A member of the executive of an international coalition of national liberation and radical organisations; a former soldier and factory worker turned teacher; a longtime union activist and executive member of the National Distribution Union; and a former Sinn Fein organiser are the candidates of the newly-formed Anti-Capitalist Alliance (ACA).

The ACA - no relation to any of the fragments of the old Alliance party - is standing in four seats to take the message "Bugger capitalism - back socialism" to working class and progressive voters. Hoardings with the new group's election slogan have been appearing in the three North Island seats it is contesting.

In Mt Albert, challenging Helen Clark, the ACA candidate is Daphna Whitmore. She is a member of the Workers Party of NZ and edits its journal, 'The Spark' as well as working as a nurse at a trade union medical centre in South Auckland. Whitmore is on the coordinating committee of the International League of People’s Struggles, a democratic movement of 220 organisations around the world. In Auckland she is very involved in organising the annual demonstrations on International Women’s Day and International Workers’ Day, along with a range of educational and protest activity through the city's Anti-Imperialist Coalition.

Mark Muller, another Workers Party member, is the ACA candidate in Manukau East. He has worked in industry for many years and, as a committed unionist, has been involved in many industrial disputes. Muller is presently a metal storeworker and a member of the executive of the National Distribution Union, as well as being active in campaigning in support of the Palestinians and other liberation and workers' struggles.

In Mana electorate the ACA candidate is Paul Hopkinson of the Revolution group. Hopkinson has been a solider and spent years also as a factory worker before retraining as a teacher. He is currently a first-year teacher at Porirua College. He has been active in workers' struggles and anti-war protests. While at teachers College in Christchurch he helped found the MidEast Information and Solidarity Collective in the city.

In Christchurch East Philip Ferguson is standing against Lianne Dalziel. Ferguson was a factory worker for many years and also very active in Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish national liberation movement, from 1986-94, including spending several years as a full-time SF organiser. He returned to NZ in 1994, was a founder of 'revolution' magazine in 1997 and of the MidEast Collective in 2001. Ferguson is currently finishing off a PhD on the 'White New Zealand' policy and runs courses in Marxism, Irish republican history, and women and revolution.

The ACA, which was formed by the Workers Party and the Revolution group, along with a layer of non-aligned leftists, is running on a six-point basic platform which emphasises opposition to Western intervention in the Third World, calls for jobs for all with a shorter work week and major income increase for NZ workers. It stresses the need for equality for all and is topped off with the call for a working people's republic. The ACA argues that workers will only get what they fight for and emphasises the need to fight for the abolition of capitalism.

Further information: email, Daphna Whitmore: wpnz@clear.net.nz or phone ph 025 262 9927.

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