Chris Trotter

Chris Trotter (born c. 1956) is a left-leaning political commentator in New Zealand.[1] He is the editor of the occasional Political Review magazine, and is a regular speaker, orator and singer at left-wing, union and socialist events.

Chris Trotter speaking at the Alliance party conference in 2007

Biography

Chris Trotter has worked for unions and was on the New Zealand council of the Labour Party.[2] He writes the "From the Left" column in the Dominion Post, and has also contributed to the Independent Financial Review. He makes semi-frequent television appearances as a political commentator.

Trotter was originally a member of the Labour Party, but when Labour MP Jim Anderton quit the party, Trotter followed him into the NewLabour Party (NLP). He stood for the party in the Dunedin North electorate and was NLP spokesperson for electoral reform and state services.[3]

He has attracted criticism from legitimate political-left critics who regard his knowledge of feminist, indigenous and LGBT politics to be insignificant, particularly insofar as their own distributive justice dimensions are concerned [4][5]

Trotter is the author of No Left Turn, a political history of New Zealand.[6] Novelist, poet and critic C K Stead described the book as "a dashingly written and persuasive elegy for the Scandinavian-style socialist democracy New Zealand might have been, and at the same time a realistic (though at times appropriately angry) acknowledgement that, given the forces, internal and external, ranged against it, the chances of it happening, and lasting, were never very good."[7]

In February 2008, he said that Helen Clark should stand down before the election and be replaced by Phil Goff, who he thought may have been Labour's only hope of regaining ground with struggling families. He has since recanted, arguing that Goff should have stood down in his turn before the 2011 New Zealand general election, arguing that David Cunliffe should replace him.[8][9]

In July 2018, Trotter joined the Free Speech Coalition, a group of former politicians, lawyers, journalists, and academics that pursued legal action against the Mayor of Auckland Phil Goff for denying Auckland Council facilities to two Canadian alt-right activists Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux.[10][11][12] Trotter justified his defense of the two alt-right activists' free speech by arguing that left-wing opponents of the tour lacked the courage to debate the alt-right.[13]

Notes and references
  1. Drinnan, John (13 November 2009). "TVNZ looking at options for Paul Henry". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
  2. McCammon, Belinda (5 September 2007). "Left, right, left - the march of NZ history since the '70s". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
  3. Collins, Simon (23 April 1990). "Anderton in finance role". New Zealand Herald. p. 3.
  4. http://www.norightturn.blogspot.com
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 29 August 2010. Retrieved 20 August 2010.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. Trotter, Chris (2007). No Left Turn: The Distortion of New Zealand's History by Greed, Bigotry, and Right-Wing Politics. New Zealand: Random House. ISBN 978-1869418090.
  7. "Our Favourite Things". Dominion Post. 8 December 2007.
  8. "Labour poll-axed". The Dominion Post. 23 February 2008. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
  9. http://www.bowalleyroad.com/2010/08/leader-labour-needs-to-have.html%5B%5D
  10. "Free Speech Coalition website". Free Speech Coalition. Archived from the original on 5 August 2018. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
  11. "Free Speech Coalition on details of legal action". Free Speech Coalition. Scoop. 16 July 2018. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
  12. Truebridge, Nick (10 July 2018). "Free speech group raises $50k to challenge Auckland Council over far-Right speaker ban". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
  13. Trotter, Chris. "Do We Really Lack the Courage to Debate the Alt-Right? Do We Really Lack the Ideas to Defeat Them?". Bowalley Road. Retrieved 5 August 2018.


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