Everything about Democratic Labour Party New Zealand totally explained
The
Democratic Labour Party was a political party in
New Zealand. It was a splinter from the larger
Labour Party, and was led by the prominent
socialist John A. Lee.
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. Others who ran for the DLP in the
1943 general election included
Alfred E. Allen and
Keith Hay.
Before long, however, internal tensions developed in the new party, with Lee being accused by Barnard of behaving in an
egotistical 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. The DLP fielded 52 candidates including Lee,
Keith Hay,
Alfred E. Allen, and
Colin Scrimgeour (who stood against
Peter Fraser in
Wellington Central). They were all defeated. The Democratic Labour Party received only 4.3% of the total vote, and ceased to exist soon afterwards, although Lee again stood as a DLP candidate in the
1949 general election and got 2,627 votes.
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