Category: Political history

Published as an insert in the booklet produced for the 110th celebrations of the Labor Council of NSW, J.D. Moore Pty Ltd, Sydney.

Hawke’s supporters are as far as ever from winning control of the Victorian ALP. This emerges from an analysis of the likely effect of the affiliation of Right-wing unions to the Victorian party and is important, given Hawke’s need to expand his base if he is to become Labor leader.

On the left fringe of Australian politics exist several madcap political parties which are fiercely competitive. The Spartacist League of Australia (SpL) and the Socialist Labour League (SLL), each produce a regular newspaper, command the support of a handful of supporters and are continually beset with factional disputes, expulsions, splits and resignations.

On 7th May, the newspapers of Australia’s most influential communist parties, the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) and the Socialist Party of Australia (SPA) carried a joint statement of historic importance and great significance to the labour movement.

Peter Sekuless’ biography of one of Australia’s most famous fellow travellers reveals a gullible personality whose involvement in politics was often pure caricature.

Since the publication of a joint Statement between the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) and the pro-Moscow Socialist Party (SPA), which promised closer co-operation between these two parties, bitter divisions have emerged between the various personalities and fractions. This article evaluates the significance, reasons behind, and ramifications of the joint Statement.

Nearing retirement, Rupert Lockwood plans several books linking the history of his times with his own experiences, ranging from childhood in a German-origin Wimmera community, exclusive private school life at Wesley College, Melbourne – the same school which turned out Robert Gordon Menzies and Harold Holt – to the joining of the Communist Party in 1939, the Petrov Royal Commission, and a three year stint as Tribune correspondent in Moscow.

Twenty-five years ago Donald Horne, expatriate Australian, was considering a new career: full time politics as a Member of the House of Commons. The founder of Citizens for Democracy was in 1954 a monarchist and a committed conservative. Had he decided to stand as a Conservative candidate, Donald Horne might today be ‘Donald Horne, Minister in the first Thatcher Ggvernment Ministry’.

William Morris Hughes debauched Australian politics for more than a generation. In the ninety long years of his life he was a member of six political parties – two of which he had himself formed.

Much of what has been written since the crushing electoral defeat last year has concentrated on familiar themes, the bias of the media, the issue of the leadership, the real meaning of “socialism”, and so on, rather than tackling the important issue of how the ALP is perceived by the electorate.