Australia's First Socialists
By Jim McIlroy
Resistance Books 2003, $5.95
Available at Resistance bookshops (addresses page 2) or order at <http://www.resistancebooks.com>
REVIEW BY JOHN NEBAUER
Radical politics in Australia did not begin with the formation of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in 1891, nor was it the sole focus for radical politics prior to World War I. Australia's First Socialists is a very successful attempt to briefly outline the development of the Australian socialist movement to the founding of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in 1920. Written by veteran revolutionary socialist Jim McIlroy, this is a pamphlet about activists, for activists, by an activist.
As a British colony, early radicalism was naturally heavily influenced by the British movement. As early as 1834, the Tolpuddle Martyrs — six farm labourers — were transported as convicts to New South Wales for their trade union activity. At first, radical ideas were largely influenced by the Chartists (a mass working-class movement for democratic rights) and Irish republicanism.
These influenced the Eureka Stockade rebellion at Ballarat in 1854, which was triggered by the imposition of fees for gold prospecting licences by the Victorian colonial government. McIlroy notes that the Eureka Stockade was "a popular revolt against the unfair taxation and repressive policing". The American Revolution that led to the creation of the United States was triggered by similar events.
As Karl Marx wrote: "We must distinguish between the riot in Ballarat... and the general revolutionary movement in the State of Victoria. The former will by this time have been suppressed; the latter can only be suppressed by far-reaching concessions ("The Buying of Commissions — News from Australia", Marx-Engels Collected Works, volume 14)"
This assessment proved correct. McIlroy points out that despite the diggers' military defeat at Eureka, by 1856 they had received the right to vote, with universal manhood suffrage (women's suffrage was not achieved at a national level until 1902).
An organised socialist movement took a little longer to get off the ground. McIlroy notes that Australia's first prominent socialist organisation was the Democratic Association of Victoria. Influenced by the utopian socialism of Robert Owen and Charles Fourier, the DAV was essentially a moral reform society. Its program was nonetheless also partly influenced by the International Working Men's Association (the First International) in Europe. The DAV was accepted as its "Australian section" and a delegate was present at the international's Hague congress in September 1872.
A more solidly based left-wing organisation was the Australian Socialist League (ASL), founded in 1887. It linked with Australia's first regular socialist newspaper, the Radical, which was founded in Newcastle the same year. McIlroy notes the ASL's heavy involvement in the great strikes of 1891-94.
The ASL was involved in founding the ALP in 1891 and maintained its affiliation until 1898. The ASL campaigned within the ALP for socialism against the party's right wing. After a last ditch effort to force the ALP to accept a pledge to nationalise industry in 1897, the ASL split with the ALP to establish a socialist organisation in competition with it. The new party did moderately well in the 1901 Senate election and in the 1903 Senate election its lead candidate received around 26,000 votes.
The industrial militancy of the 1890s led to the creation of a plethora of socialist organisations alongside the ASL. Some, such as the Bellamy Society (named after American journalist Edward Bellamy), founded by William Lane, were influenced by utopian socialists or the English Fabians. Others such as the Socialist Labor Party (influenced by US socialist leader Daniel De Leon) were more militant but very sectarian.
McIlroy devotes a considerable portion of Australia's First Socialists to the Industrial Workers of the World. Greatly influenced by its US counterpart, the IWW (or the "Wobblies") eschewed political activity in favour of industrial action and agitation for the creation of "One Big Union", through which the working class would cripple the power of the capitalists through industrial muscle alone. The IWW attracted many socialists to its ranks. Its newspaper, Direct Action, helped build its profile amongst union militants.
The IWW grew to be the biggest focus of working-class radicalism outside the ALP prior to World War I. It waged a heroic fight against the inter-imperialist war, and was active in the huge anti-conscription mass movements of 1916 and 1917. The IWW was targeted in a vicious campaign by the ruling class. The IWW was banned and the organisation was crippled by 1919.
McIlroy argues that the campaign against the IWW exposed the group's main shortcoming — its failure to grasp the need for a working-class movement with the aim of taking political power away from the capitalist class, destroying the capitalist state and building new organs of working-class rule. The IWW believed it would be sufficient to take control of the factories and workplaces via the One Big Union.
Still, the IWW had much going for it. The IWW took an uncompromising stand against racism despite the popularity of the White Australia Policy amongst sections of the working class and labour movement. As McIlroy writes: "The issue of the White Australia Policy remained a bugbear for the Australian Socialist movement in the early years of the 20th century — until challenged by the new broom of the [IWW]."
The IWW was also far ahead of other socialist organisations in attempting to incorporate women into the organisation. The IWW championed equal pay for all, and recognised the exploitation of women in the workforce and at home. Women were involved in the everyday public activity of the IWW in greater numbers than in other socialist organisations, and produced prominent leaders such as Annie Westbrook in Perth, and May Ewart and Lesbia Keogh in Sydney.
McIlroy concludes the booklet with the formation of the CPA, and engages in some interesting speculation on what shape the revolutionary party may have taken had the IWW survived. He argues that there might have been a positive cross-fertilisation between the two traditions. The IWW, sharper on the questions of the role of the ALP, racism and the war, would have been a positive influence on the development of Australian communism.
"How many more workers would have been educated about what socialism really is and could become if there were some good debates between the IWW and the CPA, hopefully leading to unification and a much stronger revolutionary organisation?", McIlroy asks. Such an organisation would still have come under enormous pressure as the international communist movement became dominated by Stalinism, but perhaps such debates could have made the CP more resilient to it.
Today's rebels should know about activists such as Monty Miller, whose political life spanned the period McIlroy's pamphlet covers. A miner on the Victorian goldfields, Miller may have been at Eureka, but even if he wasn't, he quickly imbibed its radicalism. After leaving the goldfields, Miller took part in Melbourne's trade union movement as a member of the carpenter's union. He took part in the strike waves of the 1890s (in Perth). He was arrested in 1916 (at 77) during the crackdown on the IWW. Charged with sedition, he was sentenced to six months' hard labour. Released in the ensuing public outcry, Miller welcomed the victory of the Russian Revolution in November 1917.
On his last demonstration (in Brisbane), demanding the repeal of the War Precautions Act, Miller was attacked by police. He was anxious to ensure that his political legacy was taken up by a new generation. And so it was. The foreword to his book Labor's Road to Freedom was written by a young novelist named Katherine Susannah Pritchard, a member of the newly formed CPA.
More people should know about the rich heritage of the early Australian socialist movement. McIlroy is to be commended for making it accessible.
From Green Left Weekly, November 5, 2003.
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