* This is a revised and updated version of ‘Class analysis and the left in Australian history’ in R. Kuhn and T. O’Lincoln (eds), Class and class conflict in Australia, Longman, Melbourne, 1996, p. 145-162. I am grateful to Tom O’Lincoln for suggestions about the revision.
1 Department of External Affairs, Social conditions in Australia, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1915, p. 3-4.
2 R. Casey, The worker-boss problem, Hawthorn Press, Melbourne, 1949, p. 58.
3 W. K. Hancock, Australia, Jacaranda, Brisbane, 1961 (1930), p. 182.
4 Hancock,Australia, p. 190-1.
5 Hancock, Australia, p. 44, 47.
6 T. Rowse, Liberalism and national character, Kibble Books, Melbourne, 1978, p. 93-96.
7 Quoted in F. Farrell, International socialism and Australian labor, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1981, p. 153. For a more recent example see Peter Sams, Secretary of the NSW Labor Council, cited favourably in Evatt Foundation, Unions 2001: a blueprint for trade union activism, Sydney, 1995, p. 89-90.
8 See R. Kuhn, ‘Rural reaction and war on the waterfront in Australia’ Monthly Review, 50 (6), November 1998, p. 30-44, http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/rick/mr.htm; Jeff Sparrow, ‘The road to Vou Wah: billionaire battlers and sweatshop elites’ Overland, 174, 2004, p. 22-27; and Marian Sawer and Barry Hindess (eds), Us and them: anti-elitism in Australia, API Network, Australia Research Institute, Perth, 2004.
9 B. Berzins and T. Irving, ‘History and the New Left’, in R. Gordon (ed.), The Australian new left: critical essays and strategy, Heinemann, Melbourne, 1970, p. 73-74.
10 Cited in F. Picard, ‘Henry George and the Labour split of 1891’, Historical Studies, 6, November 1953, p. 51.
11 Picard, ‘Henry George and the Labour split of 1891’.
12 For Lane’s political evolution see L. Ross, William Lane and the Australian labor movement, Forward Press, Sydney, 1935, p. 24, 43, 47, 57, 81, 107-108, 140.
13 V. Burgmann, ‘In our time’: socialism and the rise of Labor 1885-1905, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1985, p. 20-25.
14 R. Markey, The making of the Labor Party in New South Wales: 1880-1900, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 1988, p. 243.
15 F. Anstey, The Kingdom of Shylock, Labor Call Print, Melbourne, 1917; Money power, Fraser and Jenkinson, Melbourne 1921; Facts and theories of finance, Fraser and Jenkinson, Melbourne, 1930. For a detailed discussion see P. Love, Labour and the money power, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1984 and R. Kuhn, ‘Paradise on the instalment plan: the economic thought of the Australian labour movement between the depression and the long boom’, PhD, Department of Political Science, University of Sydney, 1985, p. 101-151
16 Labor Daily, 22 April 1930, editorial, 8 September 1926.
17 Anstey, Facts and theories, p. 7-8.
18 See R. F. Irvine, The Midas delusion, Hassell Press, Adelaide, 1933, p. 223. Lang’s radical sounding slogan ‘the socialisation of credit’ was used precisely to undermine the explicitly anti-capitalist Socialisation Units in the NSW ALP, see R. Cooksey, Lang and socialism, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1976, p. 71.
19 Anstey, Money power, p. 66.
20 See S. Encel, ‘Power in Australia’, Arena 6, 1965, p. 4 for an identification of Anstey’s seminal role.
21 Lang rejected repudiation of interest payments during the 1930 State election campaign, but took the policy up in 1931; see M. Dixson, Greater than Lenin? Lang and Labor 1916-1932, Melbourne Politics Monograph, Melbourne, 1977, p. 164.
22 I. E. Young, ‘Conflict within the NSW Labor Party 1919-1932’, MA Thesis, Department of Government, University of Sydney, 1961, p. 295-8, 333.
23 See D. Hallas, The Comintern, Bookmarks, London, 1985, p. 142-143 and Kuhn, ‘Paradise on the instalment plan’, p. 153-159.
24 See for example L. L. Sharkey, ‘The federal elections’, Communist review, December 1937, p. 6-7.
25 Communist Party of Australia, Unite for peace freedom democracy, Sydney, 1938. For an early critique of this analysis see L. Trotsky, ‘Preface to the French edition’, (1936), Terrorism and Communism, New Park, London, 1975, p. 26-7.
26 J. N. Rawling, Who owns Australia?, second edition, Modern Publishers, Sydney, 1937, p. 17, 26.
27 L. Fox, Monopoly, Research Department, Left Book Club, Sydney, 1940, p. 40. See Kuhn, ‘Paradise on the instalment plan’, p. 164-183 for a detailed account of the Communist Party’s approach between 1934 and 1950.
28 E.g. F. Lundberg, America’s sixty families, Vanguard, New York, 1937.
29 E. W. Campbell, The sixty rich families who own Australia, Current Book Distributors, Sydney, 1963, p. 18-19. Also see J. Playford, ‘Myth of Sixty Families’, Arena 23, 1970 for a critique of this approach.
30 E.g. E. L Wheelwright, Ownership and control of Australian companies, Law Book Company, Sydney, 1957, and ‘Overseas investment in Australia’, in A. Hunter (ed.), The economics of Australian industry, Melbourne University Press, 1963.
31 B. Fitzpatrick and E. L. Wheelwright, The highest bidder, Landsdowne, Melbourne, August 1965. See D. Watson, Brian Fitzpatrick, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1978, p. 276-277, 359 on Fitzpatrick’s earlier work on the issue and the division of labour between the two in the writing of the book.
32 Fitzpatrick and Wheelwright, The highest bidder, p. 33, 15, 157-158.
33 Particularly influential statements of this position were P. Baran, The political economy of development, Monthly Review, New York, 1957 and A. G. Frank, Latin America, underdevelopment or revolution: essays in the development of underdevelopment and the immediate enemy, Monthly Review, New York, 1969.
34 Fitzpatrick and Wheelwright, The highest bidder, p. 167.
35 Labor, 8 September 1961.
36 E. L. Wheelwright’s extensive output includes two collections of essays, Radical political economy, Australian and New Zealand Book Company, 1974; and Capitalism socialism or barbarism?, Australian and New Zealand Book Company, 1978; the five volumes of Essays in the political economy of Australian capitalism, which he edited with Ken Buckley between 1975 and 1983, Australian and New Zealand Book Company, Sydney; the textbooks, edited with Frank Stilwell, Readings in political economy, Australian and New Zealand Book Company, Sydney, 1976; and the edited collections with G. Crough and E. Wilshire, Australia and world capitalism, Penguin, Ringwood, 1980, and with G. Crough, Australia: a client state, Penguin, Ringwood, 1982.
37 See for example ‘For preventative medicine against the compradors and multi-nationals’, Australian Communist, 83, June 1977.
38 Amalgamated Metal Workers and Shipwrights Union, Australia uprooted, Sydney, 1977, Australia ripped off, Sydney, 1978. R. Kuhn, Militancy uprooted: labour movement economics 1974-1986, Socialist Action, Melbourne, 1986, http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/rick/militancyuprooted.htm, and ‘Whose boom: left nationalism and the resources boom’, International socialist, 12, Summer 1981-82, provide Marxist critiques of this approach.
39 See People’s economic program, Amalgamated Metal Workers Union, Perth, 1977. A later proposal which is more systematic and lays less stress on measures hostile to foreign investment and imports (although they are still present) is F. Stilwell, ‘Towards an alternative economic strategy’, Journal of Australian political economy 12/13, June, 1982.
40 R. Kuhn, Militancy uprooted and ‘The limits of social democratic economic policy in Australia’, Capital and Class, 51, Autumn 1993, discuss the role of the Labor and union left in developing and implementing the Accord.
41 Australian Council of Trade Unions/Trade Development Council Mission to Western Europe, Australia reconstructed, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1987.
42 A. David and E. Wheelwright, The third wave: Australia and Asian capitalism, Left Book Club, Sydney, 1989.
43 F. Stilwell, The Accord and beyond, Pluto Press, Sydney, 1986.
44 Frontline: labour movement and community monthly February 1993-March/April 1999.
45 See especially J. Pilger, A secret country, Cape, London, 1989 p. 107, 263; Distant voices Vintage, London 1992 p. 345; The new rulers of the world, Verso, London, 2002; and his films The secret country—the first Australians fight back, 1985, The last dream (Heroes unsung, Secrets, Other people’s wars), 1988.
46 N. Ebbels, The Australian labor movement 1850-1907, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1983, p. 177, 206.
47 Burgmann, ‘In our time’.
48 Ebbels, The Australian labor movement, p. 187.
49 See Burgmann, ‘In our time’, and I. Turner, Industrial labour and politics: the dynamics of the labour movement in eastern Australia 1900-1921, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney 1979. On the IWW see V. Burgmann, Revolutionary industrial unionism: the Industrial Workers of the World in Australia, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 1995.
50 W. R. Winspear, Economic warfare, The Marxian Press, Sydney 1915, p. 3, 6, 34-35, 51. V. Burgmann, ‘The mightier pen: William Robert Winspear’, in E. Fry (ed.), Rebels and radicals, George Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1983, provides a brief biography.
51 Winspear, Economic warfare p. 9-10, 22, 24, 37, 39, 45.
52 Winspear, Economic warfare p. 37, 47.
53 Winspear, Economic warfare p. 20, 39.
54 V. G. Childe, How Labour governs, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1964 (1923).
55 Commonwealth parliamentary debates 95, April 1921, p. 7890, 7889.
56 Commonwealth parliamentary debates, p. 7886.
57 ‘Theses on the eastern question’, in A. Adler (ed.), Theses, resolutions and manifestos of the Third International, Ink Links, London, 1980, p. 417.
58 See Workers weekly, 13 March 1925, p. 4 for a ‘revolutionary defeatist’ attitude to the Empire’s involvement in any war.
59 E. M. Higgins, ‘The British Empire’, The communist 1, January 1925.
60 E. M. Higgins, ‘Australia the superior’, The communist 2, February 1925.
61 The implications of Australian imperialism were mainly considered after the somewhat nationalist campaign against the Empire was dropped. See Workers weekly, 21 October 1927, 18 November 1927, 20 January 1928, 14 August 1931, 18 September 1931; R. Dixon ‘Tendencies of development of Australian capitalism: growth of imperialism’, Labor review 1 (11), July 1933, p. 7; R. Dixon, ‘The Australian labor movement in the period of crisis’, Labor review 1 (13), September 1933, p. 6.
62 ‘Mason and McShane’, What is this Labor Party?, Forward Press, Sydney, 1940.
63 L. Aarons, ‘Australian class structure’, Communist review, December 1957, January 1958.
64 R. W. Connell, Ruling class, ruling culture, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 1977.
65 See T. O’Lincoln, Into the mainstream: the decline of Australian communism, Stained Wattle Press, Sydney, 1985, p. 139-169.
66 See, for example, K. Rowley, ‘The political economy of Australia since the war’, in J. Playford and D. Kirsner, Australian capitalism: towards a socialist critique, Penguin, Ringwood, 1972. The economics of Australian capitalism were consistent themes in Intervention and the Journal of Australian Political Economy.
67 H. McQueen, A new Britannia, Penguin, Ringwood, 1970. Also see his ‘Glory without Power’, in Playford and Kirsner, Australian capitalism.
68 R. Catley and B. McFarlane, From Tweedledum to Tweedledee, Australian and New Zealand Book Company, Sydney, 1974, provides a bibliographic guide to the development of the new, radical critique of the ALP, p. 9.
69 K. Rowley, ‘Dr Cairns on tariffs: planning, imperialism and socialism’, Farrago, Melbourne University, 29 July 1971.
70 For example, K. Rowley, ‘Bob Hawke: capital for Labor?’, Arena 25, 1971.
71 Berzins and Irving, ‘History and the new left’.
72 J. West, D. Homes and G. Adler, Socialism or nationalism? Which road for the Australian labor movement?, Pathfinder Press, Sydney, 1979; T. O’Lincoln, ‘An imperialist colony?’, International socialist, 10, Melbourne, August 1980.
73 ‘T. T.’, ‘The Blinky Bill interview: nationalism on the brink’, Intervention, 8 March 1977, p. 36-44.
74 A. Game and R. Pringle, ‘The Feminist movement and the ALP’, Intervention, 8 March 1977.
75 J. Stone, Perspectives for women’s liberation: radical feminism, reform or revolution?, Redback Press, Melbourne, 1978; ‘Women’s liberation: reforms or revolution’, Hecate 5 (1), 1979; ‘Brazen hussies and god’s police: feminist historiography and the great depression’, Hecate 8 (1), 1982; ‘Bibliography: women, work and struggle’, Hecate 4 (2), 1978, 6 (2), 1980 and 7 (1), 1981.
76 J. Collins, ‘Immigrant workers in Australia’, Intervention 4, May 1974; J. Collins and R. Boughton, ‘Capitalism and poverty: a critique of the Henderson Report’, Intervention, 7, October 1976; J. Collins, ‘A divided working class’, Intervention 8, March 1977.
77 E.g. G. Willett, ‘Gay liberation: which way forward’, International socialist, 12, Melbourne, Summer 1981/82.
78 See W. Osmond, ‘Toward self-awareness’, in Gordon, The Australian new left.
79 Connell, Ruling class, ruling culture. Also see T. O’Shaugnessy, ‘Conflicts in the ruling class’, Intervention, 10/11, August 1978. The question of a counter-hegemony is also discussed by Berzins and Irving, ‘History and the new left’.
80 R. W. Connell and T. H. Irving, Class structure in Australian history, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne, first edition 1980. The introduction to the 1992 edition is less useful as a guide to class analysis.
81 T. O’Lincoln, Years of rage: social conflict s in the Fraser era, Bookmarks, Melbourne, 1993.
82 See T. Bramble, War on the waterfront Brisbane Defend Our Unions Committee, Brisbane, 1998 http://www.takver.com/wharfie/wotw.htm.
83 Notably Socialist review 1990-1993 and Reconstruction 1994-1997.
84 For example, J. McPhillips, The Accord and its consequences: trade union experiences, Socialist Party of Australia, Surry Hills, NSW 1985; Kuhn, Militancy uprooted; T. Bramble and R. Kuhn, ‘Social democracy after the long boom: economic restructuring under Australian Labor, 1983 to 1996’ in M. Upchurch (ed.) The state and ‘globalization’: comparative studies of labour and capital in national economies, London, Mansell, 1999 p. 20-55.
85 For example, T. O’Lincoln and S. Bloodworth, Rebel women in Australian working class history, Interventions, Richmond East, 1998; Mick Armstrong, 1, 2, 3, what are we fighting for? The Australian student movement from its origins to the 1970s, Socialist Alternative, Melbourne, 2001; Verity Burgmann, Power, profit & protest. Australian social movements and globalisation, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2003, T. O’Lincoln, United we stand: class struggle in colonial Australia, Red Rag, Melbourne, 2005. Also see ‘Booknotes’ www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/interventions/booknotes.htm.
86 Rick Kuhn and Tom O’Lincoln (eds), Class and class conflict in Australia, Longman Australia, Melbourne, 1996 and Rick Kuhn (ed.), Class and struggle in Australia, Pearson Longman, Frenchs Forest, 2005.