ELECTION CHARADE

It doesn't matter who we vote for, we'll still end up with another neoliberal government.

I was in the supermarket a couple of days ago and in the magazine shelves I stumbled upon North and South magazine. It contained an interview with Labour leader Phil Goff. I scanned it but that's all. I'm won't be looking for the magazine in the library. I'm not interested in reading a profile of yet another neoliberal politician, even if he is the leader of the Labour Party. Of what relevance is it for progressive politics that Phil likes motorbikes?

From where I'm sitting all this article does is provide more pasture for our contented and complacent mainstream journos to chew on while they studiously avoid writing or saying anything that might upset the neoliberal 'consensus'.

What the corporate media won't talk about is the fact that New Zealanders will have no choice at at the general election in November. It doesn't matter who they vote for they are going to get another dose of failed neoliberalism.

The only exception is the Mana Party but its not going to be invited to form a government anytime soon.

The likes of TV3's Duncan Garner and TV1's Guyon Espiner though will behave as if we're living in a real democracy and that our vote is important. I say that all you will be voting for is another three years of neoliberal servitude and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.

But what does this mean for those of us who support left wing and progressive politics in this country?

There still some clowns pushing the Labour Party as somehow 'progressive' but for those of us who aren't right wing social democrats, the reality is that there is very little difference between National and Labour.

In fact in some ways Goff and cohorts are worse. That's because they pretend to be progressive , plead support for 'core Labour values' and profess to be the voice of working class concerns. But when they are in government, they actually mock the 'core Labour values' they profess to support.

You don't have to take my word of it - just look at what they did when they were power last time round. Many of those villains are still sitting on Labour's front bench today.

The lack of any left wing leadership in this country has been compounded by a neutered trade union leadership that has actively cooperated with the cementing in of neoliberal policies. The present CTU leader, Helen Kelly, is one of the worst union 'leaders' we have ever had - and there have been a few.

Helen Kelly and her fellow union bureaucrats have put up zero resistance and watched the steady impoverishment of a dispossessed working class and a beleaguered middle class.

And Kelly has the gall to stand up at the recent Labour Party conference and declare that Labour has the interests of working people at heart!

Just this morning I was reading that 2400 public service jobs has been axed in the past three years. Another 1000 more jobs are set to be axed over the coming two years.

But there has been absolutely no resistance from the PSA leadership. Nothing. The rank and file should be asking why these people should continue to hold down extremely well paid union positions when they have done so little to defend the interests of the very people who pay their salaries.

Is there an answer to the left's predicament ? My politics are well known and I think the 'Modern Rome' that is western capitalism generally needs the message of Marxism.

But that isn't about to happen anytime soon.

Perhaps it boils down to determined protests that may not have any other end goal except to restate that, hell no, we're not going to acquiesce to the charade of parliamentary politics. We want real change that benefits ordinary people and we intend to take our country back from the wealthy and the corporations.

Perhaps a determined refusal to accept and obey the neoliberal consensus is all we've got right now. Anything else means becoming part of the charade that is New Zealand's 'democracy'.