DESPITE THE fact that the relationship between Russia and China has grown closer in recent times, that hasn't stop Green co-leader Marama Davidson from suggesting that New Zealand should encourage China to rein in Russia.
'This is actually the exact time we should be working with the big states,' she told Newshub over the weekend. Davidson is not only oblivious to the current geo-political situation but also wildly overestimates the influence that New Zealand has on the world stage.
However daft Davidson's comments were, at least they were her own opinions. Unless trapped in an interview situation that she can't escape, Davidson normally lets others do the talking for her. If you check her Facebook or Twitter feeds, you will find her opinions are largely the opinions of others.
So rather than writing a few words herself about what she thinks about the Wellington occupation, Davidson has decided that her fellow Green MP, Teanau Tuiono, can do her thinking for her.
Tuiono has written a rather bad-tempered and dishonest attack on the Wellington protest and Davidson seems to agree with all of it. She's gone ahead and quoted him on Twitter: 'If you find yourself on the front lawn of Parliament and all you see around you are religious fundamentalists and literal Nazis – without a trade union in sight – then it isn’t a protest to improve people’s lives. It’s an alt-right recruitment drive.'
Three weeks since the occupation began, 'brave' Teanau Tuiono has poked his head out of his parliamentary office only to shout 'f**king Nazis!' and then shut his door again. He seems to think he has made a positive contribution to the political debate.
Like all his fellow parliamentary politicians, Tuiono still can't accept that this protest represents a broad cross section of New Zealand society. Instead, they must all be marginalised as religious crackpots and 'literal Nazis'.
But no-one can justify calling anyone else a Nazi simply because they disagree with them. All it does is empty out Nazism of any real meaning. Here are just a few of the characteristics of Nazism which Tuiono - and Marama Davidson - may not be aware of:
1. Opposition political parties banned. 2. Conversion of manufacturing industries to military production. 3. Universal military conscription. 4. Labour conscription. 5. Ban on independent labour unions; mandatory membership of all workers in state-controlled national labour union. 6.Mass arrests of communists, socialists, social democrats, homosexuals, prostitutes, alcoholics, juvenile delinquents, and the chronically unemployed. 7. Concentration camps for the above groups. 8. Criminalisation of foreign cultures (eg, the banning of jazz and listening to foreign radio stations). 9. Mandatory public schooling, with curriculum teaching obedience to Nazi authority, military discipline, racism, eugenics, and antisemitism. 10.Forced sterilization and euthanasia of the genetically and mentally 'unfit,' including prostitutes and promiscuous women. 11. Revocation of all civil rights, expulsion, incarceration, and ultimately genocide of “racially inferior” citizens: Gypsies, Slavs, and Jews.
And that's just for starters. Do Tuiono and Davidson seriously want us to believe that the Wellington protesters approve of policies like these? I also note that another Green MP, Ricardo Menendez March, has also endorsed Tuiono's column so it does seem that the Green Party is in the grip of Nazi hysteria.
Its exactly this hysteria that blinds them to the reality of the Wellington occupation. It means that they willfully ignore the recent of a recent survey conducted by Curia for The Platform. That survey revealed that 16 percent of protesters voted for the Green Party. That same survey also revealed that 27 percent of the protesters were Maori. It doesn't exactly shout 'Nazi!' does it?
Tuiono though says that he is 'not surprised to see Maori at the Parliament protest' and even concedes that they may also be protesting about their dire economic circumstances. Although Tuiono can't quite manage to say 'working class Maori' - because class politics is not something the liberal left is comfortable with - he does point to such issues as 'the widening gap between the wealthiest few and the rest of us.' Steady on Teanau, you'll be doing a Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez next and declaring that 'capitalism is not redeemable'.
He says that the solution is not for Maori to get involved in an 'incoherent protest' that is 'infested with racism and white supremacy' - so we're back to Nazism again. He vaguely talks about 'strengthening communities' and Maori 'returning to your mountains and rivers', none of which offers a solution to their dreadful economic situation. But Tuiono, like his fellow parliamentary colleagues, would prefer that working class Maori stop protesting and leave politics to politicians like him - the very same politicians who are offering nothing but more of the same.
Tuiono would obviously like Maori protesters to vote for his Green Party. But that's the same Green Party that continues to loyally defend a right wing and neoliberal Labour Government. That's the same Labour Government that has bailed out the business sector during this pandemic to the tune of $20 billion while many of the folk that Tuiono and Davidson claim to represent have been forced to use foodbanks simply to survive.
We tend to have a short attention span and the views and the activities of politicians tend to get buried in the past and forgotten about. That's a pity. Its worth noting that it was Marama Davidson who, on behalf of the Green Party, stood up in Parliament and supported Finance Minister Grant Robertson's first budget which announced the continuation of austerity. It was also Davidson who supported the Labour-led Government's initial decision to not implement the recommendations of its own welfare working group - most of which have not been implemented to this day.
Working class Maori deserve better representatives than Teanau Tuiono and Marama Davidson. I'd say that the Maori protesters down at Parliament have worked that out as well.
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