Family and Background
Locke was born and grew up in Christchurch, to Jack and Elsie Locke, prominent lifelong political activists for a wide variety of causes. Their four children were brought up in this environment and followed their parents into a life of activism, (as well as Keith, his sister Maire Leadbeater is a well-known activist and former city councillor for Auckland City Council). Former Prime Minister Robert Muldoon is said to have described the Lockes as the most "notorious Communist family in New Zealand". The Lockes lived in the Avon Loop area of the Christchurch Central City and were very active in the community notably organising Avon River clean-ups and native tree planting and arguing against development of the area, and in favour of retaining the character of the area.
He attended Christchurch Boys' High School and has a BSc in Psychology from the University of Canterbury and then went to Canada for a Masters in Sociology at the University of Alberta. He studied towards but never completed a Ph.D in Sociology at the University of Toronto, before returning to New Zealand. Locke lectured in Sociology at Victoria University from 1970–72, but then decided to leave academia to work as a full-time editor of the fortnightly socialist paper, Socialist Action, from 1972 to 1976. From 1978 to 1984 he worked as an active socialist and unionist in a car factory, railway workshops and meatworks in the Wellington region. In 1985 he moved to Auckland, working in the Auckland City abattoirs, 1985-86. From 1986 to 1990 Locke worked full-time as the national coordinator of the Philippines Solidarity Network, based in Auckland. From 1990 to 1999 he was manager of One World Books, a non-profit bookshop in Auckland specialising in social, environmental and development issues.
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