03/01/2026
From Dec 2025 thru Jan 2026, Calling All Workers is airing four parts of a kōrero from Oct 2025 exploring John Shennan's background in politics and unionism.
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John is a treasure trove of lefty history and has a long and storied involvement in unions across Aotearoa and specifically in the Manawatū.
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John is the founder of the Retired Unionists Movement (RUM) which gives retired unionists a way to stay plugged in and involved in union activism. It's a great way for our movement elders to create connections and maintain links with comrades both old and new.
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This coming Tuesday (Jan 6th) at 4pm will be part 3 of 4 and you can listen to the previous two parts at mpr.nz or your chosen streaming service. There'll be a link in the comments to our show page at MPR's website where you can listen to HEAPS of past episodes.
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John's series of episodes form the beginning of a nascent oral history project recording the stories of Manawatū unionists.
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In 2025, we aired a series called 'Organiser Origins' which looked at current union officials and how they came to be involved in unionism. We've got a few more Unions Manawatū comrades to interview and those will air this year.
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The plan this year is to record and air a series called 'Delegate Origins' with current union delegates and how they got involved in their union and what their thoughts are about the movement and what needs to be done.
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Alongside this, and hopefully to be aired as they're recorded, will be these stories from movement elders. We look forward to forging connections with our union kuia kaumātua and presenting these to you.
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Mauri ora, whānau mā!
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