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Note that Friday’s debate, Which Way Forward For Workers Today, has moved to the VUW Student Union Building.
Communist Party of the Philippines’ 40th anniversary
December 23, 2008 by
The Workers Party of New Zealand sends warm greetings to the Communist Party of the Philippines, on its 40th anniversary.
The CPP has led the struggle against feudalism, capitalism and imperialism in the Philippines for four decades. Having withstood the Marcos dictatorship through to the current brutal regime of Arroyo, the CPP has been sustained through its deep roots among the masses. When many other communist parties around the world collapsed in the 1990s, the CPP carried on the struggle, constantly reassessing itself and further developing its strengths.
The CPP’s commitment to internationalism has given confidence to many organisations and individuals in the struggle for world revolution.
We hope that 2009 will bring much success to the comrades in the Philippines.
In solidarity
Workers Party of New Zealand
Standing up for socialist ideas
November 15, 2008 by
The Spark November 2008
The Workers Party is primarily an organisation of activists who fight for workers’ interests on jobs and in the streets. We recognise that the struggle for workers’ rights and workers’ power mostly takes place outside of parliament. Taking mass actions against an employer offers workers more chance of controlling their destiny than voting. However, parliamentary elections provide a chance to raise alternative ideas, and socialists should make use of the opportunity. The reports below show some of the initiatives taken by the Workers Party in the 2008 general election. You can see that we got stuck in and stood up for socialist ideas without mincing our words. If you like the look of our approach, why not join us and help make the socialist voice even louder in 2011!
NZ Election: the morning after
November 9, 2008 by
– 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.
GST off beer: on the economic downturn
November 5, 2008 by
Don Franks, candidate for Wellington central, at the debate amongst alternatives to the Labour Party.
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