WANTED : A NEW ZEALAND SOCIALIST POLITICS

The Economist has been talking about the 'resurgence of socialism', particularly among millennials. But why haven't we seen a similar resurgence in New Zealand? Why do we continue to allow ourselves to be fobbed off with the tired centrist politics of Jacinda Ardern's  Labour-led government?

IN FEBRUARY The Economist published a cover story on the rise of socialism, particularly among millennials. It was an interesting and well-researched article even though it came to the predictable conclusion that socialism is not the solution to the world's ills. As a cheerleader for the world's economic elite and the economic system that serves them, we could of expected little else from the publication.

But what was most interesting was not the cover story itself but the fact that The Economist felt it was compelled to tackle what it describes as the 'resurgence of socialism'. The magazine observes: "Socialism is storming back because it has formed an incisive critique of what has gone wrong in Western societies. "

The cover story identifies Jeremy Corbyn in Britain and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) in the United States as significant contributors to the growing popularity of socialist politics:

'Today, 30 years on, socialism is back in fashion. In America Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a newly elected congresswoman who calls herself a democratic socialist, has become a sensation even as the growing field of Democratic presidential candidates for 2020 veers left. In Britain Jeremy Corbyn, the hardline leader of the Labour Party, could yet win the keys to 10 Downing Street'

Such has been the revival of socialist politics in the United States that Donald Trump felt the need to respond to the American left, and during his 2019 State of the Nation speech declared that "America will never be a socialist country'. Meanwhile, AOC continues to appear on national talk shows to outline her socialist politics and the organisation she belongs to, the Democratic Socialists of America, continues to enjoy booming membership figures.

Yet these major political developments, a significant revival of the left's political fortunes, have barely caused a ripple in New Zealand. It's almost as if we're living in a country that socialist politics forgot.

True, we have seen encouraging signs of some movement on the left with the emergence of groups like Organise Aotearoa but we have yet to see a genuinely socialist politics intervene in broad mainstream politics in the way that the American and British left are doing right now.

We have yet to see a politician come forward and appear on national television to condemn capitalism as 'irredeemable', as AOC has done in the United States. We have yet to see a politician come forward and appear on national television to talk about 'new forms of ownership', as Jeremy Corbyn has done in Britain.

Even among the  pundits who spend their days writing columns and appearing on various television and radio shows and who consider themselves to be 'left wing' or 'progressive', there is barely any mention of socialism let alone any real discussion of what a socialist politics could look like in a New Zealand context. So columnist and blogger Chris Trotter can write an column headlined 'Chris Trotter suggests that given socialism has begun to matter in the USA, it will very soon matter everywhere else too', but at no point does his article actually discuss how socialism could matter in New Zealand.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez : Capitalism is 'irredeemable'.

The problem is that much of what is defined as the New Zealand left continues to pledge its loyalty to a hollowed out Labour Party that is little more than a conveyor belt for market friendly policies. This is the Labour-led government whose Finance Minister, Grant Robertson, is on record as saying that Jeremy Corbyn's left wing policies would not work in New Zealand. And he is the Finance Minister whose market-driven first budget was praised by 'progressive' Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson.

No matter what complaints it might have about Labour in the years between elections, every election year the old Labourite left wheels in behind Labour and tries to convince an increasingly cynical and resentful electorate that Labour is indeed preferable to National. The fact that nearly a million New Zealanders no longer vote suggests that the well-used 'lesser evil' defence is convincing fewer and fewer folk. But the old Labourite left is so devoid of vision and imagination we can expect the same tired defence  to be wheeled out again in 2020 by the usual bunch of opportunists and charlatans.

While UK Labour have moved to the left under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, New Zealand Labour under the leadership of Jacinda Ardern remains rooted in the centre, continuing to advocate a warmed-over 'third way' politics of an 'accommodation' between the state and the market. This is the politics that the old left has signed up for.

The centrist politics practised by the Ardern government hasve long been dismissed by Jeremy Corbyn's Labour and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party represented by people like AOC.

AOC is one of the central promoters of the Green New Deal, a radical and innovative plan to both tackle climate change and reconfigure the American economy in favour of the American people. She has laid the blame for the environmental crisis that now confronts us squarely at the door of an economic system that is eating up the planet in the name of profit and growth.

But it is exactly the  Green New Deal's rejection of capitalism and its neoliberal expression that prevents the New Zealand Green Party from advocating a similar plan for New Zealand. Under the leadership of James Shaw and Marama Davidson it has become a political party that has been captured by the same corporate interests that the Labour-led government represents.

If we are to establish a genuine socialist politics and movement in New Zealand we will have to overcome what writer and activist Naomi Klein has described as the 'fetish of centrism', of always looking for the compromise and the easy way out and generally not  getting worked up about anything.