Back To The Left

On Facebook my attention was drawn to this article Drawing The Poison which states  “That’s because the poison that the Douglas faction injected into the Labour Party has never fully worked its way out of the Party’s system – for a simple reason: It has festered in the huge, dry crack the Douglas faction opened between the Labour Party caucus and the Labour Party itself. That’s still the fracture that won’t heal, the wound in Labour’s flesh in which the bitter poison pools.”

See, I’m old enough to remember the Labour Party as it was before Roger Douglas was Minister of Finance, and I have been thinking along these lines although definitely not so well articulated. Labour was and should be a workers party, a proper left wing party, a party which was supposed to improve the lives of people who work for a wage and, sorry, but that includes the so-called middle class, most of whom are still wage earners actually (just hold more credit cards is all).

So higher wages, job security, 40 hour working weeks, pensions and other safety nets for people – that was what Labour was about. And decent living conditions. And State Owned Assets which means assets we all owned. And that was the egalitarian ideal before Rogernomics created the so called class divides, the driving down of wages, the miserable subsistence benefit levels, and the selling off of property which we all owned.

Labour with Roger Douglas calling the shots started it all, National through the nineties further entrenched the misery, Life softened a bit under Helen Clark’s leadership BUT as this article suggests – those structural changes may well have been plastered over, swept under the carpet, and now the poison has reared its ugly head for all to see.

So I argue that Labour needs to go back to its grassroots as a true working (wage earner) class party and start from there. Why is this important to the Green Party? Because if the Green Party need to align ourselves to a strong left party in order to become part of government, then we need a much stronger Labour Party.

OR – we now position ourselves to become that STRONG PARTY OF THE LEFT OURSELVES. Which is very much what our main policies of the last election are leaning towards.

Last Summer's Garden Pics

So I came onto this site just yesterday for the first time in ages and posted yesterdays post which was actually on another site - a Kiwi site in fact - but then Doug told me non-kiwis couldn't register on that Kiwi site - hence the repeat of the post here (draws breath). Anyhow I realised how long it was since I had posted here when I found this draft sitting on my post list since December, 2013. Posting it now because I think its pretty, this is my back garden that I am leaving to go to Christchurch. Looking at pictures like this I am not sure how I am going to do it but I must because I have signed a "conditional" offer on this house. I especially like this first picture of this lovely flax bush which I rescued from a neighbours house, she had had her dad pull it out. Love the colour of these flax flowers.

Variegated phornium (NZ Flax) (Harakeke). The bees love these flowers as do the native birds!

Already this apple tree is laden with apples despite the wild northwest winds we have been enduring. Tree is three years old and this will be the first time I will get to taste its apples (touch wood).

Strawberry plants (fruit just beginning to turn red), sage, spuds, chives, silver beet, calendula. And my garden seat.

Comforting Lies

It was the morning after. I was in shock. Like so many others I think.

So many of us, we were hoping for so much, hoping for a change of government with the parties on the left having the ability to work together for better government – for the chance to clean up the rivers of Āotearoa – for the opportunity to rebuild a fairer society here, where our children do not go hungry in our resource-rich land – and to focus on developing a cleaner, greener, and smarter economy.

Yeah, ok, I get that I sound a bit like a Green Party Leaflet. And yes, I often write long sentences.  If you are going to read my posts here, it is something to get used to.

So here we are, five days after Election Day and still I am struggling with how come so many other people voted for a corrupted right-wing government with a leader who has already been shown up as a liar. This is not the Aotearoa I thought I knew. This is not the Aotearoa I grew up with.

Thus I am blogging again – to communicate my horror – to explore this new reality.