| Democratic Labour Party (new Zealand) |
Article Index for Democratic Labour |
Website Links For Democratic |
Information AboutDemocratic Labour Party (new Zealand) |
|
The Democratic Labour Party originated in the internal disputes within the first Labour Party government, which lasted from 1935 to 1949 . The division was primarily between moderates, such as Michael Joseph Savage , Peter Fraser , and Walter Nash , and radicals like Lee. Lee and his allies criticised the "cautious" approach taken by the party's leadership, and advocated a considerably stronger policy line. Lee's views were a mixture of conventional Socialist theory and the Social Credit theory of Monetary Reform . He was also strongly critical of the Labour Party's internal structures, calling its leadership Unaccountable and Autocratic . In 1940 , after a long period of rebellion against the Labour Party leadership, Lee was finally expelled from the party. He quickly moved to establish a new party, named the Democratic Labour Party. One other MP, Bill Barnard , joined him, and at least one other, Rex Mason , gave serious consideration to joining. John Payne was also sympathetic. Before long, however, internal tensions developed in the new party, with Lee being accused by Barnard of behaving in an Egotist ical and autocratic manner — this was ironic, considering his criticism of the old Labour Party leadership on the same grounds. In the 1943 Elections , Barnard chose to stand for re-election as an independent rather than a DLP candidate, but was defeated. Lee, standing for the DLP, was also defeated. The Democratic Labour Party received only 4.3% of the total vote, and ceased to exist not long afterwards. |
|
|