Workers Party of New Zealand - 2011 Leadership Resignations

2011 Leadership Resignations

In February 2011 a minority section of the former leadership of the Workers Party, including former National Secretary Daphna Whitmore, former National Organiser Philip Ferguson and former "Spark" Co-ordinating Editor Don Franks announced their decision to leave the organisation in a joint letter of resignation stating that:

The recent sharp divisions and turmoil in the organisation over standards and behaviour forced us to face the issue of why these problems arose – and, indeed, have often arisen. Our conclusion is that the problems associated with low standards go much deeper than this or that individual or norm (or lack of norms) and are rooted in much bigger and deeper problems – basically that the long downturn and the absence of struggle, especially working class struggle, continuously undermine the project of party-building. It's not possible to build a vanguard organisation in the absence of a vanguard of workers.

We have concluded that further attempts at party building in this downturn are futile. Rather than carry on ploughing the same furrow we feel we can contribute more effectively towards working class emancipation by operating in a way that is suited to the conditions.

In June 2011 these individuals joined with other former members of the Workers Party to launch an on-line Marxist publication entitled Redline.

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