Community Theatre as Active Citizenship

Manufacturing Consensus? New Zealand Press Attitudes Toward the Labour Movement in 1890

“…deliberately employed consensus rhetoric, masking the reasons behind the largest strike in the colony's history.The dominant framing of the strike, as a minor disturbance to colonial consensus, bears similarities to the fixation on egalitarianism that has prevailed in New Zealand labour historiography since William PemberReeves' 1902 State Experiments in New Zealand and Australia 161. New Zealand's colonists regarded the tight-knit, egalitarian, and stable agrarian society they had forged in Pacific isolation with pride -sentiments evident during the 'sweating' scandal.162 Just as early official publications rarely featured material that detracted from this Arcadian narrative, newspaper editors eagerly juxtaposed the relative comfort of workers' wages and conditions with the surly rhetoric of their leaders 163. By contrast, the press never respected the Maritime Council's principled opposition to the possibility of an enforced 'open shop'.…”

“…George Griffiths, 'Fenwick, George 1847-1929 available from http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/DNZB/alt_essayBody.asp?essayID=2F4; accessed 8 July 2010 161. Reeves, State Experiments in New Zealand and Australia.162 Nolan, 'The Reality and Myth of New Zealand Egalitarianism', pp.113-34 163. The utopian element in early New Zealand national identity has been examined by Dominic Alessio, 'Promoting Paradise: Utopianism and National Identity in NewZealand, 1870-1930', NZJH, Vol.…”