"Art is a weapon in the People's fight" declared an advert for a 1940 production of the play Women by the left-wing Workers Art Guild (WAG) that was active in Perth from 1935 to 1942.
Communist Party of Australia (1920-1991, CPA)
Ted was a committed trade unionist, with a hunger for knowledge and a desire to both understand and change the world.
One hundred years after the Red flag Riots, Jim McIlroy looks at the polarisation after World War I, in which far-right aggression was incited by governments and 鈥渞espectable鈥 political forces.
Last September, while campaigning for the position of Lord Mayor of Newcastle and a ward councillor, I bumped into an NSW Labor Party officer at a coffee shop.
鈥淐omrade鈥, he said, 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got some great policies鈥. 鈥淔eel free to borrow any of them,鈥 I relied cheekily. 鈥淥ur housing policy, for example, is based on Socialist Alliance councillor Sue Bolton's work in Moreland, Victoria.鈥
The next day the local papers reported that ALP candidates were talking up 鈥渁ffordable housing鈥.
Growing up in northern Queensland in a family of unionists, I learnt the bare facts of the region鈥檚 radical history as part of the local folklore 鈥 Townsville had elected Communists to the local council, and Bowen twice sent a Communist, Fred Paterson, to state parliament.
Fifty years ago this week, 200 Aboriginal stockmen and domestic servants walked off the job at Lord Vestey's Wave Hill cattle station, 600 kilometres south of Darwin. Most of them were members of the Gurindji people, with small numbers of Walpiri and other indigenous people. They were to stay out on strike for ten years.
Robert Menzies achieved many things in his long political career. To remain prime minister as long as he did, Menzies kicked the communist can for as much as it was worth.
He also benefited from a split in the Australian Labor Party and the ALP鈥檚 remarkable talent for shooting itself in the foot. By choosing ineffectual leaders 鈥 Doc Evatt was brilliant but erratic, while Arthur Calwell was dour, dull and unelectable 鈥 the ALP was putty in Menzies鈥 clever political hands.
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