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History

A Timeless Debate

The ALP and unions - it's a debate that's raged for years as this extract from a 1947 Lloyd Ross pamplet shows.

The Philosophy Of the Australian Labor Party

First of the social-democratic parties to attain political power, the Australian Labor Party offers the longest case study in the practices of democratic socialism. Elected as government of the Commonwealth of Australia before the first great war, and having controlled at one time or another every Australian state, Labor revealed the difficulties inherent in the activities of a political party which sought support on the basis of meeting the urgent problems of the electorate, and yet obtained its drive and unity from a social purpose and philosophy. Today, five of the six states have a Labor government. Labor is in control of both houses in the Commonwealth Parliament � the strongest political position ever held at one time by the party.

There are more trade unionists, a higher proportion to total wage earners, than ever before in our history.

Writing at this moment from the height of Labor's political achievements, we could be satisfied with these political results, if on the one hand we were not aware that Australian Labor political victories have generally been followed by splits, defeats, disillusionment, and on the other hand if we did not feel, that Labor had not yet consolidated its position educationally, economically, and administratively. Until Labor takes such a control over economic development that depressions and poverty are eliminated, political victories are short-lived and the impact of Labor on Australian life ephemeral.

II

The "objective" of the Australian Labor Party, boldly stated at the head of its constitution, is:

"The Socialization of Industry, Production, Distribution and Exchange." That seems clear enough. As frank, if not as clear, is the statement of "Principle of Action"...

Socialization of Industry by:

(a) The constitutional utilization of the Federal, State and Municipal Government Parliamentary and administrative machinery.

(b) The extension of the scope and powers of the Commonwealth Bank until complete control of banking is in the hands of the people.

(c) The organization and establishment of co-operative activities, in which the workers and other producers shall be trained in the management, responsibility and control of industry.

(d) The cultivation of Labor ideals and principles, and the development of the spirit of social service.

(e) The setting-up of Labor research and Labor information bureaus, and Labor educational institutions.

(f) Progressive enactment of reform, as defined in the Labor Platform as set out hereunder.

But Australian Labor has never directly nationalized an industry; its attempts at driving private industry; it attempts at driving private industry out of existence by competition have been limited in extent and superficial in purpose....

In the details of the platform under the heading of "Constitutional Amendments. Nationalization, Tariffs, Etc." will be found surrounded by a mass of opinions on every aspect of political demands, more exact demands, such as,

Nationalization of:

(a) Banking and Insurance (including sick, accident, life, and unemployment).

(b) Monopolies.

(c) Shipping.

(d) Public Health.

(e) Wireless transmission, including broadcasting.

(f) Sugar refining.

(g) Munitions of war.

These promises theoretically cannot be avoided; yet they have been ignored by Labor governments.

Is not this, therefore a betrayal of Labor's policy or must not the conclusion be that whatever is the philosophy of Labor, Labor is not a socialist party?

If we make such an approach to the discussion, we will fail completely to understand Labor in Australia or a working-class movement � even though the conclusion seems so logical and inevitable.

The problem is not a simple one, since the "party" which lays down the fundamental "Objective" and the "Principles of Action," which sets out the demands, brings forward legislation, which ignores the "Objective," administers a government and attacks the Labor government, goes on strike and denounces strikes, sets up state industries and sells state industries, believes in freedom of speech and restricts freedom ... is the same "party" in its many members and ramifications, motives and agencies, moods and instruments. We could, therefore, say as does the socialist outside the party, "The Labor Party is not a socialist party;" or as the socialist within says, "The party is socialist and is moving toward its goal," or the critic within, "We are not moving quickly enough," or the politician, "We are moving as quickly as the public desires. Do you want us to be defeated?"

All answers are right, since they are reactions to sectional aspects, and all are wrong if they are final, since the problem confronting either the activist or the philosopher of the Australian Labor Party has never been to make unreal generalizations of a group, a mood, an action or a person, but to reconcile a mass of ingredients and purposes. In this way only, can we discover Labor's Way of Life.

The next step will be, therefore, not to discuss the simple words of the objective, as stated in the platform, but to analyze the history of the ideas that have been compressed into one word �"socialization."

III

The formation of the Australian Labor Party in the '90's of the last century was a climax in the democratic and liveral development of the colony, from a penal settlement to a self-governing unit of the British Commonwealth of Nations.

English Chartists strengthened the democratic movements for self-government and abolition of the penal transportation in the '50's. The founder of the Eight Hour Movement was a Chartist and English trade unionist. Represented at the Eureka goldfields revolt in 1854 were men from every phase of revolution and reformism from almost every country. International socialists had a paper in Victoria in 1872. The Irish at every stage in our history, either as convicts trying and occasionally succeeding in escaping, or as free men joining any organization with a kick or a threat, linked the unrest of the old and new worlds. The struggles against convictism and for local self-government in the '40's and '50's, the democratic agitation that by the '70's had won manhood suffrage, vote by ballot and payment of members, the conflicts over the distribution of land which had produced a liberal and radical force, the beginnings of trade unions, the restrictions on migration�these influenced the existing parties, and made them "progressive," whatever might have been their party titles. These influences became especially important during the late '80's and early '90's when, because not merely had the initial drive for reform subsided among the existing parties, which needed a transfusion from the masses, but also Australia was caught up in the new world-wide economic and intellectual ferment. Internally, this climax meant that the earlier desultory attempts by unions to form an independent political party were widened and consolidated in a Labor Party in the '90's by the stalemate of liberalism, the failure of existing parties to satisfy Labor's demands, the use of police and army in strikes, and defeat in strikes.

Henry George's Progress and Poverty reached Australia, was reprinted in a Sydney newspaper, popularized by local reformers. George stimulated the interest in land reform when he toured Australia in 1889. Although he opposed socialist theories and advocated special ideas of "single-tax," his fellow travellers were prominent in the early Labor Leagues and many came to socialism in Australia as in Britain, through the stimulus that they obtained from discussions on the land problem. Organizers of the Knights of Labor visited Australia. Bellamy's Looking Backward had an amazing circulation and influence�my father was a member of a "Bellamy Club" in Brisbane in the '90's�and "National Clubs" were formed; every radical answered the critics of socialism with extracts from Looking Backward. Also widely read were Gronlund's Co-operative Commonwealth, Caesar's Column, William Morris' Dream of John Ball and News from Nowhere, Olive Scheiner's Story of an African Farm, collections of John Stuart Mill's essays.

William Lane converted these ideas into an Australian Collectivism in his Workingman's Paradise.

The Labor Party had gathered into its organization those trade unionists who wanted the state to provide higher standards for workers and easier methods of settling disputes than strikes, "White Australians" who feared the competition of cheap labor, tariff reformers who wanted to guarantee jobs by exchanging imported goods, republicans, single taxers, land nationalizers, reformers of every kind. So developed what Pember Reeves, author of State Enterprise in New Zealand and Australia, called that "ill-defined blend of Radicalism, Socialism, and Trade Unionism, the Progressive programme in Australia and New Zealand."

The elements mentioned�and others�are still present in the Labor Party. They modify and they impose their meaning on the "party." They twist and distort the program; they make the program; they are instruments of corruption and activists of the moment; they are demagogues of the phrase and canvassers for a lifetime; also they are socialists and idealists; they use the ideal to service their own ends and their ends are often the resolutions of Labor League members ... but they are all part of the Labor movement.

A political party that is aiming at being the government will inevitably modify its policy to win support; a mass political party will draw to its ranks many who are seeking to satisfy particular interests or at the best many who are not consciously socialists. (Membership in the Australian Labor Party costs less than a dollar a year.) Partly the main limitation is educational; partly it is the effect of the temptation to seek immediate aims. Though harsh words have always been brought against politicians, the politician has generally been the voice of the majority; most of his critics have succumbed to that influence. It is only the beginning the problem for the critic to say, "If the Labor Party is true to its principles, it would expel them." For who is "Them"? Or to demand, "Labor will always fail to be socialist, until it gets rid of the nationalist, the single taxer, the currency reformer, the publican, the businessman, the communist, the trade union protectionist, the racial demagogue, the isolationist." There would be no one left!

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  Issue 121 contents

»	Union Journo on Death List
»	First 'Lab Rats' in Bank Hold-Up
»	Monk's Mad Power Grab from States
»	Big Print Merger Threatens Jobs
»	Anger as Labor Staffers Shun Unions
»	Unions Are Well Advanced In Change Unions Tell ALP
»	Unions Step Up Organising Drive
»	Education, Call Centre Unions Sweep Awards
»	Bank AGMs Focus of Worker Anger
»	Gender Balance in Transport Concessions
»	Concern As Sydney Collapses
»	Bakers Seek More Bread
»	CFMEU Forces Re-Think On Asbestos
»	Call Goes Out for Union Summer
»	Twelve Weeks Parental Leave For Kiwis
»	Organiser of the Year Nominations Open
»	Activists Notebook

»	The Soapbox
»	Sport
»	Labour Review
»	Tool Shed

»	What's Wrong With Labor
»	Why I'm Quitting the ALP
»	Compo Flak
»	Union Democracy
»	Multi-Skilling Corrigan Style

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