Harry Holland’s wartime political default
In late April 1915 the first major military engagement involving New Zealand troops took place on the shores of Turkey: a bid to open the Dardanelles Strait to allied shipping […]
Category Archives: working class history
Brass-band jingoism at the opening of the Great War
The Great War did not arrive unannounced; far from it. Since at least 1907 the socialist movement had been urgently warning of the dangers of a war between the great […]
“Farmers’ sons with whom we have no quarrel” – workers reflect on the 1913 defeat
Last of three articles on workers and farmers in 1913 in New Zealand The day after the call for a general strike went out, five leaders of the fighting unions […]
When the countryside marched on the town: Massey’s Cossacks in 1913
[Second of three articles on workers and farmers in 1913] Both the Red Fed leadership and the IWW in Auckland proved unable to recognise the significance of the coming to […]
The other exploited producers – origins of the class of working farmers in New Zealand
(First of three articles on workers and farmers in 1913 New Zealand. Long-time readers of this blog may notice that this article overlaps substantially with a post from 2015 entitled […]
“Trotsky” : the pornographication of history
In one of the opening scenes of Trotsky, the 2017 television mini-series produced by Russian state television and directed by Alexander Kott and Konstantin Statsky,1 Trotsky is travelling on his […]
Industrial unity and a party of labour – the Red Feds’ 1913 ‘turn to political action’
At first glance, the discussion at the Unity conference in January 1913 seems to be about an uninteresting question of organisational forms. The leaders of the United Labor Party (ULP) […]
A book that changed the course of the class struggle
After a six-month strike, the struggle at Waihi came to a head in early November 1912, shortly after the arrival in Waihi of the Commissioner of Police John Cullen, a […]
The euphoria and tragedy of the German revolution
Second of two articles on Two revolutions that ended the Great War. For Part 1, The Russian Revolution and the demoralisation of the German Army, click here. When finally the […]
Two revolutions that ended the Great War
Part I: The Russian revolution and the demoralisation of the German army It is now becoming apparent even to those who stood remote from socialist theories and forecasts that this […]
