Lee affair

The Lee affair was an event that transpired in the late 1930s in New Zealand revolving around the unequivocally socialist Labour Party MP John A. Lee, and his repeated public critiquing of his party's leadership. The affair culminated with Lee's expulsion from the Labour Party. Lee then formed his own political party, the further-left Democratic Labour Party, causing a sizeable rift in party membership. The events have been described as the Labour Party's first major crisis of identity, the nature of which and manner of its resolution significantly affecting the subsequent development of the party for decades. Lee's biographer Erik Olssen stated that the Lee Affair "marked a key battle in the triumph of authority over democracy."^[1]