By Sam Williams
In 1949, a spectre was haunting Aotearoa – the spectre of communism. At the dawn of the Cold War, public service worker and PSA delegate Cecil Holmes was targeted in an anti-communist witch hunt by the government that attempted to pin workers’ dissatisfaction on foreign interference. All this is covered in Annie Goldson’s 1995 documentary.
At a brisk 49 minutes, Seeing Red is a skim read over a fascinating life. Goldson uses cheesy reenactments, talking head interviews, and archival footage to chart out Holmes’ life without ever going into a lot of depth.
We’re told of Holmes’ early political influences as he experienced the hardships of the Depression and watched the shadow of fascism grow in Europe. We’re also told of artistic influences, seeing British documentaries of a social realist style. In an archival interview, Holmes describes the documentaries as using “dramatic meaning to give people a sense of pride in their labour. [Show] the dignity of labour.”
After serving in WWII, Holmes was able to explore his political and artistic sides as he joined the budding communist movement and started working in the National Film Unit (NFU). He became a delegate of the PSA, which Seeing Red describes as one of the “more militant” unions pushing back against low wages set by Peter Fraiser’s Labour Government.
This builds to the central incident: Holmes’ plans for a stop-work meeting at the NFU, and his Communist Party membership card, stolen from his car. These find their way into the hands of then Acting Prime Minister Walter Nash. The government use the plan and membership card to fabricate a ‘red scare’, supposed evidence that the Soviet Union was infiltrating the workers’ movement. This kept the public distracted from the workers’ real grievances, and gained favour with the USA.
But just as the documentary starts to kick off, it starts winding down again. The immediate fallout of Holmes’ smearing is covered in a couple of minutes. The case that the PSA took to the Supreme Court on Holmes’ behalf, and won, barely gets a mention. The film wraps up by briefly covering Holmes’ move to Australia, and the years he spent making films to promote the cause of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, before his death in 1994.
The story of Cecil Holmes touches on the role of art in political and social life, balancing personal and professional in a public service job, and the rising union movement in the 1900s. Seeing Red offers no real insight into any of this, but it sparked a healthy curiosity for me to learn more. I’m off to read any and every biography of Holmes I can.
Photo courtesy of National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa.
