Violence erupted outside the Labour Party conference on Auckland’s North Shore yesterday.
150 odd protestors were heckling Labour’s delegates over the government’s draconian Anti Terrorism legislation.
One, Jared Philips of the Maoist leaning Workers Party, confronted leftist Labour delegate Len Richardson and gave him and earful.
Len got pretty heated and ended up lashihing out with a megaphone, hitting Philips and also allegedly John Minto’s wife Bronwyn Davies in the process.
According to the Herald on Sunday
Richards is a delegate of the Service and Food Workers Union (SFWU), which was holding a lunchtime event at the conference.
The altercation happened around 11.30am, after Richards and fellow union delegate Jill Ovens emerged to tell protesters the SFWU was on their side. Ovens was drowned out by hecklers and went back inside. Richards picked up the megaphone, the protester tried to grab it off him and Richards took his swing. Richards retreated inside and later denied he meant to hit anyone.
Jill ovens is Richards’ partner. She is a hard core socialist unionist “hate employers“.
Len Richards’ profile can be viewed here.
Both were senior figures in the Alliance party until Ovens was forced to join Labour in order to take a senior position in the Service Workers Union.
When confronted by media, Richards at first denied hitting anyone.
When told that the incident was on tape, he then said he didn’t “mean to hit anyone“.
Howdy. Worker’s Party member here. Just like to add, Jared asked for the megaphone so he could respond to what Len was saying. Then Len decided to hit him in the face instead.