1:35:00
Documentary New Zealand
1951
1951 (Monday July 16 at 8.30pm) is the fascinating story of one of the most turbulent times in New Zealand history - the Waterside Worker's Union strike, which lasted 151 days and changed the face of a nation forever.
July 16 1951, marked the end of the longest an costliest industrial unrest in our country's history. After 151 days of struggle against the Government and the Federation of Labour, the Waterside Worker's Union - a union of 8,000 men - lay in ruins. Families had broken up, men had committed suicide, a soldier and a legacy of bitterness was born that survives to this day.
It was the height of the Cold War and it was easy to convince large numbers of people that communist stooges were running militant unionists like the watersiders.
1951 is the story of these times. It is a story of strong personalities, a changing world and the hardships that ordinary people face when they themselves are pitted against the government of the day.
Director John Bates says: "This was a defining moment in New Zealand's history and we wanted to look at it through the eyes of the people who lived through it. When you start talking to people about what happened to them in 1951 the thing that strikes you most is the power of the memories that people still have. This was a life-changing event for thousands of people and, although it was 50 years ago, they remember it with passion."
Using eye-witness accounts and information drawn from United States and New Zealand government papers, the documentary traces the origins, conduct and consequences of the dispute.
As 1951 reveals, on February 15 1951 watersiders were locked out of the country's wharves for refusing to do overtime. On February 21, the Government declared a State of Emergency, blaming communists for the trouble. The Emergency lasted for five months and at its height the dispute involved more than 20,000 workers and their families.
To really tell this story the makers went to many of the places that were involved in the dispute and talked to watersiders and their wives and children, miners, journalists, police officers and navy personnel.
"The stories they recall build a picture of an extraordinary time when you look back at it, it's almost as if you're looking at another country - but it wasn't. This was New Zealand."
1951 screens Monday July 16 at 8.30pm.
[Television New Zealand, Saturday 20 April 2002, 18:43:11]