
Issue No 117		26 October 2001

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

History

Surviving the Split

Extracted from 'Brothers - Eight Leaders of the Labor Council of NSW' (UNSW Press)

In this extract from 'Brothers' Marilyn Dodkin, looks at the manouverings around the establishment of the DLP.

********************

It was a dangerous time to be involved in the Labor Party, as politics and religion proved again to be an explosive mixture. Ducker was a young man without the experience of Kenny and Marsh, both of whom had greater understanding of the party and the church, and of the ramifications that would flow from the battle between the Right and the Left. Ducker was an impressionable novice in both areas. Short believed that, because of his youth: 'John was susceptible to many different persuasions. He was looking at the various strands and threads in the Labor Party and that could have led him to go to meetings ... of groups, with whom his name has been associated forever and ever.'

There was dissent within the FIA as the leadership was split between those who opted for the 'stay in and fight' strategy, those who supported the strategy of the Victorians who had left the party, and those who supported Dr Evatt and his anti-Grouper policy. At first Ducker publicly supported Evatt. Tom Uren, then a young left-wing activist, remembers Ducker on the platform behind Dr Evatt at a public meeting in Wollongong in March 1955. The meeting, organised by the Waterside Workers' Federation, was attended by approximately 800 supporters - including three state and three federal politicians, one of whom was Gough Whitlam. Also present, from the Australian Workers' Union (AWU), who had turned against the Industrial Groups in 1954, were state secretary Charlie Oliver and the South Coast organiser, V. Kearney. The AWU and the FIA were often rivals for award coverage at the steel works and Kearney noted with glee that, despite Short calling for a boycott, there were many ironworkers at the meeting.

Although Ducker was not the only ironworker there, his attendance was to almost cost him his job. Short recalled the events:

[S]ome people in the Ironworkers' Union were extremely critical [of], if not angry with, John Ducker [for] going to the meeting and publicly allying himself with Evatt. Some of these officials ... made comments to Ducker which hurt him very much and embarrassed him, to the point where he ... offered me a handwritten resignation. I looked at it, tore it up and put it in the wastepaper basket. I said: 'Don't be a fool ... You are a young man, you have a big career before you, this crisis will blow over.'

After that, Ducker had learned a salutary political lesson: if you want support from a faction, you give support in return. By June '55 he had returned to the right-wing fold and justified Short's faith in him. Uren, a stringent critic of Ducker, judged his earlier support of Evatt as 'political opportunism' when he saw him scrutineering for Group candidates at the 1955 ALP NSW Conference.

As discussed in Chapter 4, in 1956, the Right was fending off further federal intervention. Ducker was in the thick of the fight on two fronts - within the Youth Council and as a member of the Rank and File Rights Committee. As Youth Council president, he chaired a riotous meeting of the council on 3 May 1956 where he moved for a resolution of confidence in the 1955 central executive and called on the federal executive to give members their democratic right to elect the executive at the June NSW Labor conference. Leonard Lambourne and other left-wing youth councillors opposed the Ducker resolution. Shouting to make himself heard, and sometimes thumping the table, Ducker told delegates: 'If we lose the right to govern ourselves then the tradition of the Labor Party is lost': the meeting ended in uproar with an opponent of the Industrial Groups shouting: 'You dirty Fascists!' In reporting the meeting, the Sydney Morning Herald described Ducker as an organiser of the FIA and supporter of the Industrial Groups.

Ducker's activities in the ALP Youth Council were not in breach of the ALP rules since the council was a legitimate organization within the party and subject to party rules. His activities in the Rank and File Rights Committee, however, were to put Ducker's ALP membership in jeopardy when that committee was proscribed by the central executive on 21 September 1956. Ducker was attacked, in a letter to ALP general secretary Bill Colbourne, by his Youth Council opponents, Leonard Lambourne of the Surry Hills branch and G. Neate of the North Sydney branch. They questioned Ducker's involvement in the Rank and File Rights Committee and laid 37 charges against him, under ALP rules, by paying the necessary deposit of �1. The charges, which appear to relate to matters prior to September 1956, included allegations that Ducker:

As a member of the Rank and File Rights Committee knowingly allowed his name to be used in anti-Labor propaganda ... supported the decision of the Victorian Branch of Federated Ironworkers' Association ... to remain affiliated with the Anti-Communist Labor party ... contrary to the decision of the Federal Conference ... has actively participated in the formation of an Industrial Group within the Federated Ironworkers' ... in an attempt to circumvent the decision of the Federal Conference ...refused to accept the decision of the Federal Conference relating to continental China ... supported a motion opposing the seating of continental China in the United Nations ... attempted to undermine and destroy the leadership of the Rt Hon Dr HV Evatt supported the statement of Mr Laurie Short that Dr Evatt is a millstone around Labor's neck ... assisted in sabotaging Labor's campaign in the Barton electorate ... as President of the Council delivered an illegal minute wherein he attacked the Federal Executive of the Australian Labor party.

By this time some party branches in New South Wales were in disarray, with members leaving to join the Democratic Labor party (DLP), founded by the former ALP NSW assistant secretary, Jack Kane.

Lambourne made his most serious allegation against Ducker on 18 December in a letter to general secretary Colbourne, stating that he had learned 'from an associate of Mr Ducker that he has declared himself for the DLP'. Lambourne wrote that if it was true that Ducker had left the ALP, he would withdraw the charges. Acting general secretary Tony Mulvihill replied on 10 January 1957 that as branches had not held their initial meeting (when membership tickets were taken out for the current year), it was impossible to know whether Ducker had renewed his membership of the ALP. Mulvihill also told Lambourne that if and when a disputes committee hearing was necessary, he would be advised. It does not appear that a hearing took place, and on 19 June 1957 Lambourne withdrew the charges and requested a refund of his deposit, which was refunded to him on the same day.

Lambourne has confirmed to the author that the charges were never heard. He explained:

1956 was, of course, the time when the DLP was in the process of formation. The strategy by those supporting the Steering Committee was to force those extreme right-wing elements out of the ALP into the DLP ... I can't recall why the charges were withdrawn ... by this time, those who were leaving the ALP to join the DLP would have done so and there was probably no need to pursue the charge ... I don't recall who told me that John Ducker had declared himself for the DLP nor did I ever see any proof of his DLP membership.

Lambourne has pointed out that he and Ducker hold no grudges towards one another: '[There are] no permanent enemies in politics ... I hold him in very high personal regard and am privileged to call him a friend.'

In 1956, however, Lambourne was not a friend when he singled out Ducker over his involvement in the Rank and File Rights Committee. There were many party members who had supported the committee until it became a proscribed organization in September 1956, an example of this being a large public meeting on 7 May at the lower Sydney Town Hall which denounced any federal intervention in the NSW Branch.

Among the Labor Council records are documents concerning the Rank and File Right Committee. One document is a typed compilation of extracts of correspondence, extracts of minutes of meetings, from August to December 956, and the following list members: WJ Beasley, W. Slowgrove, JM Riordan, J. Ducker, J. O'Halloran, N. Mayell, Miss C. Nyhan, Miss V. Roach, G. Anderson, L. Short, J. Kenna, W. Allport, W. Crane, K. Collins, Mrs J. Johnston, HA Manning, P. Carter, P. O'Leary, J. O'Grady, J. Cunningham and S. Fennell. It should be noted that at the time, photocopying was not generally available and, unless there were carbon copies available, to copy a document it was necessary to retype it. It is not known who compiled the extracts but the compiler must have had access to the original minutes. ASIO may have had an informant who compiled the extracts and handed them on to Kenny in 1956.

On 13 August 1956 the committee co-opted the dismissed NSW assistant secretary Jack Kane and former country organiser Frank Rooney. Both men had been dismissed by the newly appointed central executive without any charges having been laid against them. In a further act of bravado, on 20 August the committee challenged the new central executive, in a letter from secretary Slowgrove to ALP general secretary Colbourne, with a demand that the conference that should have been held on 2 June 1956 be held on or before the weekend of 27-28 October, with the illegally appointed state executive submitting itself to the rank and file. The committee threatened to call a state-wide rank and file meeting if this was not done, and proclaimed the need for revitalisation of the party and new leadership in the federal sphere of the ALP, with a revision of federal rules. On 29 August a fighting fund was launched and a pamphlet organised for publicity to include the names of consenting committee members. Ducker does not appear to have attended that meeting and his name was not included on the pamphlet.

When the committee met on 6 September, it discussed the distribution of the pamphlet and received a general report from Kane. Ducker reported on the Youth Council and the Sutherland branch, which was not his own branch; other committee members gave reports on the Coogee, Wetherill South and Balmain branches of the party. This would indicate that Ducker and others were seeking support for their opposition to the new central executive, after intervention had occurred.

This final provocation let the central executive to proscribe the committee on 21 September 1956. Slowgrove and Beasley were called before ALP officers on 25 September and warned that anyone associated with their committee would be 'severely dealt with', and a written warning followed the next day. As a result, on 27 September, Slowgrove advised that it was no longer possible to organise opposition within the party and it was determined that the Rank and File Rights executive would meet and recommend a course of action in a full meeting on 29 September. The executive met on 28 September and recommended the formation of a new party, which 'to distinguish it from the totalitarian junta now in control of the ALP' would be called the Democratic Labor Party (DLP).

On this intriguing document there is a handwritten inscription which purports to be the attendance list of people at the Rank and File Rights Committee meetings from 29 August to 6 December 1956. The critical meeting on 29 September records the following people in attendance at room 34A in the Trades Hall: Beasley, Kane, Manning, Rooney, Collins, Carter, Roach, Kenna, Ducker, Cunningham, Fennell, McOrrie, O'Connor,Fitzpatrick, Harrison, Mooney and Gray. The secretary, W. Slowgrove, was not present at the meeting; Kane presented the executive resolution, which was accepted by the meeting. Kane was made secretary pro tem and Alan Manning pro tem president. The ALP was informed of the formation of the DLP by Slowgrove in a letter of 12 October.

"I wish to inform you that the Rank and File Rights Committee at a meeting held on 29th September, having considered your letter of 26th September, and being of the view that no democratic opposition to the present Executive or to the Federal Executive is to be allowed by the group which is unconstitutionally claiming to be the Executive of the NSW Branch of the ALP, decided to request those members of the previously constitutionally elected State Executive who are sympathetic to the aims and objects of the Rank and File Rights Committee, to act as a provisional Executive, and to proceed under the Rules of the ALP (NSW Branch) and be known as the DLP. The Rank and File Rights Committee was then disbanded, and no longer exists."

The extracts from the minutes of the Rank and File Rights Committee found in the Labor Council file can now be verified with the recent discovery of a monograph written by Denis Strangman in September 1962. Strangman was the secretary of the Sydney University Democratic Labor Party Society and the monograph was to be the first of series 'until the student body is sufficiently informed about DLP aims'. Strangman had access to the records of the Rank and File Rights Committee and used the minutes and extracts from the minutes as his references. The president of the society was a PC Manning, possibly related to Alan Manning, appointed as pro tem president at the DLP's formation meeting. Strangman's monograph mirrors the information in the extracts found in the Labor Council files.

This does not prove that the attendance list, which names John Ducker as being present at the crucial meeting on 29 September, is accurate, but it does give the document more veracity. If Ducker did attend the Rank an File Rights Committee meeting on 29 September, he was placing himself in danger as the committee had been proclaimed a proscribed organization by the central executive on 21 September. If this had been known to the ALP central executive, Ducker could have been expelled from the party.

The author questioned two associates of John Ducker about the allegation that Ducker had 'declared himself for the DLP', both of whom denied giving the information to Leonard Lambourne. One associate had heard an allegation by Jack Kane, the founder of the DLP, that Ducker had held a DLP ticket and that Kane had sound recorded a conversation with him about the ticket. The associate understood that the ticket had been held for a very short period but had not seen or heard any evidence to prove Kane's allegation. As the associate put it, 'the DLP didn't handle former friends well.' This may also explain Santamaria's antipathy towards John Ducker.

Kane was very bitter about former friends. Charles Anderson, the ALP general secretary who resigned from the Movement and the party in late 1954, met Kane accidentally in Sydney some years later. Kane told Anderson: 'All I want to do is to live for the day when I see Joe Cahill beaten.'

The Catholic Church responded quickly to the news of the new party. On 30 September 1956, the day after the Rank and File Rights Committee formed the DLP, the church hierarchy held a meeting at the Sacred Heart monastery in Kensington, attended by approximately 800 Movement members. Mick Carroll, a Sydney businessman who became a DLP activist, was at the meeting and later told Santamaria that Bishop Carroll had urged members to stay in the ALP and that Father Paddy Ryan had argued against the DLP, saying breakaway parties were 'not worth two bob'. For Catholics, the call to obey the bishop or follow their political conscience was a difficult choice. The allegation that John Ducker ever held a ticket in the DLP remains unproved; the fact is that Ducker stayed in the ALP, as did his boss Laurie Short and other Ironworker officials, Harry Hurrell and Darcy Ahearn.

The political turmoil also left a legacy within the Catholic Church. In Vanished Kingdoms: The Irish in Australia and New Zealand, Professor Patrick O'Farrell argues that Bishop Carroll, at the Kensington meeting, was imposing the will of the church on the laity in the Irish historical tradition:

The Labor Split put the clerical-lay alignment to the test. This was crucially the case in New South Wales, because the State's Episcopal leaders were committed to a political position of support for existing Labor forces, from which a significant section of the laity, association with The Movement, diverged, on the ground that Labor was compromised by association with communism ... Bishop Carroll engineered lay support for the Episcopal position, but not by argument or normal political authority and the reiterated demand for 'loyalty to the bishop'. This was accepted by many reluctantly, by others against their wishes, and better judgement, and by a very few, not at all ... The Kinsington meeting of 30 September 1956 marked the last, anachronistic but powerful, throw of the Irish clerical church in Australia. It went with a highly destructive, profoundly damaging, bang.

The damage within the Catholic Church paled in comparison to the damage caused to the Labor Party by the formation of the Democratic Labor Party. The DLP attracted former right-wing Labor members, many of them Catholics hurt by the sectarian attacks levelled by the left wing. Electorally the DLP vote and direction of preferences away from the Labor Party contributed to Labor's failure to win federal office until 1972. The DLP was to disappear from federal politics when it failed to retain its Senate seats at the 1974 double dissolution federal election.

In 1972, Ducker did not mention his fight against federal intervention when he told Gavin Souter that he had supported Dr Evatt and had only supported the Industrial Groups while they were recognised by the party. Ducker said he had been to one meeting of the Labor forward committee - a NSW arm of the Movement - where he had spoken against secret groups within the party and urged people to speak out.

View entire issue - print all of the articles!

Issue 117 contents

Interview: Brothers In Arms
Labour historian Marilyn Dodkin explains how she exposed ASIO ties with Labor Council's Cold War leadership.

Politics: Defending the Faith
Launching 'Brothers', Premier Bob Carr gave his own take on the allegations that union leaders worked with security agencies during the Cold War.

History: Surviving the Split
In this extract from 'Brothers' Marilyn Dodkin, looks at the manouverings around the establishment of the DLP.

International: Viral Attack
Postal unions in the USA are mobilizing to protect their members from the widening repercussions of an apparent bio-terrorist attack.

Unions: A Living Wage
The ACTU this week unveiled its claim for the 2002 Living Wage Case. Here's what they'll be arguing.

Campaign Diary: Week Three: Wave Them Goodbye
In a week when our boys and girls went off to war, Labor fought a desperate battle to fight the election on the home front.

Human Rights: Colombia's 'Dirty War' Against Unions
It might be tough being an organiser in Australia under the Howard Government, but spare a thought for Colombian trade unionists.

Review: Red Rag Unfurls
Ian Syson is an upfront, knockabout bloke. He heads up a new, small, independent publishing outfit called Red Rag Publications.

Satire: New Hope for Labor: Mackerras Tips Liberal Win
The electoral hopes of the Labor party have revived dramatically, after the perennially unreliable analyst Malcolm Mackerras forecast a huge victory for the Liberals.

» Unions Call for Air Price Floor

» With Friends Like the Banks, Who Needs Kiwis?

» Living Wage Claim For GST Rises

» New Compo Showdown Looms

» NIDA Tax Rorts Embarrass Howard

» First Case Under NSW�s New Pay Equity Principle

» Veil of Silence on Public Sector Outsourcing

» False Start for Race Day

» Union Proxy Campaign Gets A Boost

» Nauru Guards Claim Back-Pay

» Unions Await Final Triumph

» PM Claims No Aged Care Nursing Home Crisis!

» Eighty Woolies Cleaners About To Lose Jobs

» CFMEU Gets Disabled Athlete A Start

» Malaysian Solidarity Action in Sydney

» Activists Notebook