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Story: Strikes and labour disputes

Centenary celebrations, Blackball

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Centenary celebrations, Blackball

The unionists’ anthem ‘Solidarity forever’ (which includes the line ‘Without our brain and muscle not a single wheel could turn’, seen here on the marchers’ banner) was sung loudly and proudly in the small settlement of Blackball over Easter weekend 2008. Several hundred people celebrated the centenary of the historic Blackball miners’ strike. They held a colourful march along the main street, attended a seminar on the strike’s historic and political significance, and watched a play written to mark the occasion.

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How to cite this page

Mark Derby, Strikes and labour disputes – 1908 Blackball strike, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/20479/centenary-celebrations-blackball (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Mark Derby, published 13 May 2010, updated 1 March 2016.