG" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">While Chloe Swarbrick has gone as far to identify capitalism as the source of our economic injustices, she has yet to spell out what her economic alternative is. While she says that the Green Party thinks it can 'do this economy thing a lot better', we are no wiser as to what she thinks this means in practical terms. Is she suggesting that the Green Party adopt the cause of ecosocialism - as other Green Parties have done around the world - or is she simply prepared to concede to the present Green Party leadership that tinkering with the present economic model is enough? And how would that square with her comments in 2022 where she appears to advocate system change:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">'Do we want to keep tinkering, or do we want a brand new deal? Are we willing to reset the rules?... It's not going to happen overnight and it's not going to be easily handed over, but history tells us we can, and the demands of the future require we must.'</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;">While we, of course, can 'do this economy better thing better', Swarbrick needs to tell us how. Given that the Green Party are now in opposition, this is the time for her to stop fudging the issue. </span></span><br /><br /><p></p><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="moz-extension://b48723e0-3a9d-4c89-8475-8cc6a1c7e555/js/app.js" type="text/javascript"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0