All for one

Came Tuesday 11 September, the day after the use of the Act was announced, and the meetings took on a new flavour. At Seaview, 1500 workers called on the FoL to stage a general strike to be followed by rolling stoppages. By the Friday, Knox was back in the country with the announcement that the FoL Executive would meet on Monday to plan what to do. Most people thought that meant no strike: decisions that took a week to make, leaving unionists in limbo, did not usually turn out to be decisions that required a lot of build-up work if they were to be successful.

But the pressure was on. If the Government attack was to be stopped, urgent action was required. The FoL met with the Government on Monday and made an offer: calm down, forget it, was the substance of the Government's message. Shortly after 5pm, Knox announced that the FoL was calling a "nationwide stoppage" for Thursday 20 September. New Zealand's first general strike since 1913 was on.