History

The party was founded in 1969 by students from Victoria University of Wellington

Victoria University of Wellington

Victoria University of Wellington was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a former constituent college of the University of New Zealand. It is particularly well known for its programmes in law, the humanities, and some scientific disciplines, but offers a broad range of other courses...

, and was originally named the Socialist Action League. The new party rejected the more established groups such as the Communist Party

Communist Party of New Zealand

The Communist Party of New Zealand was a Communist political party in New Zealand from the 1920s to the early 1990s. It never achieved significant political success, and no longer exists as an independent group, although the Socialist Worker organisation is considered organisationally continuous...

 as too authoritarian, conservative, and unimaginative, but at the same time, rejected many of the newer communist groups in New Zealand as disorganised and unfocused. It was aligned with the United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USFI), an international grouping of Trotskyist

Trotskyism

Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...

 parties. The party achieved a certain amount of public recognition for its role in protests against the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, and regularly engaged in protests against adventurist United States foreign policy, in defence of the pro-choice

Pro-choice

Support for the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-choice movement, a sociopolitical movement supporting the ethical view that a woman should have the legal right to elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy....

 side of the abortion debate, as well as supporting LGBT rights in New Zealand, during the 1970s and 1980s. During those decades, the SAL maintained a newspaper of its own, Socialist Action. According to the National Library of New Zealand

National Library of New Zealand

The National Library of New Zealand is New Zealand's legal deposit library charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations"...

 serials catalogue, it ran from 1969 to 1988.

In the 1980s, the Socialist Workers Party in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 broke away from Trotskyism, and left the USFI. A number of other parties in USFI also chose to leave, including the Socialist Action League in New Zealand. Those members of the Socialist Action League who did not agree with this departure from Trotskyism and the USFI were expelled or resigned. Later, the Socialist Action League renamed itself the Communist League, following the pattern of the other parties that had left the USFI. Today, the party is still associated with the Socialist Workers Party's so-called Pathfinder tendency

Pathfinder tendency

The Pathfinder tendency is the unofficial name of a group of historically Trotskyist organizations that are politically and organizationally allied with the Socialist Workers Party of the United States and its perspective of solidarity with the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban Communist Party.The...

. In the 2002 elections

New Zealand general election, 2002

The 2002 New Zealand general election was held on 27 July 2002 to determine the composition of the 47th New Zealand Parliament. It saw the reelection of Helen Clark's Labour Party government, as well as the worst-ever performance by the opposition National Party.Arguably the most controversial...

, it stood two candidates, and gained their best result in 12 years with 171 votes. In the 2005 elections

New Zealand general election, 2005

The 2005 New Zealand general election held on 17 September 2005 determined the composition of the 48th New Zealand Parliament. No party won a majority in the unicameral House of Representatives, but the Labour Party of Prime Minister Helen Clark secured two more seats than nearest rival, the...

 it also ran two candidates, but received only 107 votes.

The party stood two candidates in the 2008 election

New Zealand general election, 2008

The 2008 New Zealand general election was held on 8 November 2008 to determine the composition of the 49th New Zealand parliament. The conservative National Party, headed by its Parliamentary leader John Key, won a plurality of votes and seats, ending 9 years of government dominated by the social...

, who gained 58 and 16 votes. The party also stood two candidates in the 2010 Auckland City Council elections

Auckland local elections, 2010

The Auckland local elections, 2010 took place from 17 September until 9 October and were conducted by postal vote. The elections were the first since the merger of the seven councils and elected the new Auckland Council, composed of the mayor, 20 members of the Governing Body, and 149 members of 21...

.

Electoral results (1990-2005)

Election	candidates	seats won	votes	% of vote
1990 New Zealand general election, 1990 The 1990 New Zealand general election was held on 27 October to determine the composition of the 43rd New Zealand parliament. The governing Labour Party was defeated, ending its controversial two terms in office...	9	0	210	0.01
1993 New Zealand general election, 1993 The 1993 New Zealand general election was held on 6 November 1993 to determine the composition of the 44th New Zealand Parliament. It saw the governing National Party, led by Jim Bolger, win a second term in office, despite a major swing back towards the Labour Party. The new Alliance and New...	2	0	84	0.00
1996 New Zealand general election, 1996 The 1996 New Zealand general election was held on 12 October 1996 to determine the composition of the 45th New Zealand Parliament. It was notable for being the first election to be held under the new Mixed Member Proportional electoral system, and produced a parliament considerably more diverse...	2	0	99	0.00
1999 New Zealand general election, 1999 The 1999 New Zealand general election was held on 27 November 1999 to determine the composition of the 46th New Zealand Parliament. The governing National Party, led by Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, was defeated, being replaced by a coalition of Helen Clark's Labour Party and the smaller Alliance...	2	0	89	0.00
2002 New Zealand general election, 2002 The 2002 New Zealand general election was held on 27 July 2002 to determine the composition of the 47th New Zealand Parliament. It saw the reelection of Helen Clark's Labour Party government, as well as the worst-ever performance by the opposition National Party.Arguably the most controversial...	2	0	171	0.01
2005 New Zealand general election, 2005 The 2005 New Zealand general election held on 17 September 2005 determined the composition of the 48th New Zealand Parliament. No party won a majority in the unicameral House of Representatives, but the Labour Party of Prime Minister Helen Clark secured two more seats than nearest rival, the...	2	0	107	0.00
2008 New Zealand general election, 2008 The 2008 New Zealand general election was held on 8 November 2008 to determine the composition of the 49th New Zealand parliament. The conservative National Party, headed by its Parliamentary leader John Key, won a plurality of votes and seats, ending 9 years of government dominated by the social...	2	0	74	0.00

See also

• Socialism in New Zealand
  Socialism in New Zealand
  The degree to which Socialism in New Zealand has been of significance in mainstream politics is debated, as varying definitions of socialism and communism make the extent of its influence difficult to measure. New Zealand has a complicated assortment of socialist causes and organizations...
  
  
• Political parties in New Zealand
  Political parties in New Zealand
  New Zealand national politics feature a pervasive party system. Usually, all members of Parliament's unicameral House of Representatives belong to a political party. Independent MPs occur relatively rarely...