AN Being a Thesis Presented Fer History, At
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COMMUNISM AND PUBLIC OPINION IN QUEENSLAND 1939 - 1951 : AN EXPLANATION OF QUEENSLAND S VOTE 1 IN THE 1951 ANTI-COMMUNIST REFERENDUM. Being a thesis presented fer the Degree ef Bachelor of Arts with Henours in History, at the University of Queensland , by James Beatson, 1974. Contents Page No. l=Teface Introduction Section 1 Overall Themes 1 Section 2 : Communism during the �Tar 1939-1 945 . Popularity and Cooper&tion Economic and Soci�l Background 11 A.C.P. Popularity in North Queensland 14 Impact of \var 20 The Growth and Influence of Catholic Anti-Communism 30 A New Order? 35 Section 3 Communism in the Post-w"ar Period. Phase 1 : 1946-1 949 The A.C.P. on the Offensive. Communist Party Nilitancy 46 A.G.P. Activity 51 Communism Attacked 67 Overt· 'NcCarthyism 1 and Harassment in Queensland 82 Communist Party Numerical Strength 85 A.C.P. Popularity in North Quemsland 86 A.C.P. Popularity in Queensland 91 Section 4 : Communism in the Post-1�ar Period. Phase 2:19 50-1 951 . The A.C.P. in Retreat. 105 Anti-Communism Institutionalized Communist Party Activity 11 4 The Referendum 124 The Referendum Results 133 Conclusion. 145 endices. App Bi bliographl• (i ) Preface. When researching for this thesis I found I had considerable trouble in obtaining access to some Right-wing sources. Not only were many of them reluctant to discuss their past activities but invariably no files of source material, records, correspond ence, minutes etc. were kept. Fortunately Leftist sources ranging from the Labor Party and the trade unions to the Communist Party, were more confident of their historical import ance, but the fire bombing of the Communist Party headquarters some years ago destroyed all of their remaining past office files containing correspondence, records etc. They have, however, largely restored their collection of pamphlets produced by the Party, over the past thirty years, including some of the State Conference Reports which I examined. Locating source material covering Party activities in Central Queensland was another difficulty, the Party's records being incomplete as previously mentioned. Furthermore I was unable to locate any Party members who were active in the area during the period covered. I have attempted to compensate for this through usage of local newspapers, publications of organizations active in the area such as the Returned Soldier's, Sailor's, Airmen's Imperial League of Australia and the Australian Workers Union, and various secondary sources. (ii } For the considerable help of the Communist Party of Australia and some of its members I a.m grateful. I should also like to thank Mss. Lesley Wenck, Menik& Berndt , and Margaret O'Baga.n, Jim Henderson and my supervisor Ray Evans tor their help throughout the year. INTRODUCTION. 1 The starting point of this thesis was a desire to explain the rapid demise in the popularity which the Communist Party enjoyed in Queensland during the second world war. Wartime 1 Queensland gave the Australian Communist Party its highest state vote and six years later Queensland again gave the Com- munist Party its highest state vote - this time however, to ban the Party. From this I was led into exploring the changing policies, beliefs and strategies of the Party, as well as the many sub-groups on its periphery, and the shifts in public response to these. In 1939 Townsville elected Australia's first Co:.mmunist alderman. Five years later, Bowen elected not only Australia's first but also the British Empire's first, Communist state gov- ernment member. Of the five electorates the Australian Corn- munist Party contested in the 1944 Queensland State elections, in none did the Party's candidate receive less than twenty per- cent of the formal vote. Not only was the Party seemingly enjoy- ing considerable popular support but this was occuring in a State which,but for the Depression years (May 1929- June 1932) had elected a Labor State Government at every state election since 1'915. In the September 1951 Constitution Alteration Referendum, 'Powe.flif To Deal With Communists and Communism 1, Queensland regist- ered the nation's highest "Yes" majority- 55.76% of the valid vote. Only two other states registered a majority in favour of the referendum's proposals, Western Australia and Tasmania. 2 As this research was undertaken it became evident that while Tarious trends exhibited at the time, anti-Communism, the work of the Industrial Groups, Labor opportunism, local area feelings, ideological shifts of the Party, tactics of Communist-led unions, etc., were present throughout the entire period, they were best seen when divided into three chronological phases of the Party's history and popularity. The first period covers the consolidation of the Party's post Depression popularity during the war years as it benefited from the Soviet Union's colossal contribution to the Allied war efforts, and this support continued for some six months or so after the war. Throughout the period Communist strength within the trade union movement greatly increased as did total �arty membership. The second period was marked by a rapid series of events starting in March 1946, vi th Winston Churchill's �.Official Opening' of the Cold War by his sweeping attack on Communism and Russia, at Fulton. Several days later the first of a series of long and bitter strikes in Communist-led unions occurredas the Party mobil ized for what it believed would be a series of attacks on the working class from a ruling class, defending a capitalist system on the verge of an economic collapse. It was a period when the Party believed this ruling class was using Labor reformism as a last desperate 'carrot' to get workers to accept their lot within a eapi talist economic framework. Out of the Meat Strike emerged the Industrial Groups, who waged not only a determined war against Commuadst trade uni�� leadership but also encouraged the A.W.U. intluenced State Labor apparatus to even greater anti-Communist antagonisms. The Communist Party's increasing militancy and Labor's resistance to it,ended finally in the collapse of the Chifley Labor government.2 3 Characteristically the third period opens with the Communist Party making an another about-face, desperately trying to form an alliance with the Labor Party and curbing its former adventurist industrial policy, as it prepared for Menzies' direct assault. The Communist Party's activities were greatly reduced, a function of both a declining member ship and, furthermore, a membership reluctant to confront an - increasingly hostile society. In examining the changing policies, beliefs and strategies of the Party and the shifts in public response to these, I have tried to distinguish between general trends occurring within Australia and the national party, and trends peculiar to Queensland and the Queensland branch ;·of 'the Party. The Communist Party suffered a decline in support and member ship right across Australia throughout this period as a r&"sult of the national policies of the Party, and the changing nature of world politics. There were particular features of this decline that were peculiar to Queensland. I have, however, singled out three features of particular i�portance throughout the period for a short but more spec ifically detailed analysis, than would be possible in a. purely chronological study: i.e. the Party's structure, the Party's ideological subservience to Noscow, and the general effect upon it of the Cold War. These are dealt with in Section One. (1) Footnotes. 1. The current name of the Party, the Communist Party of Australia (C.P.A.), was adopted at its inception. However, the Party renamed itself the Australian Communist Party (A.C.P.) in Janua� 1944 and kept that title until the 16th Party Congress in 1951 when it resumed its former title. Throughout this thesis I shall refer to it by the name it had for most of the period covered, the A.C. P. 2. This is not to say that Chifley's conflict with the Communist Party's trade union militancy was either the sole or major reason for its downfall. Continuation of petrol rationing and other wartime controls, the Bank nationalization attempt, rising inflation and many other factors contributed to the Chifley Government's defeat. 1. Section Onrall Themes. 1 For most of its life the Australian Communist Party suffered the effects of two integral characteristics, o.ne structural and one political, which undermined both the Party's ability to respond to contemporary popular sentiment, and to attract and maintain a wide membership. These were democratic 1 centralism, its organizational structure, and the A.C.P.'s consistent subservience to Moscow-directed policies, largely propagated through the (Third ) Communist International, or Comintern,&nd the Communist Inform4tion Bureau, or Cominform. Democratic centralism lent itself to a highly disciplined membership, since its vertical 'link' form of organization, combined with authority from above, prevented dissent in one branch from moving to another. Furthermore this organizational structure put great power into the hands of the Communist Party leadeuship. Ted Bacon, himself a former Queensland State Secretary, commented, In those days much more than today ••.• the Executives, both National and State had great power, too great to row mind. All •••• policy decisions affecting the Party in all spheres would be taken by the State Executive and endorsed by the State Committee some time later.2 A requirement contingent upon this powerful leadership was the expressed urgency for information to be passed up and down the levels of communication. Frequently, as was the case during the parind of the militant post-war strikes, orders going down the chain proceeded more quickly than the information feeding upwards.