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Fifty years ago, the New Zealand Values Party contested the New Zealand General election. The party had been formed three years ealier and was the first national ‘green’ party in the world¹, and in 1975, they published Beyond Tomorrow, their manifesto. In the 1975 General Election, Values got 5.19% of the vote and no seats. Under our current system, they would have made it into parliament with six or seven seats. fuck The 1970s was a crucial decade for several reasons. Firstly, we don’t need to put up with all the ‘60s clichēs, and got on and got things done.

Secondly, and most importantly, it was the last decade we seemed to be actually winning. Richard Nixon, the worst President Americia had ever had – or would ever have – established the OSHA, the EPA, and passed legislation requiring environmental impact statements for federal projects. The Carter administration dropped Kissengers ‘realpolitic’ for a human-rights based foreign policy, and installed solar panels on the roof of the White House. The Kirk/Rowling government sent ships to protest French nuclear testing at Mururoa atol. Pākeha started to take the Treaty of Waitangi seriously. Climate Change was being discussed as the next big global challenge². The future looked bright..

Thirdly, and also most importantly, it’s the first decade I really remember.

Then, in 1979, Margret Thatcher became the British Prime Minister, in 1981 Ronald Reagan became president, and in 1984, we got Rogernomics. Since then, it seems we’ve been reeling with the shock. We’ve been rolling with the punches and unable to fight back. Even the most modest proposals to build a more human friendly society are greeted as radical and impossible. We’ve made huge progress in social matters since the ‘70s, and no one wants to go back, but this isn’t what we wanted. We need to re-examine Values’s vision, and build a new manifesto for a future we — and our children — can live with.