Cook Islands Progressive Association

In January 1946 the CIPA organised a strike for higher wages by Avarua harbour workers a few days before the Union Steamship Company's Maui Pomare arrived in Rarotonga. The strike was successful, and resulted in a significant increase in membership for the CIPA: by May 1946 it claimed 3,000 financial members,^[5] roughly half the population.^[1] The New Zealand government subsequently formed a government sponsored union, the Cook Islands Workers Union, in an effort to prevent future unrest.^[6][7] In December 1947 a dispute between CIPA and CIWU supporters on Manihiki saw 14 people arrested and held at the local courthouse.^[8][9] At the same time the Maui Pomare was blacklisted by the CIPA over its use of CIWU labour.^[10] When two CIPA members were arrested, a large group of protestors marched on the administration building and forced their release.^[1] The Pomare cancelled its next visit, and subsequent ships were greeted with pickets.^[1] Fearing further strife, in March 1948 the New Zealand government sent a force of New Zealand police to maintain order,^[11] and gazetted regulations forbidding strikes.^[1] The police remained in place until November,^[12] and the CIPA gave up its industrial campaign.

After 1948, the CIPA focused on economic development, acquiring a ship for inter-island transport^[13] and establishing a Producer's Cooperative Society.^[14] Both ventures subsequently failed.^[1]

The CIPA maintained a skeleton existence for the next 14 years.^[15] It contested the 1956 Cook Islands general election, winning three of the six Maori seats on Rarotonga.^[16] In 1963, as self-government approached, it began talks with the Industrial Union of Workers and the co-operative movement on the formation of a new political group.^[15] When Albert Henry returned to the Cook Islands in March 1964, the three groups agreed to unite,^[17] leading to the formation of the Cook Islands Party.^[15]