The LHP Symposium, ‘From Kinleith to the dole queue: workers’ struggles of the 1980s’ was held on 21 February 2021.
The 1980s was a decade of tectonic shifts in the world of work, capitalism, and union organising. A deepening recession, obtrusive anti-union legislation under Robert Muldoon’s National Government and then rapid neoliberal reforms under the Fourth Labour Government all served to undermine the strength of unions and lay the groundwork for economic divides today. And yet, workers engaged in militant actions and political campaigns, energised by the social movements of the era; women, Māori and Pasifika workers fought for better representation, gained leadership roles in their unions and committee structures to represent them; the first pay equity campaigns were launched, and unemployed workers organised. The 1980s was a decade of both organising and promise, and bitter defeats.
As the decade began, all eyes were on New Zealand Forest Products’ paper mill at Kinleith, where a prolonged dispute over pay became a flashpoint in the union movement’s conflict with the Muldoon-led National Government and resulted in perhaps the greatest strike victory ever achieved for workers in this country. Forty years ago, the film Kinleith ‘80 documented that dispute. It provides insights into creative organising of the rank-and-file, the involvement of women, both as unionists and supporters, and the importance of nationwide solidarity.
This Labour History Project one-day symposium, ‘From Kinleith to the dole queue: workers’ struggles of the 1980s’, used Kinleith as a starting point for exploring the challenges that came next.
Following the launch and screening of the digitally restored version of Kinleith ’80, the symposium will explore the struggles and the legacies of the 1980s and what they mean for us today in a time of change. What did the Kinleith dispute mean for the trajectory of the labour movement for the remainder of the decade? What came next? And what does it mean for us today? With unemployment on the rise in a global pandemic and economic orthodoxies under renewed pressure, we look to the labour history of this crucial decades to examine a story still unfolding in the present. Does history provide the answers for how to address our current crises? Or can it serve as a trap in our attempts to imagine new possibilities?
Symposium speakers included filmmakers, 1980s union and unemployed movement activists, the Feisty Feckin’ Fulltime Feminist singers, and labour historians. There were intergenerational conversations and time for the audience to speak to contemporary issues.
Recordings of the sessions can be viewed below