Auckland Socialist Forum records.

The Socialist Forum was founded on 2 May 1958 by a small group of people who met in a private flat near Wellington's Basin Reserve. Its sponsors were Jim Delahunty and Con Bollinger. Many of the original members had come from the Communist Party, which they had left after Krushchev's revelations about the Stalin regime and the Russian occupation of Hungary. The great majority were intellectuals in some form of public employment (public servants or teachers) and this ideological and occupational background explains the group's strong interest in research and publication and its concern with theoretical and philosophical problems of the labour movement.

The aim of the Forum was to keep socialist policies alive within the labour movement as a whole.

The Auckland Socialist Forum had its initial meeting on 20 July 1961 at a private house in Glen Eden. It was decided to form a New Labour Group. The guiding spirit was John Colquhoun who was appointed secretary and the members, with few exceptions, came from the Labour Party. Bert Roth became chairman in March 1963 and retained that office until the Auckland Socialist Forum was wound up in 1971, its remaining funds being handed to the Auckland Branch of the Anti-[Vietnam] War Mobilisation.

The University of Auckland Library has a complete set of Socialist Forum, the Auckland Socialist Forum newsletter, from 1963-1971. A picture of the Forum's activities and its position on the political issues and events of the sixties may be gained from the newsletter (NZ & Pacific 335.505/S657).

(References from: Roth, Bert. Looking back and Socialist forum no.35 June 1971 (final number), p.3.