Workers' rights denied

His denial of the rights of the workers against the State is coupled with his own desire for freedom of expression. His views on Vietnam were a pathetic attempt to avoid the cartharsis of his own political tragedy. His oblique reference to the Sinyaski-Daniel trial and his own position as a writer, were juxtaposed in an attempt to use one paradigm of Communism to justify American counter-revolutionary intervention against peasant guerrillas. In turning full circle, Lee is denouncing the social conscience of his novels of oppressed youth in the slums and workhouses of colonial New Zealand. The crisis in Lee's own conscience is that of the crisis of conscience of New Zealand Labour. The tragedy of John A. Lee is the tragedy of New Zealand radicalism.

Nevil Gibson