Bruce Jesson
Encyclopedia
Bruce Edward Jesson was a left wing journalist
, author and political figure in New Zealand
.
He was educated at Christchurch Boys' High School
(where he read Darwin
's Origin of Species while a "lab boy" in the biology laboratory and became an atheist) and the University of Canterbury
, where he gained a Bachelor's degree in law. He worked briefly as a law clerk, but refused to swear allegiance to the Queen, and was never admitted to the Bar.
He had two daughters,Rebecca Ngaire (Education)and Linley Kay (Botanist).
which tried to groom him to be the party's lawyer. The CPNZ had been the first communist party in the world to side with China in the Sino-Soviet split
. However, Jesson, being an independent thinker, soon struck out on his own, writing a number of polemics such as Traitors to class and country: A study of the Conservative Left and publishing a journal called Te Tao (The Spear). He had a lifelong antipathy to the sectarianism
and dogmatism that plagued the small Marxist
groups in New Zealand. As a student he was involved in anti-Royalist activities, being associated with the burning of a New Zealand flag by another student during a visit by the Queen Mother
. He founded the Committee to Oppose Royal Tours (CORT).
championing an independent political and intellectual culture in New Zealand. He rebelled against the habit of the New Zealand Left to take its political cues from overseas countries. He founded the anti-royal Republican Association
in 1966, later moving to Auckland (first to Pokeno
, later Otahuhu
and finally Mangere
) and forming a political party (the original Republican Party
) to push the republic issue in 1967. Around 1970 he also associated briefly with Trotskyist radicals such as Owen Gager and David Bedggood, and he contributed occasionally to journals such as Dispute, New Zealand Monthly Review and Spartacist Spasmodical.
When activity in the fledgling Republican Party petered out, Jesson wound up the party in 1974, but continued to publish a widely-read pro-republican broadsheet entitled The Republican (1974–1995), covering both republican and leftwing issues in a plain and unpretentious style. This journal also featured articles by many other New Zealand leftists. (The Republican merged into Chris Trotter
's New Zealand Political Review in 1995). Jesson was a founding member of the Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand
, until his death in 1999.
By this time, Jesson - who never had much of a steady career, working variously as labourer, wool presser, baker, dustman and freezing worker - was living with his wife Joce (Jocelyn née Brown), an educationist and tutor/lecturer, and worked as a househusband as well as pursuing his writing. He was interested in developing an indigenous Marxian tradition in New Zealand, and participated in the four NZ Marxian Political Economy conferences staged in the 1970s and early 1980s.
, Syd Jackson
and Ripeka Evans who sought to put Māori nationalism on the political agenda (Mihaka, though an anti-royalist, was strictly speaking not a nationalist). The first drafts of Awatere's famous book Maori Sovereignty were published in The Republican.
and New Zealand Political Review. He also published four books about the neo-liberal revolution in New Zealand, and became a fellow of the Auckland University Political Science Department.
's Labour party splinter NewLabour Party
, and stood as a candidate for the party in the Panmure
electorate. In 1991, he was elected to the Auckland Regional Council
as an Alliance
candidate, becoming chair of the Auckland Regional Services Trust between 1992 and 1995.
An anthology of his later articles has been published posthumously as Bruce Jesson: To Build a Nation - Collected Writings 1975 - 1999 (2005). He is affectionately remembered as a very learned but unpretentious radical who sought to shed light on the peculiarities of New Zealand politics, and who pioneered an independent left wing analysis of local political affairs. The Bruce Jesson papers are archived at the University of Auckland Library. The Bruce Jesson Foundation was established in his honour.
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, author and political figure in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.
Early life
Bruce Edward Jesson was the son of Victor John and Edna Cavell (née Taylor) Jesson and the great-grandson of an immigrant from Leicestershire,UKHe was educated at Christchurch Boys' High School
Christchurch Boys' High School
Christchurch Boys' High School is a single sex state secondary school in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is situated on a 12 hectare site between the suburbs of Riccarton and Fendalton, 4 kilometres to the west of central Christchurch. The school also provides boarding facilities for 130 boys, in a...
(where he read Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
's Origin of Species while a "lab boy" in the biology laboratory and became an atheist) and the University of Canterbury
University of Canterbury
The University of Canterbury , New Zealand's second-oldest university, operates its main campus in the suburb of Ilam in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand...
, where he gained a Bachelor's degree in law. He worked briefly as a law clerk, but refused to swear allegiance to the Queen, and was never admitted to the Bar.
He had two daughters,Rebecca Ngaire (Education)and Linley Kay (Botanist).
Political activism
As a student in the 1960s, he was initially attracted to the Communist Party of New ZealandCommunist Party of New Zealand
The Communist Party of New Zealand was a Communist political party in New Zealand from the 1920s to the early 1990s. It never achieved significant political success, and no longer exists as an independent group, although the Socialist Worker organisation is considered organisationally continuous...
which tried to groom him to be the party's lawyer. The CPNZ had been the first communist party in the world to side with China in the Sino-Soviet split
Sino-Soviet split
In political science, the term Sino–Soviet split denotes the worsening of political and ideologic relations between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War...
. However, Jesson, being an independent thinker, soon struck out on his own, writing a number of polemics such as Traitors to class and country: A study of the Conservative Left and publishing a journal called Te Tao (The Spear). He had a lifelong antipathy to the sectarianism
Sectarianism
Sectarianism, according to one definition, is bigotry, discrimination or hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group, such as between different denominations of a religion, class, regional or factions of a political movement.The ideological...
and dogmatism that plagued the small Marxist
Socialism in New Zealand
The degree to which Socialism in New Zealand has been of significance in mainstream politics is debated, as varying definitions of socialism and communism make the extent of its influence difficult to measure. New Zealand has a complicated assortment of socialist causes and organizations...
groups in New Zealand. As a student he was involved in anti-Royalist activities, being associated with the burning of a New Zealand flag by another student during a visit by the Queen Mother
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the queen consort of King George VI from 1936 until her husband's death in 1952, after which she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II...
. He founded the Committee to Oppose Royal Tours (CORT).
Republicanism
Jesson was from his student days an avowed republicanRepublicanism in New Zealand
Republicanism in New Zealand is a theoretical political concept, the implementation of which would result in changing New Zealand's current constitutional monarchy to that of a republic...
championing an independent political and intellectual culture in New Zealand. He rebelled against the habit of the New Zealand Left to take its political cues from overseas countries. He founded the anti-royal Republican Association
Republican Association of New Zealand
The Republican Association of New Zealand was a political organisation in New Zealand with the aim of supporting the creation of a New Zealand republic.-History:...
in 1966, later moving to Auckland (first to Pokeno
Pokeno
Pokeno is a small town in New Zealand, located 50 kilometres southeast of Auckland. State Highway 1 originally ran through the town, but the upgrading of the highway in 1992 to expressway standards mean that the town has been bypassed....
, later Otahuhu
Otahuhu
Otahuhu is a suburb of Auckland. It is located to the southeast of the city centre, on a narrow isthmus between an arm of the Manukau Harbour to the west and the Tamaki River estuary to the east...
and finally Mangere
Mangere
Māngere is one of the larger suburbs in South Auckland, in northern New Zealand.The suburb is located on flat land at the northeastern shore of the Manukau Harbour, to the northwest of the centre of Manukau city and 15 kilometres south of Auckland city centre...
) and forming a political party (the original Republican Party
New Zealand Republican Party (1967)
The New Zealand Republican Party of 1967 was a political party which campaigned for the creation of a New Zealand republic. It was founded by Bruce Jesson in 1967, and was linked to the Republican Association....
) to push the republic issue in 1967. Around 1970 he also associated briefly with Trotskyist radicals such as Owen Gager and David Bedggood, and he contributed occasionally to journals such as Dispute, New Zealand Monthly Review and Spartacist Spasmodical.
When activity in the fledgling Republican Party petered out, Jesson wound up the party in 1974, but continued to publish a widely-read pro-republican broadsheet entitled The Republican (1974–1995), covering both republican and leftwing issues in a plain and unpretentious style. This journal also featured articles by many other New Zealand leftists. (The Republican merged into Chris Trotter
Chris Trotter
Chris Trotter is a left-leaning political commentator in New Zealand. He is the editor of the occasional Political Review magazine, and is a regular speaker, orator and singer at left-wing, union and socialist events....
's New Zealand Political Review in 1995). Jesson was a founding member of the Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand
Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand
The Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand is an organisation formed in 1994 whose object is to support the creation of a New Zealand republic . It is Chaired by Lewis Holden. The patron of the Movement is Keri Hulme, a New Zealand writer famous for her 1985 Booker Prize winning novel The Bone...
, until his death in 1999.
By this time, Jesson - who never had much of a steady career, working variously as labourer, wool presser, baker, dustman and freezing worker - was living with his wife Joce (Jocelyn née Brown), an educationist and tutor/lecturer, and worked as a househusband as well as pursuing his writing. He was interested in developing an indigenous Marxian tradition in New Zealand, and participated in the four NZ Marxian Political Economy conferences staged in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Maori Sovereignty
Around the time of the mass protests against the Springbok rugby tour of New Zealand in 1981, he associated with Māori radicals such as Donna Awatere, Dun MihakaDun Mihaka
Te Ringa Mangu Nathan Mihaka or Dun Mihaka is a Māori activist, author, and political candidate in New Zealand.Mihaka has been involved in a number of campaigns regarding Māori rights, and was involved in the Bastion Point land dispute...
, Syd Jackson
Syd Jackson (New Zealand)
Syd Jackson was a prominent Māori activist, trade unionist and leader.Syd Jackson, of Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Porou descent, first came to prominence at the University of Auckland, where he gained an MA. He was the chairman of the Māori Students Association, and then was a founder of Ngā Tamatoa...
and Ripeka Evans who sought to put Māori nationalism on the political agenda (Mihaka, though an anti-royalist, was strictly speaking not a nationalist). The first drafts of Awatere's famous book Maori Sovereignty were published in The Republican.
Mainstream publications
It was only late in his life however that Jesson became better known to the general public, as respected political columnist for Auckland's Metro magazine and contributor to other magazines such as North & SouthNorth and South (magazine)
North & South is a monthly magazine published in New Zealand. It was founded in 1986, and famously documented the end of the Lange Labour government in 1989. Its name relates to the two main islands of New Zealand, whilst alluding to the novel by Elizabeth Gaskell...
and New Zealand Political Review. He also published four books about the neo-liberal revolution in New Zealand, and became a fellow of the Auckland University Political Science Department.
Entering politics
In 1990, Jesson joined Jim AndertonJim Anderton
James Patrick Anderton, usually known as Jim Anderton , is the leader of the Progressive Party, a New Zealand political party. He has served in Parliament since 1984. He served as Deputy Prime Minister from 1999 to 2002 and is currently also the sitting Father of the House, the longest...
's Labour party splinter NewLabour Party
NewLabour Party (New Zealand)
NewLabour was a left-of-centre party founded in 1989 by Jim Anderton, an MP and former President of the New Zealand Labour Party.NewLabour was established by a number of Labour Party members who left the party in reaction to "Rogernomics", the economic policies implemented by the Labour Party's...
, and stood as a candidate for the party in the Panmure
Panmure
Panmure may refer to:Places*Panmure, New Zealand, a suburb of Auckland*Panmure , a former New Zealand Parliamentary electorate*Panmure, Victoria, Australia*Panmure Island, Prince Edward Island, Canada...
electorate. In 1991, he was elected to the Auckland Regional Council
Auckland Regional Council
The Auckland Regional Council was the regional council of the Auckland Region. Its predecessor the Auckland Regional Authority was formed in 1963 and became the ARC in 1989...
as an Alliance
Alliance (New Zealand political party)
The Alliance is a left-wing political party in New Zealand. It was formed in 1991, and was influential in the 1990s, but has since declined and has no representation in parliament. It suffered a major setback after Jim Anderton, the party's leader, left the party in 2002, taking several of the...
candidate, becoming chair of the Auckland Regional Services Trust between 1992 and 1995.
An anthology of his later articles has been published posthumously as Bruce Jesson: To Build a Nation - Collected Writings 1975 - 1999 (2005). He is affectionately remembered as a very learned but unpretentious radical who sought to shed light on the peculiarities of New Zealand politics, and who pioneered an independent left wing analysis of local political affairs. The Bruce Jesson papers are archived at the University of Auckland Library. The Bruce Jesson Foundation was established in his honour.