Writing in today's Sunday Star-Times, Chris Trotter argues that Labour is the problem on the left. While there should be a "natural coalition of government" between Labour, the Greens, and (now that they have split off) the Maori Party, it has so far failed to coalesce despite having the numbers. The reason for this, according to Trotter, is that Labour hates both of its natural allies - the Greens for being right, and the Maori Party for daring to stand up and tell Labour that they didn't know what was best for Maori, and that they'd rather negotiate across the table like adults rather than be confined to the corner like annoying children.
There's a certain amount of truth in Trotter's words, but he's also painting far too bleak a picture. Sure, there are Labour MPs who hate their natural allies - but there are also Labour MPs who would far prefer a coalition to the left than to the right. Unfortunately, this time numbers and personal animosities between Labour and the Maori Party stopped it from happening. It's the same story in 2002 with Labour and the Greens - but it's also there that the hope can be found. For despite their falling out over GE during the 2002 election, Labour and the Greens were able to bury the hatchet and work together towards a common goal in 2005. It didn't quite work out the way they wanted - the numbers just weren't there, and Labour ended up saddled with United Future and Winston - but it shows that the potential for that natural coalition is there. Labour's challenge this term then is to bury the hatchet with the Maori Party, and show that they can likewise work together. And if they can't, they'll probably be in opposition.
Opposition to what?
ReplyDeleteThere's a bit of selective history in this. The Maori Party (Tariana) signed a deal with the National Party, UF and Act. It was them, and not Labour, who were unwilling to go into coalition.
ReplyDeleteTony: would you have expected them to do otherwise, given the messy nature of the breakup with Labour?
ReplyDeleteIn any case, the key is getting them onside for 2008 - and ideally earlier, just in case Winston decides to pull the plug.
Chris Trotter usually waves his substantial intellectual hammer very close to the nail...this time he has whacked it absolutely fair and square. He is dead to rights. The reason is simple. The Labour Cabinet is immersed in the very demanding task of governance. It is a role that is all head and very little heart. As we all know a career politician can end it all with one simple stupid mistake; as a result they are always on the lookout for trouble, and reject instinctively any hint of vision and heart. For the Party in govt, such a thing spells death.
ReplyDeleteIt does not really matter who occupies the Treasury Benches; the system as we have set it up will always back them into the role of defending minutiae, while at the same time being systematically denuded of the vision and inspiration that put them there in the first place. Trotter really cannot have it both ways, he cannot demand charismatic visionaries and cautious competence at the same time; at the least they are an incompatible mix around the same caucas table.
At the same time Trotter is absolutely correct...this govt in it's current form will loose the next election because the people crave leadership and hope; and will vote for anything that offers that possibility. And he has framed the question perfectly; for genuine reasons, Labour has become the problem.
Chris Trotter's analyses always end the same way: it's all Labour's fault, they're a bunch of bastards, etc. He concludes that Labour "doesn't see" that:
ReplyDelete"It could all be so different. The theoretical basis for an unbeatable coalition of heartfelt socialism, Green ecologism and Maori nationalism is as clear as the problems it would set itself to solving."
This is of course the same Chris Trotter who published, only two years ago, in his own magazine, what he described as "a major work of academic research" by the frankly scary Elizabeth Rata that repeatedly compared the Maori renaissance to Nazism ("blood and soil", among other things) and complained that white liberal alignment with such identity politics had permitted the rise of a dangerous "neotribal capitalism".
This was, naturally, Labour's fault. Yet now, Labour is condemned for failing to crawl over hot coals to form a coalition with the Maori Party?
I like Chris Trotter personally, but it's hard not to feel that he's endlessly working out the same old grudge from the late 80s.
Cheers,
RB
The pivotal person is Dr Pita Sharples. The potential for Maori tribalism to introduce an entirely retrograde element to NZ politics is as alive as ever. There is no doubt that there is a frankly anti-Pakeha, "send them back where they came from" element to the Maori sovereignty/renaissance movement. It is a racist and frightening thing to behold.
ReplyDeleteSharples has taken me by surprise; he articulates a new voice, one that is both uncompromising about the future of the Maori culture and the place the people he represents, but at the same time his vision accomodates a future that draws on the strengths of all New Zealanders. I want to hear more from him, some sense of where he wants to take this nation over the next decades. There may not be too much distance between such a vision and what the Greens have been saying for some time.
But "mainstream" NZ is not on board. Granting the Maori tribes exclusive economic title (or anything close) to the Seabed and Foreshore was a step way too far for any major political party to accomodate. If Labour had done that, it would have given the right, resurgent on the back of Orewa I's encoded racism, an irresistable electoral tool.
Timing is everything. What was not possible two years ago, may well become essential very soon. Yes Trotter is telling us that history is not fair; that events and the forces surrounding them are thrust willynilly on political parties. As Muldoon once said, "politics is the art of the possible".
Timing is everything. What was not possible two years ago, may well become essential very soon. Yes Trotter is telling us that history is not fair; that events and the forces surrounding them are thrust willynilly on political parties.
ReplyDeleteIf only he were so generous. My point was more that he's swung 180 degrees (and not for the first time). It's not so long since he was predicting Labour's demise because they'd failed to grasp the insight elucidated by Brash; now he's predicting Labour's demise because they've failed to grasp the insight elucidated by the Maori Party. The main thing is that there's never a bad time to predict Labour's imminent demise.
Compare this view of Maori nationalism and the Maori Party, less than two years ago, with the one he proposes (and lament's Labour's tragic inability to grasp) in the SST column:
"The Left of today has become so dazzled by white sin it can no longer see brown privilege."
http://209.157.64.201/focus/f-news/1197319/posts
I don't buy the claim about Labour MPs universally hating and despsising the Greens either. My impression that it's much more about individuals. Sue Bradford is regarded as contructive and hard-working. Sue Kedgley? Not so much ...
I'm sure the Green caucus feel roughly the same way about their counterparts.
Cheers,
RB
And OTTH someone who is endlessly predicting Labour's demise and flip-flopping constantly about the reason is at least good fodder for a post.
ReplyDeleteDon't you just hate it that Tariana, Pita etc get on so well with Act :(
ReplyDeleteJordan: Hone Harawira would probably disagree. There's certainly scope there for cooperation of some sort, and Labour's ability to maintain power may depend on building on it.
ReplyDelete