Bruce Jesson - Resources

INVENTORY OF BRUCE JESSON PAPERS
In New Zealand and Pacific Collection of the University of Auckland Library

The Jesson Archive in the New Zealand and Pacific Collection of the University of Auckland Library contains the papers from Bruce Jesson's study, left in 1999. The Trustees of the Bruce Jesson Foundation are eager to hear of further materials relevant to Jesson's life and times. It may be possible to add these to the Archive, or to undertake some other method of preservation. Information and suggestions can be sent to:
Andrew Sharp
Professor of Political Studies
University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019
Auckland
New Zealand

Compiled by Simon Hope, summer 2002-03

Box 1

Box file labeled "Business Round Table"

Clippings, publications, journal articles, speeches relating to BRT 1991,1990

folder: ECA annotated; Prebble vs TVNZ re Frontline programme of 29/4/1990 "For the Public Good". Defence statements; Broadcasting Standards Authority Decision re NZBRT and Treasury vs TVNZ (14/12/90); copies of correspondence re same between TVNZ and complainants; conference papers; summary of evidence Hopai Zone change (April 1991); correspondence and speeches effects of foreign ownership on Auckland property market (1990)

Box 2

Box file labeled Reserve Bank speeches & articles" - 1999 box 3 box file labelled "Port Sale" [Bruce Jesson ARC member for Panmure] 1991-92 Local Government Law Reform Bill (No.2). Select committee report 1992 ARC internal memoranda, order papers, minutes, corresondence and circulars re same Submission from Auckland Regional Chamber of Commerce & Industry to Finance and Administration Committee of ARC (29/1/92) Clippings

Box 4

Box labeled "Corporate Clippings"

Flowchart of connections between major NZ businesses (see the Republican issue in box 15),
Highlighted extracts from the "Stock Exchange Manual"
Lots of newspaper clippings.

Box 5

Box labeled "Articles"
Last article (unfinished)
Metro articles and columns (c. 1990),
Counter Culture issue,
Campaign leaflets and Alliance newspapers from Jesson’s ARC by-election campaign,
Various articles written by others,
Lots of undated drafts of articles by Jesson, some of which aren’t in the Library,
Part of "Republican 69", which is missing from library,
University essay on Jesson,
Incomplete academic article on sociology (probably not by Jesson)

Box 6

Box labeled "Roundtable, New Right, Treasury"
File of clippings labeled "Roundtable/Treasury"
File of clippings labeled "Frontline"
File of Mana Motuhake policies labeled "Mana Motuhake"
Lots of Treasury-related clippings
Various publications (Centre of Independent Studies, Bluelink)
Draft of one of Roger Douglas’s speeches

Box 7

Grey folder/box
All documents and correspondence relating to ARST and water services integration.

Box 8

Box labeled "New Right"
File of clippings (c. 1997) labeled "Roger Kerr and Roundtable Specifically"
File of clippings (c. 1996 – 7) labeled "Opponents of New Right"
File of clippings (c. 1996) labeled "Treasury and Other New Right Government Manifestations"
Related clippings c. 1996.

Box 9

Box labeled "Labour Party"
All press statements and political party leaflets, including:
Labour policy statements on Foreign and Arts policies (1992)
Photocopied Hansard from 16/5/90
Moore’s and Clark’s speeches from 1992 Labour conference
Labour leaflets (1987), and various bits and pieces (c. 1991)
National’s 1991 education policy statement
List of JAGPRO Auckland general members (?), 1990
Bits of National party publications (c. 1990)
Document "National Party Election Promises Broken in the 1991 Budget"

Box 10

Box labeled "Articles"
Many, many articles published in Metro, all in published form, dating from the early 80’s to mid 90’s (a few not Jesson’s, and some double-ups)
2 draft articles, probably for Metro
Republican subscription leaflets
The paper Jesson delivered at the 1978 "Conference on Marxian Political Economy"
A synopsis and introduction for a book on Marxism. Jesson’s name is nowhere on it, but this may have been an uncompleted project of his (?)

Box 11

Box labeled "Brian Easton"
Unsurprisingly, the whole box is full of Easton’s work (spanning his career), including
Academic papers
Newspaper cuttings and magazine columns
Speech notes

Box 12

Box labeled "Photocopies Relevant to Book"
Many academic articles, a lot annotated by Jesson, a couple by Brian Easton
Company prospectuses and documents for big NZ companies
A couple of Jesson’s Metro articles (including "Only Their Purpose is Mad", suggesting that this might be for his last book)
Law Court reports

Box 13

Box labeled "Extracts – Marx, Hegel, Dialectics, etc"
All academic articles on various topics, v. little annotation from Jesson.

Box 14

Box labeled "Port Sale #2"
Mostly ARC minutes, committee reports and other documents, 1991 – 1993.
A few clippings on the Ports sale, and related correspondence.

Box 15

Documents and reports from ARC and elsewhere relating to the water crisis 1994 including:
- Submissions and reports from various Council committees
- Alternative strategies (with a few maps detailing piping options)
- Watercare and council crisis management plans
- Documents relating to Tainui and the Waikato pipeline option, including correspondence from the iwi
- Documents relating to the 1994 Auckland Emergency Water Supply Bill
Folder containing printouts of all ten chapters + introduction of Only Their Purpose is Mad.
Draft of all ten chapters + introduction of Only Their Purpose is Mad, plus critical correspondence on them from Brian Easton (about 1 email per chapter).
Issue 77 of The Republican (missing from library).
Cassette labeled "Jim Delahunty"
Several Labour party press statements (c. 1998), and articles by Brian Easton,
Balance sheet for Maine Investments Ltd, December 1997
Profit and Loss projection for Political Press ltd, based on 1998 figures
1992 policy statement for the Auckland Citizens and Ratepayers Assn. Inc.
5 essays from the Institute for International Research, from the 1994 conference "Community Consultation for Effective Local Government Performance"
Documents and reports relating to the ARC – ARST Draft Divestment Plan, 1993
Various other reports and documents relating to the ARST

Box 16

Folders of clippings, c. 1997, labeled:
"Markets"
unlabelled folder
"Foreign investment"
"Managed funds"
"Gareth Morgan"
"Asian Debacle"
Envelope labeled "Metro articles", containing early to mid 90’s pieces.
A wealth of unbound documents relating to the 1995 water services integration proposal, including
ARST and ARC committee reports and documents
Correspondence and documents from L.E.K.
Submissions from Friends of the Earth and other interest groups
ARST annual reports and half-yearly reports from 1994 – 1998
A few other ARC and ARST documents
The CTU’s 1996 post-election policy report

Box 17

Green folder labeled "Con Men" containing clippings c. 1987
ARST Annual Plan 95 – 96
1995 Britomart proposal
Standard and Poor’s 1995 rating of the ARC
A wealth of bound documents relating to Watercare and the integration proposal 1994 – 96,
Small amount of correspondence and documentation relating to the Ports of Auckland deal, c. 1993
Folder labeled "Olsen/Orrs", containing full correspondence re: the Jesson vs Olsen defamation case, c. 1993
Red folder labeled "Te Tao": containing Te Tao vol 1,1, to 2,17, and other ‘60’s Workers’ Action Movement publications
Green folder containing lengthy Jesson draft piece on the Fletcher family (possibly serialized in The Republican)
Green folder of newspaper clippings relating to Jesson c. 1967 and his republican activities, and featuring an edited draft of "Manifesto of the New Zealand Republic"

Box 18

Lots of sympathy cards, some personal correspondence, some of Bruce’s personal possessions (glasses, badges etc), and some magazines (such as North and South and Search News) containing obituaries.
OF MORE ARCHIVAL INTEREST (I have put on the top of the box):
Comments on Only Their Purpose is Mad from Brian Easton
Copy of a 1998 speech by Don Brash on farming and low inflation
4 video tapes, labeled
-"Bruce’s Funeral News";
-"Audition Practice/ Bruce Jesson’s Funeral";
-"21/8/98 Sociology Massey University: ‘How the Financial Elite Devastated NZ Society’";
-"B. Jesson funeral TV3 unedited tape".
5 cassette tapes, labeled;
-"Bruce Kim Hill interview";
-"Bruce Jesson – Historical Review of Social Vision in NZ. Heart Politics. Tauhara Jan 94"
-"Craig Little"
-"New Zealand #2"
-"3 April 1999: Brian Edwards talks to Bruce Jesson"
A white box labeled "Stuff not paper" containing:
- More sympathy cards, correspondence etc, some correspondence is from other radicals trying to seek Jesson’s help in their undertakings,
- A letter and disk (PC) from someone who privately indexed Jesson’s last book (without being asked to) and sent it to him
- Two notebooks, with book/article plans in them
- Copies of an unfavourable review of Purpose, and a scathing reply by Easton,
- Copy of Catholic magazine Tui Motu InterIslands, July 1999,
- Copy of Political Review December 1998

Box 19

Lots of clippings of obituary notices and tributes to Jesson, as well as more sympathy cards, personal correspondence and even Jesson’s wallet(!)
Metro from June 1999, featuring Jesson’s last story,
Copies of The Political Review from Apr 98, Jul 98, Feb 99, Jul 99.
Pacific World magazine no 53, July 1999
First issue of the Philosophy for Children Assn of New Zealand’s newsletter, Feb 1999
Cut out article from the Listener, 13/2/99 by Brian Easton on Bruce Jesson
Manuscript of an interview with Jesson (questions only)
Manuscript of a profile of Jesson by Camille Guy
Rough manuscripts of comments on Bruce from Joe Atkinson, David Lange, Gay Simkin, Sandra Coney, Mark Ford, Chris Trotter, Mike Lee, Roger Horrocks, Peter Conway, Jane Kelsey, Keith Locke
Notebook of rough notes and plans
1998 and 1999 diaries, only containing appointments and meetings
Large blue notebook containing plans and long handwritten sections of articles and books c. 1997

Box 20

Lecture manuscript Jesson delivered in Christchurch, no date.
The Republican no 81, Jan/Feb 1994. Not in Library.
Green hardcover 2b5, seems to be some sort of journal: first entry 20/12/82, last dated entry 10/8/93. Halfway throughthere is an outline for a book on Marxism in New Zealand titled "Tripping the Left fantastic" (see Box 10)
Red 1b5, starts out as early 1995 journal, later turns into notes for Metro and Republican articles
Red 8b5, containing notes on NZ companies. Might be Joce Jesson’s (the handwriting is different)
Purple 8b5, most notes relating to early 90’s Republican articles
UoA exercise book, featuring book, article notes, and notes for a lecture Jesson gave in Palmerston Nth
Red hardback 2b5, more notes for articles, books, c. 1997
Two other notebooks, partially full
4 small notebooks, partially filled with Jesson’s notes (one yellow Spirax one seems to contain speech notes, grey Croxley has 1992 dates and seems to be speeches too)
Folder labeled "Briefcase", mostly correspondenc to Jesson at the Pol Review, and academic articles
Folder labeled "Alliance Chris Harris", containing Harris’s own articles and others he sent to Jesson
Folder labeled "Chris Harris", containing more of the same
Folders of newspaper clippings (c. 1997) labeled
"Currency and related Markets"
"Maine Investments"
"Fran O’Sullivan"
Privatisation"
Loose pile of Felicity Ferret columns from Metro c. 1984
Skellerup Group’s 1995 Annual Report
BNZ Blue Chip Share Trust statement 1996
Watercare Waikato river project brochure (no date)
ARST discussion paper June 1995
Large pile of academic papers (mostly economics or socialism), some annotated, probably by Chris Harris or Brian Easton, but some might be by Jesson
Undated drafts for chs 2 and 3 of one of Jesson’s books (titles "Personal reflections" and "The Power and the Symbol"
Various magazines and pamphlets, including
The Jobs Letter from Jan 1996 – Dec 97 [no.s 32 – 70, with 36, 47 – 53, 57, 58, 61, 66 missing].
The NZ Democratic Party Guardian June 1996
Global Finance Dec 1996
Pacific Journalism Review 2:1, 1995
Search News vol 4, no.s 3 – 7, 1997
Mean Times 7:1, 1996
Common Ground 3:2, 1996
D.I.G August, Sep/Oct issues, 1996
Labour Notes Aug 95, Jun 96, Mar 97 issues
Foreign Control Watchdog May and November 1995 issue

Box 21

All disks (which have been searched) in three brown envelopes
Printouts from "BJ Archive/ Mac 1.2m/ old pwrbk/ stuff": contains lots of Joce Jesson’s work, and The republican mailing list

Box 22

Printouts from "Mac 800k" file:
Articles either definitely by Bruce or that I think have been written by Bruce -
"Alliance Notes"
"The Free Radical (on Perigo)"
"Water Water… The Pipeline Saga Continues"
"A Nineties Drop Out: an interview with Lindsay Perigo" [was published in Metro]
"A Risky Exchange" [possibly published in The Listener]
"Miscellaneous"
"The Growth Industry of Privatisation"
"In the Trust we Trust" and "Betraying Our Trust" [same article, different title]
"PPTA: the voice of a demon profession"
"Bridging the Divide of Two Orthodoxies"
Several articles and documents definitely written by Joce
Several articles written by other writers
Jokes and other computer documents
Huge amount of stuff on Only Their Purpose is Mad: at least two drafts of every chapter (some showing where he changed his mind); several book plans as well, some more detailed than others.
CD rom containing only one file of interest (in "PC" folder"): an article written by Keith Rankin.
Any file with the label "Mac 800k/#84-ML/#84" might be from The Republican issue 84, which is not in the Library. I cannot tell for sure, but this is my guess.