Roger D Ellis

The Unmaking of New Zealand Communism Roger D Ellis

Before Facebook and the Trump election of 2016 was there Russian interference in New Zealand's parliamentary elections as early as 1984? Were communists infiltrating and influencing trade unions during the 1970s and 1980s? In an era of 21st century extremism it's important to learn from history and to understand what motivated people to join extremist organisations. How do citizens in a parliamentary democracy become radicalised? In this book, based on several years of research towards a post-graduate degree, Roger Ellis reveals the inner workings of the extreme Left - the communists - in New Zealand. The author examines the strategies and tactics of the communist groups as well as profiling some of the New Zealanders who were devoted to the cause of violent revolution in order to overthrow capitalism."The Unmaking of New Zealand Communism" traces one hundred years of the communist movement from its enthusiastic beginnings as a series of small Marxian study groups celebrating the Russian revolution, through to its conclusion as a fragmented collection of tiny sects struggling to survive on the fringes of the nation's political culture.