> On Sat, 13 May 1995, Doug Henwood wrote: > > > On a recent fly-by in NYC, Peter Camejo, the former SWP presidential > > candidate turned stockbroker (though still a self-identified socialist), > > said that very interesting things were happening in New Zealand - a left > > party called, I think, The Alliance, in particular. Any PEN-Lers have any > > knowledge of this? > > > > Doug I was a founder member of the New Labour Party, which is the principle party of the Alliance. The NLP makes up the majority of activists of the Alliance, most of the policy council and significant numbers of the leadership of the 'allied' parties. The other significant party in the Alliance is the Green Party, which had wider electoral support in the 1990 election, but whose leaders are effectively NLP members. The indigenous Maori party is led by an NLP member and has localised rather than wide support among Maori. The context of the NLP formation was five years of 'hard labour' in New Zealand. The Labour Party in government since 1984 was ostensibly Social Democratic but implemented the most extreme version of neo-liberalism outside Chile. The formation of New Labour in 1989 was exciting as it brought together 1. the left of the old Labour Party, (taking one member of parliament and perhaps a third of the membership), and 2. the extra-parliamentary opposition which had been battling the neo-liberalism 'on the streets'. There was a lot of talk of the NLP being a party of a new type, a campaigning party winning people to a programme, rather than an electoral party accomodating to the middle ground. The founding conference reflected the two components of the party - about 400 people from each. Both sides knew they needed each other - the social democrats needed the extra-parliamentary activists if the party was to become more than a soft version of the existing parties. The EPAs knew they needed the electoral experience of the SDs. The policy discussions at the intial conferences were intense - often carried by one or two votes. The leadership reflected the membership mix - the parliamentary leader was Jim Anderton - the leading SD, the Vice President was unemployed movement leader Sue Bradford, the most prominent EPA. The President was Matt McCarton - somewhere in between the SDs and EPAs. Policy discussion in the NLP however went no further than 'capitalism with a human face'. While some in the NLP (especially Matt McCarten) like to see the party as a working class socialist party, and there has been some higher electoral support in working class areas than others, they are a distinct minority; party activists are nearly exclusively middle class and they have shied away from any formal description of the party as socialist. The party remains committed to capitalism in policy areas, particularly economic and industrial policy. Attempts Despite the promising beginnings however the NLP soon degenerated into a classic left social democratic parliamentary party. The SDs used their bureaucratic organisational experience to push the EPAs out of leading bodies and to limit policy along SD lines, including some witchhunting of communists. Virtually all the EPAs, including myself, subsequently drifted away. The party now concentrates almost exclusively on electoral activity, and its limited involment in extra-parliamentary campaigns is mainly to advertise itself. While the discomfort a left social democratic parliamentary party causes the neo-liberals is useful, the NLP/Alliance is not particularly more radical than the Labour Party was before its election in 1984 (eg. they do not consider themselves 'socialist'). My experience with the NLP leaves me with little confidence that they will do anything other than a classic Social Democrat compromise with the neo-liberals if they become government. > The alliance has already won the regional government of Auckland (a third > of the population) and is making strong gains across the country. The Alliance won the majority on only one regional government committee, although it has a minority on several others. It does not control the significant bodies - the Regional Council and the City Council. Support for the Alliance peaked around 27% in 1994 and has since fallen to around 15%. It is likely to be up to 20-30% in the 1996 national elections and may become the principle parliamentary opposition party. > > I saw Matt McCarten (who at 22 led the Hotel and Hospital workers union > and helped lead the union break with the Labor Party While Matt has broken from the union, the union remains one of the principle bases of support for the old Labour Party. Many of its members of parliament come from this union. Matt is incredibly energetic and enthusiastic, but the organisational reality of the Alliance lags along way behind. For example Matt advocates the need for a strong socialist youth organisation to transform the NLP into a real socialist party. But the Alliance has virtually no student members on the university campuses. > He described a program of block-by-block neighborhood organizing and > dues collection, This is the priciple strength of the NLP. This organisational apparatus used to support the old Labour Party but came with the exodus of Labour party activists in 1989. However it is entirely restricted to electoral work. Bruce Cronin Research Officer Phone: 64-9-309-0789x229 Fax: 64-9-303-2236
