Communism and the Australian Labour Movement 1920-1955
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Robin Gollan RevolutionariesGollan • and ReformistsRobin Communism has played a central part in Australian political nightmares for over half a century. Yet it has received scant serious attention comparable in scope and perspec tive with this work. This book places the Communist Party of Australia firmly in its political context, national and international, from the 1920s to the mid-1950s. It is important in its in sights into the general history of Australian radicalism; its contribution to Australian history, especially labour history; and its placing of radical Australian history in a Communism and the Australian Labour world context. It is written from the per spective of one who joined the Communist Movement 1920-1955 Party of Australia because it seemed the only party 'committed to the struggle for socialism and against fascism' and who left it because Robin Gollan this 'no longer seemed the case'. Its breadth, perceptiveness, and understanding com mend it to all people concerned w ith the con tinuing political struggles of the Right, the Left, and the Centre. Robin Gollan RevolutionariesGollan • and ReformistsRobin Communism has played a central part in Australian political nightmares for over half a century. Yet it has received scant serious attention comparable in scope and perspec tive with this work. This book places the Communist Party of Australia firmly in its political context, national and international, from the 1920s to the mid-1950s. It is important in its in sights into the general history of Australian radicalism; its contribution to Australian history, especially labour history; and its placing of radical Australian history in a Communism and the Australian Labour world context. It is written from the per spective of one who joined the Communist Movement 1920-1955 Party of Australia because it seemed the only party 'committed to the struggle for socialism and against fascism' and who left it because Robin Gollan this 'no longer seemed the case'. Its breadth, perceptiveness, and understanding com mend it to all people concerned w ith the con tinuing political struggles of the Right, the Left, and the Centre. This book was published by ANU Press between 1965–1991. This republication is part of the digitisation project being carried out by Scholarly Information Services/Library and ANU Press. This project aims to make past scholarly works published by The Australian National University available to a global audience under its open-access policy. Revolutionaries and Reformists Communism and the Australian Labour Movement 1920-1955 ROBIN GOLLAN Australian National University Press Canberra 1975 First published in 1975 Printed in Australia for the Australian National University Press, Canberra North, South, and Central America: International Scholarly Book Services, Inc., Portland, Oregon Southeast Asia: Angus & Robertson (S. E. Asia) Pty Ltd, Singapore © Robin Gollan 1975 This book is copyright. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry. Gollan, Robin Revolutionaries and reformists: Communism and the Australian Labour Movement, 1920-1955/[by] Robin Gollan.—Canberra, Australian National University Press, 1975. Index. Bibliography. ISBN 0 7081 0250 6. 1. Communist Party of Australia—History. 2. Australia— Politics and government— 1920-1955. I. Title. 329.994 Designed by ANU Graphic Design/Richard Curtis Text set in 10 point Linotype Fairfield two point leaded and printed on 85 gsm Burnie English Finish at the Halstead Press Division of John Sands Pty Ltd, Artarmon, New South Wales Preface T h is book is centred on the Communist Party of Australia from its foundation until the mid-1950s. But it is not intended to be a history of the party. There is little about the facts and problems of organisation and virtually nothing about the struggles within the party on questions of theory, strategy, and tactics. Rather, it is an attempt to set the Communist Party and Communist ideology as expounded by the party in the context of Australian politics, more particularly the politics of the labour movement, over a period of thirty-five years. Because the Australian party was deeply concerned with international issues and closely dependent for its policy and interpretation of events on the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, it has been necessary to extend the canvas beyond Australia. Likewise, because the Communist Party saw itself as having a total world view, it has also been necessary to touch on some matters which are not normally thought of as being political. Thus the book is highly selective, episodic, and not strictly chronological. If it gives a general impression of what Communists thought, why they thought as they did, and how in general they acted, it will have succeeded in its purpose. If, also, it stimulates other scholars to study more closely questions raised, either directly or by implication, it will have been even more successful. Since the book depends in part on personal experience it is only fair to state that I joined the Communist Party in 1936 because it seemed to me to be the only party in Australia fully committed to a struggle for socialism and against fascism. I left it, with regret, in 1957, because this no longer seemed to be the case. As is usual in the writing of any book I contracted many debts of gratitude but I will mention only two. My wife, Anne, played a much more positive part than the one which is often allotted to wives in prefaces. My greatest debt, however, is to Moira Scollay who did much of the research on which the book is based and who also made many helpful suggestions as to interpretation. Canberra 1974 Robin Gollan Abbreviations A C T II Australasian Council of Trade Unions AEU Amalgamated Engineering Union ALP Australian Labor Party ANU Australian National University ARU Australian Railways Union ASIO Australian Security Intelligence Organisation ASP Australian Socialist Party AWU Australian W orkers’ Union BMA British Medical Association BWIU Building Workers’ Industrial Union CAR Commonwealth Arbitration Reports CMF Citizen M ilitary Force CPD Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union DLP Democratic Labor Party FCM Federal Committee of Management FEDFA Federated Engine Drivers and Firemen’s Association FIA Federated Ironworkers’ Association IWW Industrial Workers of the W orld MMM M ilitant Minority Movement NEI Netherlands East Indies NLA National Library of Australia OBU One Big Union PPS Pan-Pacific Secretariat SMH Sydney Morning Herald TLC Trades and Labor Council UAP LInited Australia Party UN United Nations UWM Unemployed Workers’ Movement VDC Volunteer Defence Corps VSP Victorian Socialist Party WEA W orkers’ Education Association WFTLI World Federation of Trade Unions WIUA Workers’ Industrial Union of Australia WWF Waterside Workers’ Federation Contents P re fa c e V Abbreviations v ii 1 From W ar to Depression 1 2 The Popular Front 33 3 The Imperialist War? 79 4 The Great Patriotic War 99 5 T he Interlude of Hope, 1945-7 144 6 The Cold War I (1948-9) 2 0 6 7 The Cold War II (1950-5) 255 Perspective 285 R e fe re n c e s 2 9 0 W orks Cited 306 I n d e x 315 1 From War to Depression For radicals all over the world the Russian revolution was the most important fact of the forty years after 1917. Australian radicals, although far from the scene of action, were no exception. A minority in the Australian labour movement had criticised capitalism in general and Australian capitalism in particular from the 1890s onwards. The alter native socialist society which was foreshadowed took many different forms, as did the means proposed to achieve it. The Russian revolution, being the first successful revolution carried through in the name of socialism, was an achievement and a model of which all socialists would henceforth have to take note. In Australia only a small minority, but one which grew to significant proportions between the mid-1980s and the mid-1940s, ever identified with the revolution and what flowed from it. But for all socialists it was a fact in relation to which they had to determine their own positions; for anti-socialists it was initially a deadly menace, which later lost its threat and became a convenient means of damning all socialist ideas and actions. Australian society was not disrupted by the war to the extent that most European countries were—a disruption which made the Russian revolution possible and which seemed for a few years after the war ended to make similar revolutions probable in a number of other coun tries. But Australia was not unaffected. Sixty thousand young men were killed, and from their sacrifice was built one of the great national myths. Australia shared with most European countries the light-hearted enthusiasm with which they entered the war. A few dissidents— pacifists, left-wing socialists, and members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)—opposed involvement in the war from the beginning, but the general reaction was that Australians must be there to ‘do their bit’; indeed it was an opportunity to demonstrate the depths of their imperial patriotism and the achievements of their young country. But as the price the war was exacting gradually became evi dent, the early enthusiasms gave way to war-weariness and the com- 2 REVOLUTIONARIES AND REFORMISTS munity divided on many matters connected with the war—divisions which lasted to the end of the war and afterwards. In the immediate post-war years what was happening in Europe was filtered through to Australians by a generally ignorant, highly selective, and reactionary press, balanced only by a trickle of left-wing literature which interpreted events in terms of the ideological assumptions of its writers.