Workers Party of New Zealand stuff

[Die Neue Zeit]

http://workersparty.org.nz/about/

I am curious about any discussions that have been made regarding the WPNZ's concise "platform."


The Workers Party stands on the following platform:

1. Opposition to all New Zealand and Western imperialist intervention in the Third World and all Western imperialist alliances.
2. Secure jobs for all with a living wage and a shorter working week.
3. For the unrestricted right of workers to organise and take industrial action and no limits on workers’ freedom of speech and activity.
4. For working class unity and solidarity - equality for women, Maori and other ethnic minorities and people of all sexual orientations and identities; open borders and full rights for migrant workers.
5. For a working peoples’ republic.

[Saorsa]

You mean discussions on this forum? I'd be happy to talk about the 5 Point Platform and answer any questions you have, fire away. :)

Keep in mind though that we'll probably be adopting a larger and more detailed programme later in the year.

[Die Neue Zeit]

You mean discussions on this forum? I'd be happy to talk about the 5 Point Platform and answer any questions you have, fire away. :)

Keep in mind though that we'll probably be adopting a larger and more detailed programme later in the year.

Yeah, I'm wondering just how influential the Trotskyists in your party are in terms of their "transitional" program.

[Saorsa]

Yeah, I'm wondering just how influential the Trotskyists in your party are in terms of their "transitional" program.

There are very few people who would identify as Trotskyists in our party. The WP was formed by a merger of two groups, the pro-Mao (but not Maoist) original Workers Party and the pro-Trotsky (but not Trotskyist) Revolution group, who co-operated in the Anti-Capitalist Alliance for a few years before officially merging and changing the name from ACA to Workers Party.

There are no Maoist or Trotskyist tendencies or factions within our party. There's no ban on them, they just don't exist and nobody feels any need for them to. Disputes and disagreements within the WP have never fallen along Maoist/Trotskyist lines, even on issues like Nepal there have been people from both pro-Mao and pro-Trotsky backgrounds taking positions of support or criticism.

I really couldn't say whether the idea of the transitional programme had any influence on the 5 Point Platform, it's never been discussed to my knowledge. The basic idea was to keep it as simple and concise as possible, for a number of reasons. The ACA was originally only conceived as an electoral alliance since both Revolution and the old WP planned on running candidates in the elections, so the 5 Point Platform was a good series of demands to raise in the electoral arena. There was also the fact that the two organisations had some different historical positions meaning that the creation of a unified, in depth programme would take some time to work out, and also the fact that we wanted to draw in as many unaffiliated leftists and new people as we could, and felt that keeping the programme as simple as possible was the best way to do this.

There's little point in drawing up an in-depth programme for exactly how you're going to transition from capitalism to socialism considering how radically different the objective conditions and the balance of forces will be when the time comes and you're actually in a position to do this.

[Die Neue Zeit]

I really couldn't say whether the idea of the transitional programme had any influence on the 5 Point Platform

[...]

There's little point in drawing up an in-depth programme for exactly how you're going to transition from capitalism to socialism considering how radically different the objective conditions and the balance of forces will be when the time comes and you're actually in a position to do this.

Hmmm. It seems that even the Trotskyists who are in the WPNZ have no idea what the "transitional" program is all about. [FYI, what you've said is half the answer that a confused Trotsky gave. The other half pertains to linking the consciousness and conditions of today's workers to the need for socialist revolution. Allegedly, the "sliding scale of wages" is one such demand, but I've debunked that here (http://www.revleft.com/vb/sliding-scale-wages-t98609/index.html), so feel free to push that through as part of your party's minimum-maximum program.]