THE NEW 'NORMAL' COULD BE WORSE THAN THE OLD 'NORMAL', IF WE LET IT

 This Auckland food distribution centre dealt with 10,000 requests for food in just three weeks.

We could easily find ourselves faced with a reconfiguration of the present neoliberal economy resulting in a new and unprecedented level of economic and social inequality that will dwarf pre-coronavirus levels. The post-pandemic 'normal' could be far worse than the old 'normal', if we allow it.

AS WE HEAD to a level 3 lockdown that looks a lot like the level 4 lockdown we're already in, except some unfortunate workers will be expected to put themselves at risk in order that people can buy fast food, the coronavirus pandemic has brought with it an unprecedented economic crisis.

Since the lockdown began in New Zealand nearly 33,000  more people have gone on to a benefit. And there ain't much social distancing being practised in the long depression-level queues stretched outside the food banks. Work and Income itself issued nearly 70,000 food grants last week. We're a very long way from a world where the level of lockdown discomfort doesn't extend beyond arguments about what to watch next on Netflix. Or what cooking recipe to try out next.

Meanwhile in the United States, the epicentre of the capitalist system, unemployment has topped the peak it reached more than three years after the 1929 stock market crash. And much worse is to come.

We do know that, even after the pandemic subsides, the economic and political crisis will not. It will extend for years.

But the crisis has opened up a path, if we organise, when the pillars of the neoliberal economy could eventually be dislodged. Some of the left recognise this and there has been much written and discussed about a post -pandemic reconstruction of the our present economic and political system that favours the 99 percent instead of the one percent. As an aside , I refer readers to some interesting responses from Economic and Social Research Aotearoa.

That said, instead of achieving an economy built on socialist, or even socialist democratic lines, we could easily find ourselves faced with a reconfiguration of the present neoliberal economy resulting in a new and unprecedented level of economic and social inequality that will dwarf pre-coronavirus levels. The clamour from the business sector for a 'return to normal' is more likely to result in something far worse than what we experienced under the pre-pandemic 'normal'.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, this Labour led Government shows every intention that it plans to do little more than oversee and manage  the reconfiguring of the neoliberal economy rather than transform it in favour of a working class it still claims to represent. As John Minto has observed, Jacinda Ardern has met with the business suits about the coronavirus crisis  but low paid workers and beneficiaries never get to talk directly with her about their concerns. She talks about them, but never with them.

Also not surprisingly, trade union officialdom have also demonstrated little desire for real economic and social change. I was alarmed to read a proposal from the Amalgamated Workers Maritime Union of NZ Pulp and Paper Workers (AMWUNZ) that displayed exactly zero interest in transforming the economy in favour of workers. Instead, it proposes a retooling of the present neoliberal economy in order to achieve 'improved productivity'. I'm sure the Employers Federation will be in agreement with AWMUNZ.

I was also interested in Neale Jones recent clash with commentator Chris Trotter over the Universal Basic Income (UBI). I've got certain difficulties with the UBI but I appreciate that it resembles an effort to try and tilt the playing field, however slightly, toward ordinary people. I think Trotter thought he could advocate the UBI without upsetting the sensibilities of other Labour Party supporters and, I suspect, he was taken aback by the vehement opposition displayed by Neale Jones. Jones, formerly Chief of Staff to Jacinda Ardern and now a public relations man and lobbyist, commented that he could not '...think of a worse time to implement a UBI than in the middle of this economic crisis.'

Chris Trotter responded : 'Neale says that being in the middle of a once-in-a-lifetime economic crisis is actually the worst time to consider a payment to every citizen to keep them and the economy afloat. The worst time. The problem is, Neale, there is never a best time for you guys.'

The lesson is that if we allow this Labour-led Government and its political allies to set the agenda, democratic socialism will always have to wait for another day.

As writer and activist Naomi Klein recently observed there is no certainty of winning a better world. The outcome of the present crisis is uncertain. But, as Naomi Klein also says, it is also 'no time to lose our nerve.' The coronavirus pandemic brings in its wake an economic and political upheaval on a scale likely not seen since the Great Depression. It’s on us to fight in this moment in history for a real working-class response.