HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Bill Andersen
OR:
Bill Andersen on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

Gordon Harold "Bill" Andersen (21 January 1924 – 19 January 2005) was a New Zealand
communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
, social activist and
trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...
leader.


Biography

Andersen was born in Auckland on 21 January 1924, the youngest child of Hans (Skip) Andersen and Minnie Boneham. He was educated at Panmure School. Andersen was one of the participants in the 1951 Waterfront Lockout and the president of the Northern Drivers' Union and later the
National Distribution Union The National Distribution Union (NDU) was a national trade union in New Zealand. It was formed in 1986 as the ''Northern Distribution Union'' by the merger of The Northern Drivers Union, The Northern Stores and Warehouse Union, The Auckland an ...
. He was later the president of the Socialist Unity Party, which broke away from the
Communist Party of New Zealand The Communist Party of New Zealand (CPNZ) was a communist party in New Zealand which existed from 1921 to 1994. Although spurred to life by events in Soviet Russia in the aftermath of World War I, the party had roots in pre-existing revolutionar ...
over the
Sino-Soviet split The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union caused by doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Le ...
, and he also led its successor, the Socialist Party of Aotearoa. Andersen's opposition to then National Party Prime Minister
Robert Muldoon Sir Robert David Muldoon (; 25 September 19215 August 1992) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 31st Prime Minister of New Zealand, from 1975 to 1984, while leader of the National Party. Serving as a corporal and sergeant in t ...
made him a household name in New Zealand during the 1970s.