Please join us in the MBIE Building on Stout Street to hear them
discuss their new book:
The Labour Party is New Zealand’s oldest political party. On 7
July 2016 it celebrated a hundred years of commitment to democracy, social
justice and economic development—a commitment that has often made for
precarious balancing acts. First in government from 1935–1949, Labour set
the terms of economic and social policy for over 40 years only to then struggle
to define itself during the 1950s and 60s. After single terms in government in
the late 1950s and early 1970s, Labour experienced the 1984 Lange government’s
radical Rogernomics policies which threatened to destroy the party even as the
anti-nuclear policy was warmly applauded. Helen Clark’s nine-year
reconciliation of social democracy and globalisation followed, proving across
the century that Labour has consistently represented a broad-based party of
reform.An essential read for all with an interest in New Zealand’s political history, this analysis of Labour’s past will go on to inform the future of social democratic politics.
Peter Franks has been actively involved in the labour movement since he
joined the Labour Party at high school. He has written histories of the
Printers and Clerical Workers unions, numerous articles on labour history and
co-edited a history of the Federation of Labour. Peter is an employment
mediator.
Jim McAloon is an associate professor in History at Victoria University.
His interest in labour history goes back to his student days, when he completed
a master’s thesis on the labour movement in Christchurch between 1905 and 1914.
He has subsequently written a number of essays on aspects of labour history,
and in 2013 VUP published his Judgements of All Kinds: Economic Policymaking
in New Zealand, 1945–1984. He has been a member of the Labour Party for 25
years.
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