in 1911. The party was founded by members of the 'Clarionettes', a group of about 190 English Socialist immigrants recruited through
William Ranstead's weekly publication. The original goal was to establish a
socialist colony, though the colony was never organised. The
Wellington branch of the party was founded on 28 July 1901, and the
Christchurch branch in January 1902. The initial members were followers of
Robert Blatchford's works. Some of the most prominent leaders of the party were English-born
Frederick Cooke and
Ted Howard. Visitors from England were
Tom Mann in 1902 and 1908 and
Ben Tillett in 1907. Robert Rivers La Monte from America was (briefly) an organiser for the party: he was a member of the "Wobblies": the IWW
Industrial Workers of the World. By 1903,
Robert Hogg was publishing a party journal called the
Commonweal in Wellington. The party was not prolifically active and stood no candidates at the election. The party received new vigor with the entry of several radical unionists from
Australia including
Paddy Webb,
Bob Semple,
Michael Joseph Savage and
Harry Holland. Others of the Australian cohort, while less radical and active in attempts to enter the political sphere, were still invested in significant social change; Thomas Eagle, who was a
carpenter by trade, was an example of those members who stood as representational of the local and regional labouring
workforce, and championed issues for such groups accordingly, such as the open accessibility of education and resources to all people. Amongst early issues raised by Eagle that he brought to New Zealand was his campaign for
public libraries to be open on Sundays, assumedly so that
blue-collar workers (who then worked 6 days a week before the implementation of the 8-8-8
workdays model) would be able to access books and media collections on their single day off. By 1908 the party was tested by the
Blackball miners strike and membership had increased to 3,000 by April of that year. Also that year the Socialist Party held its first national conference in
Wellington. Many of the early leaders were from the UK and Australia, where
radical ideologies were not uncommon among political parties, but were seen as
"out of touch" in New Zealand, where more moderate platforms were the norm. As such the party failed to gain much traction. A different group, the Socialist Party of New Zealand, was founded in 1930 and became the
World Socialist Party (New Zealand). ==Policies==