The Communist Party of New Zealand (CPNZ)
During the Second World War, when this recruitment poster was produced, the CPNZ enjoyed a degree of popularity due to the Soviet Union’s contribution to the war against Nazi Germany. The Poster was encouraging more people to join this Party.
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The communist Party of New Zealand (CPNZ) was a small political group which attracted equal amounts of new recruits and police harassment during the Depression Era; its members worked to alleviate distress and co-ordinated UWM resistance, however it was never a real threat to the state of authority or the Labour Party’s popularity. Jim Edwards stood as the Communist Party candidate for the Auckland Central Electorate in 1935 and only got 456 votes, compared to Labour Party’s William Edward Parry who won with 5074 votes.
Following its involvement in the UWM action during the 1932 riots, the Party attracted new members. However, a significant negative impact of the riots was that the direct action which the UWM used harmed the reputation of the organisation in the public view. Many of the unemployed did not want to partake in such violent disputes and because they saw the UWM as the cause of the riots, at least in Auckland, they did not wish to have much further associations with it. The CPNZ’s opposition to the popular Labour Party also did not help win them many supporters. Because of their failure to attach onto the Labour Party, their members were also regularly arrested on the counts of sedition. The only real prominence which they gained was the increased membership from the trade unions during the Depression years and this was short lived. Party members became increasingly active in the trade unions, and during the Second World War many important unions had Communist leaders. From the conclusion of the war, however, the party lost ground in the unions. In 1966, they changed their name to the Socialist Unity Party (SUP). |
National Union of the Unemployed
In 1933, the unemployed who were against communism and supported the Labour Party formed the National Union of the Unemployed (NUU) and by 1934 this was stronger in the main centres than the UWM. The unemployed gave their support to the Labour Party which then went on to win the 1935 election and introduced an extensive programme of economic management and social welfare, greatly influenced by what was learned during the time of the Depression.
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