Peter Franks

REPORT

Blackball '08: The Commemoration

The Commemoration was organised to celebrate the centenary of the Blackball Strike of 1908 and it was held in Blackball and Greymouth, New Zealand, 21–23 March 2008.

In the early twentieth century, the isolated West Coast of the South Island was the birthplace of a militant revolt against New Zealand's arbitration system. In 1908 a federation of miners' unions was formed. The following year it became the 'Red' Federation of Labor. Its syndicalist rhetoric and tactics of direct bargaining with employers, backed by strikes, and withdrawal from the arbitration system won the support of many semi-skilled and unskilled workers. Miners and watersiders were the core of the 'Red Feds'. Beaten by the employers and a conservative government in the 1912 Waihi Strike, the militants were comprehensively defeated in the Great Strike of 1913. While the militant upsurge was important in the making of the New Zealand working class, the majority of unionists stood aloof. Less than a quarter of organised workers took part in the Great Strike.

The spark that started this prairie fire, to paraphrase Mao Zedong, was the 11-week Blackball coal miners' strike in 1908. It began as a protest over 'crib' time, the miners were only allowed 15 minutes for lunch. The strike is often referred to as the 'crib' or 'tucker time' strike. At an Arbitration Court hearing in Greymouth a couple of weeks into the strike, Justice Sim pronounced 15 minutes adequate for 'crib' before adjourning for an hour and a half for luncheon. The strike began after the mine manager sacked seven men, all of whom were members of the Socialist Party. Attempts by Labour Department officials to broker a settlement were unsuccessful. News spread and there was widespread union support for the miners, particularly from other West Coast mines. Crucially, the union at the nearby Tyneside mine at Brunner and the Greymouth wharfies' union didn't support the strike. They refused to cut the supply of coal to the Blackball mining company's vessels or to stop loading them.

The Labour Department prosecuted the union for striking. During the Arbitration Court hearing of the case, Jack McCullough, the workers' representative on the court, mediated an agreement between leaders of the Blackball union and the company's directors. This included reinstatement of the seven men. Accepted by a special union meeting, the compromise was repudiated by another meeting the following day and by the company. Union leaders toured New Zealand to get support. 1,600 – around NZ$230,000 in today's terms – was raised, half from mining and other West Coast unions. The strike dragged on with further unsuccessful attempts to negotiate a resolution. Finally the company gave in and conceded the union's demands. It was a great victory, the Canterbury Trades and Labour Council burst into spontaneous applause at the news. The sequel to the strike was highly embarrassing for the Arbitration Court. It had imposed a £75 fine on the union for striking illegally. The union refused to pay. The court ordered that the fine be collected from individual union members. Sheriffs seized goods from Blackball mining families and held an auction to raise money for the fine. The miners took over the auction, the union was the sole bidder and a derisory 12 shillings and 6 pence was raised.

The centenary of the strike was celebrated at Blackball and Greymouth (the West Coast's largest town) at Easter 2008. Nestled on a plateau below the Paparoa mountain ranges, Blackball is off the beaten track, even in that region. The mine closed in 1964 but the community didn't give up and the town didn't disappear. Its population today is around 400 compared to 550 in 1908 and 1,200 in its heyday. The Easter commemoration of the strike was unique in recent celebrations of major events in New Zealand labour history. The 1890 Maritime Strike, the 1913 Great Strike and the 1951 Waterfront Lockout were all marked by conferences, seminars and sometimes marches. The Blackball centenary had that but a lot more. The Blackball-based organising committee made it a major community event on the West Coast, attracting former residents and family members of Blackball miners from across New Zealand and Australia along with unionists, historians and members of parliament from the Labour, Green and National political parties.

The three days of activities began with a dinner on Good Friday evening at the Blackball Working Mens Club. The club was packed, with many locals and former residents present. I sat at a table with a former Blackball miner and his sister, who had travelled from the top of the North Island and two women from Christchurch who had grown up in Blackball. There were rousing songs and poems and many toasts were drunk. During the evening local historian Brian Wood launched The Great '08, his new history of the Blackball Strike, which was rushed off the printing presses in time for the commemoration.

The West Coast is famous for its rugged beauty and its rain. After a fine and warm start to Easter, it bucketed down on Saturday, which had been set aside for outdoor activities. Parades are a tradition on the coast. A procession of locals, unionists and parliamentarians with banners including the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, the Public Service Association, the Nurses Organisation, the Association of Staff in Tertiary Education and the Labour Party braved the rain. They were followed by a long line of vehicles, many of them historic, and moved up the main street to the entrance to the old mine.

A minute's silence was observed for those who had died at the mine. Andrew Little, national secretary of the EPMU, which now represents the nearly 1,000 New Zealand coal and gold miners, spoke of the values that motivated the Blackball Strike. 'Let us take that spirit of unity and comradeship back to our communities', he said, 'and make it real to the many thousands of other New Zealand workers who need that spirit today'. Brian Wood then read the names of the 166 strikers – the Arbitration Court listed them as an appendix to one of its judgments, a boon for historians. He called on descendants of the strikers to identify themselves. A number did and several spoke of their pride in their forbears and their home town. It was a wonderful moment.

On the Saturday evening, the commemoration moved to Greymouth for a concert at the Regent Theatre. The 'evening of Workers' Culture' included songs by the 'West Coast Wobblies', 'Spanner in the Works' and 'Choir, Choir, Pants on Fire'. The music was followed by 'Rain, Love and Coalsmoke – a Blackball trilogy' written and directed by Paul Maunder, Blackball resident and co-ordinator of the organising committee. This stirring drama covered the 1908 strike, the 1931 strike that divided the union and the community, and the closing of the mine in 1964.

Friday and Saturday focused on community, commemoration and culture. Easter Sunday was about history. The Working Mens Club was packed again for a symposium on the strike and its contemporary relevance. Most of the papers questioned, revised and added to the history of the strike. Too modestly, Brian Wood left himself off the speaking list. His book is not just the most detailed account of the strike. It also revises the existing historiography in several important respects. Wood starts with an analysis of the employer, the British-owned Blackball Coal Company, in the context of the 'imperial capitalism' of the times. Its purpose was to secure high quality coal for the imperial trade, mainly in refrigerated primary products, that was essential to New Zealand's economic wellbeing. The company's local directors were members of the Christchurch business elite. Previous histories have focused mainly on the union leaders but Wood highlights the important roles played in the strike by George Gatenby Stead, the company's chairman and a wealthy Christchurch businessman, and Jack McCullough.

Wood's book also challenges the popular notion that the strike was about 'crib' time and the argument by some historians that it was instigated by radical agitators to promote class war. He shows that the key issue in the strike was the union's demand for 'eight hours bank to bank'. The miners' working day included the time it took to travel from the mine entrance or bank to the workface and back again – some ten hours. The final section of his book is a detailed account of the strike. The settlement followed Stead's sudden death in late April. It has been argued that this helped to open the way to a resolution as Stead had been uncompromising towards the union. Wood argues convincingly that the end to the strike owed more to the West Coast weather. The Tyneside mine, which had supplied the Blackball mine owners with coal, was suddenly flooded and on 9 May it was abandoned. Three days later the company directors negotiated an end to the strike and work resumed at Blackball on 13 May.

Fittingly, the first speaker at the symposium was Eric Beardsley, whose 1984 novel Blackball '08 was influential in telling the story to a new generation. Peter Clayworth spoke about Pat Hickey, one of the union leaders who became a national figure after the strike. Contrary to some historians' views, he argued there was no evidence that Hickey and other radicals plotted the strike to attack the arbitration system, rather they were opportunists. Melanie Nolan's paper at the symposium summarised the existing historiography. She used McCullough's experience of the strike to explore the diversity of socialist and labour perspectives in the years before World War I. Like Wood, she looked at the employers. Improved organisation and advocacy through employers' associations, new doctrines of efficient management and anti-unionism meant this was also a period of growing employer militancy.

Graeme Colgan, Chief Judge of the Employment Court, presented an analysis of the four court cases during and after the strike. A notable feature of the litigation was that while the union took unsuccessful action against the company, all proceedings against the union were taken by the state through the Labour Department. Mark Derby discussed the importance of understanding the international context of the strike. To illustrate the point he told the stories of two people born on the West Coast – Lola Ridge and Len de Caux – who became active in the United States anarchist and labour movements.

Neville Bennett's paper looked at the economic and social aspects of the strike. He contended that falling living standards at Blackball, a new and remote settlement where necessities were scarce and expensive, may have contributed to the miners' willingness to strike. The West Coast and Blackball are often said to have been the birthplace of the Labour Party. My paper argued that the mass base for Labour was created in working-class electorates in the cities through the political campaigns organised by the 'moderate' advocates of an independent labour party to win workers away from the Liberal Party.

The weekend's events ended with a community dance with local band 'Big Wheelie and the Hub Caps'. The commemoration of the strike was a splendid occasion that will live long in the memories of those lucky enough to be present.

Peter Franks was a trade union official for over 20 years. He now works as an industrial mediator. He has published numerous articles on New Zealand labour history. His history of the New Zealand printing trades unions, Print and Politics, was published in 2001.
<peter.franks@paradise.net.nz>

Blackball '08: The Commemoration: Procession through the town of Blackball, March 2008
Photo courtesy photographer: Simon Nathan

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