The Alliance is a new progressive force that has emerged in New Zealand politics. It unites the Greens, the movement for Maori self-determination Mana Motuhake, the Democrats (who emerged from the former Values Party), the Liberals and the NewLabour Party. It's recognised as being the initiative of the NewLabour Party, which was formed by activists who broke away from the old New Zealand Labour Party in 1989.
The latest National Business Review poll has the Alliance leading in the polls with 38% of the vote. It needs over 40% to hold government in its own right at the national elections in October 1993.
Matt McCarten, the president of the NewLabour Party, has been described in the New Zealand media as "the organisational genius" behind the Alliances' electoral success in the recent regional elections in Auckland. During the Alliance's first national conference, held last month in Auckland, he was interviewed for Green Left Weekly by REIHANA MOHIDEEN.
What are the main reasons for the success of the Alliance?
One is that it's perceived to be a mass movement for change and it's become the organisational expression of the frustration and anger against the status quo in the country, against the New Right. At last people have something to attach themselves to and be a part of. I think it's actually offering the concept of a collective society as opposed to what we've had since 1984 with Labour and National, that is, individual responsibility rather than collective responsibility.
Has the Alliance succeeded in uniting the progressive movement as a whole?
That depends on what level we're talking about. If you're talking about the broad progressive forces, then the answer is, yes. If we're talking about the individuals within progressive thought, not entirely. A lot of them are still in the Labour Party, a lot of others have been so disillusioned that they've just opted out of politics completely. The smaller socialist groups, I think, have totally missed the boat on this whole ferment that is going on, and they just haven't seen what it's about and are sitting out there in the wilderness when the mass of people are going towards the Alliance. Although, in the last period, there's been an acceptance that the Alliance is now here to stay as a progressive force, and I think the Alliance dominates the debate now and is moving it to the left.
How has this affected the old Labour Party? What's the state ay?
From what I can see of it, it's actually got a lot of residual support and loyalty because Labor's got the name, it's got the history. However, it's very soft, and the left forces within Labour are almost apologetic, hoping somehow that the Alliance will go away — they just haven't got the courage to make the step away from Labour. But certainly from a morale point of view, they are at an all-time low, even though on most occasions they lead in the polls. But that's only because of the unpopularity of the government. They're offering at this stage still a centre-right program.
As I understand it, whole branches have disappeared, and in the electorates there is nobody there on the ground. Certainly in Auckland, which I know the best, the Labour Party as a force doesn't exist. It didn't go up against us in the local bodies and where it did, in a few places, it did very badly. The rest of the country, I understand, is in a similar state. And judging from their presence at various actions such as support for strikes, support for demonstrations, and other different struggles, the Labour Party is invisible. We front up to these things and never see them. So, it would appear that their activist base is almost destroyed.
What sort of union support does the Alliance have?
Support of the unions is hard to gauge because when we talk about unions we tend to think of their leaderships or the bureaucracy of trade unions as a block. But the interesting thing with the Alliance is that the support is actually coming from the shop floor and the union leadership is under more and more pressure from below to come out in support of the Alliance. That was evident during the local body campaigns when some unions came behind us and helped finance our campaign. But more recently we've had union secretaries saying that out on the shop floor at the delegate meetings they're coming out solidly in support of the Alliance.
One of the ironies of it is that the Alliance which is pro-worker has actually built its support without the official support of the trade union movement, in fact, against the hostility of the trade union leadership. But now the mood is changing because of the standing of the Alliance and the support it has on the shop floor.
How would you describe the political spectrum that the Alliance fills?
I think the NewLabour Party would be the most left-wing party within the Alliance, and from there it spreads to the centre. It may even go beyond the centre to the centre-right with the Liberal Party and the Democrat Party, but the Green Party, NewLabour and Mana Motuhake are clearly left of centre parties. The perception of the Alliance by the public and by the opposition parties, Labour and National, is in fact that it's a left-wing grouping. Its program is certainly left-wing, and I suppose it would be fair to say that the ideology of the Alliance is driven by the NewLabour Party and its policies. As for the future of the Alliance — there's a lot of talk of us consolidating as one party. My hope would be that if it was going to end up as one party, it would be a mass party based on the left of Labor. I think that's the objective which we're steering towards at the moment.
Is there much of a future for a right of centre formation?
If that happens to the Alliance it's finished. There's plenty of space over there; you've got the Labour Party and the National Party. I think we either move to the left or we die.
There may be a parting of the ways of the Alliance at some later date; we've got proportional representation which is sure to be introduced in 1996, if not sooner, and at that stage, I think the different thrust of the parties will become more evident and we may actually see the Alliance not be in the current form it is at the moment.
What sort of campaign have the other two parties waged against the Alliance?
They had trouble with how to deal with us. Once they tried to ignore us, and at other times, they really go for us. We're under a lot of scrutiny from them; whenever we put our foot wrong they go for us. The dirty tricks come out, the smear campaigns, all the things you would expect when the establishment is under threat. We've tried not to get bogged down or paranoid about that sort of thing; we're saying this is what we stand for, this is where we're going, and we've advanced on that basis.