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Labour History Project

Black and white image of a street filled with people (look like mostly men and mostly Pākehā) There is a banner in the procession, and some people are playing brass instruments.
1913 Waterfront Strike supporters on Mansfield Street, Newtown, Wellington. Smith, Sydney Charles, 1888-1972: Photographs of New Zealand. Ref: 1/2-048933-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22354235

Welcome to the website of the Labour History Project. The struggles of working people have a long and significant history in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Labour History Project is dedicated to researching, recording, preserving and promoting this working-class history.

We publish the LHP Bulletin three times a year, award the annual Bert Roth Award for labour history and organise seminars and conferences, including the biennial Rona Bailey Memorial lecture.

Our website is a record of our work; you can find about us as an organisation, how to join, and more about our work. You can find back issues of the bulletin, videos of lectures, and read about the great works of labour history being created in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Bulletin

  • Labour History Project Bulletin 82, September 2021
    The August Bulletin includes details of the Bert Roth Award and discussions of the New Zealand history curriculum. Feature Articles Resistance to Destructuring in the 1980s – Toby Borman Roger Middlemass Reflects Rewi Alley – Elspbeth Sandys Sharing Stories – Sam Orchard Just Transition Explored at Blackball Mayday Review Helen Kelly – Ross Webb

Bert Roth Award

  • The Bert Roth Award for Labour History 2023
    The Bert Roth Award for Labour History, named for the late historian Herbert Roth, is presented annually by the Labour History Project. It is awarded to the work that best depicts the history of work and resistance in New Zealand published in the previous calendar year. The judges this year were Claire-Louise McCurdy, Mary Roberts-Schirato … Read more

Rona Bailey Lecture

  • 2019 Rona Bailey lecture: Dean Parker – Two Tickets to Barbarism
    In the 2019 Rona Bailey lecture, held at the National Library of New Zealand, Dean Parker talked about growing up in Napier, what he learnt in London from Trotskyists and Irish republicans, joining the Socialist Unity Party back in New Zealand, the formation of the NZ Writers’ Guild and its affiliation to the Federation of … Read more