‘Labour’, a centennial history of the Labour Party
Socialist and workers’ parties around the world this weekend celebrate the international day of labour, or May Day.
But not in New Zealand and a handful of other countries, which separately mark the contribution of the labour movement.
New Zealand’s Labour Day was set on the fourth Monday of October in 1890, one year after the Marxist International Socialist Congress in Paris, or Second International, declared the first May Day. Common to both were demands for an eight-hour day, a call that had been answered for some New Zealand trade unionists as early as 1840 through the efforts of Auckland carpenter Samuel Parnell.
‘Labour’, a centennial history of the Labour Party
Socialist and workers’ parties around the world this weekend celebrate the international day of labour, or May Day.
But not in New Zealand and a handful of other countries, which separately mark the contribution of the labour movement.
New Zealand’s Labour Day was set on the fourth Monday of October in 1890, one year after the Marxist International Socialist Congress in Paris, or Second International, declared the first May Day. Common to both were demands for an eight-hour day, a call that had been answered for some New Zealand trade unionists as early as 1840 through the efforts of Auckland carpenter Samuel Parnell.
Battles over the past: One historian s solution nbr.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nbr.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Jock Phillips’ autobiography, Making History
The battle lines have been drawn over how New Zealand history should be taught in schools. On one side, fighting a rear-guard action, is Michael Bassett, whose reputation as an historian has produced as many critics as those of his political career. He is backed up by lay opinion-makers such as The New Zealand Initiative’s Roger Partridge and Chris Trotter’s Bowalley Road website.
All three see a danger in a curriculum based on the claim that, “Māori history is the foundational and continuous history of Aotearoa New Zealand,” to quote the first of the Ministry of Education’s three “big ideas” for the curriculum. The other two are the continuing effects of colonisation, and the “exercise and effects of power”.