Twenty years ago the Alliance Party had a publicly bitter split over New Zealand's involvement in the war in Afghanistan. Party member at the time Chris Ford now asks: was it really worth it?
COMMENT: I remember vividly the early morning hours of September 12, 2001 waking up in my bedroom in Dunedin, turning on the television and seeing the unbelievable pictures streaming out of New York of the Twin Towers burning in horrific unison. At the time, I had been a member of the Alliance Party (and previously NewLabour) for 12 years to that point.
Little did I realise then that the terrorist attacks and the subsequent war in Afghanistan would prove to be the effective demise of the Alliance. To that point, the Alliance in government had largely acquiesced to the then Helen Clark-led Labour Party with whom it was in coalition with. This acquiescence had witnessed some policy gains for the party such as, for example, the introduction of Kiwibank, paid parental leave, and the re-establishment of training apprenticeships.
Yet, the NewLabour Party (NLP) component of the Alliance – the left-wing breakaway from the Labour Party which had been founded by Jim Anderton in 1989 – had come to dominate the party following the departure of the Greens in 1998. Effectively, this meant that the other remaining constituent parties, namely, Mana Motuhake, the Liberals and the Democrats (Social Credit) became more sidelined as time went on.
Consequently, this meant that the main political direction of the Alliance was dictated by the remnants of the NLP (which had been stupidly dissolved and merged fully into the Alliance organisation at the behest of Anderton in 2000) and, hence, the relative stability of the movement almost relied upon this grouping while the other partners clung on for dear political life.
So, when the (fully ex-NLP member dominated) left of the Alliance - the faction to which I belonged - began challenging the view of then deputy prime minister Anderton that we should support Labour’s stance on Afghanistan to effectively go to war alongside the United States, I became vocal too. I did so through an email to then list MP, Liz Gordon, who had come out against Anderton’s position in caucus. I remember writing to her that Afghanistan was "the graveyard of empires" and would swallow up the US-led coalition (who were then planning a military campaign against 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, his Al Qaeda movement and their Taliban hosts) and, along with it, our forces. Also, I remember stating that it would be a prolonged war and likely end in complete failure as had Vietnam.
I remember receiving Liz’s reply in which she supported my arguments and stressed that she and other caucus opponents of the war - who included Laila Harre - would continue their fight with Anderton.
To the best of my recollection, the 2001 Alliance annual conference then followed which witnessed a publicly bitter but much needed fight by delegates against Anderton’s determination that we should support sending our forces to Afghanistan. Despite the fact that I didn’t attend conference, I watched it on television and remember being comforted by witnessing other party comrades being so publicly outspoken despite Anderton’s evident discomfort.
Quintessentially, though, the argument was not just about Afghanistan but the inherent lack of internal party democracy within both the Alliance and its predecessor, the NewLabour Party. Myself and other comrades had left the Labour Party over their lack of respect for party traditions, principles and democracy as evidenced by Rogernomics. Now, members of the Alliance left faction were experiencing moments of déjà vu as yet again we began to witness similar undemocratic practices within the new party we had helped found to supposedly get away from all that.
Just before or after that national conference (I can’t exactly remember the timing - I stand to be corrected here), I attended a meeting of the Alliance Party’s Dunedin branch which featured Matt Robson (then Minister for Disarmament), John Wright (Alliance MP and parliamentary under-secretary), Matt McCarten (Alliance national president), and Mike Treen (who was then working in Robson’s parliamentary office) plus other local party members. I recall that the vast majority of members present (including myself) vented our frustrations and concerns over Afghanistan (and other grievances) there. Personally, I reiterated the same concerns I had expressed to Liz Gordon in my email to her and, from memory, received a vague response from Robson which probably reflected the fact that the party was divided on the issue. I also remember Robson handing me the copy of a speech he had given as Disarmament Minister on the 9/11 attacks and the possibility of war which stated very much the same thing.
However, after all the discussion and debate we had, it was in none other than The Listener that then finance minister, the late Michael Cullen, dropped the inevitable news that the SAS had been deployed to Afghanistan. I recollect that a public announcement was then duly made with the full support of Anderton and his more conservative caucus colleagues.
After that, we were boots and all into a conflict which, in the end, claimed 10 New Zealand soldiers' lives and saw the wounding of others. Most importantly, though, New Zealand, the United States and its allies were responsible (as has been related in this country’s case through Operation Burnham) for the deaths and injuries sustained by hundreds of thousands of ordinary, innocent Afghans during the last 20 years. While I don’t dispute that we did some good there in the form of, for example, helping to build hospitals and schools, we were largely there to serve as a military force fighting America’s Al Qaeda and Taliban enemies.
Yet, despite the best efforts of New Zealand and others, the Taliban (after an initial drubbing) reorganised and reclaimed lost ground. Last week, all the warnings that I and others in the anti-war camp had made all those years ago were tragically proven correct. The prolonged war had sustained the fundamentalist Islamists of the Taliban while draining the American-led Allied forces. This is the case as Taliban forces won renewed support, or at least, grudging admiration from millions of war-weary Afghans. Now, it is the Afghan people who will pay the price twice.
And what of the Alliance? As we know, the party progressively splintered from 2001 onwards, was consequently ousted from Parliament at the 2002 election and gradually faded. Due to that, the Greens took over carrying the banner of the anti-war movement in Parliament, thanks to the assiduous work of ex-NLP left stalwart, Keith Locke.
Nevertheless, the Alliance didn’t survive while the Taliban did - and that’s the real tragedy for me and others on the left. Both outcomes were avoidable had different positions been taken and strategies followed by all concerned at the time.
As Split Enz once sang, history never repeats; in the case of Afghanistan, it did. And the New Zealand left and our politics was the poorer for it in the 2000s.
All views expressed in this article are the author's own.
