Workers’ unions grew from the 1890s and increasingly used protest marches to publicise their issues, and to seek support from bystanders and the media during industrial disputes.
Unemployment protests
During economic downturns when work dried up the jobless typically looked to governments for relief. In 1886 about 500 Auckland unemployed, ‘many of them on the verge of starvation,’1 marched through the city demanding work. Sometimes the authorities were unable or unwilling to help. In 1908 Christchurch unemployed organised a ‘begging procession’ which went around city shops asking for food.
During the 1930s economic depression the jobless protested about their plight with regular marches – culminating in the 1932 riots in which frustrated protesters rampaged in the streets and clashed with police.
Standing by their men
Observers reported that Waihī women were steadfast in their support of the strike: ‘[T]heir voices are shrill with excitement as they join in the cheering and the hooting. That … [they] are restless is abundantly indicated by their presence in large numbers in the streets at all times, children of tender years who simply must be looked after being brought along in perambulators.’2
Union protest, Waihī
Among the first places where workers used protest marches in an industrial dispute was Waihī in 1912. Gold miners protested against the formation of a breakaway union by striking. Their employer reacted by employing strike-breakers in the mines and to drive the engines which serviced them. Strikers, their wives and children protested by marching through Waihī streets in ardent shows of solidarity. When strike-breakers and police stormed the miners’ hall, unionist Frederick Evans was shot and later died.
Waterfront disputes
Conflict arose during the 1913 waterfront strike in Wellington. On a number of occasions protest marches by striking wharf-workers and their supporters, with brass bands and various trade banners, clashed with horse-mounted police and special constables. Dozens of people on both sides received bloody beatings.
Protest marches also featured prominently in the divisive 1951 waterfront dispute. On 2 May, 1,000 placard-waving unionists set out from Wellington’s Trades Hall to march to Parliament. Their path was blocked by police at the corner of Dixon and Cuba streets. Scuffles between police and protesters broke out, but union leaders persuaded the marchers to disperse calmly.
Things were less peaceful in Auckland. On 1 June, a protest march up Queen Street by several hundred unionists was attacked by baton-wielding police. In the melée that followed, 22 men were badly injured. The unprovoked attack highlighted rising antagonism between police and protesters. Unionists named the day ‘Bloody Friday’.
Peace movement
In 1938, the Christian Pacifist Society started regular sandwich-board processions through Wellington streets.
A decade later, the movement demonstrated against proposals for military conscription. In Nelson, 16 pacifists marched to the cathedral steps and held a rally. Hooligans heckled the group and manhandled the pacifists’ leader, Barry Barrington. When police finally moved in, it was Barrington they arrested.
