Of course it would.
Nearly forty years ago, as the newly-elected Fourth Labour Government was pursuing its nuclear-free agenda, organising women’s forums, and preparing to destroy the achievements of the First, Second and Third Labour Governments, a handful of young trade unionists – Labour Party members all – lobbied the then Minister of Labour, Stan Rodger, for a daily bulletin of trade union news on Radio New Zealand.
Way back in 1984, New Zealanders could keep abreast of what was happening on New Zealand’s farms by tuning-in to “Rural News” Or, keep up with the machinations of industry and finance by listening to “Business News”. There was even a weekly programme called “Focus on Politics”. But, the only time New Zealanders ever got to hear about what was happening in the country’s factories, warehouses, offices and shops was when workers went out on strike.
“So, how about it, Stan, why not a daily, or weekly, round-up of news about the issues confronting working-class New Zealanders?” Now to give Stan Rodger his due, he gave us a fair hearing. Indeed, I think he was personally quite excited by the idea, because, eventually, a short series of programmes entitled “Working Life” did make it to air. But a daily round-up of news from the perspective of those working on the factory floor, or driving a truck, or standing at the check-out counter? Not a chance.
Such a programme would have indicated a significant shift in social and economic power in the direction of working people. But, as we all know, the people running the Fourth Labour Government (not all of whom were democratically-elected politicians) were committed to shifting social and economic power in precisely the opposite direction – towards the bankers and the bosses. That’s why there was a vast expansion in the coverage of business affairs on Radio New Zealand – and right across the news media. That’s why, in just a few years, the ideology of neoliberalism permeated the whole of New Zealand society. There had definitely been a revolution – but not by the workers.
New Zealand is currently living through another top-down revolution. Though far from complete, it has already captured control of the commanding heights of the public service, the schools and universities, the funding mechanisms of cultural production, and big chunks of the mainstream news media.
The ideology driving this revolution is not neoliberalism, it’s ethnonationalism. A potent amalgam of indigenous mysticism and neo-tribal capitalism has captured the imagination of the professional and managerial class and is relying on the latter’s administrative power and influence to drive through a revolutionary transformation of New Zealand society under the battle-flags of “indigenisation” and “decolonisation”. The glue which holds this alliance of Māori and Non-Māori elites together is Pakeha guilt.
The origins of the present ethnonationalist revolution may be traced back to the early 1980s – specifically the 1981 Springbok Tour. A very large and well-organised anti-racist movement against the Apartheid system in South Africa took to the streets to protest the presence in New Zealand of the Springbok rugby team. There they encountered not only the brutal forces of the state, but a vast number of New Zealanders who were not in the least bit shamed or shifted by the charges of racism hurled at them by the protesters. The Springbok Tour thus revealed a deep divide in New Zealand society, leaving many of the protesters feeling like strangers in their own land.
The modern Māori nationalist movement, which had taken form during the 1970s, was quick to draw a large number of these alienated liberal Pakeha into its orbit. Using tactics developed by radical social reformers in the United States, Māori activists accused the Springbok Tour protesters of caring more about Apartheid in South Africa than they did about the racism in their own country. “Learn your own history! Read about the violence done to Māori and the confiscation of their lands! Stop going on about racism in the abstract and pay heed to those who understand it from bitter personal experience! Surrender your privilege!”
It worked. The nationalist activists had created a movement towards “Māori Sovereignty” in which revolutionary Māori would lead, and guilty Pakeha would follow. Not that these guilty Pakeha represented anything like a majority of Non-Māori New Zealanders, far from it, but they did constitute a significant percentage of the well-educated and credentialed members of the Professional-Managerial Class – and that would be enough. The Guilty Pakeha’s “long march through the institutions” had begun.
And what a very long march it has been, but, 40 years after it began, the champions and fellow-travellers of the Māori nationalist movement can look back upon some stunning successes.
Fearing that the nationalists were about to unleash a mass movement of the most marginalised Māori against the “Settler State” – fears stoked by reports of Māori nationalists being feted in revolutionary Libya and Cuba – the Crown initiated the Treaty Settlement Process with Iwi Māori. Informed by President of the New Zealand Court of Appeal, Robin Cooke’s, landmark 1987 reinterpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi’s meaning and purpose, this process brought into being the Iwi-based corporations that gave birth to the phenomenon Elizabeth Rata calls “neo-tribal capitalism”. The sons and daughters of the original Māori nationalists now have the resources they need to carry their parents’ dream to fruition.
Only one more strategic victory is required to complete the Māori nationalist revolution: Pakeha pride in their past and in their culture has to be undermined. The men and women once celebrated as nation-builders have to be recast as colonial oppressors. The country famed for being “the social laboratory of the world” has to be re-presented as just another sordid collection of white supremacist, treaty-breaking, killers and thieves.
Māori, too, are in need of a complete makeover: from slave-owning warrior-cannibals, to peace-loving caretakers of Te Ao Māori – a world to which they are bound by deep and mystical bonds. Inheritors of a culture that sanctioned genocidal conquest and environmental destruction, how can the Pakeha hope to lead Aotearoa towards a just future? As in the 1980s, the Twenty-First Century journey requires revolutionary Māori to lead, and guilty Pakeha to follow. And those guilty Pakeha in a position to make it happen appear only too happy to oblige.
Which is why, in March 2023, New Zealand has an educational curriculum dedicated to condemning colonisation and uplifting the indigenous Māori. Why Māori cultural traditions and ways of knowing are elevated above the achievements of Western culture and science. Why representatives of local iwi and hapu wield decisive influence over private and public development plans, as well as the credo and content of media reporting and university courses.
The Māori nationalist revolution is not yet complete – but it has, most certainly, begun.
Chris Trotter is a political commentator who blogs at bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz.
“So, how about it, Stan, why not a daily, or weekly, round-up of news about the issues confronting working-class New Zealanders?” Now to give Stan Rodger his due, he gave us a fair hearing. Indeed, I think he was personally quite excited by the idea, because, eventually, a short series of programmes entitled “Working Life” did make it to air. But a daily round-up of news from the perspective of those working on the factory floor, or driving a truck, or standing at the check-out counter? Not a chance.
Such a programme would have indicated a significant shift in social and economic power in the direction of working people. But, as we all know, the people running the Fourth Labour Government (not all of whom were democratically-elected politicians) were committed to shifting social and economic power in precisely the opposite direction – towards the bankers and the bosses. That’s why there was a vast expansion in the coverage of business affairs on Radio New Zealand – and right across the news media. That’s why, in just a few years, the ideology of neoliberalism permeated the whole of New Zealand society. There had definitely been a revolution – but not by the workers.
New Zealand is currently living through another top-down revolution. Though far from complete, it has already captured control of the commanding heights of the public service, the schools and universities, the funding mechanisms of cultural production, and big chunks of the mainstream news media.
The ideology driving this revolution is not neoliberalism, it’s ethnonationalism. A potent amalgam of indigenous mysticism and neo-tribal capitalism has captured the imagination of the professional and managerial class and is relying on the latter’s administrative power and influence to drive through a revolutionary transformation of New Zealand society under the battle-flags of “indigenisation” and “decolonisation”. The glue which holds this alliance of Māori and Non-Māori elites together is Pakeha guilt.
The origins of the present ethnonationalist revolution may be traced back to the early 1980s – specifically the 1981 Springbok Tour. A very large and well-organised anti-racist movement against the Apartheid system in South Africa took to the streets to protest the presence in New Zealand of the Springbok rugby team. There they encountered not only the brutal forces of the state, but a vast number of New Zealanders who were not in the least bit shamed or shifted by the charges of racism hurled at them by the protesters. The Springbok Tour thus revealed a deep divide in New Zealand society, leaving many of the protesters feeling like strangers in their own land.
The modern Māori nationalist movement, which had taken form during the 1970s, was quick to draw a large number of these alienated liberal Pakeha into its orbit. Using tactics developed by radical social reformers in the United States, Māori activists accused the Springbok Tour protesters of caring more about Apartheid in South Africa than they did about the racism in their own country. “Learn your own history! Read about the violence done to Māori and the confiscation of their lands! Stop going on about racism in the abstract and pay heed to those who understand it from bitter personal experience! Surrender your privilege!”
It worked. The nationalist activists had created a movement towards “Māori Sovereignty” in which revolutionary Māori would lead, and guilty Pakeha would follow. Not that these guilty Pakeha represented anything like a majority of Non-Māori New Zealanders, far from it, but they did constitute a significant percentage of the well-educated and credentialed members of the Professional-Managerial Class – and that would be enough. The Guilty Pakeha’s “long march through the institutions” had begun.
And what a very long march it has been, but, 40 years after it began, the champions and fellow-travellers of the Māori nationalist movement can look back upon some stunning successes.
Fearing that the nationalists were about to unleash a mass movement of the most marginalised Māori against the “Settler State” – fears stoked by reports of Māori nationalists being feted in revolutionary Libya and Cuba – the Crown initiated the Treaty Settlement Process with Iwi Māori. Informed by President of the New Zealand Court of Appeal, Robin Cooke’s, landmark 1987 reinterpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi’s meaning and purpose, this process brought into being the Iwi-based corporations that gave birth to the phenomenon Elizabeth Rata calls “neo-tribal capitalism”. The sons and daughters of the original Māori nationalists now have the resources they need to carry their parents’ dream to fruition.
Only one more strategic victory is required to complete the Māori nationalist revolution: Pakeha pride in their past and in their culture has to be undermined. The men and women once celebrated as nation-builders have to be recast as colonial oppressors. The country famed for being “the social laboratory of the world” has to be re-presented as just another sordid collection of white supremacist, treaty-breaking, killers and thieves.
Māori, too, are in need of a complete makeover: from slave-owning warrior-cannibals, to peace-loving caretakers of Te Ao Māori – a world to which they are bound by deep and mystical bonds. Inheritors of a culture that sanctioned genocidal conquest and environmental destruction, how can the Pakeha hope to lead Aotearoa towards a just future? As in the 1980s, the Twenty-First Century journey requires revolutionary Māori to lead, and guilty Pakeha to follow. And those guilty Pakeha in a position to make it happen appear only too happy to oblige.
Which is why, in March 2023, New Zealand has an educational curriculum dedicated to condemning colonisation and uplifting the indigenous Māori. Why Māori cultural traditions and ways of knowing are elevated above the achievements of Western culture and science. Why representatives of local iwi and hapu wield decisive influence over private and public development plans, as well as the credo and content of media reporting and university courses.
The Māori nationalist revolution is not yet complete – but it has, most certainly, begun.
Chris Trotter is a political commentator who blogs at bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz.
17 comments:
Brilliant assessment - Pulitzer Prize quality.
Ignore this at your peril.
The Maori activists rely on a tiny number of vocal, powerful and influential people, both Maori and non-Maori, to push through their racist plan. Yet most Maori, I strongly suspect, don't want it or just couldn't care less.
To combat this we need a similar number of people with the same attributes as Maori activists to champion the cause of democracy and a country for everyone, regardless of race.
Up until now, those people have been few and far between, and when they have surfaced are usually shot down by our MSM.
Alternative media outlets, which are slowly appearing, need to become established and attract a large audience.
Once pro-democracy supporters become informed then by sheer weight of numbers the ethno-nationalist cause should be crushed.
Then this group had better get cracking - very fast.This will go to the wire.
I'm reminded of an experience related to me by a fellow teacher, who could speak Welsh, his native language. Just before leaving his previous school he had heard on the grapevine that his eulogy was to be given in Maori by the head of English, a Pakeha, who was fluent in Maori and Samoan.
My friend, who didn’t understand a word of Maori, gave his reply in Welsh, to the fury of some of the staff. Evidently, to address people in a language they didn’t understand was seen as gross bad manners.
The fulcrum of all of this has been the re-interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi. Particularly through the erroneous use of the word "partnership" that Justice Cook, who has, by other judges been deemed an "activist" judge.
There are two ways to de-activate a lever, remove it from the hands of those who wield it, or remove the fulcrum from which this leverage is gained. Probably both should be attempted...
As far as the Treaty goes, it is quite clear that although signed off by the Crown and Maori, there are in fact 3 parties, (not "partners"), to the Treaty. The other party mentioned are those who were already subjects of the Crown. To understand this new relationship of Maori to the Crown, we must look to the pre-existent relationship. In short, the nature of the relationship of the new party to Crown relations is defined by the pre-existing one, those who had already been subjects of the Crown for centuries. For many of us, that means our ancestors.
It seems crazy that this even has to be defended, as if the verb "subject" needed further explanation:
bring (a person or country) under one's control or jurisdiction, typically by using force.
Article 3 - "In consideration thereof Her Majesty the Queen of England extends to the Natives of New Zealand Her royal protection and imparts to them all the Rights and Privileges of British Subjects."
Top article from a true blue lefty, now shaking his head in disbelief at the path our great country has been taken down in recent years. As a nation, we seem to have lost the courage to use the once very simple and effective phrase - 'f___ off' to these lala land con artists.
Hi DeeM
There are many thousands who would openly oppose the pro maori movement but fear of artfully developed cancellation silences them. Apart from a few highly principled like Elizabeth Rata, few dare comment. Mostly a few totally independent retired old men.
When the school history and genral new teaching methods become apparent to parenst there will be some very livly parent teacher meetings. No doubt some maori women acting to counter colonist tradition will wreck the meetings by shouting down everyone else, despite such action being totally contrary to tikanga.
Shame it seems, that the well organised anti-racist movement against the Apartheid in South Africa are happy to accept the very same thing occurring in New Zealand.
Truth always outs lies and as happened in South Africa the apartheid went its way out the door to be replaced by, well we have all seen it haven't we.
If the apartheid in New Zealand comes to pass and with the help of the propagandised press, academia and curriculum, when it too fails what with it leave New Zealand looking like?
For a modern country with the oldest liberal democracy New Zealanders as a whole of any ethnicity should stand against this as to allow it to happen spells the end of what was once a country recognise globally as one of the best in the world across the OECD yard stick.
Does Harry Styles gestures at his Auckland concert the other day represent this ethnonationalism now being recognised as the New part of New Zealand. In my humble opinion it was totally inappropriate for a music performer to embrace another country’s revolution ( refer article above) in this way. Regrettably it will, because he as a ‘celebrity’ be seen around the world no doubt as heroic. And of course our own youth are entranced - the reaction reported in Stuff sounded like some sort of hysterical mystical out of world trip.
But New Zealanders (of many diversities) are not standing together as they should......
They even appear ready to accept that a 17% minority will hold veto power over them in many areas.
This is the crux of the issue.
Anonymous
"Shame it seems, that the well organised anti-racist movement against the Apartheid in South Africa are happy to accept the very same thing occurring in New Zealand."
The campaign against apartheid in South Africa was never a campaign on a general principle of opposing racially bifurcated societies. It was, instead, a very particular matter, that being Whites subjugating non-Whites. Once this is understood, then there is no contradiction in 1981 protestors now advocating for Maori hegemony: both 1981 and 2023 are fundamentally opposed to White people, not the moral status of apartheid.
White rule in South Africa ended in the 1990s, and was soon replaced with Black rule and consequent disadvantage to White South Africans – but nobody cares about the role-reversal, and the fact that it led to SA becoming a near-failed state, because the issue was always about dethroning White people, and never about opposing racial favouritism.
DISMANTLING TREATYISM PART II
[9] Local authority rates to be levied on all Maori land -- including marae and kaumatua housing -- with standard enforcement procedures applied in the event of non-payment. No more free riders on non-Maori ratepayers.
[10] Immediate repeal of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 and abolition of the racist Waitangi Tribunal, with [part-] Maori claims of any kind against the Crown to be dealt with in the Courts and proper evidential procedure applied.
[11] Immediate restatement in legislation that the proper – and only – name of our country is New Zealand.
[12] Re-writing the Education Act to change the mission of our universities from being "the critic and conscience of society" to "required to provide intellectual balance and rigour, and equal space for conservative and libertarian viewpoints."
Of course, any downstream proposal that the beneficiaries of state-sponsored identity politics revert to being treated the same as everyone else will make such groups squeal like stuck pigs. As Thomas Sowell reminds us: “When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.'
ENDS
DISMANTLING TREATYISM
The TOW only has legal effect to the extent that it has been incorporated into domestic statute. It is not a binding treaty in international law because no body politic capable of ceding sovereignty existed in 1840.
Steps to dismantle the edifice of Treatyism:
1] Abolition of the racist Maori seats and Maori electoral roll, with all New Zealanders of voting age required to be on a single electoral roll.
[2] Removal of all references to race/cultural affiliation/ethnicity from the statute books.
[3] Removal of all references to the TOW and its fabricated "principles" from the statute books.
[4] Legislation making English the only official language. No more tax funding for the teaching of Maori language, culture, and 'history’ and no more tax funding for Maori immersion schools at all levels. If brown supremacist part-Maori want these things let them use their Treaty settlement money to do it privately.
[5] Defunding and dismantling of all parallel social service delivery systems to Maori. If brown supremacist part-Maori don't want to use the services available to all NZers, let them use their Treaty settlement money to do it privately.
[6] Restatement in statute that seabed, foreshore, and water are in Crown ownership and held in trust for ALL NZers.
[7] All Maori incorporations to be taxed at the company tax rate with no 'charitable' exemptions allowed.
[8] All communally-owned Maori land to be brought into the Torrens Title system by creating limited liability companies with shares issued to beneficial owners on a pro-rata basis. Shares can be bought/sold/traded with anyone of any race, thus allowing the motivated to build up a majority shareholding to move forward with land that because of current ownership structure cannot be used as security for bank finance. Maori Land Court to be abolished.
[9] Local authority rates to be levied on all Maori land -- including marae and kaumatua housing -- with standard enforcement procedures applied in the event of non-payment. No more free riders on non-Maori ratepayers.
[10] Immediate repeal of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 and abolition of the racist Waitangi Tribunal, with [part-] Maori claims of any kind against the Crown to be dealt with in the Courts and proper evidential procedure applied.
[11] Immediate restatement in legislation that the proper – and only – name of our country is New Zealand.
[12] Re-writing the Education Act to change the mission of our universities from being "the critic and conscience of society" to "required to provide intellectual balance and rigour, and equal space for conservative and libertarian viewpoints."
Of course, any downstream proposal that the beneficiaries of state-sponsored identity politics revert to being treated the same as everyone else will make such groups squeal like stuck pigs. As Thomas Sowell reminds us: “When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.'
ENDS
Anonymous
"But New Zealanders (of many diversities) are not standing together as they should......"
That's the whole point of increasing diversity across the West: when people have little in common, and nothing binding them together (e.g. shared ethnicity, history, culture etc.) then they won't stand together and won't unite. Destroy or severely diminish a country's organic homogeneity and it then ripe to become a mass of atomised, disconnected and obedient consumers who are too diverse to find common cause and united against an oppressive power.
anonymous dismantling treatyism what a great comment there is the answer to nzs racist problems, well said
So who is going to lead the anti- pseudo treaty revolution? Lots of people saying the right words but who is going to make it happen?
People such as Julian Batchelor of Stop Co-Governance is making a tour of NZ at the moment to gather support for opposing this quiet coup. I've started a group called Take Back The Treaty, because I'm convinced that it's been hijacked by a bunch of radicals. It was a document that helped NZ forge a different colonial path than what happened in many colonies of European nations of the time. It has at least been partly responsible for what has been a very peaceable and mutually beneficial relationship since that time. It is bequeathed to all New Zealanders. In fact to understand the new party's relationship to the Crown - (Maori), at the signing of the Treaty one only needed to look at the pre-existing relationship of British subjects. It is we, or rather many of our ancestors who in fact defined what that relationship looked like, and what has been normative for the last 150 odd years. It certainly looked nothing like the "partnership" that Justice Cooke introduced in the 1980's, and certainly not equal partnership touted today.
As for your question:Who will lead...? That will be decided by whoever gets behind someone who is at least taking up an alternative narrative, how that message gets out. Lots of things to consider.
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