The Rona Bailey Memorial Lecture marks the life and work of Rona Bailey, communist, educator, dancer and labour historian who took part in the anti-war, anti-apartheid, project Waitangi, and trade union movements. Speakers are invited to talk on their experiences of one of the issues Rona Bailey fought for.
Video and transcripts of previous lectures have been added to the events listed below when available.
Rona Bailey Lecture 2024
The Labour History Project biennial Rona Bailey lecture was given by Dr Cybèle Locke and focused on the life of Rona Bailey.
Rona Bailey has been described as ‘one of the most important figures on the radical left in twentieth-century NZ.’ In this talk, Cybèle will tell stories about Rona’s lifelong grassroots activism.
Rona Bailey Lecture 2022
Serena Moran: A Workers’ Initiative. The union health service, 1987 to 2022, the founding of the movement and the impact of neoliberalism on the service and patients from a nurse’s perspective.
Rona Bailey Lecture 2019
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 Labour, and the politics of writing and the writing of politics.
Rona Bailey Lecture 2017
Therese O’Connell is a full-time feminist who has been a unionist and social justice activist in Wellington since the early 1970s. She spoke and sung (with friends) about what still rarks her up!
Rona Bailey Lecture 2015
In the 2015 Rona Bailey lecture, held at the Toi Whakaari, Graeme Clarke talked about where the trade union movement and socialists are at and how we got there. The lecture was based on his experiences as a trade unionist and communist for the last 40 years. He will suggest some ideas about improving the current low ebb and try to illustrate some of the principles of trade unionism and socialist work in unions. Graeme Clarke is a lifelong trade unionist, militant, and was a comrade of Rona Bailey in the Workers’ Communist League.
Rona Bailey Lecture 2014
In the 2014 Rona Bailey Memorial lecture, held at Toi Whakaari, Robert Consedine talked about Project Waitangi.
Rona Bailey Lecture 2011
In the 2011 Rona Bailey Memorial Lecture, Marianne Schultz, a PhD candidate and tutor in the History Department, University of Auckland, talked about Rona Bailey as a member of the New Dance Group.
Rona Bailey Lecture 2009
Historian and writer Dick Scott to gave the Second Rona Bailey Memorial Lecture in the Rona Bailey Room at Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School at 11 Hutchison Rd, Newtown, on 3 December 2009, at 7.00pm. The lecture was followed by Chris Prowse and fellow musicians performing songs from his recently written musical Trouble on The Waterfront.
Inaugural Rona Bailey Lecture 2007
Robert Reid presented the inaugural Rona Bailey Memorial Lecture – ‘Looking Backwards: Looking Forwards’