SYDNEY LETTER

Industrial Groups tried to foist »
U.S. policy on Australian Labor —

SYDNEY

= Australian Labor party has

never faced a greater crisis

than in-the recent bid by the

“Industrial Groups” to seize con-
trol.

Had they succeeded, the Labor
party would have'ceased to exist
as an independent oppocition and
spokesman for the working class.
Australia would have had the
U.S. set-up of Republican-Demo-
crats, putting up a sham fight,
but both standing for MieCarthy-
ism, war, anti-unioniim and. the
service of the monopolies.

Dr. H. VY. Evatt, federal leader
of the Labor party, is resolutely
fighting the insidious methods of

the Industril Groups, and the’

rank-and-file of the trade union
movement and the Labor party
has rallied to his side.

Last October, he declared open
war by attacking those Labor
MPs who obeyed Group decisions
instead of caucus policies.

The Groupers have been ex-
posed al; splitters ‘by their un-
successful attempt to wreck the
recent Labor party conference
in Hobart, first. by suing force
and then iby walking out.

a o a ;

The Industrial Groups are Jed
by a Melbourne lawyer, A. B.
Santamaria. : :

Their alleged objective is anti-
Communism. Other policy is
usually vaguely stated, but in
practice it has been’ shown as
support for all the policies of
the Liberal-Country party ‘coali-
tion government headed by Prime
Minister Robert Menzies.

They have openly supported
the anticommunist legislation of
1950, the anti-Communist Refer-
endum of -1951, the notorious
Petrov “espionage” inquiry,
speedup in industry, and basing
of wages on a production index.

They ‘have’ also publicly prais-
ed Chiang Kai-shek, Synghman
Rhee and Bao Dai and at the
time of the Geneva conference

demanded support for the U.S.

policy of armed intervention in
Indochina.

They reject the principle of
peaceful co-existence, and there-
fore accept the fact that war is
inevitable.

It is plain that they constitute
the “American party” in the
Australian labor movement.

For example, a leading Group-
er, L. Short, court-installed na-
tional secretary of the Ironwork-
ers’ Union, has recently been to
the U.S. to be briefed.

t bos nm

The U.S. tie-up is shown most
clearly by a speech Santamaria
gave to-leaders of the Industrial
Groups movement at a private
meeting.

He boasted in this speech that
the Groups had broken down the
idea that the unions had a “divine
right to run their own ballots”
and ‘had been responsible for the
legislation under which “today
20 or 30 court-controlled ballots
have been conducted.”

Santamaria condemned a Labor |

MP’s statement that there was
a growing tendency “to tie this
country at whatever cost to the
powerful U.S. as our future sure
shield and ‘buckler against the
rising Asia.” :

The Labor MP had added that
the Labor party did not want
this to happen “at the price of
weakening Britain, to which too
many signs recently pointed.”

Santamaria condemned this
viewpoint, which he described as
‘Down with America, up with
Britain, and no subservience to
the United States.”

He called for a return to the

a

HERBERT EVATT

Curtin policy in the Labor move-
ment, adding that “Curtin’s ac-
tion in the field of foreign policy
was to call on America instead
of Britain. He said that very,
very clearly when McArthur came
to Auttralia.’”

In the same speech, Santa-
maria denounced Aneurin Bevan,
outspoken opponent of right-
wing British Labor party policies.

“His doctrine is more nation-
alization, less armament and
more social services. The U.S.
is at least an equal danger to
world peace as Russia.

“. . . Attlee and the people
behind him see that there is a
unity of policy between them-
selves and the present Conser-
vative government, thence they
cannot put up an opposition to
Churchill. The forces that want
to oppose Churchill will be driv-
en to Bevanism.”

Santamaria condemned those
Australian Labor members who
called for a middle course be-
tween what they thought of as
the opposite evils of Stalinism
and McCarthyism, adding that
“we are McCarthyites.”

He called on his followers both
to carry on the anti-Communist
fight and to combat those who

were both anti-Communist and _

anti-McCarthy.

He added that “Bevanism’—
traditional policy of the Labor
party—must ‘be fought because
“if Communism were to be met
and defeated’ Bevanism would
mean that “you would have a
future just as dangerous to all

we stand for as at the present.”
% Shoe eee
This complete American line
has been faithfully followed by
the Groupers.

For example, Labor MP Keon
publicly attacked Attlee for go-

‘ing to China, stating that “Attlee

was asking Australia to affront
America by recognizing Red
China and handing Formosa to
the Reds. Australia can either
accept hi; plea or we can put
our tru:t on the strength and
friendship of our US. ally.”

Keon has been in regular con-
tact with Menzies’ security chief
Spry during the Pentrov inquiry
and Groupers have supported the
commission.

% o3 %

The Australian daily pres,
which has given sympathetic pub-
licity to the Groups, represents
them as a Catholic movement.
This is not true.

Prominent Labor Catholic lead-
ers are loyally .upporting , Dr.
Evatt. :

A former Labor party man
and trade unionist who resigned
in disgust from the Industrial
Groups after- five years, stated
in the Melbourne Guardian on
February 17:

“On the Group of which I
was a member there a strongly
anti - Catholic Action section
which fought to wrest control
from the hands of the ruling
clique.”

The Groups consist of both
Catholics and non-Catholics.
Moreover, many Catholic work-
ers are bitterly hostile to the
Groups and are among their
staunchest opponents. These are
people with wtrong working-class
ties. j
For example, Santamaria, in
the speech already quoted, starts
with a complaint that the Group’s
nominee for president of Sydney
Trades and Labor Council, Shor-
tell, a non-Catholic, had just
been defeated. And he was de-
feated by a Catholic, Keenihan,
because the Communists with-
drew their candidate, Healy, and
supported Keenihan. :
Despite newspaper _ misrepre-
sentation, this is not a Teligiou’s
issue, ‘but an attempt by reaction-
ary Catholics and non-Catholiés
alike to contro] the Labor move-
ment and swing it behind U.S.
war policy and U.S. control of
Australia.

for peace.”

ed for:

tion.”

to the United Nations.

* troops to Malaya.

conflicts.

CCF might take a leaf

AT its recent Hobart Conference, the Australian
Labor party took the first steps towards a
genuinely national policy in foreign affairs.
In his announcement, Dr. Herbert Evatt,
ALP leader, described this as a “positive Policy

The decisions of the Hobart Conference call- Y

+ Opposition to the use of nuclear weapons
_in war as part of the policy of “massive retalia-

+ A nation-wide campaign in support of
effective international control of nuclear weapons,
+ Admission of 18 nations, including China,

+ Opposition to the sending of Australian

+ For friendly relations with Asian peo-
Ples, including exchange of visits between their
countries and ours. Such visits “to be arranged
at almost every level of our national life.”

+ As a first step, a Labor party delegation
of observers to attend the recent Asian-African
Conference at Bandung, Indonesia.

+ A policy of negotiation and high level
talks to peacefully settle world disputes and

Spokesman for the Industrial
Australian labor, is A.B. Santa

p<

Perea smu
SS 3 ; t
Groups, the “American eng
maria, a lawyer from

business district of which is shown ‘above.

By ROSE HENRY

lt all began with 0

hop-picker’s baby

Le all began with a hop-picker’s

baby—at least, that is how the
Science Museum in London be-
lieves that baby carriages origin-
ated.

Not as a luxury, but as a sheer
necessity for the women who
went out hop-picking in the early

19th century, and had to take

their babies with them to spend
the day in the fields.

What was reyolutionary about
that little cart was that it was
not pulled but pushed, enabling
the mother to keep her eye on
the baby, and the various belong-
ings it was probably throwing
over the side, ;

Long before this the children
of wealthy families had been
painfully dragged out for an
airing in baby carriages of impos-
ing size and weight. “

But these were for children old
enough to sit upright—and very
upright, to judge by two 18th
century baby carriages ‘still pre-
served in the Duke of Devon-
Shire’s collection at Chatsworth,
in Derbyshire, :

These were designed very much
on the lines of horse-drawn car-
Tiages, even to having a lamp on
the side of the hood, which was
presumably purely decorative, as
I don’t imagine their owners
went out much after dark.

One carriage decorated with

snakes and with the snaky handle
(these are an allusion to the Cav-
endish family crest) Was design-
ed for the little Cavendishes in
1730 by William Kent.
' Withe its shell-like body and
heavily carved wheels it is a
Magnificent piece of furniture,
but no joke to haul around, and
one can’t help feeling that the
hop-picker’s baby in his pusheart
Was a lot more comfortable.

Fifty years later the children
of the fifth Duke of Cavendish
rode in a much lighter and more
comfortable vehicle, with padded
seat covered with a pretty chintz
and a charming, if useless, little
canopy overhead. a

However one cannot see a
mother wheeling her child out

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JUNE 3, 1995 —

7

whe!

in. .any such vehicle, and ust!
the pu h-eart arrivee-

on quickly.

. i 5
ee Boh t cet
as
By the middle of the pees
tury the perambulatol—(” w.

Victorian ls the ras

according to a

1897. is @
“And by. 1860 there oy week!
ence in Charles Dic Ror
magazine All the ee or ts
“small perambulatot died of
weakly dolls to be yp-centlyy ior
It took another ha se _mbule
more before the PE "a wi
ceased to be a Puen: ayer
off families and becall” ¢ evtl
the normal equipme? sh
imily, jes PI’
a Wey sia nannies re
out the baby, the Ve je Jie: Od
ed large, heavy, cal no
for some years Was It also gue
on the pavements. aa
mained a grand W

: oa
syllables. when baby evel!

It was only WHET | to
Tiages became availa” ners be
family, and youns, owt pabie)
gan to wheel out the

that de:ign took 4 er “ps ;
—and the word bee ne antl
in Britain althoug anai0s
the original wor

riages were still large gutos
bodies, rather like pit
the day. more stree the

Now they are “1t05 eh
ed—again like ths aul send 3
day—and designe! andy a
Beate bodies pe just
hoop wheels which cartiag?
graceful as any DaPy © sant?
the old days. ell pala
They are also ae prakes, se
and provided wit a Ctl as
that the chance ving away iol
overturning oF ron mus vet
been reduced to 2 My and ol
sprung, light to 4 outs 2,
to clean inside am a e ot a
lapsible so they © 4 grunk
on the bus or in the =
ye Ne ah G