Skip to main content

Story: Cold War

Communist Party poster

Image
Communist Party poster

The Communist Party of New Zealand was founded in 1921. It gained support during the 1930s economic depression, when it advocated for unemployed workers and the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). This recruitment poster was produced during the Second World War, when the Soviet Union's contribution to the war effort garnered support for communism.

Courtesy of the Socialist Worker New Zealand Archive

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: Eph-C-ROTH-Communist-1940s-001

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Gerald Hensley, Cold War – The Cold War at home, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/ephemera/32718/communist-party-poster (accessed 10 June 2026).

Story by Gerald Hensley, published 16 April 2012.