National Unemployed Workers Movement (NUWM)
The National Unemployed Workers Movement had a significant influence over the riots that broke out in the main centres of New Zealand in 1932.
The NUWM was established in 1931, following two conferences that were initially called the Wellington Unemployed Workers Movement. The organization was engineered by members of left-wing movements such as Jim Edwards and had been modeled on a British group of the same name. The group had militant demands, such as £3/week payment to the unemployed who were married. The group had several connections to the Communist Party. Jim Edwards, one of their early leaders was a Communist, as well as their first National Secretary. A number of its members were people who had transferred their allegiance from the Labour Party to the Communist Party, such as Alexander Drennan. The Labour Party and organized trade unions repudiated the communist-linked organization. An article in the Auckland Star on January 23 1932 says that the NUWM is "regarded as antagonistic to the Trades Council and the whole organized industrial and political labour movement". |
In 1932 the movement began to organize large scale protests opposing the Labour Party and many trade unions, which they believed were not doing enough for the plight of ordinary New Zealanders. These protests sparked the riots in what became known as the "Angry Autumn" of 1932. As a result of these riots a number of NUWM members and leaders were arrested and prosecuted, including Jim Edwards, who served a two year prison term with hard labour. |