WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT 2018?

We have less than twelve years to meaningfully tackle climate change and prevent an environmental catastrophe of unprecedented levels. That's according to the recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. So with civilisation facing an all too possible collapse, what exactly was great about 2018 ?

ONCE AGAIN we look back at some left wing highlights and some of the people of 2018 and remind ourselves that we might well be pessimistic of belief but we are also optimistic of will. As is always the case the list is entirely arbitrary and in no particular order.

THE RISE OF A NEW NEW ZEALAND LEFT

Perhaps its not exactly the rise of a new New Zealand left but the first few tentative steps in its creation. Undoubtedly its an attempt to change the narrative.

The progressive landscape for the past three decades (three decades!) has been blighted by too many individuals and too many groups stridently stepping forward to declare their 'progressive' credentials while, at the same time, meekly continuing to support the right wing Labour Party. It has effectively kneecapped the development of left wing politics in New Zealand.

These individuals and groups are still around but, increasingly, this is the politics of yesterday. While they continue to behave as if its still 1984 and Rogernomics hasn't happened, the way forward is with those who talk an independent politics. Its not a coincidence that the new left is being propelled by young activists who have never known anything but a market driven Labour Party and a society and a political system under the thumb of neoliberalism.  With nearly one million people now not bothering to vote because they, rightly, don't like what's offer from the mainstream parliamentary parties, it is newly formed groups like Organise Aotearoa who are beginning to shape the outlines of a new left. How the picture will be filled in is still to be determined.

When Organise Aotearoa was launched it declared in a press statement: "The so-called “Labour” party is sanctioning single mothers on welfare and sending soldiers to terrorise the Middle East. It doesn’t stand with working people. We believe a new world requires a new kind of politics."

Speaking of which...

EMILIE RAKETE : A NEW KIND OF POLITICS

Emile Rakete is a member of Organise Aotearoa and also spokesperson for People Against Prisons Aotearoa. She reflects the return to a class-based politics that recognises mainstream parliamentary parties like Labour and the Green's can only be obstacles in the way of the development of such a politics.

In an interview with Spin Off she commented: "Traditional political structures haven’t worked, and can’t address the crisis of capitalism in the 21st century... The way I see it, this country is ruled by one class of people who own and control property and they use that power to force others to sell their labour to them – this is the basic dynamic of capitalism – and it's caused immense bloodshed and suffering for the almost 200 years in which this system has ruled this country."



GILETS JUANES : NOT SO MELLOW YELLOW

In just a short space of time the gilets juanes (yellow vests) have forced French President Emmanuel Macron to throw a few concessionary crumbs at the growing protest movement against his presidency and his austerity policies. But because they are crumbs they have been rejected by the yellow vests. They have bigger objectives in mind.

When the media reported Macron's attack on the graffiti that had been sprayed on the Arc de Triomphe they neglected to report on the political sentiments being expressed by the very same graffiti. One message declared '“topple the bourgeoisie”.

Macron's attempts to demonise the yellow vests has been vain because they continue to have the support of the majority of the French people. In contrast, Macron's latest poll rating has slumped to 23 percent support. His supposed credentials as a progressive 'young gun' (NZ Herald) has well and truly been exposed as fraudulent.

Although not initiated by groups on the Left, the protests seem to be headed in a progressive direction and are inspiring the left around the world.

'UNELECTABLE' JEREMY CORBYN IS KNOCKING ON THE DOOR OF 10 DOWNING STREET

While Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters talks vaguely of 'capitalism with a human face' and while Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appears on the cover of yet another women's magazine and while the corpulent Finance Minister Grant Robertson continues an austerity regime which will see over 100,000 children go without this Xmas, UK Labour's shadow finance minister and the party’s second in command John McDonnell has refused to apologise for calling for the “overthrow of capitalism”. In startling contrast Jacinda Ardern and Green Party co-leader James Shaw talk of capitalism leading us into a brighter and greener future. We're with John McDonnell.

With Labour leading in the polls throughout 2018, the election of a left wing Labour Government draws ever nearer. Not surprisingly the estblaishment attacks on Jeremy Corbyn and Labour have stepped up, including a disgraceful attempt to smear Corbyn as anti-semite. It didn't work.

MEXICO TURNS LEFT

Leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) was inaugurated as Mexico’s 58th president on December 1st, and his party Morena along with coalition partners also now has majorities in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate — representing the first time in a long time that Mexico has a unified, progressive government.

Lopez Obrador and Morena have a big task ahead of them, as rising debt, a struggling economy, and a deadly drug war have taken a huge toll on Mexico. The jury is till out on whther Obrador will challenge the oligarchs who rule the country and find a way to reverse the decades of privatisation and increasing inequality. So far Obrador has only signalled an intetion to fight public corruption but that may only ge a foreruner to a more ambitious and more sweeping program of progressive reforms.

EXTINCTION REBELLION : SYSTEM CHANGE NOT CLIMATE CHANGE

While the politicians, including Green co-leader James Shaw, comprehensively fail to deal with climate change at the UN climate talks in Poland, the newly formed Extinction Rebellion has expanded to 35 countries, including New Zealand.

Just six months ago Extinction Rebellion consisted of a handful of people in England but its rapid global growth reflects  a rising anger and frustration with mainstream policymakers who are simply failing to take the steps necessary to meaningfully tackle climate change. 

Last week, 100 academics and prominent supporters  of Extinction Rebellion called for people around the world to rise up and organise against the paralysis of political leaders. The open letter, signed by such prominent progressive names as Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein says, in part:

"In our complex, interdependent global ecosystem, life is dying, with species extinction accelerating. The climate crisis is worsening much faster than previously predicted. Every single day 200 species are becoming extinct. This desperate situation can’t continue.

Political leaders worldwide are failing to address the environmental crisis. If global corporate capitalism continues to drive the international economy, global catastrophe is inevitable."

There will be a week of international civil disobedience in April next year.

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: THE AMERICAN LEFT MARCHES ON

The election of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Congress made the mainstream media for principally three reasons : she's the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, she defeated the fourth ranked Democrat congressman along the way and she's a socialist.

Her primary victory in June inspired people around the United States and saw a number of notable victories for the American left in the midterm elections. That included the election to Congress of Rashida Tlaib who is, like Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib are playing a important role in injecting the socialist argument into mainstream politics, much to the dismay of the Washington establishment. Ocasio-Cortez, in particular, has been the target of a series of what she has described as 'sexist and racist attacks.' She has even been mocked by Fox News for not being able to afford a Washington apartment (in the twelve months before she was elected she was working for low wages as a bartender).

Ocasio-Cortez responded on Twitter:

""Mocking lower incomes is exactly how those who benefit from and promote wealth inequality the most keep everyday people silent about one of the worst threats to American society: that the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer."