H.E. Holland and the labour movement in Australia and New Zealand : with special emphasis on the activity of militant socialists

Abstract

Henry Edmund Holland died in 1933, two years before the first Labour Government was elected in New Zealand. He had been leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party since 1919, during fifteen years of development in which that party had grown from a representation of four to a position verging on government power. Holland had come from Australia in 1912. There, since the 1890s, he had been prominent in the militant socialist movement. This thesis is concerned with the development of H.E. Holland as a militant socialist, aiming to indicate his ideas and principles, to show why he held them, and how they affected his actions. The central argument is that militant socialists of Holland’s type set out to claim the leadership of the labour movement in Australia and New Zealand. It is the purpose of this study to explain, through Holland, how and why this attempt was made, and how and why it failed, and to examine, in the process, what happened to Holland’s ideas and principles. Essentially, this is a ’thesis of plot’, in which it is held that the basic explanation for the actions of militant socialists associated with Holland in Australia and New Zealand lies in their wish and attempt to assert themselves as a vanguard in the labour movement. The term "militant socialist" has been chosen to describe members of the group, associated with Holland, whose activities are examined in this thesis. The term is a relative one, not denoting a static position, but, in relation to the labour movement generally, two broad and distinguishing characteristics, militancy and devotion to socialist theory. Holland and his associates were militant, that is, aggressive, impatient, seeking prompt and sweeping changes, changes so complete as to be deemed revolutionary. They acted with constant reference to socialist theory, both in regard to the kind of changes they wanted and the manner in which such changes might be brought about. At their best, they were enthusiasts, men with a vision and a mission. In terms of Holland, the militant socialist, the object of this thesis is to explain how and why a position of greatest militancy, of closest devotion to theory, was gradually reached, and how and why it was slowly abandoned. While there were many developments and complexities in relation to detail, the term "socialist theory" denotes, throughout the thesis, two major concepts, class war for possession of the world’s wealth between capitalists and workers, and the workers' victory over capitalism in a social revolution. "Socialism" is the society which follows this social revolution. In the New Zealand section of the thesis, the position of militant socialists, has been contrasted with that of "moderates". The term "moderates" has been applied to those who thought in terms of better wages and conditions rather than of social revolution and of gradual change, reform, rather than of revolution. Show more