When Clark announced the election date in late July, she trumpeted her government’s “principled decision” not to send combat troops as part of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and affirmed its commitment to maintain a ban on visits by nuclear-capable warships.

Four days earlier, cabinet minister Trevor Mallard made unsubstantiated allegations that the National Party’s campaign was “being run by people who are based in the United States.”

Patrick Brown, the Communist League candidate for the Maungakiekie electorate in Auckland, exposed this demagogy at the August 13 launch of his campaign. “Appealing to anti-Americanism is part of Labour’s pitch for votes from working people. It is a poison that diverts our attention from our actual enemy, the employing class here,” Brown stated.

The Communist League is also standing Annalucia Vermunt, a meat worker, for the seat of Christchurch Central.

“There is no fundamental disagreement on either foreign or domestic policy between Labour and National, the twin parties of capitalist rule in New Zealand,” Brown said.

The Clark government has 120 regular troops and 50 Special Air Service soldiers among the U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan. It is also part of the Proliferation Security Initiative, an imperialist piracy operation on the high seas organized by the Pentagon.

The two ruling parties have waged a war for votes. Labour has pledged to abolish interest payments on student loans for graduates who remain in New Zealand, and to give major tax cuts to families with children. In turn, National has pledged tax cuts across the board. Brash has pushed demagogy targeting immigrants and Maori.

“The Communist League’s campaign stands with workers fighting to organize trade unions and to use union power to defend themselves and other working people,” Brown said at the campaign launch. He hailed the six-week general strike in Tonga from July 22 to September 4 for wage increases.  
 
 
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