“You dirty scabby bastard. I will tear your white liver out and belt you over the head with it.” This threat against strikebreakers was just one of hundreds of quotes recorded by police summing up the militant spirit of the “Scarlet Runners,” a group of women and girls who led the resistance in one of the most contentious strikes in New Zealand/Aotearoa history. They were active in the Waihi gold miners’ strike of 1912, a battle that lasted for six months, ending on “Black Tuesday” with the death of striking miner Fred Evans. The crisis it provoked laid the foundations for the General Strike the following year — and was a crucial step in the maturity of the country’s Labour Party.

Often, the role of women is missing from the industrial history of this era. But as part of a thriving socialist community, the women of Waihi overturned the gendered norms of wider society. From the 1890 Maritime Strike to winning female suffrage in 1893, in New Zealand, women were instrumental in key events. But resurrecting this history means not just mentioning women’s participation, but making labor history “as attentive to issues of gender as it is to issues of class.” In trying to preserve their family life, the Scarlet Runners’ story shows us how a strong community fighting for survival can become radicalized — even when fighting in an apparently conservative cause.