The Other Side of History: Underground Literature and the 1951 Waterfront Dispute

Abstract

In February 1951, industrial discord between New Zealand watersiders and British ship-owners led to a dispute that was seen by each as a lockout and a strike respectively. Throughout the duration of the dispute, the Trades Union Congress and Wellington Waterside Workers’ Union Action Committee produced and distributed substantial amounts of printed material to stiffen the struggle among its members, vilify strike-breakers and the National Government – whose ultimate aim it was to crush the Union –and to ridicule the police – who were the instruments ofenforcement against the newly-minted Waterfront StrikeEmergency Regulations. In defiance of Regulation 4(d),which banned the production and distribution of ‘seditious’literature, a steady stream of illegal leaflets, pamphlets,lino-cut illustrations and cartoons emerged from theGestetners and small presses in the homes of membersand supporters of the watersiders. While printed materialis touched upon in the documented examination of thedispute as a political and industrial struggle, it is never thefocus of discussion. This article examines the multi-modalrhetoric of the underground literature to form a pictureof one side of the story of what was, arguably, the mostdisruptive and divisive 151 days in the history of the NewZealand labour movement.