In general I agree with Bill Cochrane's comments on Marilyn Waring. She was after all elected as a National Party member of Parliament. At that stage in its life, National was Tory in the most traditional way: socially and economically reactionary, though not yet globalist or anti-interventionist. However I wouldn't be quite as dismissive as Bill C. She does have useful and thoughtful things to say about issues such as feminism and of course the feminist economics that started this discussion. I suppose my view is partly coloured by the fact that New Zealand is currently a desert when looking for people who are willing to speak out with anything significantly different from the current market-is-god form of political correctness. I wouldn't go as far as Bill C. on Helen Clark, leader of the Labour Party. She is undoubtedly intelligent and hard working. But she is also willing to put up with central aspects of her party's policy which would negate any remnants of social democratic conscience. She was, after all, a prominent figure in the Lange/Douglas cabinet. There are equally hard working but more principled women in the Alliance I'd nominate in her place. And of course Jane Kelsey. Marilyn Waring certainly wasn't the only woman in Parliament. It's a very long time, 60 years or so, since there was only one woman in the New Zealand Parliament. She may well have been the only woman in the National Party caucus though, and being a radical woman amongst a bunch of dyed-in-the-wool tory chauvinists of the old school would have been an alienating experience to put it mildly. Bill Rosenberg > Comrades > I write this with some trepidation, given the view in many quarters that > Marilyn Waring should be elevated to the status of at least saint, perhaps > a medium league deity. > Marliyn Waring is and always has been a tory, albeit of a liberal kind. She > is no friend of unions or a number of other traditional "left" progressive > organizations and IMHO it would be ill advised to expect much in the way of > progressive, in the left wing sense, thought from this individual and even > less in the way of deed, despite what some of her apologists might say. > As an aside it is inaccurate to state that Ms Waring was the only women > member of parliament at the time of her election and I would be interested > in the source of this particular statement. > If one wanted to single out a women in NZ politics who is both intelligent, > capable, hard working and has at least a residual commitment to social > democratic principles I would nominate the current leader of the Labour > party Helen Clark. If you like academics then try Jane kelsey. > I say this largely because when tory scum masquerade as progressives it > makes me want to vomit. > Cheers > > Bill Cochrane > Centre for Labour and Trade Union Studies > University of Waikato > Hamilton > New Zealand > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >
