THE MAINSTREAM media have been quick to characterise the deal between the Mana Party and the Internet Party as a 'marriage of convenience'.
Of course it's a 'marriage of convenience'. That's obvious. How could it be anything else? There's nothing honourable about this marriage.
The Mana Party gets access to funds it could never raise itself and, in return, the Internet Party gets a toehold in Parliament. No one knows what the price of the admission ticket is - and neither Mana or the Internet Party are saying - but we can safely assume it's nothing less than a six figure sum. After all, Kim Dotcom was apparently prepared to back John Banks failed Auckland mayoralty bid to the tune of $200,000. Dotcom understands that political influence and furthering his own concerns doesn't come cheap.
But here's some old news. 'Marriages of conveniences' are all the range in a representative democracy that is based on proportional representation. There is no such thing as political monogamy these days. Unless you're Brendan Horan.
National has a 'marriage of convenience' with Peter Dunne, with John Banks, with the Maori Party. It more than likely will be looking to establish a 'marriage of convenience' with Colin Craig and the Conservative Party.
The Labour Party also has a smorgasbord of parties it proposes to hitch up with - the Greens's, Mana, New Zealand First, the Internet Party. I just hope they're all practising safe sex.
Oh and the guy who is adding up the wedding numbers is stupid Martyn Bradbury of The Daily Dotcom. You know the guy - he's the one who wanted a job with the Internet Party at $8000 a month.
The point largely being missed is that the Mana Party once proclaimed itself to be a grassroots working class party. It was to be a hub around which a working class movement would grow. That's what is supporters claimed, including Socialist Aotearoa, the Workers Party (now Fightback) and the International Socialist Organisation as well as the Unite Union.
Indeed Socialist Aotearoa, not so long ago, was firmly opposed to any 'marriage of convenience' with Labour or the Greens. 'Single and proud!', was its cry. 'Mana is an anti-capitalist party!'
How times have changed, as have political principles. Joe Carolan of Socialist Aotearoa (and a organiser with the Unite Union) has ludicrously tried to compare Dotcom to no less than Vladimir Lenin and thinks people should refrain from criticising Internet Mana. Which is a 'unique' view of democratic debate, to say the least.
Carolan is a colleague and friend of Unite's national secretary Mike Treen. He recently issued a statement on behalf of Unite that it would support the election of a Labour led government. He made that statement without consulting the membership first. Not a whole lot of democracy going on here either.
It seems that in the pursuit of parliamentary seats the people who are driving the Internet Mana project consider the working class to be merely voting fodder. We'll make all the decisions and you can just vote for us. That doesn't sound much of a deal to me and its pretty disgraceful coming from people who regularly berate the Government for its undemocratic behaviour.
I think Sue Bradford saw all this and it was one of the reasons why she immediately resigned. Good on her.
The Mana Party has turned into just another bourgeois party in the pursuit of parliamentary seats. It's only future is to be a bridesmaid in a right wing Labour - led government. When what is needed is a radical left party that will campaign to destroy the neoliberal consensus, Internet Mana will only assist in enforcing it.
Nice day for a white wedding? I don't think so.
Who do you source your info from? Cameron Slater? If you're going to play into the right's divide and rule game against the left, at least get your facts right!
ReplyDelete1. Joe compared Dotcom to Engels and Parvus as German millionaires. not Dotcom to Lenin.
2. we have allowed full and free debate within Socialist Aotearoa and not forced anyone to take a party line
3. we had reps from Labour, Greens and Mana speak at the Unite COnference. Delegates at conference decided that we would endorse all parties that would lead to a change of government.
there were over 150 delegates at it and Hone got the biggest round of applause. as well as big sessions on labour and class struggle history.
http://socialistaotearoa.blogspot.co.nz/2013/11/hone-harawira-urges-workers-to-fight.html
http://socialistaotearoa.blogspot.co.nz/2013/11/hone-harawira-urges-workers-to-fight.html
4. Mike Treen is there on the frontlines when the cops are attacking our pickets. There are a substantial amount of articles and videos on the web which confirm this.
So which side are you on Steve?
Never mind, I think your article pretty much answers that question. John Key loves people like you to bat for his side.
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ReplyDeleteThose in Socialist Aotearoa who attend meetings, have had plenty of opportunities to freely discuss and make up their own minds as to whether or not they wanted to support the mana internet party alliance, as well as support left wing solidarity in our endeavor to vote John Key out of government.
ReplyDeleteWe have also had plenty of discussions within the Mana movement itself. Do you physically attend any meetings? Or do you simply try to divide the Left from your home PC?
You seem to believe that Socialist Aotearoa members don't discuss and decide on things democratically, and that Joe speaks for all of its members, yet, here you are, speaking for 'everyone' on your website and talking complete bullshit.
Insofar as your comment about Joe and Parvus, why don't you message him directly for clarification or debate, rather than behave like a Tory, key board warrior on Facebook and your blog?
My stating that you are enabling the right wing, by defaming the left, is not irrelevant, it's exactly what you're doing, you are just too egocentric and caught up in your own web of lies, to even see it.
See, here we are, both 'supposedly' fighting against the same enemies, left wing Socialists, who don't know one another, and yet, your keyboard antics, which are farcical at best, have already created a division between us.
Case and point made.
ReplyDeleteJoe Carolan was deliberately promoting the old slander that the German Government - through Parvus - funded Lenin's train trip from Switzerland to Russia. Leon Trotsky addressed this slander in his History of the Russian Revolution. Wrote Trotsky:
“The leaders of a revolutionary party, whose lives for decades had been passed in a struggle against rulers, both crowned and uncrowned, found themselves portrayed before the country and the whole world as hired agents of the Hohenzollern. On a scale hitherto unheard of, this slander was sown in the thick of the popular masses, a vast majority of whom had heard of the Bolshevik leaders for the first time only after the February revolution. Mud-slinging here became a political factor of primary importance.”
Lenin, Trotsky and Rosa Luxemburg publicly dissociated themselves from Parvus and sharply denounced his political views and manoeuvrings. He had by this time become a paid stooge for the German government.
I'm quite happy for Carolan to compare Dotcom to the scoundrel that Parvus really was.
Your other stuff is irrelevant. Socialist Aotearoa continues to be an opportunist organisation. that promotes the fantasy that somehow a Labour-led government is the lesser evil. This is old politics that should have been abandoned decades ago.
Mike Treen may well be on the barricades - I don't doubt it - but I question how the Unite Union can come out in support of Labour and the Internet Party when the union membership have not had the opportunity to vote on it. Whose making these decisions?
Finally, its just another smear tactic to say that any critcism does the work of John Key. I thought you said Socialist Aotearoa encouraged democratic debate?
erm... In your haste to defame certain people and organisations, you seem to have confused the concept of 'left-wing unity', with 'left-wing, party coalition.'
ReplyDeleteDemocratic processes have taken place at Socialist Aotearoa meetings, but of course, if you are a key board warrior, who is intent on dividing the left, who never attends such meetings, then I suppose sourcing info off Whale Oil is your only next 'means of attack.'
Democratic agreements were made to endeavor to unite the left, and strategically work together, throughout the duration of the election campaign, NOT, to agree to any form of left wing coalition AFTER the election campaign.
You seem to have difficulty understanding the difference between left wing unity and post-election, party coalition.
If you want to clarify anything with Joe or Mike Treen, then I suggest that you grow up and converse with them face to face, rather than behaving like a prepubescent boy, firing blanks all over facebook and your website.
My statement that you are enabling John Key, National and the right, by attempting to divide the left, stands true.
I don't even know you, you don't know me, and yet your verbal diarrhea has served its purpose and has created division between us.
Case and point made.
p.s. I sincerely hope, despite all Socialist theory you 'seem' to have memorised, that you don't have the nerve to call yourself a Socialist. Your actions definitely demonstrate otherwise.
Your first response seems to equate personal abuse with constructive debate and once again you repeat the smear that I am intent on dividing the left. I'd suggest that groups like Socialist Aotearoa are doing that all by themselves by cosying up to Kim Dotcom.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have Whaleoil on the brain which must be a nasty affliction. Personally I never touch the stuff.
You are right - I don't really understand what your talking about. Left wing unity? Post-election party coalitions? That sounds like parliamentary musical chairs to me and that bears no relationship to left wing politics - unless, of course, you think the Labour Party is 'left wing'. Of course only people who have conveniently forgotten about the past thirty years of dismal Labourism could believe that.
I'm quite free to write whatever I want on my blog or on Facebook and if you don't like it - tough. You don't have to read it.
If Joe Carolan or Mike Treen want to respond then they are quite welcome to. I'd really like to know how the Unite Union arrived at the decision to support Labour and the Internet Party. I'd like to see the voting numbers please.
I don't have to correspond with Joe Carolan about anything. What he wrote about Parvus was rubbish. I also see that Chris Trotter repeats the same slanders in his disgraceful attack on Sue Bradford.
Why are you bringing Sue Bradford into this? She has made her decision and is respected for that, we don't all have to think alike, nor think the same way you do. Your blog actually reads like a trashy, gossip magazine, all opinion with very few facts, and the few facts you do write, are completely false and unsubstantiated. It's obvious by the lack of comments on this blog, that I'm paying you far more attention than others bother to do, and as trying to gain attention appears to be your main objective, I wont bring any more attention to it. The Kardashians would be more stimulating to read about than this fictitious, uninformed waste of web space.
ReplyDeleteI now understand why you are a supporter of Socialist Aotearoa.
ReplyDelete