War on the wharves

I visited the Museum of Wellington City & Sea today to see the exhibition 1913 Strike: War on the Wharves. While all but forgotten today, the Great Strike of 1913 had an enormous impact on New Zealand at the time, and saw social disorder and rioting even more severe than the 1981 Springbok Tour. In response to the waterfront workers going on strike, the newly-elected government of "Farmer Bill" Massey recruited farmers from the provinces as "special constables" and armed them in an attempt to open the wharves by force. For eight weeks, "Massey's cossacks" battled with striking workers in the streets, until the strike finally ended. It is probably the closest to revolution we have ever come in this country.

While the strikers lost the battle, they came a lot closer to winning the war. Eight strike leaders were arrested, four of them - Tom Barker, William Young, Harry Holland, and Bob Semple - for sedition (Peter Fraser was also imprisoned for inciting a breach of the peace). As you might be able to tell from some of those names, the leaders of the strike went on to form the core of the Labour Party, and two of them - Michael Joseph Savage and Peter Fraser - went on to become Prime Minister. Unfortunately, that didn't stop a repeat in 1951, under much the same circumstances...

The exhibition itself is fairly small, but concisely tells the story of the war on the wharves from beginning to end. It also includes two lists - one of those workers who stayed loyal throughout the strike, and a list of shame of those who served as special constables. For those who know their family history, it might be interesting to see which list your relatives appear on.