James Henry Edwards was a political activist involved in numerous organisations including the New Zealand Socialist Party, New Zealand Labour Party, Labour Defence League, Communist Party of New Zealand and other unions. To make ends meet James worked in Auckland as a door to door sales man of books and cleaning products. James stood for public office on three occasions, first for the New Plymouth borough council, in the general election of 1931 for the communist party in Auckland Central and for Auckland City Council in 1935 as a communist candidate.
James took part in a number of strikes through his life predominantly for the unemployed but the most notable of these was a relief works strike on the 14th of April 1932 where an estimated 15,000 strong crowd protested against wage reductions and the relief schemes against the unemployed of the time. The atmosphere turned ugly and despite Edwards best attempt to calm the crowd he received an injury by a police sergeant which was he went to the hospital for but not before speaking once more and urged restraint amongst the crowd. James returned only to find that a riot had broken out where 200 people were injured and 40 were arrested and that he was wanted by the police. James was found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison but this did not deter James from continuing his political activism when he was released.
James Henry Edwards
Died 1952
