CHLOE SWARBRICK: REVOLUTIONARY OPTIMIST

Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick has been accused of being a 'revolutionary zealot'. But, in reality, she's been expressing the views of a revolutionary optimist.

A CONSERVATIVE commentator recently accused Chloe Swarbrick of something he claimed was 'revolutionary zealotry'. The Green co-leader has foolishly argued that our economic and political system is broken and radical action is required to replace it with something better. This, apparently, is daft talk. But entirely coincidentally, on the very same day that Swarbrick was confirmed as the new Green Party co-leader, Chris Bishop was telling Jack Tame on Q+A that he and his coalition government made no apologies for being 'radical'. The leader of the House and the Minister for Just About Everything - he presently holds five portfolios - told Tame that the status quo had failed and his government was going to bowl it over.

But there have been no accusations of 'revolutionary zealotry' or even 'extremism' thrown at Chris Bishop from mainstream commentators. Indeed, many have been supportive and congratulated the Government for 'getting things done'. Perhaps that's because they are in favour of a so-called 'radicalism' that tilts the playing field even further in favour of those who presently benefit from our broken economic system. If this coalition government can in any way be described as 'revolutionary', it is that it seeks to unshackle capitalist interests from the centrist constraints that the previous Labour Government tried to impose. 'New Zealand is open for business' shouted NZ First MP Shane Jones in Parliament last week and the rest of us are supposed to just lump it. Or, as Jones has also said, we can vote them out in three years' time if we don't like what they have done. But why should they be allowed the breathing space to go ahead and trample over the interests of most of us? Why should we play according to their rules? 

In the face of a renewed neoliberal offensive, there may seem to be, on the surface, little reason to be optimistic about the future. Chloe Swarbrick herself has in several recent interviews, talked of the disillusionment she has encountered in the community. Indeed, it was one of the first things she talked about in her speech marking her election as Green Party co-leader: 

'This week, the Government completed their cruel and, frankly, bizarre 100-day programme. They know that many of the things they have done will make things worse for people and planet and they’ve told New Zealanders that they don’t care.

'We’ve heard from people across the country of their deep despair. That’s precisely what this Government wants from you: to switch off. Don’t.

'The coalition wants you to think better is impossible. They want you to acquiesce to oil, gas and mining lobbyists’ wishlists to destroy our natural environment. They want you to give in to their bonkers agenda that’ll see more people die from smoking to fund landlords’ tax cuts. They want you to believe all politics and politicians are the same – it benefits them and their donors for you to switch off.

'Don’t let this Government’s bully boy behaviour silence you. Let it motivate you. We’ve been here before with regressive conservatives. It was organising by regular people that changed the course of history.'

Rather than expressing 'revolutionary zealotry', Swarbrick is expressing revolutionary optimism. It has its origins in the socialist tradition and has a proud history. Thinkers like Antonio Gramsci emphasised its importance. He famously coined the phrase 'pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will' to encapsulate the need to recognise present realities while remaining committed to shaping a brighter future.

There is a difference between blind optimism and revolutionary optimism. While the optimist says that everything will work out in the end, revolutionary optimism says that the future remains a contested terrain. The American author and commentator Rebecca Solnit writes:

'Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognise uncertainty, you recognise that you may be able to influence the outcomes – you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others. Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists. Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists adopt the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting. It is the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand. We may not, in fact, know them afterwards either, but they matter all the same, and history is full of people whose influence was most powerful after they were gone.

The late Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, observes:

'There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment will continue. We forget how often we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions, by extraordinary changes in people’s thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible.'

The writer Ursula Le Guinn said something similar. Chloe Swarbrick quotes her in a column she wrote for the NZ Herald in February 2022:

'We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings."... Do we want to keep tinkering, or do we want a brand new deal? Are we willing to reset the rules?... It's not going to happen overnight and it's not going to be easily handed over, but history tells us we can, and the demands of the future require we must.'

These are undoubtedly difficulty days for the working class, but it is important to face such days with hope. Whether it's confronting the Government for pinching money out of the pockets of beneficiaries and the poor or fighting its policies that prioritise the interests of capital ahead of the environment, revolutionary optimism fuels resilience.  It isn't blind idealism, it’s a strategic stance. It acknowledges the harsh realities while daring to envision a world transformed. It insists that there remains a world to win.