2008 Election – FightBack

Trotter reckons you blew it

November 11, 2008 by Admin

– Nick Kelly

So-called ‘from the left’ political commentator Chris Trotter posed the following question to his post election column in the Sunday Star times:

“What led the majority of the New Zealand electorate to reject a government that has not only done it no great harm but might even be said to have done it some good?”

The answer according to Trotter is this:

Last night’s result was manufactured out of the besetting sin of the last 150 years of western history – the crisis of masculinity. What, exactly, is a man in a world of corporate and public bureaucracies?

It was these: the men who just couldn’t cope with the idea of being led by an intelligent, idealistic, free-spirited woman; the gutless, witless, passionless creatures of the barbecue-pit and the sports bar (and the feckless females who put up with them); who voted Helen Clark out of office

John Key – you’re welcome to them.

If the NZ public were so anti having a Labour woman prime minister for the reasons Trotter outlined, then why did they re elect her three times?

Left: Young workers, led by Unite union protesting against youth rates under Labour.

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Filed Under: 2008 Election, Elections

NZ Election: the morning after

November 9, 2008 by Admin

– Daphna Whitmore

For the Workers Party – this was the first time a socialist party was on the party list. A red flag on the ballot paper was an achievement – and one that took a bit of work to get the numbers to satisfy the electoral commission that we qualified. We were the last party to get registered, making it just a few days out from writ day.

It was a last minute campaign for the party vote but the campaigning was good for our organisation. Members got active, our website has been constantly updated and a lot of new contacts have been made. We got our name out across the country so there are now thousands of people who know there is a far left option. We got votes in every electorate of the country.

In New Zealand as far as I’m aware the far left has not yet ever got more than 200 votes in an electorate and this was reflected again in our vote. With 824 on the first count it is possible we’ll get over 900 once the special votes are counted.

MMP is a funny system. It engenders a lot of the first past the post mentality. Not just in the electorate seats where it is FPP, but in general people still tend to see things in terms of National and Labour. That was reflected in the 80 per cent of votes cast for those two parties.

A really proportional system would be better. It’s hardly democratic that NZ First gets 4.2 per cent of the vote and no seats, while Progressives and United Future each have a seat but a tiny overall vote. And Act gets five seats on 3.72 per cent of the vote.

Low turnout and 10,700 votes for the Bill and Ben Party indicate a lack of public confidence in the options on offer.

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Filed Under: 2008 Election, Fightback News

Celebrate anniversary of 7 Nov 1917

November 7, 2008 by Admin

Daphna Whitmore

November 7, 1917 is the day the working class in the Soviet Union seized power. It marked a turning point in world history, and despite the reversals nothing can diminish the significance of that day.

There are a number of people who identify as socialist but will tomorrow vote for capitalist parties because they see that as the only realistic thing to do. Of course, if you vote for the status quo you’ll be stuck with it.

This election, for the first time in NZ, there is a socialist party on every ballot paper.

Why not vote for something you actually believe in.

Filed Under: 2008 Election, Elections

GST off beer: on the economic downturn

November 5, 2008 by Admin

Don Franks, candidate for Wellington central, at the debate amongst alternatives to the Labour Party.

Filed Under: 2008 Election, Fightback News

Time for a clean break with Labour!

November 4, 2008 by Admin

Workers Party media release

When election time comes around every three years it seems that there is never any shortage of people on the left busy telling workers that they have to be ‘realistic’ and lower their horizons to whatever crumb is on offer in the electoral circus.

The object of the exercise becomes not how to advance an alternative to the existing system but how to soften the blows within the existing system (although that didn’t work too well in 1984 when the left urged people to vote Labour and the blows got ten times worse).

The Workers Party says that it’s precisely that approach that has gotten us in the sorry, weak situation the left is in today in NZ (and throughout the First World).

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Filed Under: 2008 Election, NZ Labour Party