July 1967 School Magazine

Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

July, 7957

Biisbane Girls' Grammar School MaEazine

July, 1967

likely to benefit the toilers of Australia ? All that we can gleam is that there is to be 'a union of the Colonies under the Crown', that far from 'Ioosening the ties of loyalty' that bind us into, a country whose institutions produce on the one hand a small class of extremely .wealthy and generally idle persons, and on the other hand a very large class of starving, semi-starving and poverty-striken unemployed and employed wage slaves, it is intended to, further 'cement the true fabric of loyalty to the Empire and to our beloved Queen". ^ _By 1899_, however, the Labour Party had suffered a complete change of heart, demonstrated at a large meeting of Trade Unioirists at tfie Trades-,Hall in Sydney at which Mr. J. E. West occupied the chair. The following resolutions were carried unanimously : - 1. That this Conference is of the opinion that the Commonwealth Bill now before the country is one worthy of acceptance as a democratic measure. 2. That this Conference resolves to take the initiative and hereby appoints a standing committee to be known as the Trade Unionisl Federation Committee, and to invite the co-operation of all Trade Unions in passing the Commonwealth Bill.7 Soon after the Commonwealth Bill was accepted and Federation had become a_ reality, an American, V. S. Clark, toured Australia and reported that "The practical objectives of the iabour party are not:; much socialist as social-demociatic. They look towards"collectivism-, but recognize wages, profits, and the conditions of capitalist pioauctltri as. matters.to.be accepted in^prersent legislation. Her6 the party breaks with doctrinaire socialists, of whom there are a few in austiatia and New Zealand whose active brr_t not very formidabre oppositio" ii -li obliged to meet. Australian labour leaders know little^6r nothine oi Marxian theories. Fer.v of, them know even by title the principaf Text_ books of Continental Socialism .The policv of the Ljbour 'Dartt is shaped by home conditions. There is little s'ocial idealism ambng"the rank and file of the working classes. They .are mostly seJting immediate and concrete results, and, so far as anv directive orr.oo.? o_n their part is concerned, it- is merely an accid_ent that the policy thus determined trends towards socialism."s Mr. A. A. Calwell answer,ed this claim by saying that many leaders had studied Marx but that the A.L.P. had never-been Marxist oriented, arrd explicitly reiects the basic theories of Marx. It rejects completely the doctrine of Communism.e The years after Federation saw the rapid rise of the Australian labggr Party. The lead in,shaping Australia's democracy passed from Deakin's Liberals to the Labour Party. Its rise to power had been so rapid as to surprise its own supporters and it held office as the Government of the eommonwealth (71 Sydney Morning Herald, May 20, 1899, reporting on a meeting of May 19, I 899. (8) V. S. Clar!. "The Labour Movement in Australasia,,, Wesfminstel, 1906. Pages, ll8-19. (9) Mr.. A. A. C_alwell, M.H.R. "Labour Role in Modern Society,,, Lanedowne press, Melbourne, 1963.

for two short perio.ds before its return for a Ionger period. in 1910. The first Labour Ministry ever commissioned in thi world nua tit." office in Queensland in 1899. The Federai platform adopted in 1905 proclaimed these objectives: (1) The cultivation of an Australian sentiment based upon the main- tenalce of local purity and the development ln Australia of an enlightened and self-reliant community. (2) The se-curing of the full results of their industry to all producers by the collective ownership of monopolies and the extensidn of the industrial and economic functions of the State and Municipality. The Fighting Platform included: 1. Maintenance of White Australia. 2. Compulsory Arbitration. 3. Olcl Age Pensions. 4. Nationalization of Monopolies. 5. Citizen Defence Forces. 6. Restriction of Public Borrorving.- Z. Navigation Laws. Labour's programme in the 1910-13 session was no different in principlei_- from Deakin's. 1 It established the Commonwealth Bank, rather mildly taxed unimproved-lands (with the object of breaking up large estates and with the effect of at least increasing ."rreirrej, liberalized -the old-age pension scheme brought in by Deakin,s governl ment in 1909 and enacted invalid pensions and maternitv allo,iances. It was in keepjng with the traditional distrust of monbpoly, by no means confined to the Labour Party, and the traditional betef in using the State to equalize the opportunities of a fair and reasonable liveliho.od. Labour also agreed with the policy of preceding governments in a nationalistic approach to the defence of Australia. -Iti establishment of the Australian Navy in preference to contributing towards the British navy was the fulfilment of Deakin's policy; and if it was the Lgboul Party which first advocaled and finaily completed the system o-f- universal and compulsory military training, this was the policy of all parties. What shocked members of older political parties far more than its programme was its discipline. Before it could hope to win enough seats to govern, it could exact some of its programme from one or other of the older parties as a concession in return for support. That power was lost when labour members were split by the same issue of free trade versus protection which divided the other parties. Out of such experience was evolved the caucus, the meeting of all labour mem^bers, and the "pledge" to vote as caucus dcided. This pledge took the form of: "I hereby pledge myself not to oppose the candidate selected by the recognised political organization and if elected to do my utmost to carry out the principles embodied in the Federal Labour platform and on all questions affecting the platform to vote as a majority of the Parliamentary Party may decide at a duly constituted meeting of caucus. I further pledge myself not to retire from the contest without

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