New Zealand Socialist Party | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 28 July 1901 |
| Dissolved | 1 July 1913; 112 years ago (1913-07-01) |
| Merged into | Social Democratic Party |
| Ideology | Marxism Socialism |
| Political position | Left-wing |
TheNew Zealand Socialist Party was founded in 1901, promoting the works ofKarl Marx andFriedrich Engels. The group, despite being relatively moderate when compared with many other socialists, met with little tangible success, but it nevertheless had considerable impact on the development ofNew Zealand socialism. It later merged in 1913 with a faction of theUnited Labour Party to form theSocial Democratic Party.
The party was founded by members of the 'Clarionettes', a group of about 190 English Socialist immigrants recruited throughWilliam Ranstead's weekly publication. The original goal was to establish asocialist colony, though the colony was never organised. TheWellington branch of the party was founded on 28 July 1901, and theChristchurch branch in January 1902. The initial members were followers ofRobert Blatchford's works.[1]
Some of the most prominent leaders of the party were English-bornFrederick Cooke[2] andTed Howard. Visitors from England wereTom Mann in 1902 and 1908 andBen Tillett in 1907. Robert Rivers La Monte from America was (briefly) an organiser for the party: he was a member of the "Wobblies": the IWWIndustrial Workers of the World.[3]
By 1903,Robert Hogg was publishing a party journal called theCommonweal in Wellington. The party was not prolifically active and stood no candidates at the1902 election. The party received new vigor with the entry of several radical unionists fromAustralia includingPaddy Webb,Bob Semple,Michael Joseph Savage andHarry Holland.[1]
Others of the Australian cohort, while less radical and active in attempts to enter the political sphere, were still invested in significant social change; Thomas Eagle, who was acarpenter by trade, was an example of those members who stood as representational of the local and regional labouringworkforce, and championed issues for such groups accordingly, such as the open accessibility of education and resources to all people. Amongst early issues raised by Eagle that he brought to New Zealand was his campaign forpublic libraries to be open on Sundays, assumedly so thatblue-collar workers (who then worked 6 days a week before the implementation of the 8-8-8workdaysmodel) would be able to access books and media collections on their single day off.[4]
By 1908 the party was tested by theBlackball miners strike and membership had increased to 3,000 by April of that year. Also that year the Socialist Party held its first national conference inWellington.[1] Many of the early leaders were from the UK and Australia, whereradical ideologies were not uncommon among political parties, but were seen as"out of touch" in New Zealand, where more moderate platforms were the norm. As such the party failed to gain much traction.[5]
A different group, the Socialist Party of New Zealand, was founded in 1930 and became theWorld Socialist Party (New Zealand).
At the outset the Socialist Party had a traditionallyleftist platform. Its members possessedMarxian views ofclass struggle—an ideology not uncommonly held by the sort (and class) of individuals flooding into New Zealand at the time, from around theBritish Empire—and advocated the overthrowing ofcapitalism by way ofpolitical andindustrial action. The intent was that this action was to make way for "the socialisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange."[6]
| Socialist Party (1901) | Independent Political Labour League (1905) | ||||||||||||||||
| (independents) | Labour Party (original) (1910) | ||||||||||||||||
| United Labour Party (1912) | |||||||||||||||||
| Social Democratic Party (1913) | (remnants) | ||||||||||||||||
| Labour Party (1916) | |||||||||||||||||
| Election Results[7] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Election | candidates | seats won | votes | percentage |
| 1905 | 2 | 0 | 194 | 0.04% |
| 1908 | 5 | 0 | 2,521 | 0.58% |
| 1911 | 8 | 0 | 9,091 | 1.90% |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
