Helen Kelly

- Blurb -

When Helen Kelly died on a Wellington spring night in October 2016, with her partner by her side and a bunch of peonies, the first of the season, by her bed, Aotearoa New Zealand lost an extraordinary leader. Kelly was the first female head of the country' s trade union movement, but she was also much more- a visionary who believed that all workers, whether in a union or not, deserved to be given a fair go; a fighter from a deeply communist family who never gave up the struggle; a strategist and orator who invoked strong loyalty; a woman who could stir fierce emotions. Her battles with famous people were the stuff of headlines. She took on Peter Jackson, the country' s icon. She was accused in parliament of doing ' irreparable damage' to the union movement, and by employers of exploiting the bereaved families of dead workers. While many saw her as a hero, to others she was ' that woman' , a bloody pain in the neck. In this brilliant book, award-winning journalist Rebecca Macfie takes you not only into Kelly' s life but into a defining period in the country' s history, when old values were replaced by the individualism of neo-liberalism, and the wellbeing and livelihood of workers faced unremitting stress. Through it all, Helen Kelly stood as an electrifying figure.