| John Key: The Smiling Assassin |  |  |  |
Tuesday, 03 March 2009 11:35 | |
Reece WJohn Key emerged from the shadows to take power in last year’s election. Most people know very little about the man who now runs the country, apart from his millionaire status and his state-house background. His rags-to-riches story has won him some sympathy.It also looks as though the savage attacks that the last National Government introduced immediately after coming to power in 1990 – slashing benefits to starvation standards and hobbling trade unions with the anti-worker Employment Contracts Act – are not on the cards.Key has made it easy for bosses to fire new workers in the first 90 days of a new job – which undermines the wages and conditions of all of us – but he also raised the minimum wage from $12 to $12.50 and, to try and boost the flagging economy, he has promised to spend money on public health, infrastructure and state housing. In early February, Key announced a $500 million spending package and plans to save “iconic” firms like Fisher and Paykel, which is in the middle of shutting down production in New Zealand to move it to low-wage Thailand and Mexico. This kind of government spending flies in the face of the free-market bullshit we have been fed since the fourth Labour government in 1984. For almost three decades we were told there was no alternative to shutting down hospitals, schools, railways and laying off workers. But when the bosses are in trouble – all of a sudden there is plenty of money available. John Key’s economic philosophy has more in common with Rob Muldoon, the free-spending autocrat who ruled New Zealand from 1975 to 1984, than any government, Labour or National, since then. Free-market, or neo-liberal economic philosophy blames governments for everything that goes wrong with the economy. Left to itself, they say, the market will provide. This has been the thinking behind the sale of state-owned companies and the cutbacks to health and education over the last 25-odd years. But the dominance of market philosophy has only produced failure after failure all over the world – to be accurate, it has failed to produce the goods and service it was supposed to, but it has produced vast fortunes for the monkeys that work the levers of the international finance system – people like John Key, who made his millions sacking people and living off the over-inflated credit system. Who is John Key Key grew up in Christchurch. His father died when he was six years old. His mother, an Austrian Jew who escaped the Nazi Holocaust, raised John and his sisters. The family lived for a few years in a state house, which Key boasts about nowadays. Key uses his state house background to say that everybody from a poor background can rise to become a millionaire. But capitalism is a system that by its nature only ever has a few at the top, living off the work of the majority. Most of the lucky few receive their wealth ready-made from rich parents, a tiny minority make their wealth themselves. People like John Key make their wealth by doing nothing at all useful – just by gambling on the finance markets. Key’s state house and his free education - he graduated with a BCommerce from Canterbury in 1981 – were made possible by the welfare state, which was established to give children from poor backgrounds an equal chance with wealthier kids. Even as a boy though, John’s main aim was to become rich. He became a currency trader, moving to Singapore and then London, where he worked for Merrill Lynch, ultimately amassing about $50 million. Merrill Lynch and others like it, companies that allowed Key to garner his riches are the ones directly responsible for today’s economic crisis. But Key was always able to “relate” to those less fortunate than him. He earned the nickname the "smiling assassin" for his ability to sack his workers at Merrill Lynch, while keeping his dopey grin on his face. Free market to state control John Key comes from an older conservative legacy than his predecessor, Don Brash. In the wake of the market’s collapse faith in free-market capitalism with minimalist government has become incredibly unpopular, with even the former US Reserve Bank Governor Alan Greenspan losing faith in the free market. Key seems to also be a convert from neoliberalism. What he has converted to appears to be the “Keynesian” model (see page 14). Spending large amounts on public works, cutting tax to stimulate demand, and pushing back workers rights through the 90-day bill are all reminiscent of Robert Muldoon – the archetypal authoritarian. Whether Key or Obama increases state spending, there is nothing intrinsically socialist about it. State spending has always been a vital crutch of capitalism. Foreign policy failure Key lacks foreign policy experience – he claims to have had no opinion on the defining political issue of his generation, the 1981 Springbok tour. Yet he has shown he is committed to imperialism. As an opposition MP, Key voted for the US 2003 invasion of Iraq. The war has left Iraq in ruins. It is estimated that over a million Iraqis have been killed since the invasion. Many Iraqis do not have access to the basic needs, such as food, water, and electricity. Key continues to support the deployment of New Zealand troops in Afghanistan. He also failed his first foreign policy test as Prime Minister. He did not condemn the brutal massacre in Gaza, which left about 1400 people dead. Key seemed to ignore the conflict. Yet this is not surprising, considering his support of Israel. Talking to the Jerusalem Post, Key stated that "New Zealand has a warm relationship with Israel," he said, adding that "there is quite a lot of synergy" between the two countries, citing their small size. No mention of New Zealand's relationship with the Palestinians. What he is really looking for is a closer relationship with Israel’s primary backer - the USA. Israel is this generation’s apartheid South Africa, and, like Muldoon, Key refuses to condemn human rights violations for the sake of US good will. Get set for a struggleAfter ten years of so-called “Labour” Party government, which saw real wages stagnate while the wealth of the rich list rocketed, the Nats are back in power. We are gutted they have got in but not surprised at all. Key has played all his cards right to stay in power for a long time too – especially if he can continue to cultivate the kupapa (collaborators) in the Maori Party. People were pissed off with Labour’s feel-good propaganda. We don’t feel good when wages are stuck while living costs rise. We don’t feel good while the prison population rises. We don’t feel good while the sea levels rise and nuclear war looms. John Key’s National Party have inherited a whirlwind. If we want to advance the conditions of the working class and promote a better, more peaceful world, we have to fight the parasitic ruling class that Key represents. So if you want to help stop the Smiling Assassin, join the International Socialists.  |
