WANTED : A GREEN NEW DEAL

The coronavirus represents an historic opportunity to overturn the neoliberal orthodoxy. Instead the Labour-led government is scrambling to shore up a creaking economic system already incapable of adequately addressing other urgent socioeconomic and ecological crises such as climate change. 

I referred off-handedly a few days ago to a 'coronavirus induced' global recession, and one which will engulf New Zealand over the coming months. I was, of course, mistaken. The conditions for this recession were already there. It was going to happen sooner or later and the coronavirus has made the decision for us. It will be sooner.

The crisis has been looming since the financial crash of 2008.  But rather than learning the severe lessons of 2008, neoliberal governments throughout the world, including New Zealand, have responded with policies to designed to shore up a failing system. These policies have included corporate bailouts, tax breaks for the rich and austerity programmes. While Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Associate Minister James Shaw may now  be talking about us all being in this fight together, they seek to maintain a neoliberal orthodoxy that continues to benefit only the few.

Of course the corporate media, seemingly mesmerised by the rising stockmarkets, have talked endlessly of 'booming economies' and 'strong economic growth'. But this has simply been the parroting of the neoliberal orthodoxy: if the stockmarket is doing well then so must the wider economy. We know this not to be true. In the 'real economy' wages have stagnated and living standards have continued to decline and the level of inequality has continued to widen. The  2008 financial crisis cost New Zealand tens of  billions of dollars in economic damage, but in the years since, the rich have continued to get richer. It has been the rest of us who have paid the price for a crisis we weren't responsible for.

Grace Blakely : Only a GND can prevent a major slump.

AS UK political economist Grace Blakely has commented the coronavirus has exposed the ongoing stagnation of global capitalism. She points out banks and governments have poured some $10 trillion into the global economy since 2008. Most of that has found its way into bonds and equities and some into the property market. She writes :

'The real economy, meanwhile, is performing poorly. This is not a recent coronavirus-induced trend, but a longstanding stagnation evident in advanced economies since 2009.'

Blakely suggests that only a Green New Deal (GND) can prevent a major slump or worse, and she's right. The coronavirus represents a historic opportunity to overturn the neoliberal orthodoxy. In New Zealand we could implement a people-first GND. Instead the Labour-led government is scrambling to shore up our creaking economic system. What is concerning is that this present crisis comes at a time when our existing system is incapable of addressing other urgent socioeconomic and ecological crises.

It would be appropriate and timely for the Council of Trade Unions to take up the baton of the GND. Instead President Richard Wagstaff is talking only about ensuring 'business continuity'.  We might well be in the tightening grip of coronavirus but we are also in the grip of a failing neoliberalism that the political establishment, including trade union leaders, continue to defend.