JACINDA ARDERN IS NOT AN ECOSOCIALIST, SO WHY IS SHE BEEN LIKENED TO ONE?

Katrin Jakobsdottir, Iceland's new prime minister, leads a party that is ecosocialist. Jakobsdottir herself says capitalism is incompatible with our ecological interests. She is very much to the left of New Zealand's determinedly centrist Jacinda Ardern. Despite the marked political differences, that hasn't stopped the New Zealand corporate media describe Katrin Jakobsdottir as 'Iceland's Jacinda Ardern'.

Katrin Jakobsdottir: Leads an ecosocialist political party.

WHAT THE New Zealand corporate media knows about socialism and socialist politics can be written on the back of a postage stamp. When its not bagging socialism as totalitarianism in disguise, it displays its ignorance. And when people as demonstrably not left as former Labour President Mike Williams are described as speaking for the left, you know we are in trouble.

In recent weeks we have had a series of news stories that have tried to conflate New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden with Iceland's new Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir.

So in an December 1 article on the TVNZ website we're invited to "meet Iceland's Jacinda Ardern".

And, on November 23, Newshub speculated that "Iceland could see its own Jacinda Ardern take power'. On December 3 it declared that there are "Uncanny parallels to NZ as Left-Greens take power in Iceland…

And it then stated that "Iceland has elected its own Jacinda Ardern as Prime Minister."

Going further back, the Stuff website published a story headlined  "Iceland's Jacinda Ardern: Election a tight race as young left-wing woman bids for power (October 23).

While former Prime Minister Helen Clark might of tweeted that Ardern and Jakobsdottir had "much in common", the reality is that while they may be women and relatively young to be prime ministers, that's where the similarities end.

Jacinda Ardern: Leads a centrist political party.

Katrin Jakobsdottir leads a party, the Left Greens, that is ecosocialist. Jakobsdottir herself has argued that support for capitalism is incompatible with the planet's ecological interests. She says that we must go much, much further  than the limp Paris climate change accord.

She leads a party that advocates increasing taxes on the wealthy to help fund spending on such areas as welfare, health, education. It is not in favour of austerity policies.

Jakobsdottir, then, is very much to the left of Jacinda Ardern. Ardern is entirely centrist, who has never expressed any kind of opposition to capitalism in her entire political career. Her only concern is that its not being 'managed' properly.

While Jakobsdottir talks of capitalism being incompatible with our ecological interests, Ardern talks vaguely of climate charge being 'beyond politics'. Really? Most people would probably think  the issue of climate change is very much a political question. It is about issues of economic ownership and power, it is about overturning a system that allows the one percent to ransack the planet in the name of profit. While Jakobsdottir recognises this, Ardern appears to be away with the fairies. Unlike Jakobsdottir, Ardern doesn't recognise that the ecological crisis is rooted in a destructive economic and political system.