Just a quick response: Te Pāti Māori (TPM) is a Māori nationalist party, based in Māori identity, but with a lot of left rhetoric. At the last election they had the most left wing economic policy platform of any party in the last or this parliament, but they are social democrats, not Marxists. Their previous iteration entered an alliance with the last National Party government(yes, there are some prominent Māori who've made it up the ladder, but not really many - more through academia and professions than business)and were punished by the membership. The new leadership is younger and more radical. They have a very strong showing in the Māori electorates* but Māori as a whole have traditionally voted Labour, although that stranglehold has slipped as Labour tended to take the Māori vote for granted and didn't do much for them. When Labour introduced neoliberal policies in 1984 the (overwhelmingly working class) Māori population were badly hit by loss of well paid unionised jobs.
TPM and their supporters are working against the Treaty Principles Bill, including by organising a hikoi (march) from both ends of the country, intended to meet at parliament next Thursday, the original date set for introduction of the Bill in the House. There is a lot of crossover in support for the hikoi and Palestinian solidarity activism, partly due to the identification of Palestinians as indigenous. The Treaty Principle Bill (which will be defeated - every other party has said they will vote it down at its second reading) wants to renegotiate Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi) which was signed in 1840 by Crown representatives and many but not all iwi (loosely, tribal) leaders. It was intended to give Britain jurisdiction over Europeans in New Zealand, who were about 1/40 of the population at the time. The Bill wants to renegotiate the terms of the Treaty so 'everyone is equal before the law' instead of race based preference for Māori; Māori are disadvantaged in virtually every social statistic and those stats don't perfectly dovetail with Māori being overwhelmingly working class. TPM says a) it's racist and divisive, and b) it's a Treaty between the Crown and Iwi, so can't be renegotiated by parliament. TPM insist on referring to the Māori language version of the Treaty as that's the one that was signed. International Law supports them in that respect. Ironically David Seymour, leader of ACT, the most right wing party in parliament (and in government) and sponsor of the Bill, is actually Māori. I must admit I Ioved seeing the haka being performed in parliament and the major parties squirming. The PM, the deputy PM and the two most senior Māori government MPs were not present after they suddenly brought forward the introduction of the Bill to a date they would be absent! *There are 7 Maori electorates out of 60 covering the whole country. There are another 60 determined by proportional representation (and currently an 'overhang' of three because TPM won more electorates than their overall percentage support). Māori get to choose every few years whether to vote in their local general or Māori electorate. Comradely, John On Fri, 15 Nov 2024, 21:43 hari kumar via groups.io, <hari6.kumar= [email protected]> wrote: > I think there are cmdes from NZ here including John Edmundson. > What good sources are there on the "Te Pāti Māori" party? > What is the Marxist take on them? > > Obviously prompted by recent news as in this current article at NYT. > > https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/15/world/asia/new-zealand-parliament-maori-haka.html?unlocked_article_code=1.aE4.7nl9.imZZ4UWkjyfZ&smid=url-share > > I vaguely recall that the Maori section of NZ society has a number of > leading businessman. Correct or not? Is the "Te Pati Maori" a 'nationalist' > party or what is its class basis? > Thanks for considering. > H > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#33613): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/33613 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/109589733/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
