Congress News : Crash goes another Government pledge

Congress News was the official newspaper of the New Zealand Trade Union Congress (NZTUC). The NZTUC was formed from members of the Watersider Workers' Union and other more militant  / socialist unions who broke away from the Federation of Labour (FoL) in 1950 after on-going disagreements about how issues around declining employment conditions and the policies of the Government were being tackled by the FoL.  Published at the height of the 1951 dispute, this issue of Congress News was edited by the influential poet R. A. K (Ronald Allison Kells) Mason, often regarded as the first poet to speak with a truly New Zealand voice. Though Mason had largely given up writing poetry by the late 1940s, he had drifted into theatre and supporting left-wing causes. Though it lacks any bylines, it likely that a considerable number of the articles in this issue were also written by Mason. Like other similar publications from this period, the feature articles are mostly concerning the emergency regulations passed by the Government which resulted in press censorship and restrictions on the freedom of speech.