Democratic Labour Party (New Zealand)

The Democratic Labour Party was a political party in New Zealand. It was a splinter from the larger Labour Party, and was led by the prominent socialist John A. Lee.

The Democratic Labour Party had its origins in the internal disputes which occurred during the first Labour Party government, which lasted from 1935 to 1949. The division was primarily between moderates, such as Michael Joseph Savage, Peter Fraser, and Walter Nash, and radicals, such as Lee. Lee and his allies criticised the "cautious" approach taken by the party's leadership, and advocated a considerably stronger policy line. Lee's views were a mixture of conventional socialist theory and the social credit theory of monetary reform. He was also strongly critical of the Labour Party's internal structures, calling its leadership unaccountable and autocratic.

In 1940, after a long period of rebellion against the Labour Party leadership, Lee was finally expelled from the party. He quickly moved to establish a new party, named the Democratic Labour Party. One other MP, Bill Barnard, joined him, and at least one other, Rex Mason, gave serious consideration to joining. Before long, however, internal tensions developed in the new party, with Lee being accused of behaving in an egotistical and autocratic manner — this was ironic, considering his criticism of the old Labour Party leadership on the same grounds. In the 1943 elections, Barnard chose to stand for re-election as an independent rather than a DLP candidate, and Lee himself was defeated. The Democratic Labour Party received only 4.3% of the total vote, and ceased to exist not long afterwards.