Socialist Worker (SW) is a socialist organisation based in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
SW evolved out of the group known as the Socialist Workers Organization, the successor organisation of the Communist Party of New Zealand. It has two main branches in Auckland and Wellington, but activists in most other cities in NZ. Recently, it has begun to grow modestly through work done in workers organisations such as the Solidarity Union,[1] Unite Union,[2] the Climate Change Coalition Climaction,[3] the anti-war movement and the Venezuela Aotearoa Solidarity Team.[4]
Many of its key activists are involved in the Residents Action Movement, which polled over 87,000 votes in the 2004 Auckland Regional Council elections.
It publishes a quarterly themed journal called UNITY, and its activists contribute to the monthly Workers' Charter paper. It also has a regularly updated blog called UnityAotearoa.[5]
SW's national conference in February 2007 adopted a new ten point "Where We Stand" programme.[6]
SW is part of the International Socialist Tendency (IST). On May 1 2007, it presented a May Day Statement to the IST, calling for a positive engagement with the Venezuelan Revolution.[7]
A number of SW members split from the organisation in 2008 to form Socialist Aotearoa.[8]