For 151 days, 8,000 watersiders stood firm against an all-out attack from the government and the employers aimed at crushing their union. More than 10,000 other workers, particularly coal miners, meat workers and seafarers, struck in their support. In the years following, there was no prouder boast among class-conscious workers than "I was a fifty-oner."
During Barnes's leadership, the watersiders union was at the forefront of the upsurge of the union movement after World War II, setting an example of militancy, union democracy, and internationalism. For instance, the union-led opposition to New Zealand participation in the imperialist wars against Korea and Malaya, in the latter case under the slogan "Not a son or a gun for Malaya."
In a 1981 interview, Barnes said the main lesson that workers could draw from the 1951 experience was that "faced with a situation like we were--an all-out offensive by the capitalist class--there is only one answer: fight and make it cost them every penny you can possibly make them pay.... When they really put the pressure on, you have two choices--you can stand up and fight or you can lie down and grovel. It's as simple as that."
Terry Coggan
Auckland, New Zealand
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