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RecorderOfficial organ of the Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History Issue No. 283—July 2015 IN THIS EDITION: • Vale Jack Simpson, by Brian Smiddy, p.6 • Arthur’s last hurrah: Calwell, Whitlam and the Ky visit • The archbishop WAS for burning, by Paul Ormonde, pp. to , by Phillip Deery, pp. 1-2 6-7 • Vale Joan Kirner, by Brian Smiddy, p. 3 • Amirah Inglis, by Sarah Dowse, pp. 8-9 • The Vietnam peace movement made a difference, by • Vale Lorna Cameron, p. 9 Val Noone, pp. 3-5 • Three new research scholarships & Noceboard, p. 10 • Colin Clark and the Movement, by Lyle Allan, pp. 5-6 • Peter Love's retirement from Swinburne, p. 10 • George Seitz MLA, by Kevin Davis, p. 6 • Branch contacts, p. 10

Arthur’s last hurrah: Calwell, Whitlam and the Ky visit to Australia*

By Phillip Deery

In the torrent of tributes for after his On 23 December 1966, Prime Minister Harold Holt death in October 2014, it is easy to forget the rancour announced that he had invited Nguyen Cao Ky, South and bitterness surrounding his ascent to the leadership Vietnam’s tenth premier in twenty months and part of a of the federal parliamentary Labor Party. He was elected military duumvirate (with General Nguyen Van Thieu) leader at a caucus meeting in February 1967 after Arthur that took power following a cycle of coups after Ngo Dinh Calwell, having lost three federal elections and now aged Diem’s assassination in November 1963. Calwell 70, decided he would step down. The electoral disaster immediately launched a series of vitriolic attacks on Ky. three months earlier, on 26 November 1966, was On 23 December he had stated that the visit of Ky, a especially cruel for Calwell, who – against Whitlam’s “power-hungry opportunist”, would shock every wishes – had campaigned strongly on the issues of Australian except those who “condoned and tolerated conscription and the Vietnam war. Both Calwell’s murder, brutality and injustice”. His invective went memoirs and Whitlam’s biographer highlight the policy further: in a separate statement, Calwell called Ky a “little differences and personal antagonisms between the two Quisling gangster”, a “miserable little butcher” and a in the run-up to that election.[1] But neither mention a “moral and social leper”.[2] On 26 December he crucial event sandwiched between the November defeat announced his intention to march at the head of any and the Whitlam victory: the state visit to Australia of the demonstration against the visit since “[i]f we are to fete Premier of South Vietnam, Air Vice-Marshall Ky, in military dictators it will be done in the face of my January 1967. That visit, which has largely been strongest opposition”. He added that the day Ky stepped overlooked by historians but which then received on Australian shores “should be declared a day of extensive national press and television coverage, threw a national mourning”.[3] Calwell’s strong reaction may sharp spotlight on the divisions within the ALP and, have been influenced by a 1965 report that Ky admired especially, between the leader and his deputy. Focusing Adolf Hitler. Ky was interviewed by a British journalist, on the Ky visit also illuminates Calwell’s principled stand, Brian Moynahan, who he told, in a remarkable display of opposed by the pragmatic Whitlam and ridiculed in the naïveté: “People ask me who my heroes are. I have only media. one – Hitler.”[4] The Jewish News commended Calwell for his “timely and penetrating opinion” about this “unwelcome guest”.[5] Calwell’s deputy was “not available for comment”.[6]

As government preparations for Ky’s visit firmed up in the first two weeks of 1967, invitations to State functions were issued. Customarily, the Opposition leader and his deputy would be invited and Whitlam was in an embarrassing position, since he had visited South Vietnam in 1966, met with Ky and was his official dinner guest in Saigon.[7] But Calwell’s stated intention to boycott any official meeting or dinner with Ky sank any

1 Recorder no. 283 RECORDER chance of ALP leaders attending. “They couldn’t very well Participation in, or absence from, the Melbourne march have the dinner if they didn’t have me present … And so on Sunday 22 January, became a litmus test of leadership it was all cancelled. And Whitlam disappeared from the credentials. Both Cairns and Frank Crean, who intended scene.”[8] When Whitlam returned from a nine-day to contest the party leadership, announced their family holiday on Lord Howe Island on 9 January, he intention to join the march; Whitlam, the front-runner, refused to be drawn into discussion about Calwell’s anti- remained silent. The Victorian executive, despised by Ky remarks or whether he would protest against the Whitlam, hoped his absence would “prejudice” his bid for visit: “Speak to my secretary [John Menadue], he’ll leadership.[19] “This is expected”, reported the Sun’s Jack answer any questions for me.”[9] Allsopp, “to have some influence on the Caucus ballot”. [20] The Melbourne march was a triumph for Calwell. He Just as the ALP was divided over Vietnam,[10] so it was led a two-mile march of over 8000 people stretching for divided over Calwell’s position on Ky. Despite the left- five city blocks from the Trades Hall to the Domain, close wing executive of the Victorian branch instructing all to the heavily guarded Government House, at which Ky Victorian federal and state Labor parliamentarians to was staying. A clergyman described how he was “deeply participate in anti-Ky marches and demonstrations, and stirred” by Calwell’s speech: Calwell threatening censure from the Party if they did not,[11] they were thin on the ground. At the first of “one of the finest bursts of oratory I have yet heard from three protests, in Canberra on 18 January, Calwell led a a politician. … Press reports had convinced me that march (dubbed “Arthur’s Long March”) of 700 protestors Arthur was more than a little mad, but his ‘Sunday to Parliament House where, inside, Ky was being sermon’ suggested to me that he is more than ever a welcomed. Only four members of the parliamentary noble leader.”[21] Labor Party participated. One, the MHR for Reid, Tom Uren, prevented photographs of Calwell being taken with On the other hand, mainstream press opinion on demonstrators holding Vietcong flags, while Calwell Calwell’s anti-Ky position was near-unanimous. Calwell lashed out at a pro-Ky youth who carried a placard, was “stooping to factionalism”;[22] was “obstinately “Calwell the Crumbling Cretin”.[12] Calwell, “looking fit perpetuating the divisions in his party”;[23] was and in vigorous speaking form”, claimed this was “a black resorting to “hysteria”;[24] and with his “wild day in Australian history” and reiterated his epithets: “Ky harangues” against Ky had “reached the end of the road is a Fascist. I repeat it – he is a murderer, a miserable … But now he has overstayed his welcome. He is a little butcher, a gangster Quisling.”[13] Later, Calwell Hamlet who will not leave the stage.”[25] criticised his colleagues who “went fishing or did something else.”[14]

At the caucus meeting of the federal parliamentary Labor Party on 8 February, Calwell did leave the stage. Whitlam After the demonstration, a Bulletin journalist, Peter won the party leadership by a clear margin: 39 votes to Samuel, asked Calwell if he was frightened the ALP may Cairns’ 15 and Crean’s 14. But the battle did not end. The not “stick to its principles” on Vietnam, to which Calwell new leader stated on television that the former leader replied: “Well, I’m frightened it might not if one man gets had “debauched the Vietnam debate”, which “appalled control.”[15] Alan Reid, in the same issue of the Bulletin, and staggered” Calwell, who indicated he would report remarked that Whitlam had “disappeared wraithlike and Whitlam to the party’s Federal Executive.[26] But Calwell mute as a Sydney rock oyster … though he had eaten would have taken heart, had he known of it, from this Premier Ky’s food and drunk his liquor during a recent private letter to the Prime Minister. Part of it read: “It is Vietnam visit.”[16] The Australian suggested that “some” Mr Calwell who is fighting the forces of evil in Australia – of Calwell’s attacks on Ky were in fact directed at thank goodness we have someone fearless and good to Whitlam,[17] while Dr criticised Labor MPs help us – otherwise we would be in despair.”[27] for absenting themselves from the Canberra demonstration; it was, he said, their “active political duty” to do so.[18]

2 Recorder no. 283 RECORDER REFERENCES Vale Joan Kirner * The title is drawn from Bob Gould, “Arthur Calwell’s last hurrah, Vietnamese dictator Ky and Kirribilli House in the stinking hot Sydney summer of 1967”, Honi Soit, March 2004.

1. A.A. Calwell, Be Just and Fear Not (Melbourne: Lloyd O’Neill, 1972), 230-2; Jenny Hocking, Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History. Volume 1 (Melbourne: Miegunyah Press, 2008), 267-71. Strangio writes of their “damaging rift” just prior to the election when Whitlam deliberately distanced himself from Calwell’s policy on the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. Paul Strangio, Keeper of the Faith: a biography of Jim Cairns (Melbourne: Melbourne Photo by Scott McNaughton University Press, 2002), 164. 2. Age, 24 December 1966. By Brian Smiddy 3. Sydney Morning Herald, 27 December 1966. 4. Sunday Mirror (London), 4 July 1965. Joan Kirner was the “Light on the Hill” to many Labor 5. Jewish News (Sydney), 30 December 1966. party members, in particular, women. She gave 6. Age, 27 December 1966. unstintingly of her time to the cause of Labor. With her 7. Daily Telegraph, 12 January 1967. recent death we can reflect on her many great 8. Interview with Arthur Calwell by Mel Pratt, 25-28 achievements. First, as the first female Labor Premier of May 1971, Mel Pratt Collection, National Library of in 1990, then as a Minister for over seven Australia ORAL TRC 121/7 (1:42). years. Amongst the ministries she held were 9. Sun (Sydney), 10 January 1967. Conservation and Education. Later, when she was 10. See Hocking, Gough Whitlam, 265-70, Strangio, elected Premier, she received a great deal of unfair Keeper of the Faith, 144-53. press comment. But this did not distract Joan from the 11. Daily Mirror, 16 January 1967. task in hand. Joan remained Premier until 3 October 12. Sydney Morning Herald, 20 January 1967. 1992, when the Labor Party was defeated at the 13. Canberra Times, 19 January 1967; SMH, 19 January election. 1967. 14. Australian, 21 January 1967. At this meeting, a On retirement from Parliament in May 1994, she kept reception for Calwell at the Sydney Trades Hall, only up her many interests. She started Emily’s List – MHRs Rowley James and Tom Uren, and Senators devoted to increasing female representation in politics. Lionel Murphy and Jim Ormonde were present. She became a mentor to many younger women who 15. Bulletin, 89:4534 (28 January 1967), 7. sought out her advice. One of her remembered sayings 16. Ibid. continues to resonate today “If you want to change the 17. Australian, 10 January 1967. News-Weekly (18 world for yourself and your kids, you’ve got to change it January 1967) agreed: “the real target was not Ky at for, and with the people, in particular women.” To Joan’s all, but Whitlam.” While this may have been a factor, it family we extend our deepest sympathy at her passing. underestimates the depth of Calwell’s hostility to the “dirty, unwinnable, immoral” war in Vietnam. 18. Sydney Morning Herald, 20 January 1967. The Vietnam peace movement made a difference 19. Daily Telegraph, 19 January 1967. 20. Sun (Melbourne), 17 January 1967. 21. Rev. A.J. Lloyd, letter to editor, Australian, 3 February By Val Noone 1967. 22. Sun (Sydney), 10 January 1967. On the afternoon of Sunday 4 December 1972, the day 23. Australian, 11 January 1967. after Gough Whitlam was elected, Mary Doyle and I were 24. Bulletin, 21 January 1967. walking up Swanston Street. Opposite the Town Hall we 25. Sunday Truth, 22 January 1967. ran into Michael Hamel-Green and Fran Newell, he a 26. Sun (Melbourne), 19 February 1967. draft resister, she a leading Quaker activist. Over the 27. Nancy Neild, Brisbane, to Holt, 25 January 1967, in preceding three years we had seen them often enough National Archives of Australia: A463, 1967/164. but in secret meeting places and usually wearing disguises. At that moment the four of us glimpsed that The National Film and Television Archives has three things had changed. short film clips from Ky’s visit, which can be viewed online at http://aso.gov.au/titles/tv/australian-visit/ In the next two or three days prime minister Gough Whitlam ordered the release of all conscientious objector and draft resister prisoners; gave Wilfred Burchett back his passport; and arranged diplomatic recognition of the

3 Recorder no. 283 RECORDER People’s Republic of China. Three weeks later, when US In discussions about historical causality, the famous president Richard Nixon ordered the bombing of Hanoi German sociologist Max Weber recommended the test of and Haiphong, including the Bach Mai hospital, “objective possibility”. In summary, it asked what would Australian maritime unions led by the Victorian branch have happened to a particular chain of events if the of the Seamen’s Union, banned all US ships, and three of effects of the event were excluded. Weber's method Whitlam’s ministers condemned the Christmas bombing. suggests we ask: if there had been no mass movement These experiences led many of us to conclude that the opposed to conscription and Australian military movement against conscription and the Vietnam War intervention in Vietnam, would the Australian had had some effect. How do our intuitions stand up to Government still have withdrawn its troops and ended historical scrutiny? conscription? **** The Liberal-Country Party Government withdrew troops The 1997 home-front volume of the official history of after a mass movement developed. Gough Whitlam's Australia’s war in Vietnam, while containing much smart remark about McMahon only withdrawing the valuable information, downplays the impact of the troops because the United Stated did, begged the Vietnam peace movement. Edited by Peter Edwards, the question. Nixon's withdrawal in turn was influenced by volume suffered from the loss of Ann-Mari Jordens after mass protests there. The timing of government policy Edwards abandoned her portrayal of dissent, on which shifts over Vietnam indicates that they were responding she had been working for some six years. Greg to pressures from below. In addition, as mentioned, the Pemberton resigned alleging that Edwards had altered first actions of the new Labor government in December his contribution to make Prime Minister Robert Menzies 1972 indicate that public pressure relating to the look less deceitful. The official history concluded, “The Vietnam War were crucial to the Whitlam electoral withdrawal from Vietnam was not a political victory for victory. the protest movement”. My documentary study (published as Disturbing the Others have expressed the same view. On 18 February War) of changes among Australian Catholics who formed 2003, just four days after the huge peace rallies against part of the base for the pro-war Democratic Labor Party the war on Iraq, Paul Strangio, biographer of Jim Cairns, has established that the peace movement had an effect. wrote in the Melbourne Age that the peace movement By 1972 the DLP vote was halved in Victoria. A key factor against the Vietnam War had “probably not much” effect in the 1972 federal electoral victory by the ALP under on the government. I wish to promote the modest view Whitlam was an increase in the number of seats won in that the impact of the Australian peace movement was a Victoria, due in part to the decline in the DLP vote. small factor in why the Vietnam War ended with an American withdrawal. A variety of people have come to A brief note on the 1970 Federal intervention in the the conclusion that the Australian peace movement Victorian ALP, which removed the Victorian branch's contributed to ending the war. Tom Hughes, attorney central executive and re-built the party apparatus, might general in the Gorton government, argued that the peace illustrate my argument. Of the many issues involved two movement weakened and limited the government’s were state aid and Vietnam. The existing left-wing position. Bob Santamaria, leader of the National Civic Victorian executive had been national leaders in Council, blamed the peace movement for the failures of opposing the Vietnam War but they opposed the new the Australian Vietnam policy. American historian Federal ALP policy in favour of state aid to Catholic Gabriel Kolko concluded that, at a minimum, the peace schools. One factor that made intervention possible was movement and the accompanying disruption set “an the emergence of a group within the branch supporting unprecedented social price” for continuing conscription state aid yet opposed to the war. Some Catholics in the and the war. party such as John Galbally (leader in the Upper House), **** John Ryan, Frank Costigan, Xavier Connor, Barney Cooney, Niall Brennan, and David McKenna supported There is no standout one-volume overview book on the such a position and were active in the intervention. Australian Vietnam peace movement but there are good Intervention was crucial to Whitlam's 1972 electoral books about the war and the opposition, such as those success. One ingredient in it was the increased number of written or edited by Terry Burstall, Jim Cairns, Ann-Mari Catholic activists opposed to conscription and the war. Jordens, Peter King, Greg Langley, John Murphy, Greg Pemberton, Stuart Rintoul, Bob Scates, Michael Sexton, The Australian and worldwide peace movement was not and myself. These books demonstrate the following: the able to prevent the deaths of millions in Vietnam, Laos strength of the Vietnam peace movement in Australia and Cambodia, tens of thousands of Americans and was that it was broadly based with working-class hundreds of Australians. Vietnam was left devastated. involvement; the Australian peace movement had distinctive Australian characteristics; a good proportion However, the movement against conscription and the of the early protestors were World War II veterans; the Vietnam War saved an unknown number of Australian peace movement had serious internal differences; and and Vietnamese lives. The Australian government under peace movement dissenters split major Australian William McMahon and later Gough Whitlam withdrew institutions such as the trade union movement and the Australian troops leaving the Vietnamese revolutionaries churches, which, until then, had been supporting US in charge of the contested territory. foreign policy.

4 Recorder no. 283 RECORDER Those comments you hear such as “You can’t beat the on the Movement in 1954 that led to the party split in the system” and “Don’t rock the boat” miss the point. following year. Clark supported the Australian Labor Edwards and Strangio are wrong. It is time to banish the Party (Anti-Communist) in his article, for the DLP, the hangdog view that says nothing we can do is of any use. new name for the breakaway party, had not yet been adopted. Peace workers were often denounced as effective enemy agents on behalf of the Soviet Union or as “communists”; The significance of Clark’s article is that he offers five at other times they were disparaged as naive and possibilities for the new party. Firstly, the option Clark ineffectual, or were outcast and jailed – the latter with and Santamaria favoured, is that Catholics should honour. They made a difference and deserve to be maintain the new party, which I will refer to as the DLP remembered. for the benefit of readers. This in fact happened, and the DLP continues to exist to this day, with representation in This is an abridged version of the paper given by Dr Val the Victorian upper house and a member in the Senate Noone to the 14th Biennial Labour History conference, who left the party over differences with members of the held in Melbourne in February 2015. Val is a fellow of the Victorian DLP state organisation. School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne and the author of Disturbing the Secondly, a reconciliation with Evatt remaining as leader. War: Melbourne Catholics and Vietnam. There is no way this option would have been favoured by DLP members at that time. Thirdly, a reconciliation with some leader other than Evatt. Evatt in fact offered to Colin Clark and the Movement resign in 1958 at a meeting at the Preston Town Hall if this would heal the party division. This offer was rejected, as there was too much ill will on both sides for By Lyle Allan there to be any chance of this offer being accepted. Clark opposed Calwell, who subsequently became leader, for British and Australian economist Colin Clark (1905-89) his opposition to British policy fighting Communist is sometimes regarded, along with BA Santamaria, as one terrorists in Malaya. of the prime Catholic Social Studies Movement (or Movement) theoreticians. Clark was born in England, Fourthly, for Catholics to declare indifference towards educated at Oxford University, an academic at Cambridge Australian political parties. Such a suggestion would University, and later a public servant in Queensland never be taken seriously by supporters of a party which, under Forgan Smith and . Following differences at the time the article was written, had representation in of opinion with Gair he returned to England in 1952. the federal Senate and in both houses of the Victorian Clark was an unsuccessful Labour Party candidate at parliament. Only a person with anarchist tendencies British elections in the 1930s, and he also converted to would probably support this option. Catholicism. He retired to Australia in 1969, and held positions at Monash University and the University of Fifthly, to transfer to the Liberal Party. This option was Queensland. In his later years he often contributed to suggested by John Wren acolyte, John Galbally, Labor’s News Weekly, the National Civic Council journal. leader in the Victorian Legislative Council at its first sitting after the election of 1955. The remark was in Both Tom Truman and later Ross Fitzgerald, both of reference to Jack Little announcing to the chamber that whom are critics of Santamaria and the Movement, refer he had been elected leader of the Labor Party. Both Labor to Clark as a supporter of Movement agricultural policy. parties after the 1955 split claimed to be the genuine Truman refers to Clark as a Big Gun. There is a biography Labor party in Victoria. Little was the leader of the five of Clark in the Australian Dictionary of Biography that member DLP representation in the upper chamber. provides useful information about Clark’s life. His significance to the Movement would probably warrant a The five options provide fascinating reading. Labor had lengthy study. This article will consider only one aspect three great splits in the period from 1917 to 1955. In two of Clark’s writings: his commentary on the options of those splits Labor members of parliament joined the available to what became the Democratic Labor Party conservatives. Billy Hughes left Labor in 1917 to lead the (DLP), written just over one year after the Labor split in conservative Nationalist Party. Joe Lyons from Tasmania Victoria. left Labor in 1931 to become conservative Prime Minister the following year as leader of the United A series of three articles in The Tablet, a Australia Party. No parliamentary member of the DLP United Kingdom Catholic newspaper, in joined the Liberal Party. It is likely that Clark and May 1956 titled “Catholics and Santamaria influenced the maintenance of the DLP as a Communists in Australia,” suggest that separate political party. Clark was strongly in the Movement camp, despite his absence from Christine Milne, former leader of the Australian Greens, Australia during the period of the 1955 suggested at the Australian Political Studies Association Labor split. Dr Evatt is described as Conference at Hobart in 2012 that Prime Minister Tony sympathetic to Communism, and for Abbott was really DLP. This statement is extreme. The this reason he made his famous attack Liberal Party of today is a very different Liberal Party

5 Recorder no. 283 RECORDER from the one dependent on DLP preferences in the past. The DLP was always a party that supported government The archbishop WAS for burning expenditure on social welfare, and it is unlikely that it would have supported mass privatisations. Neither the old, nor the new, DLP was supportive of neo-Liberal By Paul Ormonde policies. Review: MANNIX by Brenda Niall. Text Publishing. $45.00. Reference G. Kenwood, 'Clark, Colin Grant (1905–1989)', Australian The much anticipated biography of Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Archbishop Daniel Mannix by Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/ Brenda Niall is freshly revealing of biography/clark-colin-grant-12322/ this belligerent prelate who left an enduring imprint on Australian history. George Seitz MLA Brenda Niall is arguably Australia’s leading biographer and, significantly for this book, a Catholic insider. As might be expected, her biography is not a hatchet job. Nor is it hagiography. She presents a balance between her subject’s ego and spirituality, his wisdom and divisiveness. It is a believable portrait of the man who, on arriving in Melbourne from Ireland in 1913, became an inspirational leader for his Irish- Catholic congregation but was a rude shock to Australia’s largely Protestant and Empire-loyal population.

Photo by Pat Scala The dramatic introduction to the book is unique By Kevin Davis among Mannix biographies in describing the burning of Mannix’s private papers, a fact long disputed by Veteran former MLA for the Western Suburbs seat of Mannix apologists. The conlagration was spread over Keilor, George Seitz, died on 5 June at the age of 73. three days and was carried out by May Saunders, George was irst elected at a by-election following the housekeeper to Bishop Arthur Fox, who supervised death of Jack Ginifer, in July 1982. He served for 28 the operation. Two witnesses who questioned years until retiring at the State election in 2010. He Saunders – Sir Frank Little, the last archbishop to live was a passionate worker for the betterment of the at Mannix’s Kew stately home Raheen, and Father Tom Western Suburbs, and battled hard for the rights of Boland, biographer of Archbishop James Duhig of migrants who, like him, had arrived in Australia Brisbane – both conirmed the operation to Brenda without much knowledge of English, and with limited Niall. Niall suggests the burning was Mannix’s defence prospects. George is survived by his wife Elenor, two against future biographers and also allows that some children and six grandchildren. papers may have dealt with sensitive Irish military/ political matters.

Vale Jack Simpson ‘But politics alone cannot account for the obliteration of private life, the destruction of historic documents, after the turmoil of the Irish civil war (1922-23) was By Brian Smiddy over,’ she writes. ‘Why not keep family letters and photographs, exchanges with friends, and other The death of Jack Simpson, a records of ordinary life. There must be something former member of the 1982 within Mannix’s inner self to account for such John Cain Labor Government, ferocious privacy’. has left an impressive Parliamentary legacy. Jack was From a Labor perspective, Mannix is remembered for first elected to Parliament in his role in the two great Labor splits – first when, with 1976 and in April 1982 was most of Labor, he passionately opposed conscription for appointed Minister for Public the Great War in 1916-17 and, decades later, when he Works and Property Services. bestowed his blessing and funding on BA Santamaria’s Jack grew up in the Essendon anti-communist crusade in the 1940s and 1950s. area and was involved in many community activities. On Mannix was not a Labor man by background, retirement he moved to Western Australia. To his family sentiment or intellect. The irst 49 years of his 99-year we extend our deepest sympathies. life were spent in Ireland, having been born into a

6 Recorder no. 283 RECORDER modestly well-to-do farming family and living a “Cleverest” was faint praise indeed. The year was 1959 religiously and socially detached life in Maynooth so the archbishop by then had had 18 years of seminary, which he entered as a teenage student in intimate dealings with Santamaria and his anti- 1883 and went on to become its president. communist crusade. Niall suggests that Mannix probably voted Labor up to 1954-55 though the split Against his own wishes, he was appointed to was the only time in which he clearly declared himself. Melbourne as Co-adjutor Archbishop. It was perhaps a fortuitous appointment because, in this secondary Was Mannix, like so many other Catholic bishops, role to Archbishop Thomas Carr, he lived among mesmerised by the spellbinding Santamaria? Niall working people for the irst time in his life as parish seems not to think so and points to fundamental priest of St Mary’s Star of the Sea, West Melbourne. issues on which he and Santamaria were at odds – Poverty was all around him and he was appalled. Mannix’s No vote in the referendum to ban the Communist Party (1951) and his submission to the Dismayed at the level of unemployment, he naively Vatican Council (1962-65) aligning himself with the called for a broad national policy to ensure that proits council progressives, a position which was far away were divided between labor and capital. For such a from Santamaria’s religious fundamentalism. newcomer, his brashness won him no respect. Niall suggests that being so long cocooned at Maynooth, he may have been more shocked at evidence of injustice than the average parish priest.

Mannix quickly involved himself in local issues such as state aid for Catholic schools and, most notably, the Great War conscription controversy which led to Labor Prime Minister Billy Hughes deserting his colleagues and forming the Nationalist Party with the conservatives. Labor was out of office for the next 12 years.

This biography, like its predecessors, does not succeed in penetrating Mannix’s obsessive secrecy about personal and family life, but not for want of the author’s trying. It succeeds spectacularly in displaying the hidden Mannnix as a centerpiece of her inquiry.

Niall, whose family had warm relationships with Mannix, had personal experience of the hidden Mannix in the late 1950s when Santamaria asked her to be his research assistant for a biography of Mannix which the archbishop had agreed Santamaria should write. Mannix, she helpfully observes, “would have trusted Santamaria not to come too near … Santamaria was in his way as private a man as the aloof Mannix. He mistrusted ‘psychologising’, as he dismissively described any analysis of feelings”.

In that role, Niall presented herself at Raheen for interviews with the archbishop expecting to gather his The statue of Mannix at St. Patricks. Photograph by Wei Tsang Ooi. memories of childhood, schooling and family Mannix was a liberal on religious and political background. In three or four sessions, she discovered freedom of conscience and on sexual education he virtually nothing. From the irst, Mannix took the urged that the church should forsake its puritanical offensive, interviewing Niall about her family and culture. It took the reforms of the Vatican Council to irritatingly telling her things which were already show that Mannix had become a liberal long before public knowledge. most of his fellow Catholics.

In a sole spontaneous moment, Mannix asked her if Niall’s biography presents a man who does not she “liked working with Mr Santamaria’. Her reply ‘Oh conform to any stereotype. Mannix made it hard for yes, Your Grace” , was, she wrote, “probably less than biographers to find his hidden self. If this is a failure of he would have liked to hear so he supplied words I character, she has exposed it admirably, and left paths had not spoken, surprising me with: ‘I think Mr for any future biographer. Santamaria is the cleverest man I ever knew’. Cleverest? I left Raheen puzzling over that oddly chosen word”.

7 Recorder no. 283 RECORDER by myself, had never been away from my mother Amirah Inglis (except for those early weeks when she had been in hospital) and with her had travelled across the world to the new land. As I was irmly held back on one side By Sara Dowse of the white lattice and my mother was sent away crying on the other, I bellowed even louder.” By the side of Canberra's Lake Burley Grifin stands a bronze bas-relief map of Spain and an account of the However she soon came to enjoy the school and Australians who were involved in the Spanish Civil became an excellent student. Her education continued War. This memorial was unveiled in 1993 by Lloyd at MacRobertson Girls' High School and she was Edmonds, one of the last surviving Australian awarded an exhibition in her leaving honours exam. members of the International Brigade, an umbrella The Gusts were communists, but it was only in 1945, group who came from abroad to help the Spanish after Amirah had enrolled at Melbourne University Republican movement. A plaque records Netta Burns and spent a year as a member of the socialist Labor as the memorial's "maker". No other people are Club, that she herself joined the Communist Party. mentioned, but among the group that worked to This was when she met Ian Turner, one of the establish the memorial one name should surely stand university's ex-servicemen students, also a party out. That name is Amirah Inglis, author of Australians member, who would become her irst husband and in the Spanish Civil War, published in 1987, who was father her three children. Her political involvement arguably the group's prime mover. detracted from her studies, though, and she graduated with what for her was a disappointing second-class This small vignette of her otherwise crowded life honours history degree. captures the essence of Inglis' character. A woman imbued with the collective spirit, she shunned any She started work as a librarian, irst with the personal credit. Writer, accomplished musician, Department of Transport and then with the mother and great companion, she was born Amirah Communist Party's Melbourne newspaper. Gutstadt in Brussels, Belgium. Two years later she travelled with her mother, Manka, to join her father, Itzhak, who had settled in Melbourne. Polish Jews, they were to be spared the Holocaust, irst by residing in British Mandate Palestine then, on returning to Europe, by obtaining visas to Australia.

Itzhak Gutstadt immediately fell in love with Australia. He adopted a new name and quickly made a place for himself, developing a somewhat idiosyncratic if workable version of the language – 'a cattle of ish' being one of his most fondly remembered locutions. Like many migrant women, Manka was more isolated than her husband, and her adjustment to the new country slower, but eventually she too became an integral part of inner Melbourne's politically active Photo copyright Judy Turner migrant community. The family spoke Yiddish and When Turner lost his job at the railways because of his Polish at home, but their talented daughter could also Communist membership, the party installed him as speak the French she had learned in Brussels. By this manager of the Australasian Book Society. Amirah was time Amirah, like her parents, was known by the more left increasing alone with the children; her political easily assimilable surname of Gust. activity waned and the marriage deteriorated. In 1956, the revelations of Stalin's crimes, and the The subject of her unusual names features in her 1983 subsequent Soviet invasion of Hungary, accelerated memoir Amirah: An Un-Australian Childhood. For most the unravelling of the communist world. Turner's of those early years she was an only child (Ian, her response to these events led to his expulsion from the brother, is 14 years her junior), and her childhood was party, and in 1959 he and Amirah and their young spent in the inner suburbs of Parkville, Brunswick and family left Melbourne for Canberra, where he took up Carlton. At the age of four she entered the local state a PhD scholarship and she began teaching music at the school, and she wrote of her induction into the formal new Lyneham High School. It was in Canberra, though, education system thus: that the issures in the marriage widened suficiently to end it altogether. "The red-brick and white stucco infants department of the school stood by itself in Pigdon Street, and its In 1961, the year of the split between the Russian and headmistress, a formidable lady called Miss Horner, Chinese Communists, she quit the party. For years greeted us in a costume and hat, which turned out to afterwards, she wrote in her second memoir, The be her regular daily outit. When she took me into the Hammer and the Sickle and the Washing Up, "I turned school I bellowed and struggled. I was happy playing from communist politics, any politics." Yet she couldn't

8 Recorder no. 283 RECORDER change her spots entirely, and later admitted that "the chance to do good – an impulse which inspires every Lorna Cameron Communist Party member as much as every Christian missionary ... does not die when we leave the party”. The Melbourne Branch notes with sadness the passing In Canberra she began a happy and productive of our long-term branch member, Lorna Cameron. relationship with the historian Ken Inglis that lasted until her death. They married in 1965, bringing three children each to their blended family. In 1967 Ken became the second vice-chancellor of the University of Papua New Guinea and Amirah and all but one of the children went to Port Moresby with him. There, after an uneasy accommodation to the issues of colonialism, race and gender that PNG posed, Amirah started writing. She began with an article, "The Tale of Two Cities", for the journal Nation, and ended up publishing Not a White Woman Safe: Sexual Anxiety and Politics in Port Moresby, 1920-34, the irst of her seven books, the year before the Inglises returned to Canberra.

More books followed, including another on PNG, the two volumes of memoirs and her study of the Spanish Civil War, inspired by her beloved Uncle Henri, her mother's brother, who had been a member of the International Brigade. In 2007 Amirah and Ken Inglis left Canberra for Melbourne to be closer to their children and grandchildren. Amirah died after a long illness and days before the 50th anniversary of her second marriage. After moving to Melbourne from country Victoria in She is survived by Ken and the children they shared, 1949 Lorna became an activist in the local community Deborah, Judith, John Henry, James, Kate and Louise, of St Albans. The Living Museum of the West notes and grandchildren Daniel, Tom, Nicolas, Alex, Rose, that Lorna was “disappointed by the lack of services Gus, Kate, Duccio, Eve, Bec and Amira. for youth and women” in the region, and she set about trying to change things. With ive children to care for Reproduced from The Age, with the permission of the author. Lorna became involved irst in the local kindergarten, followed by various “school fundraising committees”.

As one of the founders of a newly created neighbourhood centre – now known as the “Tin Shed” – Lorna has created a lasting legacy to the people of the West. Lorna’s involvement with the centre continued for the next ifty years. It now provides services, material aid, and advice to people of all ages in the region. Lorna’s online Guest Book, created after she died in November 2014, tells us of a woman very much loved by her local community. A moving comment by Marijan Tomanek, who proudly noted that Lorna had taught him how to dance at the Shed, commented that “there would have been a lot of boys, turning to the wrong side of the law if were not” for “Old Ma Cameron”. As Leo Dobes noted “generations of St Albans youth owe her much”.

The Melbourne Branch is honoured to have among its members people like Lorna Cameron. Lorna is survived by her ive children, ten grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren. Her husband, Jack, predeceased her. To her family we offer our sincere condolences. Sources: Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West; The Age Notice & Condolence Book; History of St Albans http://www.historyofstalbans.com/ Ken and Amirah – photo by Peter Love history.html

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Three new research scholarships Peter Love’s retirement from Swinburne

From the University of Melbourne Archives: Peter Love, the President of the Melbourne Branch, has oficially retired from Swinburne University after With generous support from the Hugh Williamson 27 years. Foundation and the Joyce Thorpe Nicholson Bequest three new research fellowships are available from the Peter served the university with the same passion and University of Melbourne in 2015. commitment that he gives to our branch. During his time at Swinburne he mentored, taught, supervised, The Hugh Williamson Foundation is supporting two cajoled, and encouraged countless students to think fellowships for Victorian residents to carry out deeply about the world around them. research using the University of Melbourne Archives collection. Each fellowship is for $15,000; one will be We congratulate Peter on his outstanding career. As awarded to a researcher in regional Victoria. Peter has noted this is not the end but rather the beginning of what we hope is a long and productive The Joyce Thorpe Nicholson bequest is supporting a time on what he calls his UniSuper scholarship. $10,000 research fellowship in the ield of women’s studies. Applicants are encouraged to use the rich resources of the University of Melbourne collections to support their research.

The fellowships are open to all Victorian residents. More information about the fellowships, criteria, expected outcomes and closing dates is available on the University of Melbourne Archives website. http:// archives.unimelb.edu.au/resources/williamson- foundation-fellowship

Anniversary of the Trades Hall Shooting

It’s nearly a century since Constable David McGrath was killed at the Trades Hall on 2 October 1915. Three men – all alleged associates of Squizzy Taylor were sentenced for the murder. The Trades Hall is planning to launch its Trades Hall History project to coincide with the anniversary. If members would like to get Peter Love at his last oficial lecture at Swinburne Uni involved please contact Edwina Byrne on 9659-3511. Melbourne Branch ASSLH Contacts Events of Interest and Noticeboard President: Peter Love The 2017 National Labour History conference will be Secretary: Brian Smiddy held in Brisbane. Details to follow. Treasurer: Phillip Deery

**** Website: http://www.asslh.org.au/branches/ Radio Station 3CR has broadcast a couple of stories melbourne from the Labour History Conference, Fighting Against Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ War: Peace Activism in the Twentieth Century, held in LabourHistoryMelbourne Melbourne in February. The irst is a conference Instagram: instagram.com/labourhistorymelbourne report and contains excerpts from Marilyn Lake’s opening address “Equality or Militarism: The Conlict of Founding Narratives”; the second is a program Recorder is published three times a year. The opinions based around Elizabeth Humphrys’ paper “The Accord of the contributors are their own and not necessarily after Thirty Years: Corporatism in the Neoliberal Era”. those of the editor or executive of the ASSLH, Melbourne Branch. Send all contributions and queries Both are now available as podcasts and the links to to the editor, Julie Kimber ([email protected]). these can be found at our website Commentary not attributed to an author is written by http://labourhistorymelbourne.org/2015conference/ the editor. Recorder is published with the generous help of Ellen and Brian Smiddy and Kevin Davis.

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