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This weakness of the party presented it with serious difficulties. One U.S. observer wrote in 1970 that “Throughout its existence, the CPNZ has been torn by factional strife between those determined to maintain an ideological ‘pure’ and elite core of revolutionaries—even at the expense of possible electoral gain—and those bent on pragmatic political advance. Frequent purges have failed to consolidate the party, whose continuing divisions demonstrate the frustration of a tiny party relegated to the outermost fringe of the nation’s political arena and unable to relate Marxist-Leninist theory to the context of day-to-day activity.”[584] The same source noted on another occasion that “In practice, the CPNZ has virtually no coherent political program. The party dares not advocate violent revolution, and itself acknowledges that ‘revolutionary potentialities’ in New Zealand are practically nil. Under such circumstances, about all the party can do is agitate over specific grievances against ‘class enemies’ and the government while maintaining that the capitalist system in New Zealand is heading for inevitable collapse. With regard to its nature and ultimate goals, the party leadership stresses that it is not trying to build the CPNZ into a mass party, lest it suffer corruption by trade unionism’ and abandon revolutionary objectives. Because of this, lack of direction and low morale within the party are thus more or less constant problems for the leadership, and are frequently the subjects of reports and criticisms by party leaders.”[585]

The CPNZ Joins the Maoists

When the Sino-Soviet dispute came out into the open, the Communist Party of New Zealand joined the Chinese side of the argument at its 20th Congress in 1963. Previous positions taken by Victor C. Wilcox, who had been Secretary General of the party since 1951 and largely dominated it for almost three decades thereafter, would not have indicated that the New Zealanders would take such a position.

Certainly in the 1950s, Wilcox and his party had supported Nikita Khrushchev and the “peaceful coexistence” line he preached. For instance, the news sheet of the Information Bureau of Communist and Workers Parties (Cominform) reported in 1955 that “A recent meeting of the Political Committee of the New Zealand Communist Party was addressed by the general secretary, Comrade Wilcox, who declared that the promotion of trade between East and West, and peaceful coexistence were particularly significant for the economy of New Zealand. Comrade Wilcox pointed out that it must be emphasized that a war in support of the present U.S. policy would make these things impossible and would paralyze the economy of New Zealand.”[586]

However, in spite of such positions, which Wilcox and the CPNZ had taken in the 1950s, they threw in their lot with the Chinese once the Chinese conflict with the CPSU came out into the open. Both the Chinese Communist Party and that of New Zealand came to place high value on their association with one another. The American source that we have already quoted noted in 1966 that “The CPNZ’s lack of domestic influence is in a way compensated by its international significance as a Western communist party which follows the Peking line in the international communist movement—a fact which Chinese communist propaganda tries to blow out of proportion.”[587]

That same source noted a year later that the position of the CPNZ on international issues is straightforwardly that of Peking. For its part, the Chinese Communist Party gives much prominence to the pro-Chinese articles and statements of the CPNZ and never fails to give New Zealand Communists a most warm reception in Peking.”[588]

In January 1966, the six principal figures in the pro-Moscow faction in the Communist Party of New Zealand resigned from the organization. Under the leadership of George Jackson, a former chairman of the CPNZ, they formed in October 1966 a rival group, the Socialist Unity Party (SUP). It was estimated at that time to have about 100 members.[589]

For about a decade and a half, the CPNZ continued to take a solid pro-China position. For instance, in 1968 it was noted that The CPNZ goes very far in its advocacy of the thought of Mao Tse-tung, arguing the Chinese point of view that Mao is the greatest Marxist-Leninist in everything from political tactics to philosophy. The theme was treated in Wilcox’s reports and speeches and in numerous articles in the party press.”[590]

The CPNZ strongly endorsed the Cultural Revolution. In November 1968, the party’s Political Committee declared that the decisions of the Twelfth Plenum of the Chinese Central Committee which, among other things, included the expulsion of Liu Shao-chi, were landmarks in the strengthening of socialism.”[591] In 1972, “the CPNZ welcomed U.S. President Nixon’s visit to Peking, while it denounced his agreements with Brezhnev as a threat to world peace and ‘collusion between two imperialist powers to carve up the world by using force and threat of force.’”[592]

In 1971 when Rewi Alley, a well-known New Zealander who had for many years lived in Peking, returned home for an extended visit, he praised the position of the CPNZ. He said that “The outstanding role of the New Zealand Communist Party and the leadership of Comrade Vic. Wilcox in the fight against revisionism and particularly Soviet social-imperialism is very well recognized and highly appreciated in Peking, by the people of China and the true Marxist-Leninists abroad.”[593]

For many years there were frequent visits by leaders of the CPNZ to China and to its ally, Albania. For instance, in March 1966, Wilcox spent ten days in China. In that same year, two other party leaders, R. Nunes and A. Rhodes, attended the Fifth Congress of the Albanian Workers Party.[594] Similarly, it was reported that “CPNZ leading members and delegations visited China on numerous occasions in 1967.”[595] There were similar visits in the following years.

In its support of the Chinese, the CPNZ not only attacked all those parties that backed the Soviet “social imperialists,” it also severely criticized those parties that sought to take a neutral position in the Sino-Soviet dispute. The CPNZ particularly singled out the Japanese and North Korean parties in this regard, accusing them of “centrism.”[596]

Domestic Activities of the CPNZ

Until 1966 the CPNZ held regular congresses every three years. At the 1966 conference (the party’s last) there were fraternal delegates present from the Chinese party (Liu Ningyi, a member of the Central Committee), the Australian Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), and the Communist Party of Belgium (Marxist-Leninist). An Albanian delegation was refused visas by the New Zealand government. Greetings arrived from more than half a dozen other Maoist parties.[597]

The Communist Party of New Zealand had several regular periodicals. One was the weekly People’s Voice, and another a monthly theoretical organ, New Zealand Communist Review. For some time, it also put out “bulletins” addressed to particular kinds of workers in different parts of the country.[598]

In spite of the extremism of its theoretical positions, the Communist Party of New Zealand continued for a number of years to participate in elections. For instance, in 1966 it ran candidates in nine different constituencies in parliamentary elections, on a platform centering particularly on opposition to the war in Vietnam, in which New Zealand troops were participating against the Communists. Altogether, these nominees received only 1,207 votes, as opposed to the 2,868 votes the party had gotten in the 1963 general election. Wilcox, in commenting on these results, said that “Our own vote dropped slightly, the main reason being the fact that many supporters, both old and new, voted Labor solely in the ‘bring-the-troops back’ Vietnam issue, not because they agreed with Labor policy.”[599]