Anarchism in Aotearoa Today
There are a small but active number of anarchist groups and projects in Aotearoa New Zealand , find their contacts here. Anarchists have a presence in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

Anarchism in the mid 50s to early 80s
In 2007, libertarian socialist, researcher and author Toby Boraman published Aotearoa New Zealand's first major history of anarchism and libertarian socialism in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Rabble Rousers and Merry Pranksters. Based primarily upon interviews and correspondence with participants in the libertarian socialist scene, the book outlines Anarchism in Aotearoa New Zealand during the mid 50s to early 80s.

"Rabble Rousers and Merry Pranksters captures some of the imagination, the audacity, the laughs and the wildness that animated many of the social movements of the sixties and seventies in Aotearoa/New Zealand. During this time, particularly from the late sixties to the early seventies, an astonishingly broad-based revolt occurred throughout the country. Thousands of workers, Maori, Pacific people, women, youth, lesbians, gays, students, environmentalists and others rebelled against authority. Innovative new styles and anarchistic methods of political dissent became popular.

A colourful and energetic bunch of anarchists occasionally played significant roles in these struggles. Anarchists were prominent in the anti-nuclear, anti-Vietnam War, anti-US military bases, commune, unemployed and peace movements. Rabble Rousers and Merry Pranksters is a richly-detailed tale about a much neglected anti-authoritarian leftist current in Aotearoa/New Zealand history." From http://www.rabblerousers.co.nz/

Download the introduction and table of contents of Toby's book here: http://www.rabblerousers.co.nz/excerpt.pdf
Buy his book online at Katipo Books or download and order form.

Anarchism in early Aotearoa New Zealand

"...In Wellington in 1913 [an anarchist group], 'after their meetings they used to have street fights with the coppers. I don't know anything else about them.' An old communist... "there was a well dressed fella who carried a book of Bakunin around under his arm when he was talking at street meetings'. 'There was a family called the Webbs in Auckland who were quite active, also a Sacco-Vanzetti defence committee" - so says "Trouble Makers" - Anarchism and Syndicalism: The early years of the Libertarian Movement in Aotearoa / New Zealand by Frank Prebble which you can read here.

Between 1908 and 1913 the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) were a small organisation in New Zealand whose infl uence was tremendous amongst working people. By means of hundreds of propaganda meetings, thousands of pamphlets and in particular their paper, the Industrial Unionist, the Wobblies (I.W.W. members) spread their revolutionary ideas wide and far. The big strike actions of 1912/13 can be attributed to workers uniting as a class inspired by revolutionary ideas. Th e transient nature of workers at that time also contributed to Wobbly ideas reaching every corner of the English speaking countries within a few years. However, it also made organising diffi cult due to the short-lived groups. Th e history of the I.W.W. challenges traditional historical understandings, as historians tend to argue that, while workers lost in 1913, they were eventually victorious in 1935 with the election of the fi rst Labour Government. Th is view misrepresents the I.W.W. and the revolutionary ambitions of workers who were committed to syndicalism and whose anti-parliamentarian views brought them closer to anarchism than Marxist state control orsocial democratic reforms....[Read more here].