ALP split

A new world order

In the wake of the Second World War, the alliance established between the Soviet Union, Great Britain, the United States and France to defeat Germany broke down.

In Europe, the Soviets took control of much of Eastern Europe whose citizens soon found themselves cut off from contact with the West as if an ‘Iron Curtain’ had fallen.

The United States’ development and use of atomic weapons had sparked a new arms race and, in an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust, all major powers invested substantially in intelligence and espionage organisations.

The collapse of the alliance into open hostility had substantial implications for Australia’s domestic political landscape. The post-war end of colonial rule in much of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and the spread of communism in China and South-East Asia, gave rise to fears about national security and stability.

Shown evidence of a spy ring operating out of the Soviet embassy in Canberra, Prime Minister Ben Chifley issued a directive in March 1949 to create a security service. In August that year, the Australian Security intelligence Organisation (ASIO) was established.

The division of much of the world between US-led capitalist democracy and Soviet-led single-party communism was echoed within the Labor Party itself. Defined as a democratic socialist party, there was increasing antagonism between the supporters of communism and those who were more right wing.

Outside the party, Labor’s opponents began to develop a strong anti-communist rhetoric and public support for communism fell. This was in stark contrast during the war when membership of the Communist Party reached a peak of 23,000 in 1944.

Fall of the Chifley government

Ben Chifley had become Prime Minister on the death of John Curtin in 1945. His government undertook a variety of projects that were designed to boost national pride and to provide work for returning servicemen. Two of these, the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, and the launch of the first Holden, are featured in the Defining Moments project.

However, the ALP was defeated in the 1949 election. There were two major issues which contributed to the loss. The first was a deeply unpopular attempt to nationalise the banking system in 1947. The second was a protracted miners’ strike in the winter of 1949, which the government was forced to condemn because the miners had refused to wait for the arbitration court to hear their case.

The Liberal and Country Party coalition was able to portray Labor as being pro-communist with regard to the bank issue and anti-labour with regard to the strike. Neither claim was true.

Meanwhile in Victoria, a small group of Catholic laymen led by Bob Santamaria – the Catholic Social Studies Movement (known simply as ‘The Movement’) – was growing in influence. They had their first meeting on 4 January 1942, just when Communist Party membership in Australia was peaking.

Firmly anti-communist, the Movement grew increasingly adept at infiltrating ALP branches in its attempt to control the party. It was behind the NSW Labor Party conference resolution of 1945 to form ‘Industrial groups’ that would attempt to win control of communist-dominated unions. These ‘groupers’ were relatively successful in their aims, but split the Labor Party in the process.