I agree that the Aliance was trying to grow the mass movement - that's why we were working alongside Alliance members. We distributed literally thousands of GPJA anti-war leaflets in Auckland, along with our own stuff.
But I never saw any sign of the Alliance calling for or promoting strike action and occupations of military facilities to help stop the war. I'm sure that many individual rank and file members were in favour of such action, but in Auckland we ran into a brick wall with the leadership in GPJA and the trade unions. It was very much 'let's build the numbers so that we can pressure Labour and make them listen', whereas DAWA was like 'Let's build the numbers so we can get thousands of people onto the runway at Whenuapai and into the US consulate and walking off the job'. Be interested to hear if it was different in Wgtn.
Here's a report on the biggest anti-war demo in Auckland, a demo which saw a confrontation between the 'pressure Labour to act for peace' and 'direct action' strategies: www.indymedia.org.nz/front.php3
I went to the Alliance site but couldn't find any of the old press releases or Mike Treen speeches on there. Here's a couple of quotes from the Alliance's foreign policy programme which are in line with my suggestion that the party looked to international law and international multilateral institutions to stop the war:
"The Alliance is committed to active participation in international mediation and peacekeeping and will work toward global nuclear disarmament; an end to nuclear testing and the elimination of chemical, biological and other weapons of mass destruction...
We strongly oppose unilateral actions by any nation against any other nation. The Alliance will only consider the use of New Zealand forces as part of an international strike against another country if the action was taken under the direct authority and control of the United Nations."
International Affairs Policy 2002 www.alliance.org.nz/info.php3
Sorry John missed your question earlier
Date Edited: 14 Dec 2003 05:25:07 AM
I agree that the Aliance was trying to grow the mass movement - that's why we were working alongside Alliance members. We distributed literally thousands of GPJA anti-war leaflets in Auckland, along with our own stuff.
But I never saw any sign of the Alliance calling for or promoting strike action and occupations of military facilities to help stop the war. I'm sure that many individual rank and file members were in favour of such action, but in Auckland we ran into a brick wall with the leadership in GPJA and the trade unions. It was very much 'let's build the numbers so that we can pressure Labour and make them listen', whereas DAWA was like 'Let's build the numbers so we can get thousands of people onto the runway at Whenuapai and into the US consulate and walking off the job'. Be interested to hear if it was different in Wgtn.
Here's a report on the biggest anti-war demo in Auckland, a demo which saw a confrontation between the 'pressure Labour to act for peace' and 'direct action' strategies:
www.indymedia.org.nz/front.php3
I went to the Alliance site but couldn't find any of the old press releases or Mike Treen speeches on there. Here's a couple of quotes from the Alliance's foreign policy programme which are in line with my suggestion that the party looked to international law and international multilateral institutions to stop the war:
"The Alliance is committed to active participation in international mediation and peacekeeping and will work toward global nuclear disarmament; an end to nuclear testing and the elimination of chemical, biological and other weapons of mass destruction...
We strongly oppose unilateral actions by any nation against any other nation. The Alliance will only consider the use of New Zealand forces as part of an international strike against another country if the action was taken under the direct authority and control of the United Nations."
International Affairs Policy 2002
www.alliance.org.nz/info.php3