Pathway to Survival

Change Is In The Air

In March 2023 young people rallied in Otautahi, strode chanting round the rainy streets to the Christchurch City Council (CCC) and swarmed into the Council foyer for some direct democracy. The school strikers were louder and more confident than I've ever heard them. Strong, forthright, passionate speeches and powerful call and response chants that didn't let up till they reached the Council. They called for major system change and had some clear, concrete demands - no new fossil fuel exploration or mining, lower the voting age to 16, increase marine protection in NZ's waters, e-bike rebates for lower-income families and support for regenerative farming - and for CCC to stop planning a new tourist airport in Tarras.

Sign of the times. Like this TikTok post, angrily forthright at the cyclone wreckage, at how "the settlers have dug us into a dangerous hole" with their farming practices, reinforced by Government inaction. Result: floods, food insecurity, rising emissions, landless communities and half the nation struggling to live on 2% of the nation’s wealth. "So, what are we doing this for?"

Stuck In The Same Old, Same Old

Six years of a "progressive" Government and so few of the promises have been met:

• The famous "nuclear free moment". Is every charismatic Labour politician going to use this to divert attention from neolib Business As Usual? In Ardern's case it's even while grabbing onto US's war-mongering coat-tails - see Matt Robson's succinct summary of NZ's foreign policy over the years.
• Housing security is still out of reach for many families, as is real income security, despite some better wage bargaining. Meanwhile homes stand empty, providing extra Airbnb cash for the rich.
• Mining on conservation land is still on the cards - that precious dwindling carbon sink that could protect us on an over-heating Earth. We can expect coal mines to quickly expand on the Buller Plateau if/when National and ACT get back in.
• The broken Resource Management Act isn't even scheduled to be fixed before the end of Labour's term. Regional councils will still lack any teeth to stop irrigation consents being rolled for ten years, or coal, oil or gas consents continuing for decades. Emission targets? 1.5 degrees? What's that? We've got serious money to make...

But People Are Coming Together

People all over the motu are working together on the changes we'll need to survive the coming decades -

• Exploring ways to boost local food and energy security, like these young Gisborne residents and the many people working on better ways of farming and land protection.
• Figuring out how to seriously dismantle the financial, regulatory and legal mechanisms of capitalism, like the degrowthers of Wellbeing Economy Alliance and Degrowth Aotearoa New Zealand.
• Mobilising support for expanding the commons, taking back the wealth of our collective resources that were given over for private profit. Pushing for free public transport, free dental care, a renationalised energy sector, universal basic income, tax reform, protection from exploitation for our forests, rivers, wetlands and seas ...
• Practising doing democracy better by trying out real citizens' assemblies in their local area - like Nelson and Porirua.
• Taking on the hard, productive conversations we need to have as a nation about co-governance, common values, mana whenua and better ways of making decisions, that include everyone not just the corporate lobbyists. This is just a fraction of the mahi that's being done - new ways of relating, new visions and practical innovations.

Taiki E! Come Together!

Increasingly people are seeing that what we need is a radical shift - away from an economy and society geared to endless growth and profit-making for the few at the expense of most people and the natural world, and towards a society and economy based on mutual support, leaving no one behind and caring for the natural world we all depend on. It's also becoming clearer that it will be easier to put this vision across if those passionate for it come together in a unified movement, rather than as a plethora of fragmented issue groups and campaigns. Activist organisations are starting to develop fairly similar broad platforms of demands for radical change, change that goes beyond Business As Usual.

For instance -

• Organise Aotearoa (OA) - coming from a strong social and Tiriti justice campaigning perspective and reaching out to other activist groups keen to form a broad coalition.
• Pathway to Survival - emerging out of Extinction Rebellion and climate action, and like OA reaching out to other activist groups to create a broad coalition.
• Action Station supports a broad range of grassroots issue groups and has a radical perspective on change - see Laura Rapira-Connell's keynote speech to Alternative Aotearoa hui Poneke 2020.
• Rise Up for Climate Justice - a coalition of social justice and environmental groups around the motu with a focus on climate, Tiriti and social justice and a set of clear demands.
• Our Climate Declaration - a national group set up to get people to commit to a list of changes to achieve not just lower emissions but an Economy of Enough, a phrase coined by Jeanette Fitzsimons (Catherine Delahunty's obituary of Jeanette is in Watchdog 154, August 2020).

In Pathway to Survival, we've been wondering how best to help build such a coalition for radical change. In 2022 we set up a Website documenting the radical changes needed. Then we ran webinars showcasing well-known advocates for these changes, such as John Minto and Jason Hickel and Mike Joy and Jane Kelsey. Now we're having conversations more directly with activist groups and individuals, such as Organise Aotearoa and Coal Action Network Aotearoa, to talk through how we can work together on this. We are excited by the power of conversations! Contact us if you are too and want to get involved! E Tū! Hui e! Taiki e! Let's rise up and come together!