Paul Egerton Piesse is a former co-leader of the

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

, a New Zealand

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

, and

union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

activist.

Biography

Piesse has been heavily involved in the union movement, and has held a number of senior organisational roles. He was originally a supporter of the Labour Party, and in stood for Labour in the

Rangiora Rangiora is the largest town and seat of the Waimakariri District, in Canterbury, New Zealand. It is north of Christchurch, and is part of the Christchurch metropolitan area. With an estimated population of Rangiora is the 30th largest urba ...

electorate, coming second. In the lead up to the Piesse controversially challenged

Mary Batchelor Mary Dorothy Batchelor (née Foley, 7 January 1927 – 12 March 2009) was a New Zealand trade unionist, feminist and Labour Party politician. Biography Early life and career Batchelor was born in Christchurch in 1927, the elder of two daughter ...

for the Labour nomination in the Avon electorate. The contest went to a second vote before Batchelor eventually emerged victorious. He joined NewLabour in protest at the economic policies Labour pursued ("

Rogernomics In February 1985, journalists at the ''New Zealand Listener'' coined the term Rogernomics, a portmanteau of "Roger" and "economics" (by analogy with "Reaganomics"), to describe the neoliberal economic policies followed by Roger Douglas. Douglas ...

") in the late 1980s. NewLabour eventually helped form the Alliance, and Piesse became involved in the new party. In the 1999 election, he stood as the Alliance candidate in the electorate, winning 6.7% of the vote. He was ranked 58th on the Alliance list. Following the splintering of the Alliance, Piesse sided with the Harré- McCarten faction. In the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

election, he stood again as an Alliance candidate, gaining 0.5% of the vote in . He was not on the party list. After Harré and McCarten also left the Alliance, Piesse was elected co-leader, alongside

Jill Ovens Jill Ovens is a New Zealand trade unionist and former political candidate. She was co-leader of the Alliance party before changing her allegiance to the Labour Party. She is currently the Women's Rights Party National Secretary, a New Zealand ...

. In the

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

election he also stood for the Alliance. Piesse was elected President of the Alliance Party at the 2007 national conference held in Dunedin. In the 2008 election he contested the Christchurch East electorate and was number 4 on the Alliance Party list. He fared poorly, coming eighth with only 119 votes. The Alliance also did poorly, winning only 0.08% of the party vote nationwide. In the

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

election he also stood for the Alliance. The Alliance deregistered at its own request in May 2015, though appears to still be active. Piesse's role in the party is unclear, and the most recent statements of his role as president are 2011. As of 2015, Piesse has been a sitting member of the Executive Committee of ''Converge'', a left-wing online community network as well as being an active participant in ''Hobgoblin'', a similar enterprise.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piesse, Paul Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Alliance (New Zealand political party) politicians Leaders of political parties in New Zealand NewLabour Party (New Zealand) politicians New Zealand Labour Party politicians Unsuccessful candidates in the 1969 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 1999 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2002 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2005 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2008 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2011 New Zealand general election 21st-century New Zealand politicians