Bruce Jesson

Bruce Edward Jesson was the son of Victor John and Edna Cavell (née Taylor) Jesson and the great-grandson of an immigrant from Leicestershire in England.

He was educated at Christchurch Boys' High School (where he read Darwin's Origin of Species while a "lab boy" in the biology laboratory and became an atheist) and the University of Canterbury, where he gained a bachelor's degree in law.{{cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19670505.2.162 |title=Biggest List of Graduates |work=The Press |page=12 |date=5 May 1967 |access-date=21 September 2024 |via=Papers Past}} He worked briefly as a law clerk, but refused to swear allegiance to the Queen, and was never admitted to the Bar.{{Citation needed|date= October 2013}}

As a student in the 1960s, he was initially attracted to the Communist Party of New Zealand which tried to groom him to be the party's lawyer.{{Citation needed|date= October 2013}} The CPNZ had been the first communist party in the world to side with China in the Sino-Soviet split. However, Jesson struck out on his own, writing a number of polemics such as Traitors to Class and Country: A Study of the Conservative Left and publishing a journal called Te Tao ("The Spear").{{Citation needed|date= October 2013}} As a student he was involved in anti-Royalist activities, and in April 1966 was fined £40 for painting slogans during a visit by the Queen Mother.{{cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19660429.2.20 |title=Slogan Painters Fined |work=The Press |page=29 |date=3 April 1966 |access-date=21 September 2024 |via=Papers Past}} The sentence was overturned in June 1966 after a judge found Jesson had been denied the right to legal counsel by police.{{cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19660614.2.112 |title=Defendant Was Denied 'Important Legal Right' |work=The Press |page=13 |date=14 June 1966 |access-date=21 September 2024 |via=Papers Past}} He founded the Committee to Oppose Royal Tours (CORT).{{cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19660225.2.171 |title=Royal Tour Opposed |work=The Press |page=14 |date=25 February 1966 |access-date=21 September 2024 |via=Papers Past}}

Jesson was a republican who championed an independent political and intellectual culture in New Zealand.{{Citation needed|date= October 2013}} He rebelled against the habit of the New Zealand Left to take its political cues from overseas countries. He founded the anti-royal Republican Association in 1966, later moving to Auckland (first to Pōkeno, later Ōtāhuhu and finally Māngere) and forming a political party (the original Republican Party) to push the republic issue in 1967. Around 1970 he also associated briefly with Trotskyist activists such as Owen Gager and David Bedggood, and he contributed occasionally to journals such as Dispute, New Zealand Monthly Review and Spartacist Spasmodical.{{Citation needed|date= October 2013}}

When activity in the fledgling Republican Party petered out, Jesson wound up the party in 1974, but continued to publish a widely read pro-republican broadsheet entitled The Republican (1974–1995), covering both republican and leftwing issues in a plain and unpretentious style. This journal also featured articles by many other New Zealand leftists. (The Republican merged into Chris Trotter's New Zealand Political Review in 1995). Jesson was a founding member of the Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand, until his death in 1999.

By this time, Jesson – who never had much of a steady career, working variously as labourer, wool presser, baker, dustman and freezing worker – was living with his wife Joce (Jocelyn née Brown), an educationist and tutor/lecturer, and worked as a househusband as well as pursuing his writing. He was interested in developing an indigenous Marxian tradition in New Zealand, and participated in the four NZ Marxian Political Economy conferences staged in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Around the time of the mass protests against the Springbok rugby tour of New Zealand in 1981, he associated with Māori activists such as Donna Awatere, Dun Mihaka, Syd Jackson and Ripeka Evans who sought to put Māori nationalism on the political agenda.{{Citation needed|date= October 2013}} The first drafts of Awatere's famous book Maori Sovereignty were published in The Republican.{{Citation needed|date= October 2013}}

It was only late in his life that Jesson became better known to the general public, as a political columnist for Auckland's Metro magazine and contributor to other magazines such as North & South and New Zealand Political Review. He also published four books about the neo-liberal revolution in New Zealand, and became a fellow of the Auckland University Political Science Department.{{Citation needed|date= October 2013}}

In 1990, Jesson joined Jim Anderton's Labour party splinter NewLabour Party. He stood as a candidate for the party in the Panmure electorate in {{NZ election link year|1990}}. He again stood in Panmure in {{NZ election link year|1993}}, for the Alliance.

In 1991, he was elected to the Auckland Regional Council in a by-election as an Alliance candidate.{{cite news |title=Declaration of Result of Election |work=The New Zealand Herald |date=5 December 1991 |page=14; 3 }}{{cite news |title=Voters go for new parties |work=The New Zealand Herald |date=28 November 1991 |page=1 }} He became chair of the Auckland Regional Services Trust between 1992 and 1995.{{Citation needed|date= October 2013}}

Jesson died of cancer in the Auckland suburb of Māngere Bridge on 30 April 1999.{{cite news | title= Bruce Jesson: a formidable view from the left | date=6 May 1999 | work=The Evening Post | page=7 | first=Peter | last=Kitchin}}

An anthology of his later articles has been published posthumously as Bruce Jesson: To Build a Nation – Collected Writings 1975 – 1999 (2005).{{cite book | last = Jesson | first = Bruce | editor-last = Sharp | editor-first = Andrew | title = To build a nation: collected writings 1975-1999 | publisher = Penguin Books | location = Auckland, New Zealand New York | year = 2005 | isbn = 9780143020523 }} The Bruce Jesson papers are archived at the University of Auckland Library.

The Bruce Jesson Foundation was established in his honour in 1999.{{cite web | url=http://www.brucejesson.com/ | title=The Bruce Jesson Foundation. Only their purpose is mad… | work=The Bruce Jesson Foundation | access-date=28 May 2016}} The Trust Board was chaired by former Prime Minister David Lange from 1999 until his death in 2005; by Professor Andrew Sharp until 2006; by Professor Jane Kelsey until 2012; and since then by Sir Edmund Thomas.{{cite web | url=http://www.brucejesson.com/about/members/| title=Trust Board | work=The Bruce Jesson Foundation | date=27 May 2012 | access-date=28 May 2016}} The main public programs are the annual Bruce Jesson Memorial Lecture. Speakers have included David Lange (inaugural lecture in 2000), Brian Easton (2001), Chris Trotter (2002), Ani Mikaere (2004), Laila Harre (2007), Mike Lee (2008), Robert Wade (2009), Annette Sykes (2010), Nicky Hager (2012), Ted Thomas (2013), Mike Joy (2014), and Rod Oram (2015).{{cite web | url=http://www.brucejesson.com/lectures-2/lectures/ | title=Download PDF versions of past lectures | work=The Bruce Jesson Foundation | access-date=28 May 2016}}

• {{cite book | last1 = Jesson | first1 = Bruce | last2 = Sturt | first2 = John | title = Traitors to class and country: A study of the Conservative Left | publisher = Workers Action Movement | location = Christchurch, New Zealand | year = 1965 | oclc = 17064728 }}
• {{cite book | last = Jesson | first = Bruce | title = The Fletcher Challenge: Wealth and Power in New Zealand | publisher = B. Jesson | location = Pōkeno, New Zealand | year = 1980 | oclc = 153921580 }}
• {{cite book | last1 = Jesson | first1 = Bruce | last2 = Ryan | first2 = Allanah | last3 = Spoonley | first3 = Paul | title = Revival of the right: New Zealand politics in the 1980s | publisher = Heinemann Reed | location = Birkenhead, Auckland | year = 1988 | isbn = 9780790000039 }}
• {{cite book | last = Jesson | first = Bruce | title = Behind the mirror glass: The growth of wealth and power in New Zealand in the eighties | publisher = Penguin Books | location = Auckland, New Zealand | year = 1987 | oclc = 22469075 }}
• {{cite book | last = Jesson | first = Bruce | title = Fragments of labour: the story behind the labour government | publisher = Penguin Books | location = Auckland, New Zealand New York, New York, USA | year = 1989 | isbn = 9780140128161 }}
• {{Cite journal | last = Jesson | first = Bruce | title = The disintegration of a Labour tradition: New Zealand politics in the 1980s | journal = New Left Review | volume = I | issue = 192 | date = March–April 1992 | url = https://newleftreview.org/I/192/bruce-jesson-the-disintegration-of-a-labour-tradition-new-zealand-politics-in-the-1980s }}{{subscription required}}
• {{cite book | last = Jesson | first = Bruce | title = Only their purpose is mad: the money men take over New Zealand | publisher = Dunmore Press | location = Palmerston North, New Zealand | year = 1999 | isbn = 9780864693433 }}
• {{cite book | last = Jesson | first = Bruce | editor-last = Sharp | editor-first = Andrew | title = To build a nation: collected writings 1975-1999 | publisher = Penguin Books | location = Auckland, New Zealand New York | year = 2005 | isbn = 9780143020523 }}

• New Zealand literature

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.brucejesson.com The Bruce Jesson Foundation]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927075659/http://www.penguin.co.nz/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,0_0143020528,00.html Bruce Jesson: To Build a Nation]
• [http://www.maberly.name/Jessonindex.htm Jesson Family website]

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Category:1944 births

Category:1999 deaths

Category:New Zealand left-wing activists

Category:Leaders of political parties in New Zealand

Category:New Zealand republicans

Category:University of Canterbury alumni

Category:People educated at Christchurch Boys' High School

Category:NewLabour Party (New Zealand) politicians

Category:Auckland regional councillors

Category:Unsuccessful candidates in the 1993 New Zealand general election

Category:Unsuccessful candidates in the 1990 New Zealand general election

Category:Alliance (New Zealand political party) politicians

Category:New Zealand investigative journalists

Category:20th-century New Zealand journalists

Category:University of Canterbury Faculty of Law alumni