Socialist Worker (Aotearoa)
Encyclopedia
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.
SW evolved out of the group known as the Socialist Workers Organization
Socialist Workers Organization (New Zealand)
The Socialist Workers Organization was a Trotskyist organisation based in New Zealand. It was part of the International Socialist Tendency, the Socialist Workers Party's international tendency....
, the successor organisation of the Communist Party of New Zealand
Communist Party of New Zealand
The Communist Party of New Zealand was a Communist political party in New Zealand from the 1920s to the early 1990s. It never achieved significant political success, and no longer exists as an independent group, although the Socialist Worker organisation is considered organisationally continuous...
. It has two main branches in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
and Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
, but activists in most other cities in NZ.
Recently, it has begun to grow modestly through work done in workers organisations such as the Solidarity Union
Solidarity Union
Solidarity Union is a trade union in New Zealand and was founded in August 2006.The Solidarity Union seeks to organise workers in clusters in South Auckland around an area strategy building local workers councils...
, Unite Union
Unite Union
The Unite Union is a trade union in New Zealand. It is the sponsor of the campaign directed towards improving working conditions for fast food workers in the country, in addition to representing other hospitality and retail workers...
, the Climate Change Coalition Climaction, the anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...
movement and the Venezuela Aotearoa Solidarity Team.
Many of its key activists are involved in the Residents Action Movement
Residents Action Movement
The Residents Action Movement was a political party in New Zealand. RAM described itself as a broad left coalition, stretching from social liberals, community activists and former National Party members to social democrats, democratic socialists and left-wing radicals...
, which polled over 87,000 votes in the 2004 Auckland Regional Council
Auckland Regional Council
The Auckland Regional Council was the regional council of the Auckland Region. Its predecessor the Auckland Regional Authority was formed in 1963 and became the ARC in 1989...
elections.
It publishes a quarterly themed journal called UNITY
UNITY
UNITY is the theoretical political journal of Socialist Worker , published quarterly in Auckland, New Zealand, since December 2005. It is edited by Daphne Lawless, and each issue focuses on a central theme of interest to the socialist and radical left movement.The first edition of Unity, published...
, and its activists contribute to the monthly Workers' Charter
Workers' Charter
Workers' Charter was a broad-based, left-wing movement active in New Zealand, which produced a monthly newspaper of the same name. The paper's editor is well known New Zealand socialist and anti-racist John Minto, and its contributors range across the left wing spectrum- anarchists, revolutionary...
paper. It also has a regularly updated blog called UnityAotearoa.
SW's national conference in February 2007 adopted a new ten point "Where We Stand" programme.
SW is part of the International Socialist Tendency
International Socialist Tendency
The International Socialist Tendency is an international grouping of unorthodox Trotskyist organisations based around the ideas of Tony Cliff, founder of the Socialist Workers Party in Britain...
(IST). On May 1 2007, it presented a May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
Statement to the IST, calling for a positive engagement with the Venezuelan Revolution.
A number of SW members split from the organisation in 2008 to form Socialist Aotearoa
Socialist Aotearoa
Socialist Aotearoa is a socialist organisation based in Aotearoa/New Zealand. SA formed as a split from Socialist Worker in 2008. They have branches in Auckland and Wellington and work closely with the International Socialist Organisation. Although the two groups are not formally aligned with the...
.