Australian Labor Party, New South Wales Branch Annual Conference, 26 March – 7 April 1921
CHAPTER 5 Australian Labor Party, New South Wales Branch Annual Conference, 26 March – 7 April 1921 Report in The Australian Worker There is a sense of déja vù in this account of the 1921 Conference, in that the dominant division within the party was once again between the State Executive representing the extra‐parliamentary sections of the party and the MPs, especially Premier Storey and his successor, Premier Dooley. An attempt by the Executive to assert its right to direct Caucus on parlia‐ mentary issues (including, once more, appointments to the Upper House) resulted in tough negotiations between Executive and Caucus, with a points victory to Caucus. This was documented in the Executive Report and discussed again on the floor of Conference. This was only the beginning of that particular battle, since in the following year, after the defeat of Labor in the 1922 NSW election, the Executive expelled the leader of the parliamentary party, James Dooley, setting off a period of intensified factional chaos. As in previous years the correspondent for the Australian Worker presented his material in a fairly disorganised way, although there is a preference for telescoping debate on a similar theme even if it extended over various days. It is possible to get a strict chronological account by comparing it with the day‐by‐day reports in the Daily Telegraph or the Sydney Morning Herald, which are otherwise much briefer. In this instance I have preferred to indicate the day of debate when there is a clear break in the account, and divide the text according to the separate reports in successive editions of the Australian Worker.
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