International Socialist Organisation (New Zealand)
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| International Socialist Organisation | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Collective leadership |
| Founded | Early 1990s |
| Newspaper | Socialist Review |
| Ideology | Revolutionary socialism Marxism Leninism Trotskyism |
| Political position | Far-left |
| Website | |
| http://www.iso.org.nz/ | |
| Politics of New Zealand Political parties Elections |
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The International Socialist Organisation is a Trotskyist organisation in New Zealand. It is based in Dunedin.
The founders of the ISO in New Zealand, notably Brian Roper and Laurel Hepburn, were active in the International Socialist Organisation in Australia, a section of the International Socialism current. Returning to New Zealand, they formed the Dunedin-based ISO in the early 1990s. The organisation played a leading role in the student protest movement of the early 1990s.
As a result of its own development, the Communist Party of New Zealand was also attracted to the International Socialism current, and developed links with the British Socialist Workers Party, the leading representative of that current. This meant that there were two competing representatives of the same political ideology in New Zealand, which led to the SWP brokering a fusion between the two groups.
The ISO and CPNZ did, in the end, fuse to form the Socialist Workers Organization. However, a majority of the former ISO soon left as a result of what were seen as Stalinist practices on the part of the former CPNZ leadership. The ISO then resumed its separate existence, and expanded from Dunedin to form a branch in Wellington. The Wellington branch closed in the mid 2000s.
The ISO has been active in anti-war campaigns, environmental campaigns, and union work (with the Unite Union). In the 2011 election, the ISO supported the Mana Party.
The ISO has close ties with Socialist Alternative in Australia.
