Jared Davidson

The History of a Riot: Class, Popular Protest and Violence in Early Colonial Nelson

Submitted by Jared on Jan 28 2020 22:38

Petitions, public meetings, strikes, go-slows, violence and armed revolt. Nelson, New Zealand in 1843 was said to be 'in a state little short of anarchy'. In this paper, Jared Davidson argues that the self-activity of the Nelson labourers and their wives had a significant impact on the development of Nelson, drawing on traditions of popular protest, class power and the gendered labour of making shift. The agricultural backgrounds of many of the emigrants and the conflicts of the English countryside – including but not limited to the Swing Riots of 1830/31 – played a role in structuring the gang-men’s response to their situation.

The war that never ended: public history for the present

Submitted by Jared on Jun 17 2019 22:11

A critical look at New Zealand's official First World War centennial programme and its lack of engagement with the war's root causes, namely capitalism and white supremacy.

The untold history of armistice and the end of World War I

Submitted by Jared on Nov 10 2018 04:20

‘The best antidote to ideology is detail,’ writes Paul Mason. And the detail that’s missing this Armistice Day is that working people, when they take power into their own hands, can end whatever catastrophe is imposed on them.

Black Flag 237 (2015)

The last of the titles from the 2007-15 Black Flag collective looked at a brief wave of squatting in the capital and took an in-depth look at the then-somnolent Parliamentary scene before the rise of Corbynism. A direct action bent saw it pick over the rise and fall of the animal rights movement, and consider how the Trade Union Bill could potentially be resisted.

Lines of Work: Stories of Jobs and Resistance (review)

By Scott Nikolas Nappalos, ed. (Alberta, Canada: Black Cat Press, 2013). Review by Jared Davidson, first published in LHP Bulletin 64.

Wobbly driplines: strikes, stowaways & the SS Manuka

Submitted by Jared on Apr 14 2015 08:28

Built in 1903 and wrecked off New Zealand’s southern coast in 1929, the Manuka was a floating fragment of class society—and of class warfare. This article uses the Manuka to tell the wider story of syndicalism, transnationalism, anti-militarism, and the IWW in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Fighting war

Submitted by Jared on May 7 2014 07:59

NOTE: this has now been edited and released as a new pamphlet by Rebel Press (April 2016)

This article highlighted the anti-war agitation of anarchists and the IWW based in New Zealand during the period before, during and after the First World War.