Communist Party of New Zealand
Communist Party of New Zealand | |
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Far-left | |
Colours | Red |
The Communist Party of New Zealand (CPNZ) was a
Never high on the list of priorities of the Communist International, the CPNZ was considered an appendage of the Communist Party of Australia until 1928, when it began to function as a fully independent party. Party membership remained small, only briefly topping the 1,000 mark, with its members subjected to government repression and isolated by expulsions from the mainstream labour movement concentrated in the New Zealand Labour Party.
During the period of the Sino-Soviet split of the 1960s, the CPNZ sided with the Chinese party headed by Mao Zedong. The party splintered into a multiplicity of tiny political parties after 1966 and no longer exists as an independent group.
History
Background
As the 20th Century dawned, New Zealand was recognised by adherents of International Socialism around the globe as a sort of laboratory test case of
An extensive system of public works were in existence, governed by the principle of "fair work and fair pay."
State finance had been accomplished by a
"The New Zealanders are collectivists, although they adhere to the old party names of liberals and tories," the American examiners enthused, with the New Zealand Liberal Party reckoned as equivalent to the Fabian socialists of Great Britain.[10] Richard Seddon (1845–1906), Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1893 until his death in 1906, oversaw implementation of an array of social welfare programs as leader of the Liberal Government
This idyllic vision – which incidentally paid no attention to the treatment of or conditions endured by the
Establishment
There were isolated reflections of international radical tendencies present in New Zealand from shortly after the turn of the 20th century. The New Zealand Socialist Party (NZSP), founded in 1901, included in its ranks a left wing which eschewed political action, arguing that socialism could only be won by the direct efforts of the organised working class acting through their unions.[13]
Others adhered to the theories of
Particularly worthy of note were a small network of
Visiting the Pacific Coast cities of San Francisco and
Adding to the complexity of the fragmented radical movement was the Wellington Socialist Party, formerly a branch of the NZSP which had split with the national organisation in 1913 over the issue of electoral politics. While the main body of the NZSP had gone on to found the New Zealand Labour Party in 1916, the Wellington Socialist Party believed in direct action and use of the general strike for the intended overthrow of capitalism and had forced a split.[16] Suffering attenuation but surviving the war, this Wellington organisation would constitute the main component of the new Communist Party of New Zealand.[16]
By 1921 sentiment had begun to build for the establishment of a communist political party along those lines advocated by the fledgling Communist International. A preparatory conference was called for Easter weekend, 26–27 March 1921, in Wellington.[15] This preliminary gathering was followed with a formal organisational conference held on Saturday, 9 April, at Wellington Socialist Hall – headquarters of the Wellington Socialist Party – at which time the Communist Party of New Zealand (CPNZ) was formally established.[17]
Of the origins of the Communist Party, historian Kerry Taylor writes:
"The foundation of the CPNZ will always remain shrouded in a degree of mystery. No direct record of the event survives — the minutes have long since been lost and no reports appeared in the media at the time.... The precise nature of the discussion and debate is obscure but the delegates had before them the constitution of the Communist Party of Australia and a draft manifesto and constitution drawn up over the previous few months by members of the Wellington Socialist Party."[17]
E. J. Dyer of the capital city was elected as the first secretary of the new organisation.[15]
Early years
In contrast to demographic findings made of the early
The CPNZ participated in elections for the first time in 1923, with its inaugural candidate drawing an impressive 2,128 votes in a race for election to the Dunedin city council.[15]
Unable to take over the newspaper of the
This situation continued through all of 1925, only ending the year after following a six-month organising tour by Australian activist
Total membership of the party remained tiny in this period, with the CPNZ counting fewer than 100 members.[20] Despite its small size, the party nevertheless managed to exert a degree of influence within the national Miners' and Seamen's Unions.[20]
The party did not operate in a vacuum but was rather the object of official scrutiny from the start with the New Zealand Police and New Zealand Army both engaged in the systematic monitoring of radical activists, including those suspected of "using their influence to establish Bolshevism."[22]
Third Period (1928–1935)
Previously considered an insignificant adjunct of the Communist Party of Australia in the eyes of the
The 6th Congress of the Comintern is remembered for its launch of the ultra-radical analysis and tactics of the so-called Third Period, which posited the rapid decay of capitalism and the acceleration of the class struggle and coming of potential revolutionary situations. While in many countries this meant directives to immediately shatter joint work with social democratic political and trade union leaders, the Comintern's "Resolution on the Tasks of the Communist Party of New Zealand," brought back to Wellington by Griffin, maintained that New Zealand was still marked by "the steady upward swing of capitalist development, combined with relatively good conditions for the workers," thereby serving to "prevent the possibility of a general revolutionary situation in New Zealand."[24] Instead of consolidating itself for an envisioned revolutionary uprising, the CPNZ was directed to concentrate its attention on continued agitation and propaganda.[24]
Dick Griffin became the first full-time organiser of the CPNZ in May 1929.[25] In August of that same year he assumed the role of General Secretary of the organisation.[25]
It was only in March 1930 that the CPNZ received a communication from ECCI directing it to take on ultra-radical policies in accord the Third Period analysis.[26] The party's previous policies were deemed incorrect and the CPNZ was instructed to attempt to assume leadership of the New Zealand workers movement by working to "expose and destroy all the Labourite, pacifist, social democratic illusions about the possibility of solving social problems...under the existing political and economic regime."[27] This marked the actual beginning of sectarian Third Period tactics in New Zealand.
The CPNZ was beset by rapid membership turnover throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s, with general secretary Griffin accused of operating a personal dictatorship, spurring rank-and-file discontent.[28] The CPNZ was also subjected to unrelenting police operations by the national government, including a July 1929 raid which seized the internal records and literature of the Wellington branch and the subsequent successful prosecution of five members of the governing Central Executive Committee for possession and sale of allegedly seditious literature.[28] Party leaders were particularly targeted, with three more members of the Central Executive Committee arrested in 1930, four more in 1931 and 1932, and all seven members in 1933.[29]
The party was further disorganised by the churn of its rank-and-file members in and out of the party, exemplified by the count of Wellington members booming from 51 in March to 80 by May 1931 before plummeting to just 25 in January 1932.
The CPNZ also lost its influence in the country's trade unions during the late 1920s and early 1930s owing to its rigid support for unpopular
"Freemanisation"
By the middle of 1933, the Communist Party of New Zealand was in crisis, with its entire Central Committee jailed for publication of the pamphlet Karl Marx and the Struggle of the Masses.
The operations of the CPNZ came to resemble those of larger and more efficient communist parties in other countries, with official directives and circulars issued systematically for the first time by the Central Committee to local party committees.[31] Representatives of the Central Committee also began to travel regularly to visit local party organisations.[31] Dues collecting and record-keeping of branches was made more regular and increased attention was paid to the problem of internal security in an effort to stave the crippling series of arrests that had swept the party.[32]
Comintern policy began to change in 1933 following the victory of the
The CPNZ responded to the tacit rejection of their appeal by accelerating their efforts to drive a wedge between the rank and file and leadership of each of these organisations, a tactic euphemistically called the "United Front from Below."[35] The distrust and alienation between the Communist Party and the Labour Party leadership carried over through the November 1935 general election, during which the CPNZ made use of the slogan "Neither Reaction nor Labour" in the campaign.[20] The 1935 election ultimately resulted in a massive victory for the Labour Party, bringing it to power for the first time, and a grave failure for the CPNZ in its electoral efforts, with all four of the party's candidates faring so poorly at the polls that they failed to recover their electoral deposits.[36]
Popular Front period and World War II
The Communist Party of New Zealand had shown growth over the years of the Third Period, with the party's delegate to the 7th World Congress of the Comintern in Moscow, Leo Sim (pseudonym: Andrews), reporting there that party membership had increased by 600% from 1928 to 1935.[20] The reality was modest, with the party failing to achieve a membership of 400 — results which only were promising when compared to the nadir of the late 1920s.[37]
Dissatisfaction with Freeman's commanding leadership style grew in 1935 and 1936 and he landed on the wrong side of the Popular Front-driven Comintern decision that the CPNZ should seek formal affiliation with the Labour Party sooner rather than later.[38] Freeman came to be politically isolated, with the Auckland district of the party, backed by Lance Sharkey of the Communist Party of Australia, leading the charge for his removal as an alleged impediment to the new international line.[39] Freeman was removed from the party leadership late in 1936, suspended from the party soon thereafter for failing to accept this decision, and ultimately expelled late in 1937.[40]
In 1938 CPNZ headquarters were moved from the capital city of Wellington to the booming northern port city of Auckland and a new weekly was launched there in July 1939, People's Voice.[20] This headquarter city and official organ would remain constant for the rest of the party's institutional life.
In the summer of 1939 the CPNZ came into conflict with the government in the aftermath of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, to which the party responded with anti-war rhetoric while the governments of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union carved up spheres of influence in Europe. Tensions worsened in 1940, when Great Britain came under attack – a country to which New Zealanders felt a particular national affinity. Although membership in the CPNZ remained legal, People's Voice was suppressed by the government.[41]
The tide turned in June 1941 following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. At that time, in accord with Soviet foreign policy, the CPNZ became vocal supporters of the war effort, which combined with the country's new status of military allies with the Soviet Union paved the way for the New Zealand party's growth in membership and influence.[42] By 1945 party membership reached its all-time high of approximately 2,000, while circulation of People's Voice topped 14,000 copies per week.[42] This level of membership and support would continue through 1946, when new international circumstances would arise leading to the CPNZ's inexorable attrition.[42]
A Communist Party candidate stood in the
Post-war era
The Communist Party stood candidates in general elections from the
The Communist Party experienced the loss of several prominent members including Sid Scott following Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin at the 20th Congress of the CPSU in February 1956 and the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Revolution in November 1956.[44] As a result of these events, most of the intellectuals the CPNZ had attracted left the party while some erstwhile supporters founded new journals such as New Zealand Monthly Review, Comment, Socialist Forum and Here & Now.[citation needed]
Sino-Soviet split and factionalism
Next, in the early 1960s, the party experienced more internal strife due to the
Later, when Mao died, the Communist Party of New Zealand began to follow the lead of Enver Hoxha's Albania, which they considered to be the last truly Communist country in the world. Members of the CPNZ national leadership who continued to uphold the line of the post-Mao Chinese Communist Party including Wilcox were expelled, and formed the Preparatory Committee for the Formation of the Communist Party of New Zealand (Marxist–Leninist).[46]
Meanwhile, other former members of the CPNZ in Wellington, where the party branch had been expelled en masse in 1970, founded the Wellington Marxist Leninist Organisation, which in 1980 merged with the Northern Communist Organisation to form the
While the CPNZ never had mass influence or real political power, it pursued a Leninist vanguard party approach that involved trying to influence and penetrate the Labour Party, the New Zealand trade union movement, various single-issue protest groups and public opinion on foreign policy, industrial activity, opposition to New Zealand's involvement in the Vietnam War, Māori rights, the anti-Apartheid movement, feminism, and nuclear disarmament, and anti-colonial activism in the Pacific region; issues in which communists and non-communist left-wing elements found common cause.[47]
Decline and legacy
After the collapse of communist rule in Albania, the Communist Party of New Zealand gradually changed its views, renouncing its former support of Stalinism, Maoism, and Hoxhaism. Instead, under the leadership of its last general secretary,
The Communist Party of New Zealand eventually merged with the neo-Trotskyist
Membership
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Year Membership Notes 1926 120 Per Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 284. 1927 105 Per Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 284. 1928 79 Per Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 284. 1929 Decline due to loss of West Coast miners. 1930 62 "All-time low." Per Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 284. 1931 81 Actually a Jan. 1932 count. Per Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 284. 1932 129 Year end figure. Per Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 284. 1933 1934 246 Per Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 284. 1935 280 June count. Per Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 284. 1936 353 Actually a Dec. 1935 count. Per Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 284.
Electoral results (1935 and 1946–1969)
The party contested a number of elections with the following results:[43]
Election | candidates | seats won | votes | percentage |
---|---|---|---|---|
1935 | 4 | 0 | 600 | 0.07 |
1946 | 3 | 0 | 1,181 | 0.11 |
1949 | 16 | 0 | 3,499 | 0.33 |
1951 | 4 | 0 | 528 | 0.05 |
1954 | 8 | 0 | 1,134 | 0.05 |
1957 | 5 | 0 | 706 | 0.06 |
1960 | 19 | 0 | 2,423 | 0.21 |
1963 | 23 | 0 | 3,167 | 0.26 |
1966 | 9 | 0 | 1,207 | 0.10 |
1969 | 4 | 0 | 418 | 0.03 |
Notable members
- Alexander Galbraith, founding member
- Bill Bland
- Jim Edwards
- Fred Hollows, member in the 1950s and 1960s
- Elsie Locke
- Hedwig Ross, founding member
- Rita Smith
- Hone Tuwhare
- Ron Smith, peace activist
- Fintan Patrick Walsh, founding member and trade unionist
- Vic Wilcox
- Rona Bailey[50]
- Sidney Wilfred Scott, party editor
- Gordon Harold Anderson, trade unionist
- Clement Gordon Watson, party editor and soldier
Footnotes
- ^ a b New Zealand in a Nutshell. Wayland's Monthly No. 14. Girard, KS: J.A. Wayland, June 1901; pp. 5–6.
- ^ New Zealand in a Nutshell, pp. 7, 21.
- ^ New Zealand in a Nutshell, p. 7.
- ^ a b New Zealand in a Nutshell, pg. 8.
- ^ New Zealand in a Nutshell, p. 9.
- ^ New Zealand in a Nutshell, pp. 10–11.
- ^ New Zealand in a Nutshell, p. 11.
- ^ New Zealand in a Nutshell, pp. 12–13.
- ^ New Zealand in a Nutshell, pp. 15–17, 34.
- ^ a b New Zealand in a Nutshell, p. 19.
- ^ a b "First World War – Overview," History Group of the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage, p. 1.
- ^ a b "First World War – Overview," p. 5.
- ^ Kerry Taylor, "'Our Motto, No Compromise': The Ideological Origins and Foundation of the Communist Party of New Zealand," New Zealand Journal of History, vol. 28, no. 2 (October 1994), p. 162.
- ^ a b Taylor, "'Our Motto, No Compromise,'" pp. 162–163.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Bert Roth, "New Zealand," in Witold S. Sworakowski (ed.), World Communism: A Handbook, 1918–1965. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1973; p. 337.
- ^ a b Taylor, "'Our Motto, No Compromise,'" p. 168.
- ^ a b Taylor, "'Our Motto, No Compromise,'" pp. 170–171.
- ^ Kerry Taylor, "Kiwi Comrades: The Social Basis of New Zealand Communism, 1921–1948." in Kevin Morgan et al. (eds.), Agents of Revolution: New Biographical Approaches to the History of Communism. Bern: Peter Lang, 2005; p. 281.
- ^ Roth, "New Zealand," pp. 337–338.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Roth, "New Zealand," p. 338.
- ^ a b Bennett 2004, p. 84.
- ^ Taylor, "'Our Motto, No Compromise,'" p. 172.
- ^ a b c d Kerry Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period, 1928–35," in Matthew Worley (ed.), In Search of Revolution: International Communist Parties in the Third Period. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004; p. 270.
- ^ a b "Resolution on the Tasks of the Communist Party of New Zealand," RGASPI fond 495, opis 20, delo 430; quoted in Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 274.
- ^ a b Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 277.
- ^ Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 274.
- ^ Letter from the Political Secretariat of ECCI to CPNZ, 4 March 1930, RGASPI f. 495, op. 20 d. 430; quoted in Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 274.
- ^ a b c d e Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 278.
- ^ a b Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 279.
- ^ Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 282.
- ^ a b c d e f Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," pg. 288.
- ^ Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," pp. 288–289.
- ^ Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 289.
- ^ Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," pp. 289–290.
- ^ Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 290.
- ^ Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 292.
- ^ Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 284.
- ^ Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," pg. 293.
- ^ Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," pp. 293–294.
- ^ Taylor, "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period," p. 294.
- ^ Roth, "New Zealand," pp. 338–339.
- ^ a b c Roth, "New Zealand," p. 339.
- ^ ISBN 0-475-11200-8.
- ^ a b c Gustafson 2004, p. 29.
- ^ Lim 2016, pp. 49–53.
- ^ Alexander 2001, p. 198.
- ^ Gustafson 2004, pp. 29–30.
- ^ Rapson, Bevan (2 November 1994). "Communists purge name". The New Zealand Herald. p. 2.
- ^ "Open Letter to Socialist Aotearoa (May 2008)". FightBack. 5 May 2008. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
- ^ Taonga, New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu. "Bailey, Rona". teara.govt.nz. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0-275-96148-0.
- Bennett, James (2004). Rats and Revolutionaries:The Labour Movement in Australia and New Zealand 1890-1940. Dunedin, NZ: University of Otago Press. ISBN 1-877276-49-9.
- Brookes, R.H. (September 1965). "The CPNZ and the Sino-Soviet Split". Political Science. 17 (2): 3–25. .
- Gustafson, Barry (2004). "Chapter 2: New Zealand in the Cold War World". In Trapeznik, Alexander; Fox, Aaron (eds.). Lenin's Legacy Down Under: New Zealand's Cold War. University of Otago Press. pp. 17–33. ISBN 1-877276-90-1.
- Hynes, Julie M. (1979). The Communist Party in Otago, 1940-1947 (Thesis). University of Otago.
- "Sketch of Organisation Developments in New Zealand (1966-2013)" (PDF). Marxists International Archive. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
- Lim, Andrew (June 2016). "A Tale of Two Narratives: The New Zealand Print Media and the Indonesian-Malaysian Confrontation, 1963–1966" (PDF). New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies. 18 (1): 35–55. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 November 2019. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
- Moloney, Pat; Taylor, Kerry, eds. (2002). On the Left: Essays on Socialism in New Zealand. ISBN 1877276197. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
- Nunes, Ray, ed. (1994). The Making of a New Zealand Revolutionary: Reminiscences of Alex Galbraith. Auckland: Workers' Party of New Zealand.
- Powell, Joseph Robert (1949). The History of a Working Class Party, 1918–40 (MA Thesis). Victoria University College.
- Powell, Ian (2004). The Communist Left and the Labour Movement in Christchurch up until the 1935 General Election (MA Thesis). University of Canterbury.
- Roth, Bert (September 1965). "The Communist Vote in New Zealand". Political Science. 17 (2): 26–35. .
- Smith, Ron (1994). Working Class Son: My Fight Against Capitalism and War: Memoirs of Ron Smith, a New Zealand Communist. ISBN 9780473029098.
- Smith, S.W. (1960). Rebel in a Wrong Cause. Auckland: Collins.
- Taylor, Kerry (2005). ""Kiwi Comrades: The Social Basis of New Zealand Communism, 1921–194". In Morgan, Kevin (ed.). Agents of Revolution: New Biographical Approaches to the History of Communism. Peter Lang. ISBN 0-8204-6891-6.
- Taylor, Kerry (2004). "The Communist Party of New Zealand and the Third Period". In Worley, Matthew (ed.). In Search of Revolution: International Communist Parties and the Third Period. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 1-85043-407-7. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
- Taylor, Kerry (Fall 1993). "'Jack' McDonald: A Canadian Revolutionary in New Zealand". Labour/Le Travail. 32 (32): 261–268. JSTOR 25143734. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
- Taylor, Kerry (October 1994). "'Our Motto, No Compromise': The Ideological Origins and Foundation of the Communist Party of New Zealand" (PDF). New Zealand Journal of History. 28 (2): 160–177. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
- Wilson, A.C. (2004). New Zealand and the Soviet Union: A Brittle Relationship. ISBN 9780864734761. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
Archival holdings
- "Inventory of the Records of the Communist Party of New Zealand, 1924–1972." Manuscripts and Archives Collection A-9, University of Auckland Library, Auckland. —Finding aid.
- "Communist Party of New Zealand, Otago Branch: description," Collection #MS-0675. Hocken Collections, University of Otago, Dunedin.