Class War in the 21st Century New Zealand

A Combined Rant and Political Suicide Note by Sam Buchanan

https://freedomshopaotearoa.blogspot.com/2023/09/class-war-in-21st-century-new-zealand.html

Even if leftists don’t join the PMC, they often adopt its methods and language, which is accepted as the terrain where ‘serious’ politics takes place. Considerable energy has been expended on such methods over the last few decades. If they had worked, we would be seeing the benefits by now. What we are actually seeing is worse social conditions and a huge gulf between the radical policies of many groups, and their tentative and reformist methods.
Any idiot can write a radical policy or manifesto (I wrote this one!). Embracing radical methods, which invites derision and attacks and often comes at a personal cost, is more difficult. Everyone wants revolutionary change but nobody wants the revolution.
And it might be stating the obvious – but that’s sometimes necessary – to say that this is not a call for a class war, but a call to acknowledge that one already exists.
So why have I written this? It may seem that this is just a personal rant against the PMC2 for making everything I try and do harder. That’s partly true. But I think there’s value in understanding the impediments to progress in order that anarchists and other activists can seek out loopholes, take notice of those who have managed to make progress in spite of the obstacles, and, above all, avoid the trap of getting sucked into using the PMC’s methodologies ourselves. It’s remotely possible a few of the PMC might read this and question their own role.
We must acknowledge the failure to build a radical left movement in a time of rising inequality and recurring ecological disasters, a situation in which one should naturally appear. We need to reject middle-class methods, talk about class – loudly and bluntly – and return to a much more confrontational politics.
Otherwise the left might as well give up and spend our time more usefully – growing cabbages or something.