Workers Party of New Zealand

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Workers Party of New Zealand
Hokowhitu o te Kaimahi o Aotearoa
Leader Daphna Whitmore
President None
Deputy None
Number of MPs in the House of Representatives None
Founded 2002 (as the Anti-capitalist Alliance)
Headquarters None
Political Ideology Marxism, Communism, Socialism, Anti-capitalism
International Affiliation Not affiliated
Colours White and red
Website workersparty.org.nz
See also:
 Politics & Government

Sovereign
Governor-General
House of Representatives
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Political parties
Prime Minister
Cabinet
Elections
Māori politics
Foreign relations

The Workers Party of New Zealand (until 2006 known as the Anti-Capitalist Alliance) is a socialist political party in New Zealand. It publishes a monthly magazine called The Spark and an academic journal called Revolution.

Its National Secretary is Daphna Whitmore.[1]

Contents

[edit] Platform

According to the party's official website, the Workers Party aims to build a new political movement based on workers' interests.

“ We aim to build a workers' organisation that represents the class interests of the international working class and fights for those interests on the ground in New Zealand. Any political organisation that does not stand unreservedly for working class interests is bound to protect capitalism and preserve the austerity measures that the capitalist class continues to impose on the working class.[2] ”

The five-point policy platform of the Workers Party is as follows:

  1. Opposition to all New Zealand and Western intervention in the Third World and all Western military alliances.
  2. Jobs for all with a living wage and a shorter working week.
  3. For the unrestricted right of workers to organise and take industrial action and no limits on workers' freedom of speech and activity.
  4. For working class unity and solidarity - equality for women, Māori, other ethnic minorities and gay men and women; open borders and full rights for migrant workers.
  5. For a working people's republic.[3]

The party's magazine The Spark states that the party wants: "A world without poverty and war, a world of material abundance where human potential can be expressed in full," adding that "While these ideas appear untenable today, they were the notions that inspired revolutions in the 20th century."[4]

[edit] Elections

Because the Workers Party has not yet proven it has sufficient members to formally register as a political party, in general elections it cannot gain party votes for New Zealand's proportional representation system, Mixed Member Proportional (MMP). It can, however, put forward candidates in individual electorates.

In the 2002 elections, it stood four candidates, the highest number for an unregistered party that year [5]. The candidates gained a total of 336 votes between them, placing the Anti-Capitalist Alliance (ACA) in fourth place amongst the unregistered parties which contested.

In the 2005 election the ACA stood eight candidates [6], again the highest number for an unregistered party. The ACA won a combined total of 582 votes, placing them first amongst the unregistered parties.

A nationwide recruitment campaign entitled Let’s Make Workers’ Issues Hi-Viz began in 2006 as an attempt to gain the necessary members to register and contest the party vote in the 2008 general election.[7]

In the 2007 local elections, the Workers Party stood four mayoral candidates[8] in Christchurch[9], Dunedin[10], Waitakere[11] and Wellington[12]. The Workers Party received 4 705 votes nationwide, with 2 101 of those votes being for Waitakere candidate Rebecca Broad.[13][14][15][16]

[edit] History

The party was founded in 2002 as the Anti-Capitalist Alliance. It was formed by an electoral alliance of the original Workers' Party (pro-Mao, Marxist-Leninist) and the pro-Trotsky Revolution group, with the intention of fielding candidates in the 2002 New Zealand general election.[17]

In 2004, the original Workers' Party and Revolution merged to become the Revolutionary Workers' League (RWL), which describes itself as a "Marxist current".[18] In 2006, the Anti-Capitalist Alliance was renamed as the Workers' Party. After this name change, the public role of the RWL appears to have been limited to the production of socialist publications, including The Spark.

Recently, publications formerly published by the RWL became Workers' Party publications.

[edit] Notable members

In 2003 Paul Hopkinson, who stood as a candidate for the Anti-Capitalist Alliance in the 2005 election, became the first person to be charged under the Flags, Emblems and Names Protection Act, after burning a New Zealand flag at an anti-war demonstration.[19]

Nick Kelly was elected president of the Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association (VUWSA) in 2006 after holding a string of other positions in the organisation. Prior to this he was the Chair of Paul Swain's Labour Electorate Committee (LEC) in 2000, but was sacked in 2001 for opposing Labour's economic policies. He was also dragged out of a Labour conference for yelling at Prime Minister Helen Clark over Labour's support for the invasion of Afghanistan. In 2002, Kelly was expelled from the Labour Party altogether for standing against Paul Swain for the seat of Rimutaka.[20]

Another party member, Joel Cosgrove, won the VUWSA presidency in 2008.[21]

Philip Ferguson, editor of the party's academic journal Revolution, was a Sinn Fein activist between 1986 and 1994, and spent several years as a full-time organiser for the party.[22] Today he is a history lecturer at the University of Canterbury.[23]

Don Franks "a great Wellington identity of the Left"[24] and author of the book Next to Gods[25] is the Workers Party candidate for the Wellington Central electorate in the 2008 election.[26] Franks is also known for his folk music, including a song about the 2007 anti-terror raids.[27]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "We elected Daphna as WP national secretary."
    Franks, Don. "Internal conference minutes supplement" [Memorandum], Workers' Party National Organising List, Apr. 18 2006.
  2. ^ Workers Party of New Zealand.
  3. ^ Workers Party Platform.
  4. ^ The Spark (2006-03-15) link
  5. ^ The Anti-Capitalist election campaign. The Spark (June 2002).
  6. ^ Anti-Capitalists standing in 8 electorates.. The Spark (August 2005).
  7. ^ Lets Make Workers Issues Hi-Viz. Indymedia Aotearoa.
  8. ^ Workers Party Mayoral Campaigns. The Spark.
  9. ^ Byron Clark for Christchurch Mayor. Scoop.co.nz.
  10. ^ Final election results for 2007. Dunedin City Council.
  11. ^ Last chance to decide Auckland's future. New Zealand Herald.
  12. ^ 2007 elections - Nick Kelly. Wellington City Council.
  13. ^ 2007 Triennial Elections Results. Waitakere City Council.
  14. ^ Results - Elections 2007. Christchurch City Council.
  15. ^ 2007 Elections - Final results. Wellington City Council.
  16. ^ Dunedin election results. Dunedin City Council.
  17. ^ Anti-Capitalist Alliance to stand in general election. The Spark (April 2002).
  18. ^ Fusion forms new group. The Spark (June 2004).
  19. ^ Flag burning trial under way. TVNZ.
  20. ^ Nick Kelly and the Labour Party. Scoop.
  21. ^ President's Column. Salient.
  22. ^ Ireland: Revolution and Betrayal, 1916 to Today. The Spark (December 2006).
  23. ^ Bridging Programmes - Philip Ferguson.
  24. ^ Audrey Young: Apparent support for Act's new relationship with Labour. The New Zealand Herald (2007-06-08).
  25. ^ Next To Gods: A Cleaner's Story. New Zealand Books Online.
  26. ^ Putting workers first. The Capital Times (2008-05-28). (archived copy)
  27. ^ No salvation in Ureweras. The Dominion Post (2007-11-02).


[edit] External links

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