Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.
Moderation rules are more lenient for this section, but try and play nicely.
EDITORS NOTE: – By the way, here’s a list of shit that will get your comment dumped. Sexist language, homophobic language, racist language, anti-muslim hate, transphobic language, Chemtrails, 9/11 truthers, climate deniers, anti-fluoride fanatics, anti-vaxxer lunatics and ANYONE that links to fucking infowar.
Workers’ Day in NZ Inc a non event, I note.
Yes 1 May if we are not careful we will be fully back to the old depression days and the bosses saying ‘Step up the first in line, if you are able to put in a full 10 hour day you may get a job if you don’t belong to a union. We’ll have none of that rubbish.’
By not being thorough and rational in setting up the Arbitration system and ensuring that wages were adjusted for inflation, or at least had automatic change with a cap, the roots of dissent were sewn and the system came into disrepute.
The birth of the Red Feds
By 1905 many workers had become disillusioned with compulsory arbitration. The Arbitration Court refused to adjust wages to match inflation. Ideas of socialism and revolutionary industrial unionism were finding a ready audience. Flax workers, seamen, watersiders and miners were particularly receptive. Revolutionary industrial unionism encouraged workers to unite in large unions based around industry rather than occupation, with the ultimate goal of establishing socialism. The unions covering the skilled trades tended to view these new ideas with suspicion and stayed in the arbitration system. https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/1913-great-strike/background
NZs had more national spirit in those days:
18 June 1932
Long-distance walker Esther James reaches Bluff
The Aucklander, a well-connected former model, had left Spirits Bay in the Far North on 3 December to walk the length of the country to promote New Zealand-made goods during the Depression. She had government patronage and support from the Manufacturers’ Federation. https://nzhistory.govt.nz/keyword/depression
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/unemployed-disturbances-in-dunedin 9 April 1932
Unemployed disturbances in Dunedin
During the ‘angry autumn’ of 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, unemployed workers in Dunedin reacted angrily when the Hospital Board refused to assist them.
Dozens of monetary reform movements, dubbed ‘funny money’ by their opponents, warned that a secretive cabal of international financiers was holding the world to economic ransom. The single tax movement was also revived in the form of the Commonwealth Land Party.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/the-new-zealand-legion/desire-to-do-something
The workers: https://natlib.govt.nz/items?i%5Bis_catalog_record%5D=false&i%5Bsubject%5D=Depressions&page=1
1 Akatarawa region – under tents.
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22341181?search%5Bi%5D%5Bis_catalog_record%5D=false&search%5Bi%5D%5Bsubject%5D=Depressions&search%5Bpath%5D=items
2 https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22847169?search%5Bi%5D%5Bis_catalog_record%5D=false&search%5Bi%5D%5Bsubject%5D=Depressions&search%5Bpage%5D=2&search%5Bpath%5D=items
3 Unemployed march in Wakefield St Wellington to Parliament 1932
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23196464?search%5Bi%5D%5Bis_catalog_record%5D=false&search%5Bi%5D%5Bsubject%5D=Depressions&search%5Bpath%5D=items
4 Unemployed demonstrators at Parliament Buildings Wellington
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22435641?search%5Bi%5D%5Bis_catalog_record%5D=false&search%5Bi
%5D%5Bsubject%5D=Depressions&search%5Bpath%5D=itemshttps://natlib.govt.nz/records
5 Relief workers on Umemployment Board’s No.5 Scheme
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22456229?search%5Bi%5D%5Bis_catalog_record%5D=false&search%5Bi%5D%5Bsubject%5D=Depressions&search%5Bpath%5D=items
6 Relief workers shovelling coal into sacks
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22395144?search%5Bi%5D%5Bis_catalog_record%5D=false&search%5Bi%5D%5Bsubject%5D=Depressions&search%5Bpath%5D=items
7 Palliser Road, Mt Victoria construction
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22885834?search%5Bi%5D%5Bis_catalog_record%5D=false&search%5Bi%5D%5Bsubject%5D=Depressions&search%5Bpath%5D=items
8 Relief workers construct Rongotai Airport
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22875761?search%5Bi%5D%5Bis_catalog_record%5D=false&search%5Bi%5D%5Bsubject%5D=Depressions&search%5Bpage%5D=2&search%5Bpath%5D=items
9 Boys cutting and packing kindling
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23244118?search%5Bi%5D%5Bis_catalog_record%5D=false&search%5Bi%5D%5Bsubject%5D=Depressions&search%5Bpage%5D=2&search%5Bpath%5D=items
10 Rioting unemployed dispersed by Police Cuba St Wellington
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22447880?search%5Bi%5D%5Bis_catalog_record%5D=false&search%5Bi%5D%5Bsubject%5D=Depressions&search%5Bpage%5D=2&search%5Bpath%5D=items
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