More election campaign posters available for download in pdf format in our resources section.
Labour Day debate on progressive alternatives to Labour
Don Franks’ address to election meeting at St Anne’s Northland-Wilton Anglican Parish 21/10 /08
Good evening and thanks for inviting the Workers Party to speak at this parish.
The parish I originate from myself is St Albans in Eastbourne. That was quite a long time ago and for the last 40 years I’ve been resident and working in Wellington.
Every election we hear some politicians claiming to uphold and defend Christian values.
The party I belong to, the Workers Party, makes no such claim, and we see religion as a private affair. However, as a former Sunday school pupil from St Alban’s parish, I’m sometimes drawn to wonder how the carpenter of Nazareth might have related to Workers Party policies.
Why the Workers Party stands in capitalist elections
– Nick Kelly
Editorial from the October 2008 issue of The Spark
As this issue of The Spark goes to press Wall street is in trouble. The international capitalist economy is yet again entering a downturn As we head into the general election, New Zealand voters once again face a choice of political parties who will uphold this capitalist system. For 16 of the last 24 years Labour has governed New Zealand, the gap between rich and poor has widened faster than in the previous 35 years when National, the overtly right-wing party, won more elections than it lost.
The Workers Party has no illusions that parliamentary politics, or the 2008 election, can produce the change that people need. However, we see the election as a useful platform for socialist politics.
We see working people standing together and fighting the system as the way forward. We are standing to promote the idea that working people can organise to end capitalism’s exploitation and build a better life for themselves and for humanity as a whole.
Our election campaign is about highlighting these ideas and showing a real alternative to the increasingly similar politics offered by Labour, National, and their potential coalition partners currently in parliament.
Our party has stood firmly alongside Wellington bus drivers who were recently locked out by their employers, NZ Bus. In 2006 we actively supported the locked-out NDU workers from Progressive Supermarkets in a similar dispute.
We urge all working people to support our 2008 election campaign. Help us build the Workers Party and end exploitation and poverty.
Workers Party candidate fights unjust law
The Spark recently spoke to Workers Party Christchurch East candidate Paul Hopkinson, the first school teacher to be suspended under the undemocratic provisions of the 1993 Electoral Act.
Under the current law most public servants (including teachers) must take unpaid leave for the three weeks between nomination and polling day. Paul Hopkinson refused to take unpaid leave when requested, and as a result has been told by his employer that he is being suspended without pay.
Continue reading “Workers Party candidate fights unjust law”
Help us fight this undemocratic law!
– Spark Financial Appeal
Workers Party Christchurch East candidate and school teacher Paul Hopkinson has been suspended under the undemocratic provisions of the 1993 Electoral Act.
Under the current law most public servants (including teachers) must take unpaid leave for the three weeks between nomination and polling day. Paul Hopkinson refused to take unpaid leave when requested, and as a result has been suspended without pay.
Paul is not going to knuckle under to this law, and he will press on regardless as part of our campaign to make workers’ issues hi-viz this election. But Paul is a working guy with a family who can ill afford three
weeks off the payroll.
Paul is doing his bit to fight for what’s right and he deserves backup. The Workers Party will do what it can to fill the gap, but we are a small group with few financial resources.
We’re appealing to all workers and democrats who hate injustice to help us fight this undemocratic provision of the Electoral Act.
Please send donations to Paul Hopkinson Appeal, c/o PO Box 10-282 Dominion Road, Auckland.
Workers Party announces party list for 2008 election
– Workers Party media release
Contesting the party list vote for the first time this election, anti-capitalist group the Workers Party has today named 14 candidates who will be standing on its party list.
“Our main campaign slogan for these elections is ‘workers should be running the country!’ and this is certainly reflected in our list of candidates,” says Workers Party national organiser Tim Bowron.
“All of our candidates are proven fighters whose only loyalty is to the working class who create all of the wealth in society – not the parasitical boss class that currently consumes most of it.”
Heading the list is Wellington factory worker and well-known musician Don Franks, who is also standing in the Wellington Central electorate.
Other candidates to feature prominently on the list include union organiser and Manukau East candidate Daphna Whitmore, schoolteacher and Christchurch East candidate Paul Hopkinson (currently suspended without pay by his employer for challenging the restrictions on public servants running for parliament) and Wellington Tramways Union President Nick Kelly.
Continue reading “Workers Party announces party list for 2008 election”
Saturday soapbox @ the Otara market
Check out the Workers Party soapbox stall at South Auckland’s Otara market on Saturdays from 8am until 11am during the election campaign. This Saturday (11 October) we have invited guest speakers to talk (10am to 11am) about last year’s October 15 police raids on activists and the Tuhoe community.
Workers Party Radio Address
Click here to listen to the Workers Party Radio Address for the 2008 election.
The music is by Wellington Central candidate Don Franks.
Workers Party registered today
The Workers Party today became a registered political party. This means that in the upcoming 
2008 general election for the first time a hard-left party will be able to contest the party list vote and be on the ballot paper in every part of the country!
With just a month to go to election day we don’t need to worry about peaking too early : )
Workers should be running the country!