[Marxism] left electoral alliances: NZ and Germany

[Ben C <minnows@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Any additional information or comment from list participants?

Phil, any further comment on the "reinvented" Alliance? Is ACA working 
with them in UNITE? What about in future elections?

These initiatives may or may not add up to much in themself, I don't 
know myself, but they are surely a sign of the times...

Ben C


GERMANY: Left regroups to form electoral challenge

Norman Brewer

*A poll conducted last week by left-leaning German TV magazine 
/Panorama/ revealed that more than a third of Germans would consider 
voting for a new left party, made up of expelled and resigned 
Social-Democrats (SPD) and disappointed former Greens and Party of 
Democratic Socialism (PDS) members. The surprise result has been a nasty 
shock for the SPD, following a disappointing 22% in the European Union 
election.*

On June 15, the SPD expelled four regional union leaders who had 
threatened to set up a new party if the SPD continues its radical 
neoliberal dismantling of the welfare state. Following the expulsions, 
two more union leaders resigned from the party. The six, who had all 
been SPD members for more than three decades, formed the “Initiative for 
Work and Social Justice”. This group has attracted many former SPD 
members and other grassroots unionists.

full article: http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/587/587p19b.htm


NEW ZEALAND: Alliance goes back to the roots

*In the last few years, the NZ Alliance has undergone big upheaval./ 
Green Left/ /Weekly/’s */Sibylle Kaczorek /*spoke to /*Mike Treen*/, the 
foreign affairs spokesperson of the NZ Alliance, when he was in 
Australia for the Socialist Alliance's third national conference, held 
in Melbourne from May 8 to 9.*

...

Treen argued: “We are in a process of regaining our credibility at the 
moment. This can be done in two ways. One is that we become a party 
whose members and leaders are seen to be actively involved in fighting 
for our constituency — working people, the marginalised, the poor. A lot 
of the Alliance leaders have, since our removal from parliament, thrown 
ourselves into union organising work.

...

Treen said that he thought the Unite project had been a “stunning 
success”, explaining that it had organised 2500 workers in four main 
areas: the hotel industry; call centres; the fast food industry; and 
English-language schools.

...

Treen explained that Unite “is not an Alliance project as such”, but 
that the Alliance’s strong support for the union “is part of proving 
what we are. That is, Alliance people are helping some of the most 
marginalised, discriminated against and exploited workers in New Zealand.”

Treen explained that the Alliance’s work went beyond just trade union 
work, and included anti-war and social justice activism. Also, as part 
of what Treen termed “re-arming”, the Alliance has begun to publish /Red 
and Green/, a journal of left alternatives which comes out in a 
small-book format several times a year.

“We are reaching out to others on the left to be part of this discussion 
and we want to assist the bringing together of as broad an activist left 
party as we can”, Treen explained.

full article: http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/583/583p19.htm



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