New Zealand Listener – August 10, 2019

40 LISTENER AUGUST 10 2019

and Māori encountered racist
attitudes in housing and jobs.
Young urban Māori began
to ask questions and revive
their language. There were
new slogans – “The Treaty is
a fraud” – and protests that
climaxed with the Māori Land
March, led by Northland kuia
Whina Cooper in 1975, and

then the 507-day occupation

of Bastion Pt, which ended

with the forced removal of

Ngāti Whātua from ancestral

land there in 1978.

New Zealanders began to

think seriously about the

costs of European settlement

to Māori. Perhaps the big-

gest impact came from the

establishment in 1975 of the

Waitangi Tribunal, followed

nine years later by the exten-

sion of its coverage to 1840.

The scrupulous work of the

tribunal documented harsh

treatment in the past, and

settlements led to resources

for future Māori economic

growth.

February 13, 1951. So many years

ago, but still so painful for many.

The 1951 waterfront strike (or

lockout, depending on stance)

was not so much growing pain

as tumour. When shipowners

refused to give watersiders a

pay rise, the wharfies banned

overtime. Employers began

laying them off. The Government

declared a state of emergency

with draconian measures: press

censorship, penalties for anyone

so much as helping families

caught up in the dispute. Inter-

necine strife broke out between

unions. “We got belted around

the ear right, left and centre,” said

unionist and strike veteran Bill

Andersen, “and we couldn’t raise

a squeak.” Armed forces worked

the wharves, the Waterside Work-

ers’ Union was deregistered and

its funds seized. An insipid Labour

stance prompted National to call

a snap election. Fear of com-

munism and trade union power

led to a government victory and

a scarring defeat for unions.

Forty years on, Waterside

Workers’ Union leader

Jock Barnes told the

Listener, “Right at the

start I thought, ‘I

don’t know how

this will end. But

those bastards

are going to know

they have been in

a fight.’ And they

did!” The dispute

lasted 151 days.

Water f ront

dispute

begins

There were new

slogans – “The

Treaty is a fraud”

• and protests that
  climaxed with
  the Māori Land
  March in 1975.

80 YEARS