Alliance, Residents Action Movement and the Workers party off to the left

Those of you on the Left will find more than just Labour, Greens and the Progressives on the ballot vying for your vote.  You can also leave your little orange tick in the box alongside the Alliance, the Resident Action Movement (RAM) and the Workers Party, along with various Leftist independents.

Alliance has had a rough life the last decade.

In 1999 the party’s 10 seats allowed Labour to form a government, ending nine years of National rule. Party leader Jim Anderton was even given the role of Deputy Prime Minister in Helen Clark’s government.

But the wheels started to fall off when a rift emerged between Anderton and party president Matt McCarten. With her coalition on the rocks, Helen Clark called an early election in 2002. Since then, the Alliance has not fared very well at all, failing to return to Parliament in 2002 or 2005.

Alliance’s Victor Billot says the party is unlikely to get in to Parliament this election and is currently rebuilding the party’s membership and voter base.

“People were saying the Alliance was dead. The Alliance is not dead,” says Billot. “We are doing much better than we were a few years back.”

Anderton spoke to TWN about the problems within the Alliance that led to his leaving and forming his own party, the Progressive Party.

“The Alliance was more keen to run campaigns with placards than to make serious political decisions.

“You have got to win the battle around here, not beat Helen Clark over the head with a bloody banner.”

Clearly the divisions between the two factions are still present, as Billot derides Jim Anderton and his party as “indistinguishable from Labour” and the Progressives as a “personality cult” centred around Anderton.

“He played an important role 20 or so years ago but he has had his day.”

Alliance believes the free market capitalist system is an impediment to a just and equal society. The party campaigns to improve job security, full employment, free education, public ownership of electricity and accessibility to affordable housing.

Billot acknowledges the similarities between the other Leftist parties and the Alliance.

“We have been trying to differentiate ourselves from other parties.”

He says the party is not very different from the Greens, except the Alliance is dedicated to social issues whereas the Greens’ focus is environmental.

Billot says the Workers Party is much further left than the Alliance.

“I’m not having a go at them, but they are basically a communist party. We are not looking to revolution for change, more like reform. Alliance is a social democrat party.”

As for RAM, Billot is unsure why it is even running in the election.

“Why reinvent the wheel?” he says.

“They seem to have borrowed all our policies.”

Number one on RAM’s party list is Auckland Central candidate Oliver Woods. The aspiring young politician agrees the party is “quite similar to Alliance”, although he believes there are some significant differences.

“Alliance is very backward looking, RAM is looking to the future.”

The 20-year-old says the party, which is the fastest growing in the country, is more than just a political party.

“We have got one foot in the political sphere, one foot in the grass roots movement.”

The party has been prominent in the movement to remove GST from food, and also campaigns on social issues and workers’ rights.

Policies include lifting the minimum wage, establishing free and frequent public transport and restoring workers’ right to strike.

RAM was formed in 2003 and contested the Auckland Regional Council elections in 2004 and the local body elections in 2007. It will contest its first general election this year.

Woods says the party is optimistic about its chances this election, but says the focus is on the 2011 general election.

“It’s up to the voters. Of course I hope we get in.”

Woods believes the Left would be much more effective if there was cooperation and unity.

“Calling the Left fractured is an understatement.

“It is about personality, not policy.”

Woods shares Billot’s cynical view of Anderton’s Progressive Party.

“They’re bloody useless. It’s just a personality cult.”

He is hardly impressed with Labour either, believing the party has failed many New Zealanders in the past nine years.

“If Labour was doing a good job RAM wouldn’t need to exist.”

The Workers Party sits further left on the political continuum than Alliance and RAM.

Referred to as “old school Marxist” by RAM’s Woods, Manukau East candidate Daphna Whitmore says the party is the only “anti-capitalist” party on the ballot.

Although not aligned to any particular union, most of the candidates are members of unions, including Unite, EPMU (Engineers, Printers and Manufacturers Union) and NDU (National Distribution Union), says Whitmore.

Policies include securing jobs for all, establishing a shorter working week, scrapping GST (not just on food), removing restrictions on the right to strike and scrapping the Electoral Finance Act and the Terrorism Suppression Act.

An activist for 20 years, Whitmore recognises the party’s chances on November 8 are slim. She says this is because of the five per cent threshold, which she believes prevents the MMP system from being truly proportional.

“My preference is one per cent equals one seat. Why should people have their vote discounted?

“Our aim in standing is to put out a message.”

With the Left so fractured, the electoral chances of parties left of Labour diminish. The Green Party has successfully kept above the five per cent threshold in three elections running, but parties focusing solely on social issues have found their votes dwindling.

In the 2005 election, Alliance only obtained 1,641 votes, or 0.07 per cent of the vote.

But there is the potential for greater electoral success for a unified party left of Labour.

In 1993, the newly formed Alliance, which consisted of the Labour Party defectors NewLabour, the Democrats (formerly Social Credit), the Greens and Mana Motuhake, gained 18.2 per cent. Unfortunately, this was under First Past the Post (FPP), meaning the party obtained only two seats. Three years later the party won 12 seats with 10.10 per cent of the vote under Mixed Member Proportional (MMP). For this reason Woods hopes the Left can unite once again.

“The Alliance was amazing [in the 1990s],” he says.

“We could do that again, but everyone needs to be cooperative.”