Sunday, October 14, 2012

Waihi Strike Centennial: remembering the radical left


This November the Labour History Project and friends will be marking the centennial of the 1912 Waihi Strike. A number of speakers will be covering the radical left's involvement—such as the Socialist Party and the IWW—which held a minority but strong position, something that many previous accounts overlook or neglect. For example, The Red and the Gold by Stanley Roche doesn't mention the IWW at all... taking her account from Harry Holland saw that figures like JB King were downplayed or written off as extremists. Such an approach was all too common when I was researching Sewing Freedom, despite the very vocal segment of the labour movement who were to the left of the Red Feds.

More information on the event, and a full program, can be found here.