existing arbitration system necessitating their defeat. The watersiders held out for 22 weeks, supported by many other unions and sympathy strikers, but ultimately conceded defeat. The miners and seamen who held sympathy strikes were likewise beaten. As a result, the Waterside Workers' Union was split up into twenty-six separate "port unions" to deliberately diminish its influence. Many watersiders and other unionists involved were blacklisted (e.g. Jock Barnes and Toby Hill) and prevented from working on the wharves for years afterwards. Outcomes Holland condemned the action as "industrial anarchy", and explicitly sought a mandate to deal with the lockout by calling a snap election. The opposition Labour Party, now led by Walter Nash, attempted to take a moderate position in the dispute, with Nash saying that "we are not for the waterside workers, and we are not against them". Labour's neutral position merely ended up displeasing both sides, however, and Nash was widely accused of indecision and lack of courage. The government was re-elected with an increased majority in the ensuing 1951 election. Holland was seen as opportunistically using the strike to distract voters from the other issue of rapidly rising inflation which could have made the scheduled election in 1952 harder for him to win. Militant unionism in New Zealand was crushed and the union movement remained fractured for years between the FOL and the defeated militants. The Labour Party was likewise split between the ardent anti-Communists, led by Bob Semple and Angus McLagan, and the moderates, such as Walter Nash and Arnold Nordmeyer. There was a concurrent tension between the FOL and the Labour Party for many years following the strike. Much later it emerged that the families of both Keith Locke and Mark Blumsky were under surveillance by the Police Special Branch (now the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service). Loyalty cards After the dispute was over, the deregistered Waterside Workers' Union issued loyalty cards to those who had remained loyal to the union during the dispute. Many retained their cards, and at an anniversary dinner in 1976 admission was by "card only". Official history In the wake of the dispute, Dick Scott, editor of the union's magazine "Transport Worker", wrote an "official history" of the strike on behalf of the deregistered union. The New Zealand Federation of Labour annual conference in 1954 condemned the book for its derogatory statements and factual omissions. Scott's credentials to attend the conference