Re: NZ: Alliance and ACA

[Scott Hamilton <s_h_hamilton@xxxxxxxxx>]

The record of the discussion Phil describes - in my
opinion sometimes inaccurately - can be seen on the
archives of the antiwarcap list at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/antiwar_anticap_nz/ (I
think it took place around March)

An important point is that only a very few people
interested in the ACA idea took part in this
discussion - most of these folks, in Auckland at
least, either did not have access to e mail or were
not on the list where the discussion took place.

Most people interested in the ACA in Auckland learned
that  revo and WPNZ had decided upon a 'bottom line'
platform of six points very soon after they had been
informed about the idea of ACA.  With the exception of
two people, one of whom is me, all of the interested
people I knew lost interest in the project, to say the
least, after hearing that revo and WPNZ had worked out
a bottom line and were proceeeding with the formation
of the ACA on the basis of it.

Revo and WPNZ argued that they needed to push ahead
with the formation of the ACA on the basis of their
six points because the campaign needed to start soon
to be effective - long discussions, they argued, would
end up taking the place of practical political action.

I think it must be a couple of months since this
argument was advanced, and I'm unaware of any ACA
campaign activity having taken place in Auckland,
beyond the circulation of ACA prop material by WPNZ
members doing things that they would normally do as
WPNZ members (ie selling their paper at the flea
markets, coming to AIC meetings). I may be mistaken,
but I'm not aware of the ACA holding any sort of
public meeting in Auckland - the sort of meeting that
most people would consider a necessary condition for a
real election campaign.

I would guess that ACA has been invisible in Auckland
because it has not attracted enough people to wage a
real campaign. If this is true, then it's difficult to
avoid the conclusion that the argument for rushing
ahead was a mistaken one. I know that the ACA has been
more active in Wellington and Christchurch, and
recently held a conference in Wellington (the report
on this conference did not unfortunately say how many
people attended). I hope that they have managed to
attract a few more people in Auckland now that the
election date is set. If they do hold a meeting, I
will certainly come along to support them.


Cheers
Scott





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"Revolution is not like cricket, not even one day cricket"

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