Reform leaders William Massey and James Allen head for Bellamy's to celebrate their victory over the Liberals and their assumption of government in 1912.
William Massey is our second-longest serving leader. Although he was reviled by the left for crushing workers in 1913 with his ‘Massey’s Cossacks’ (strike-breakers), he also kept most of the Liberals’ reforms, cleaned up the public service, increased home ownership rates and spent more on education, roads and electricity.
Events in Wellington on and around 24 October marked the beginning of the Great Strike of 1913 – a bitter two-and-a-half-month struggle that would ultimately involve 16,000 unionists around the country.
The Great Strike of 1913, which had begun in late October when Wellington waterside workers stopped work, finally ended when the United Federation of Labour conceded defeat.
