Workers' Communist League of New Zealand
The Workers' Communist League of New Zealand (abbreviated WCL) was a
1970 split
The WCL traced its roots to a 1970 split in the
The Manson-Bailey group continued to refer to itself as the Wellington District Committee of the CPNZ for some time.
Working Women's Alliance
The group led the formation of the Working Women's Alliance (WWA) in 1974, seeking to unite female workers and housewives into a platform of socialist feminism.[9] The WWA set up branches in Wellington, Dunedin, Hamilton, Palmerston North and New Plymouth.[9] By 1978 WWA had become largely defunct.[9]
Wellington Marxist–Leninist Organisation
In 1976 the group took the name Wellington Marxist–Leninist Organisation.[7][5] The group would be nick-named 'MILO'.[10] MILO began publishing Unity in 1978.[8]
Formation of WCL
In 1980 MILO merged with the
WCL functioned as an underground party.[3] The membership was largely academics and students.[3] The group also had a some presence among unemployed and industrial workers, in particular around Wellington.[3]
1981 anti-tour protest movement
Opposition to
Tripod theory
In the aftermath of the anti-tour protests, tensions arose between WCL cadres (who had key roles in the Halt All Racist Tours movement) and Maori radicals who wished to steer the energy of the anti-tour movement to local anti-racist and land rights causes (a proposition the WCL leadership rejected).[9][18] The increasingly public debates between WCL and Maori activists brought Maori radical discourse to a wider audience, with Donna Awatere Huata articulating the views of the Maori movement in articles and literature.[18] The post-1981 tour protest debates influenced Sue Bradford and other WCL members who became increasingly oriented towards women's and Maori struggles.[19]
During 1982–1983 WCL revised its political model, and by 1984 the organisation came to reject the Leninist ideal of a proletarian vanguard party in favour of seeking to build a coalition of diverse forces struggling against capitalism, patriarchy and colonialism.
Rights Centre and labour movement
In 1983 the Auckland Unemployed Workers' Rights Centre was founded, at an assembly of unemployed workers,
The Rights Centre rivalled the Auckland Trades Council-sponsored Auckland Unemployed Workers Union, which was led by the SUP.[9] There was notable tensions between the SUP and WCL within the unemployed workers' movement.[9] When the Te Roopu Rawakore o Aotearoa movement for unemployed workers was launched in 1985, the WCL and the Rights Centre played a key role in it.[9] In 1987 WCL supported Therese O'Connell as a candidate for vice president of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, running against Angela Foulkes.[20]
Later period
As of the mid-1980s, WCL was estimated to have had around 120 members and a larger network of sympathizers.
WCL remained active in anti-apartheid movements and organised solidarity campaigns for Central America.[7] WCL maintained links with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.[23]
In its latter period WCL was led by Graeme Clarke.[3] By the late 1980s WCL held formal conversations with the Trotskyist Socialist Action League about a possible merger, albeit no such unification materialized.[7]
Dissolution and launch of Left Currents
By 1989 the group was estimated to have had some 50 members.[3] The last issue of Unity was published on 16 March 1990.[12] The issue outlined that the publication had been discontinued due to financial difficulties, that the 7th WCL congress held in January 1990 had disbanded the party and that a new organisation called Left Currents had been formed in its place.[12][24]
The 16 March 1990 Unity issue stated that Left Currents intended to "build a revolutionary alliance for the forces struggling for Maori, women's and workers liberation" and that the organisation had removed the word 'communist' from its discourse due to its "negative associations with monolithic, patriarchal, excessively hierarchical, racist and/or national chauvinistic, and environmentally exploitative actions of communist parties in power".[12] Left Currents lasted for about a year before becoming defunct.[25]
The history of the WCL is outlined in Ron Smith's 1994 autobiography Working Class Son: My Fight Against Capitalism and War.[4]
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-136-33224-1.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8179-8082-5.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-582-06038-8.
- ^ a b c Political Science, Volume 47. Victoria University College, School of Political Science and Public Administration, 1995. p. 295
- ^ ISBN 978-1-991016-21-8.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-275-96148-0.
- ^ a b c d e f Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line. Anti-Revisionism in New Zealand
- ^ a b c Toby Boraman The Independent Left Press and the Rise and Fall of Mass Dissent in Aotearoa since the 1970s. Counterfutures
- ^ ISBN 978-1-927131-39-8.
- ISBN 978-0-908912-09-4.
- ISBN 978-1-877276-90-3.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8179-9161-6.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-03-113127-1.
- ISBN 978-0-14-012816-1.
- ^ .
- ISBN 978-1-86940-517-5.
- ^ Sydney Morning Herald. ASIO spied on NZ Green MP: report. 26 June 2009
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-558182-9.
- ISBN 978-1-877276-19-4.
- ^ Labour History, no. 84-85. Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, 2003. p. 104
- ISBN 978-1-86940-170-2.
- ISBN 978-1-877276-97-2.
- ^ South, No. 93-98. South Publications Limited, 1988. p. 20
- ^ Aotearoa: LIQUIDATIONISM DESTROYS THE WORKERS' COMMUNIST LEAGUE!. In International Review, No. 8 Summer 1990
- ^ National Library. Workers Communist League of New Zealand