The fire last time: the rise of class struggle and progressive social movements in Aotearoa/New Zealand, 1968 to 1977

Abstract:
A dramatic upsurge in working class struggle, surpassing in magnitude the rise of the Red Feds from 1908 to 1913 and the 1951 Waterfront Front Lockout, took place in New Zealand from the Arbitration Court's nil general wage order in June 1968 to the union movement's defeat of the Muldoon Government's attempted wage freeze in 1976. This article describes and analyses these struggles and their impact on progressive social movements, particularly the anti-war, women's liberation and Maori protest movements.

The article was published in the Australian journal - Marxist Interventions (Issue No.3), 2011, pp.7-30.

It can be accessed at: http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/mi/3/3.htm 

Key words: Class struggle in New Zealand; New Left; 1968; women's liberation movement; Maori protest movement; anti-war movement; Muldoon; Marxism; 1970s; New Zealand, 1968-1979.