JD Stout Annual Lecture 2025

The late 1960s to about the mid-1980s was the most popular period of strike activity in this country’s history.

Presenter: JD Stout Fellow 2025 Toby Boraman

14 November 2025

Knocking off: Strikes in Aotearoa New Zealand 1968–1986

The late 1960s to about the mid-1980s was the most popular period of strike activity in this country’s history. Despite the state deeming most stoppages to be illegal, hundreds of thousands of people participated in them. This era of tumultuous conflict has remained largely unexplored by historians, despite the lasting impacts of those clashes.  These conflicts caused polarisation and controversy. A large-scale ‘Kiwis care’ protest against strikes occurred in 1981. Many believed that ‘irresponsible’ strikers and unions had caused inflation, brought on unemployment, paralysed the country, sabotaged the economy, and habitually cancelled interisland ferries.

This lecture will discuss why stoppages were significant for both participants and strike opponents. Were strikers reacting to falling living standards during a period of economic shocks, or did they selfishly push beyond the limits of what employers or the economy could afford? Did the 1980s neoliberal restructuring of the economy take place partially as a reaction to strikes?

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Dr Toby Boraman is the current J.D. Stout Fellow. This research is also the product of earlier Marsden funding. Previously he was a politics lecturer and a Waitangi Tribunal Unit historian.