Alliance pushing unashamedly socialist stance

Alliance co-leaders Jill Ovens and Paul Piesse

Alliance co-leader Jill Ovens is pleased with the party's campaign slogan for 2005: Take back the power.

It has a socialist ring, which the party now unashamedly proclaims to be, and it doubles as a slogan for one of its key policies, returning power generating and supply companies to full public ownership.

Such talk when founding leader Jim Anderton was Deputy Prime Minister met a stern reprimand for the damage it might do to the party's image as a responsible partner of Government.

But then Mr Anderton left, his successor Laila Harre stepped down for a high-profile union role and her successor, Matt McCarten, quit last year after failing to convince the rump of diehards it was time to wind up.

Ms Ovens said the party was standing this time to remind people it still existed.

It chose its seats carefully, standing only in what it regards as "working class" seats in the four main centres. In Auckland they are Te Atatu, Waitakere, Manukau East and Manurewa.

"We're not bothering with the middle-class seats, although in the past we have had quite good votes from there. We think that in the past the Alliance has had mixed messages in trying to appeal to a broad church and that's not our intention."

Ms Ovens is standing in Manukau East. She has stood twice before, both times against Prime Minister Helen Clark in Mt Albert.

She is an organiser with the Service and Food Workers Union. Her boss, national secretary Darien Fenton, is standing for Labour.

Ms Ovens' co-leader, Paul Piesse, is also a union organiser, based in Christchurch with the Local Government Officers Union. Of the party's 30 list candidates, about half are union activists or officials.

Ms Ovens said that after the party lost all its parliamentary representation in 2002 it was "a shock to the system" to go without the parliamentary resources it had had since Mr Anderton left Labour in the 1980s.

But that meant volunteer members were taking greater responsibility for the party.

The Electoral Commission allocated the party $20,000 to spend on broadcasting this election.

It is using archival footage to show the "devastation" of the 1980s and 90s, including a shot of former Reserve Bank Governor and National leader Don Brash shaking hands with former Finance Minister Ruth Richardson, "to offer hope that things can change around and people can use their vote to take power".

ALLIANCE

Leaders: Jill Ovens and Paul Piesse
Number of party list candidates: 30
Number of electorate candidates: 16
Membership: 545
High: Leftist partner to Labour in coalition Government 1999 to 2002 with four Cabinet posts.
Low: Bitter split in 2002 between leader Jim Anderton, who formed the Progressives, and president Matt McCarten, who has since left.
First contested election: 1992 Tamaki byelection and local body elections.
Beginnings: Formed in 1991 in the midst of economic reforms as umbrella of parties, including Jim Anderton's NewLabour, the Greens, the Democrats and Mana Motuhake.

Key policies
Strengthen workers' rights to organise.
Return electricity generating and supply companies to public ownership.
Universal access to free public health and medicines.
Universal access to free education from early childhood to tertiary.
Step up building programme for new state housing.