White-anting is an Australian term for the process of internal erosion of a foundation. It is often used in reference to groups such as political parties or organisations where information from group insiders is 'leaked' or used to undermine the goals of the group. The
Macquarie Dictionary
The ''Macquarie Dictionary'' () is a dictionary of Australian English. It is generally considered by universities and the legal profession to be the authoritative source on Australian English. It also pays considerable attention to New Zealand En ...
says the verb "to white-ant" means "to subvert or undermine from within".
The term is derived from the action of
termites
Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattode ...
(white ants) eating the inside of wooden building foundations, often leaving no outward evidence, until the structure crumbles.
Usage
It has been used on the
soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
Neighbours
''Neighbours'' is an Australian television soap opera, which has aired since 18 March 1985. It was created by television executive Reg Watson. The Seven Network commissioned the show following the success of Watson's earlier soap '' Sons an ...
several times including in 2006.
In 2012, the ''
Illawarra Mercury
The ''Illawarra Mercury'' is a daily newspaper serving the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. It has been published since 1855, making it one of Australia's oldest newspapers and the second oldest regional newspaper in New South Wal ...
'' newspaper also used the term, when it reported that then-government minister
Greg Combet
Gregory Ivan Combet (; born 28 April 1958) is a former Australian politician and trade unionist. He was Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions between 1999 and 2007. He was elected member for the New South Wales Federal seat of Ch ...
wanted his colleagues to stop white-anting the Australian Prime Minister
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013, holding office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She is the first and only ...
.
In 1938,
Gordon Childe
Vere Gordon Childe (14 April 189219 October 1957) was an Australian archaeologist who specialised in the study of European prehistory. He spent most of his life in the United Kingdom, working as an academic for the University of Edinburgh and th ...
used the term in a letter to
Rajani Palme Dutt Rajani may refer to:
*Rajani (name), people named Rajani
*Rajani (actress) (born 1965), Indian film actress
* ''Rajani'' (TV series), a 1980s Indian TV series
* ''Rajani'' (film), a 2009 Indian Kannada romantic comedy
* ''Rajani'', an 1877 novel b ...
, explaining how in his books he used the method of 'white-anting' to get his Marxist message to the masses rather than labeling himself as a
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
and using Marxist terms, thus eroding the institution of bourgeois scholarship.
[Childe to Dutt, 14 October 1938, Palme Dutt Papers in Communist Party of Great Britain Archives, Labour History Archive and Study Centre, People's History Museum, Manchester]
In 2019,
Steve Smith Stephen, Steve, Stevie, or Steven Smith may refer to:
Academics
* Steve Smith (political scientist) (born 1952), British international relations theorist and senior university manager
* Stephen Smith (journalist) (born 1956), American journalist, ...
, the returned former captain of the Australian cricket team, was accused of white-anting the new captain
Tim Paine
Timothy David Paine (born 8 December 1984) is an Australian cricketer and a former captain of the Australia national cricket team in Test cricket. A right-handed batsman and a wicket-keeper, he plays for the Tasmanian Tigers in Australian dome ...
.
References
External links
{{wiktionary
ABC NewsRadio Definition
Australian slang