pn594. Bryce Edwards' damning article on Labour’s "inaction on poverty and inequality"

 

STOP PRESS. Auckland anti-poverty group blasts government.  Click here.

Bryce Edwards' damning article on "Political Roundup: The Left’s challenge to Labour’s inaction on poverty and inequality"

  How determined are Labour to take the necessary steps to fix inequality and poverty? Will electoral calculations triumph over their principles and stated ambitions? These are some of the questions being asked on the political left, as the Government looks determined to stand by while social problems continue to get worse under their watch.

 
During their last term in Government, Ardern and colleagues failed to be transformational on their key promise of fixing inequality and poverty. And now they are choosing policies that massively increase inequality, while ignoring the plight of those at the bottom. That’s why this week over 60 charities and NGOs made an open plea to the Government to increase welfare benefits before Christmas.

The New Left Economics: How a Network of Thinkers is transforming Capitalism

A little optimistic but a good start .. ACW pn449

After decades of rightwing dominance, a transatlantic movement of leftwing economists is building a practical alternative to neoliberalism. By Andy Beckett in The Guardian

For almost half a century, something vital has been missing from leftwing politics in western countries. Since the 70s, the left has changed how many people think about prejudice, personal identity and freedom. It has exposed capitalism’s cruelties. It has sometimes won elections, and sometimes governed effectively afterwards. But it has not been able to change fundamentally how wealth and work function in society – or even provide a compelling vision of how that might be done. The left, in short, has not had an economic policy.