The University of Melbourne Australian Labor Party Club is a political student club at the University of Melbourne. It is the oldest student political club in Australia, founded in 1925- several months prior to the Sydney University Labor Club. Many members go on to be members of Parliament. It was founded to provide a means of organising students who support the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

. The club has been hugely influential on the University of Melbourne Student Union, and its members have held numerous positions within it. The club is strongly associated with the

Labor Left The Labor Left, also known as the Progressive Left or Socialist Left, is political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It competes with the more economically liberal Labor Right faction. The Labor Left operates autonomously in each s ...

of the Australian Labor Party.

History

The ALP Club was originally established as the Labour Club in 1925 by Lloyd Ross, Brian Fitzpatrick and Ralph Gibson. The Club grew to have 200 members, and in 1932 was the largest club on campus. In response to Communist influence on the club, in 1934

B. A. Santamaria Bartholomew Augustine Santamaria, usually known as B. A. Santamaria (14 August 1915 – 25 February 1998), was an Australian Roman Catholic anti-Communist political activist and journalist. He was a guiding influence in the founding of the Dem ...

formed a more moderate Labour-aligned club, the Radical Club. Throughout the 1930s, 40s and 50s the club was central to campus life, with members being prominent in clubs and societies, the running of the SRC and in the student magazine Farrago, as well as producing their own magazine ''Proletariat'' to distribute their ideas. In the 1950s, future Victorian Premier John Cain and future Opposition Leader

Clyde Holding Allan Clyde Holding (27 April 193131 July 2011) was an Australian politician who served as Leader of the Opposition in Victoria for ten years, and went on to become a federal minister in the Hawke Government. Early life and education Holdin ...

were involved in the organising of the club. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the ALP Club was closely involved in the Left Alliance, a group of left-wing students that opposed the union between the Labor Club (affiliated to the

Labor Right The Labor Right, also known as Modern Labor, is a political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) at the national level that is characterised by being more economically conservative and, in some cases, more socially conservative. The Labor ...

) and Liberal Club. In 2003, the Clubs & Societies Department of the Student Union, which had a Liberal Club and Labor Club majority, disaffiliated the ALP Club on a technicality. Despite lengthy attempts to overturn this decision, the student union was put into liquidation before the issue could be resolved. The club has been affiliated to the Melbourne University Student Union (MUSU), and more recently the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU). After rebuilding throughout the early-mid 2000s, tickets for the Student Union election that had the involvement of the Club have won the majority of elections, usually under the banner of the Stand Up! ticket. Several members of the Club have also gone on to be President of the National Union of Students. The culture of Victorian politics has been heavily moulded by the influence of the club, especially in the mid-20th century.

Politics

In recent history the club has been decidedly left-leaning. This is in contrast to the University of Melbourne Labor Club, who are associated with the Labor Right. The existence of two Labor/ALP Clubs simultaneously is a result of a split in the Labor Club in 1949. Currently, the club is aligned with the National Labor Students, the national Labor Left student faction. Prior to the formation of NLS in 2006, the club was part of Australian Labor Students (ALS), and had been part of the National Organisation of Labor Students (NOLS) prior to the split between NOLS and ALS in 1997. In 1950, the stated goal of the club was:

The A.L.P. Club, working from the basis of the A.L.P. platform, stands for the progressive reformation of society by democratic means, so as to achieve social justice for all

This goal continues to this day. The club has previously supported campaigns for free education and free healthcare, universal student unionism, feminism and democratic socialism among other concerns.

Past presidents

Notable alumni

* Brian Fitzpatrick *

* John Cain * Andrew Giles * Paul Erickson *

Stephen Murray-Smith Stephen Murray-Smith AM (9 September 1922 – 31 July 1988) was an Australian writer, editor and educator. Early life and education Murray-Smith's father ran a lucrative business shipping Australian horses to India for the armed forces. It ena ...

Manning Clark Charles Manning Hope Clark, (3 March 1915 – 23 May 1991) was an Australian historian and the author of the best-known general history of Australia, his six-volume ''A History of Australia'', published between 1962 and 1987. He has been descri ...

* Ian Turner *

Jim Cairns James Ford Cairns (4 October 191412 October 2003) was an Australian politician who was prominent in the Labor movement through the 1960s and 1970s, and was briefly Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister in the Whitlam government. He is best r ...

Blanche Merz

References

{{reflist Student politics in Australia University of Melbourne 1925 establishments in Australia Clubs and societies in Australia Student organisations in Australia Student organizations established in 1925 Student political organizations