30.10.2008
On the national ballot
Now that New Zealand's Anti-Capitalist Alliance has become the Workers' Party it is on the ballot everywhere. Philip Ferguson reports
On November 8 workers all over New Zealand will, for the first time ever, have the chance to vote for an uncompromisingly anti-capitalist and pro-worker party.
Several weeks ago, the Workers Party (formerly the Anti-Capitalist Alliance) succeeded in becoming an officially registered party. To do this, we had to sign up at least 500 formal members - we eventually reached 770 (the equivalent of about 10,000 paper members in Britain) - and then had to go through a membership audit by the electoral commission and meet various other formal, legal requirements.
As a result of becoming a registered party, WP is now on the ballot in every constituency across the country for the party vote, as well as running a small number of candidates in the three major cities of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
Getting registered also meant we got a free one-minute TV ad (which had to be made in one day as a result of just making the deadline for registration - the ad can be viewed at workersparty.org.nz) and about $10,000 of state funding for other advertising, which we are using for radio ads.
The Workers Party has a five-point minimum platform, highlighting opposition to imperialist intervention in the third world; the right of workers to free speech and organisation; equality for women, Maori and gay people; open borders and full rights for migrant workers; and a working people’s republic. In the elections we are also highlighting specific issues - for instance calling for the complete abolition of GST (the NZ equivalent of VAT), using our campaign to support workers in struggle, and highlighting the fact that society is divided into a class that produces the goods and services and a class that produces nothing but appropriates the wealth.
Our candidates exemplify our fighting stance. They are a combination of blue- and white-collar workers, union organisers and student militants. For instance, first on our party list is Don Franks, probably the most well known worker activist in Wellington, with a record going back to the city’s militant car plants of the 1970s and anti-Vietnam war campaigning. Also on the list is Paul Hopkinson, a former soldier and the first person ever charged with burning the NZ flag. Hopkinson is currently suspended from his teaching job while running as a candidate, due to the draconian provisions of the NZ Electoral Act, which restrict state employees’ rights to participate in politics, especially in elections.
Another candidate is party national secretary Daphna Whitmore, who is a full-time organiser for the militant young union, Unite, which organises fast-food workers, hotel workers and others who have been ignored by the ‘mainstream’ union movement. Also on the party list is Nick Kelly, a bus driver who was recently elected president of the Wellington bus drivers’ union in a landslide victory and who helped lead the Wellington drivers to a significant victory in an industrial battle with their bosses a few weeks ago.
The modest growth of the Workers Party, now the largest far-left current in NZ, has shown that even in a long period of downturn growth is possible. This contrasts sharply with the fate of the Socialist Worker group. In the 1990s, SW was by far the largest far-left group in NZ. However, its absurd line that the 1990s were the 1930s in slow motion led to continuous exaggerations of the possibilities for mass agitation and organisation and, as these failed to materialise, to subsequent loss of members, political disorientation and a lurch rightwards. SW has now virtually liquidated into its populist front-group, the Residents Action Movement, whose key demand is the removal of GST on food. The wholesale abandonment of any pretence at anti-capitalist politics has, far from leading to growth, simply ensured the further decline of SW into a tiny, populist sect.
The other left group contesting elections is the left social democratic Alliance Party. In the early 1990s, this was a significant force, winning almost 19% of the vote in 1993 and gaining 13 seats in 1996 and 10 in 1999. The Alliance imploded after it went into coalition government with Labour and the Labourites decided to join in the invasion of Afghanistan. There was a rank-and-file revolt and a massive split and meltdown. In 2002 the Alliance lost all its seats and is now numerically about the same size as the Workers Party.
In our view this is a reflection of the fact that today there is neither a material base nor political space for anything resembling classic social democracy. Nevertheless, WP maintains good working relations with Alliance activists where we agree on issues and, in several places, we will be holding joint election night socials with them.
In canvassing in working class areas, WP has met with a good response. There is a layer of workers who recognise that Labour is not really a party of labour and are at least prepared to entertain the idea of an alternative.
With the economic situation looking bleaker, we can expect the squeeze to hit workers, regardless of whether the incumbent Labourites or, as looks more likely, National, win the elections. The opportunities for building a socialist alternative remain modest, but we intend to take advantage of them to the best of our ability.
