Why Hone needs Sue Bradford for a broader Party
Harawira party Maori-focused
The chances of a broad-based Left-wing party rising from the ashes of Hone Harawira's meltdown with the Maori Party have been dashed after he made it clear that any group he led would have to be Maori-focused.
This Government, if re-elected will unleash a wave of privatization and crippling of the Welfare State that will hurt our whanau and our community.
National will win a majority, but under MMP it is the side who can get the majority and how Hone launches this new political movement may well have the most important impact on that ability to gain a majority.
How are we going to lead the next generation of Aotearoa? In partnership between Maori and Pakeha, the symbolism of starting a party that is in partnership is to lead by example and that sort of political statement would gain Hone the wider left wing electorate and the 5 MP's that could stop National winning.
Hone's The Real Maori Party would be a niche within a niche that will not give him the numbers of a broader electorate. He can represent race and class with a broader mandate and Sue's work on the Alternative welfare policy is what any party focused on countering the damage National intend would want to use.
The economic recession will get much worse this year and the conditions for the splintering of the political spectrum is now impacting on the right wing with the new right party to be announced in Epsom soon.
Hone has a bigger role to play if he would lead.
posted by Bomber @ 8:33 am
10 comments
10 Comments:
That's the problem bomber - maori aren't a niche and if so called lefties can't support a left maori party maybe they should look at their personal inherent racism and privilege.
http://mars2earth.blogspot.com/2011/01/left-maori-party.html
But if he doesnt want a broad left wing party, then its really dead in the water. Maybe he is so consumed with extracting Utu on the Maori party for kicking him out and/or not giving him the ministerial seat, that it is the MP that is his target.
There must be a deadline to get the party off the ground? 1 May?
I agree with all that you have said Bomber however, the departure of Hone from the Maori Party was due to Hone feeling that the party had lost its Maori focus. In that sense, it would be extremely unwise for Hone to do the same thing in order to be a leader of a party.
In my opinion Hone has more than secured his seat for this election, and the next, and the next. Time is on his side and the best thing he can do right now, is exactly what he's been doing.
In saying this, I also agree that any party would benefit greatly from Sue. But due to Hone's position I think the better alternative would be for Sue to become part of the Maori Party.
In my opinion the Maori Party are still very much focused on Maori issues, but are actively seeking that broader mandate that you speak of. Sue would have the ability to bring a whole new dimension to the party, and in doing so, attain that broader mandate.
New Zealand needs a true partneship between Maori and Pakeha, and this could be the begginning of that aspiration.
Some truth here. The strength of Maori today is that they are mainly workers. Their traditions of collective labour (Te Whiti) always were and remain the backbone of what is left of the labour movement. Fighting as a Maori Party has separated Maori workers from the rest of the working class and make some of them subservient to a new Maori capitalist class. A workers party that unites Maori and non-Maori workers would be the seed to grow the power to fight on the ground without the need to march down the dead end parliamentary road.
just as you begin to think Hone's a good egg, he turns back to custard...what a good politician!
Should have been titled why Sue Bradford needs Hone to get her snout back at the trough. Honestly if Hone wants a left Government and im not totally convinced he does, he best way forward would be to win his seat as an Independent and be the only Elected Independent in Parliament, and to give his proxy support to the Greens. Hone will win again, and by running as an Ind. He wont upset the Maori Party, by fronting candidates in their electorates, which he can use later, and he would muster a new type of support among democrats and independents if he wanted to launch something at a later date. The problem if he fronts a party and they dont make the threshold then those votes drop off and effectively will go to the major parties, favouring National more as most of those lost vote would eat into Labour.
You next post "Why Sue Bradford doesn't need, and won't have, Hone for a broader Party"
Looking forward to it...
"Should have been titled why Sue Bradford needs Hone to get her snout back at the trough."
Really?...Then why did she fall on her sword and effectively end her political career by ensuring children will no longer be the only sector of society that are legally subjected to violence.
I see her as one of the more principled politicians in NZ over the last decade. The current Maori party are a better example of greedy pigs in the trough, if the 'snouts in the troughs' actually even exist...I suspect its nothing more than an imaginary right wing fantasy, used as an effective soundbite.
You really think Sue Bradford can't earn more money outside the beehive?
Why not just encourage lefties to vote for Hone's Maori Party...?
"Why not just encourage lefties to vote for Hone's Maori Party...?"
For me its the same old issue of identity politics vs class politics. I want a class based party, if Hone starts a party based on the issue of identity instead of race, then whats the difference between Hone and the Greens?
They will both help the underclass to a degree, but more as an afterthought...or indirectly.
Improved Maori rights will help the lower class, in the same way that Green Party policies help the lower class, in the same way that the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party will help the lower class.
So I may vote for Hone's party...but probably not, as I see a vote for the Greens will be pretty much the same in the end...only a Greens vote is almost guaranteed to count.
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