The Socialist Labor Party was a
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
political party of Australia that existed from 1901 to the 1970s. Originally formed as the Australian Socialist League in 1887, it had members such as
George Black,
New South Wales Premier
The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales acting as the legislature. ...
William Holman
William Arthur Holman (4 August 1871 – 5 June 1934) was an Australian politician who served as Premier of New South Wales from 1913 to 1920. He came to office as the leader of the Labor Party, but was expelled from the party in the split o ...
and
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Billy Hughes.
History
Australian Socialist League
The Australian Socialist League, a multi-tendency organisation similar to the
British Socialist League, was founded on 4 May 1887, and publicly launched several months later on 26 August at
533 George Street,
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
,
New South Wales Colony.
The Socialist League was largest within the state of
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
.
The League consisted of three major groups, the "Modern Socialists", the "
Scientific socialists or
Communist-Anarchists", and the "
libertarian
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...
and
individualist anarchists
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-relianc ...
"
Labor historian
Verity Burgmann
Verity Nancy Burgmann (born 17 September 1952) is Adjunct Professor of Politics in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University and Honorary Professorial Fellow in the eScholarship Research Centre at the University of Melbourne, where she ...
describes the Modern Socialists as a unique historical tendency that "espoused a
co-operativist strategy: it was a kind of micro-socialism in that it aimed to build socialist society in bits and pieces, by the voluntary establishment of worker-owned enterprises that would eventually form a socialist whole".
Between the late 1890s and 1905, the League shifted towards the radical unionist ideas of
De Leonism
De Leonism, also known as Marxism-De Leonism, is a Marxist tendency developed by Curaçaoan-American trade union organizer and Marxist theoretician Daniel De Leon. De Leon was an early leader of the first American socialist political party, t ...
.
The Socialist League and their ideas were influential within the
1890 Maritime strike and the
1891 Australian shearers' strike
The 1891 shearers' strike is one of Australia's earliest and most important industrial disputes.
The dispute was primarily between Trade union, unionised and non-unionised wool workers. It resulted in the formation of large camps of striking work ...
.
In March 1888 the party sought to establish a Labor Party within New South Wales with the policies of the "
nationalization
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
of land and resumption of all
monopolies
A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...
".
The League supported the
Trades & Labor Council's decision in 1891 to establish the
Labor Electoral League of New South Wales, and actively campaigned and ran candidates within the party due to a belief the party would eventually establish the League's policies of
state socialism
State socialism is a political and economic ideology within the socialist movement that advocates state ownership of the means of production. This is intended either as a temporary measure, or as a characteristic of socialism in the transition ...
.
During the
1891 New South Wales election, in some regions nearly half of all the Labor candidates were League members.
At its peak the League had several members elected within the Trades & Labor Council, and several elected members of parliament.
The League's list of parliamentarians included
Billy Hughes,
William Holman
William Arthur Holman (4 August 1871 – 5 June 1934) was an Australian politician who served as Premier of New South Wales from 1913 to 1920. He came to office as the leader of the Labor Party, but was expelled from the party in the split o ...
,
George Black, and
Arthur Hill Griffith
Arthur Hill Griffith (16 October 1861 – 1 November 1946) was a politician, teacher and patent attorney in New South Wales, Australia. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1894 until 1917 and held a number of min ...
.
By the mid-1890s, the League became dissatisfied with the ability of the Labor Party in achieving its goals of socialism. The League established a newspaper in 1894 named ''
The Socialist'' in an attempt to promote socialist ideas. In 1898 the League split from the Labor Party, leaving behind its affiliated Labor parliamentarians, and sought to establish their own Labor Party.
Socialist Labor Party
The party was founded by the Australian Socialist League in 1901 to contest the
Australian federal election of 1901. The party nominated six candidates (known as the "Socialist Six") for the Senate seats of New South Wales: Andrew Thomson, James Moroney,
Harry Holland
Henry Edmund Holland (10 June 1868 – 8 October 1933) was an Australian-born newspaper owner, politician and unionist who relocated to New Zealand. He was the second leader of the New Zealand Labour Party.
Early life
Holland was born at G ...
,
James Morrish, John Neil, and Thomas Melling. None of the candidates came close to winning a seat.
The Socialist Labor Party is credited with introducing the
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...
to Australia and establishing its first branch in 1908.
In January 1920, the party merged with the
Industrial Socialist Labor Party
The Industrial Socialist Labor Party, Industrial Labor Party and the Independent Labor Party were short lived socialist political parties in Australia in 1919 and the early 1920s. The Industrial Socialist Labor Party was founded by radical soci ...
, which had broken away from the
Labor Party in 1919, retaining the name Socialist Labor Party. The amalgamated Socialist Labor party ran in the
1920 New South Wales state election, with one of the members
Percy Brookfield winning the seat of
Sturt as a Socialist candidate. Brookfield had the
balance of power in the assembly following the election but was murdered the following year. Several months before his death, in February 1921, Percy and several other members split from the Socialist Labor Party and reformed the independent
Industrial Labor Party
The Industrial Labor Party or Heffron Labor Party was a short-lived but influential political party active in New South Wales between 1936 and 1939. It was a splinter group of the Labor Party (ALP) and was formed by Bob Heffron after he and Carl ...
, citing they were "dissatisfied with the manner in which the affairs of that party have been carried on".
Michael Considine,
Labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the la ...
member for
Barrier
A barrier or barricade is a physical structure which blocks or impedes something.
Barrier may also refer to:
Places
* Barrier, Kentucky, a community in the United States
* Barrier, Voerendaal, a place in the municipality of Voerendaal, Netherl ...
in the federal
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
from 1917, joined the Socialist Labor Party in 1920 after his expulsion from the ALP, and unsuccessfully contested the seat of
Darling for the party in 1922 as an Industrial Labor candidate.
Support for the party rapidly diminished after the ALP adopted the Socialist Objective in 1921, with many members returning to the ALP and others joining the newly founded
Communist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian political party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membership and influence having been i ...
founded in the same year. Unlike many other socialist organisations, the Socialist Labor Party rejected the unity conferences which led to the Communist Party, labelling it as "a front for capitalist spies". The party survived into the 1940s, under the leadership of
E.E. Judd.
The party was re-established at a significantly smaller size in 1961, and maintained writing its newspaper ''The People'' until the 1970s.
Electoral results
See also
*
Socialism in Australia
Socialism in Australia dates back at least as far as the late-19th century. Notions of socialism in Australia have taken many different forms including utopian nationalism in the style of Edward Bellamy, the democratic socialist reformist elec ...
Notes
References
{{Defunct Australian political parties
Defunct political parties in Australia
Defunct socialist parties
Labour parties
Socialist parties in Australia
De Leonist organizations
Political parties established in 1901
1901 establishments in Australia
Industrial Workers of the World in Australia
Syndicalist political parties