Small Geezer

All good bredda.

Okay, thanks for clearing that up and the information Comrade.

Comrade Red Godfather, those are links to the Marxist parties views on the Mana party and their involvement in it.

http://workersparty.org.nz/2012/04/1...ialist-report/
http://socialistaotearoa.blogspot.co...ing-class.html
http://unityaotearoa.blogspot.co.nz/...r-te-mana.html

Mana is an arena of struggle. Spartacist-type writing off of any left development yields nothing concrete for workers power anywhere. A struggle for union freedom needs to be fought on the streets and in left wing parties. My theory is similar to DNZ's that workers need to create structures of power before socialism in order to lay the basis for socialist ideas to develop. Trying to abolish everything right away before the proletariat is ready has only led to huge totalitarian excesses. Abolishing the profit motive is my cherished goal as it is with most revolutionaries on this site, but we can't achieve it by forcing limited insurrectionary confrontations and trying to sharpen contradictions if we don't have working class organisation and consciousness.

They are progressive, no doubt, but I think that fundamentally it is still a party in support of preserving the current mode of production. There is no indication on their website that they support workers taking control. Not to mention, they uphold the Treaty and the return of State-owned-enterprises back into private Iwi hands (which are more like corporations these days).

"The MANA Movement will support Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the basis of the New Zealand Constitution..."

I didn't know there were Marxist factions in Mana, any more info on that? And do they, more or less, support official Mana policy?

I believe there is a point when unions and proper left parties are in such a terminal stage that we have to use any and every opportunity to enhance our power. If not authoritarian right wing governments can roll over the people who have no organisational power to fight back. Here is a link to Mana's founding principles: http://mana.net.nz/founding-principles/

They are the most left party in parliament. They are the only party with a full employment policy and they support a unequivocal withdrawal of NZ troops from all western alliance millitary deployments. They allow open marxist factions in their party (2 so far). In a country like NZ, where the left has been devastated, a development like the formation of the Mana Party is a big step forward. They are still in their early stages so their direction is still forming. At this stage socialists should engage in the party although we don't know the direction it will take in the future. Now is a significant opportunity for growing the power of workers and the oppressed and for disseminating and popularising socialist ideas.

Hi Comrade, why is it that you support the Mana Party?

Happy birthday