Episode description

System Change Aotearoa have kindly provided us the audio from their 20 August 2024 public meeting about a radical left party in NZ. Enjoy!

Do we need a new party of the radical left? This is a crucial question facing anticapitalists in Aotearoa today.

We live in an era of extreme inequality. The threat of climate breakdown looms over everything. Yet governments around the world sit idly by as the rich get richer and the climate crisis worsens.

On the left, we see a clear explanation for this: the capitalist system is designed to always prioritise corporate profits over people and planet. Yet right-wing populism is on the rise, scapegoating minorities for society's problems. Aotearoa now has the most right-wing government in decades, pursuing an agenda of austerity whilst attacking Te Tiriti.

We must organise to fight back. But do we need a new party to do this?

System Change Aotearoa is excited to host Sue Bradford to speak on this vital topic. Sue is a lifelong activist who has been fighting for working people for decades. She will be drawing on her experience as a former Green Party MP and candidate for Mana, as she shares her thoughts on why a new party is necessary.

Sue published a paper on this subject in 2017. She argued that the role of such a party is not merely to stand in elections. We are talking about a party which seeks to organise the resistance to capitalism across society, in workplaces and in the streets, and in Parliament only when it is strategic to do so.

Elliot Crossan will be speaking on behalf of System Change. He will be speaking on the rebirth of the radical left across the world in the last decade, and why the time for a new party is right.

Website: systemchange.nz

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