BY SUE BOLTON
A heated dispute which broke out in November within the New Zealand Alliance over its MPs support for the sending of SAS troops to participate in the US-led war in Afghanistan appears to have ended in a compromise.
After a vigorous debate at the Alliance conference on November 10-11, the delegates voted for a compromise resolution which condemned the terror attack on the US but did not condemn the bombing of Afghan civilians. It also called for Alliance MPs "to review their support for the deployment of SAS troops" in Afghanistan.
An amendment which called on the MPs to withdraw (instead of review) support for SAS troops was voted down.
Despite the anti-war amendment being voted down, the Alliance's parliamentary leader and deputy prime minister Jim Anderton was not happy when he discovered that the majority of Alliance national council members wanted an immediate review of the MPs' support for SAS troops going to Afghanistan.
After the conference, Anderton angered Alliance members when he inferred to the media that the review decision did not mean a serious reconsideration of the Alliance's support for New Zealand participation in the war. He then tried to assert his control over the party by carrying out a witchhunt against anti-war Alliance members.
Anderton tried to force the resignation of anti-war Alliance president Matt McCarten, locked out left-wing staffers and pressured all but three MPs to stop contributing a 10% tithe from their parliamentary salary to the Alliance.
However, Anderton's attempt to assert personal control over the party alienated one of the Alliance's constituent parties, the Maori party Mana Motuhake.
The December 8 national council of the Alliance was the first opportunity to break the deadlock.
Mana Motuhake's opposition to Anderton's bureaucratic methods meant that he didn't have majority support on the national council. He therefore sought a compromise with McCarten on the key issues of parliamentarian or membership control of the party and the issue of SAS troops in Afghanistan.
The first review of the Alliance caucus's decision to support SAS troops going to Afghanistan was presented to the national council by Alliance cabinet minister Matt Robson. The "findings" of Robson's review echoed his comments at the Alliance conference when he justified the war against Afghanistan as being "within the framework of international law" and claimed that the US was not indiscriminately bombing civilians.
Rather than voting to accept or reject Robson's "review", the national council simply tabled the review and requested that Robson do more work on it, despite the fact that recent reports from aid agencies have revealed that more Afghan civilians have died from US bombing than US civilians were killed on September 11.
Another version of Robson's "review" is scheduled to be presented to the next national council meeting in early February.
Perhaps one reason for not voting on the review is that Mana Motuhake supports the sending of SAS troops to Afghanistan while opposing Anderton's bureaucratic attempt to control the party.
The national council decided not to vote on the refusal of the majority of its MPs to continue tithing 10% of their parliamentary salaries to the party. Instead, it decided that Anderton and McCarten should jointly prepare a campaign plan for the next national election and present the plan to the February national council meeting.
The election campaign plan is meant to resolve issues such as parliamentarians tithing part of their salary to the party. It is also meant to resolve the debate in the party about the extent to which the Alliance should differentiate itself from the Labour Party.
Many Alliance members are critical of the fact that since the Alliance went into a coalition government with the Labour Party in 1999, Anderton has given the impression of being closer to the Labour Party than to the Alliance membership. Although the coalition agreement allows the Alliance to differentiate itself from Labour, this has only been done on a couple of occasions.
What is not in dispute between the different sections of the Alliance, is the desire to be in a coalition government with the Labour Party after the next election. This position was affirmed at last November's Alliance conference.
From Green Left Weekly, January 30, 2002.
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