Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T18:48:01.690Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Australian Labour and the Profintern

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Frank Farrell
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In common with many other countries, Australia has had, since 1920, a Communist Party, which is an obvious and continuing symbol of international reaction to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Naturally enough the formation of this Communist Party and its subsequent history has attracted a degree of attention from historians and scholars of Communist movements and Australian politics. The impact of the Profintern, on the other hand, has been completely neglected. Even at the international level no full-scale study of the Profintern and its related trade-union organisations is yet available, and though one scholar has noticed that in Australia “the history of communism in the unions is […] separate from CPA political history”, the bases of this separation have been left relatively unexplored. This article seeks to examine Moscow's links with the Australian trade-union movement via the Profintern in the period 1920–35. It would seem that these links overshadowed the CPA as a “Communist” influence in the Australian context, at least for the first decade of the Comintern's existence. The separation of CPA history from the wider influence of Communism in the unions is discernible almost from the very start.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , April 1979 , pp. 34 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1979

References

1 For studies of the CPA see Davidson, A., The Communist Party of Australia: A Short History (Stanford, 1969)Google Scholar (hereafter The CPA); World Communism: A Handbook 1918–1965, ed. by Sworakowski, W. S. (Stanford, 1973), pp. 18–21Google Scholar; Gollan, R., Revolutionaries and Reformists: Communism and the Australian Labour Movement 1920–1955 (Canberra, 1975).Google Scholar

2 The name Profintern derives from the Russian abbreviation for trade-union International. Australian unionists referred to the organisation as the Red International of Labor Unions (RILU) or, more often, simply the Red International. I have used the various names interchangeably throughout this text. On the formation and general history of the Profintern see Lorwin, L. L., Labor and Internationalism (New York, 1929), esp. pp. 228–46, 530–37Google Scholar; Foster, W. Z., History of the Three Internationals (New York, 1955), pp. 272–307Google Scholar; World Communism, op. cit., pp. 375–77.

3 Davidson, The CPA, p. 183.

4 On the rise of the Labor Party and the history of the labour movement up to World War I see Gollan, R., Radical and Working Class Politics (Melbourne, 1960)Google Scholar; Nairn, B., Civilising Capitalism (Canberra, 1973)Google Scholar; Labor in Politics, ed. by Murphy, D. J. (Brisbane, 1975).Google Scholar

5 See Turner, I., Industrial Labour and Politics (Canberra, 1965), esp. pp. 232–33.Google Scholar

6 Ibid., pp. 55–67, 182ff.

7 Gollan, Revolutionaries and Reformists, op. cit., pp. 2ff.

8 Turner, Industrial Labour and Politics, op. cit., pp. 56–57, 191, note.

9 Ibid., p. 194.

10 For a participant's view of these developments see Lang, J. T., I Remember (Sydney, 1956), esp. pp. 197–202, 310–31.Google Scholar For a recent study see Jack Lang, ed. by Radi, H. and Spearritt, P. (Sydney, 1977), pp. 35–36, 50–60.Google Scholar

11 Garden's career is sketched in Lazitch, B. and Drachkovitch, M. M., Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern (Stanford, 1973).Google Scholar For more polemical and hostile accounts see Ellis, M. H., The Red Road (Sydney, 1932)Google Scholar; id., The Garden Path (Sydney, 1949).

12 For detailed studies of the one-big-union movement see Turner, Industrial Labour and Politics, esp. pp. 182–222; Childe, V. G., How Labour Governs (London, 1923), esp. pp. 151–81Google Scholar; Gollan, R., The Coalminers of New South Wales (Melbourne, 1963), pp. 157–76.Google Scholar

13 Cited in Turner, Industrial Labour and Politics, p. 184.

14 Ibid., pp. 218–26; Crisp, L. F., The Australian Federal Labour Party 1901–1951 (London, 1955), pp. 277–82.Google Scholar

15 See esp. the booklet by Ross, R. S., Revolution in Russia and Australia (Melbourne, 1920).Google Scholar For an academic study see O'Farrell, P. J., “The Russian Revolution and the Labour Movements of Australia and New Zealand, 1917–1922”, in: International Review of Social History, VIII (1963), pp. 177–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 See J. Robertson, J. H. Scullin (Perth, 1974), pp. 66–67; Crisp, The Australian Federal Labour Party, op. cit., p. 282.

17 Anstey, F., Red Europe (Melbourne, 1919).Google Scholar Anstey was deputy-leader of the ALP from 1922 to 1927.

18 Ibid., p. 186; Worker (Brisbane), January 1920; Labor Call (Melbourne), 11 March.

19 Australian Worker (Sydney), 12, 19 and 26 August 1920; Daily Herald (Adelaide), 23 August.

20 On this see Mitchell, D., 1919: Red Mirage (London, 1970).Google Scholar

21 On Artem's career as a Bolshevik leader see Davidson, The CPA, pp. 21, 40, note; Great Soviet Encyclopedia, II (New York, 1973), pp. 373.Google Scholar See also Carr, E. H., The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–1923, 1 (London, 1950), pp. 204 and 301CrossRefGoogle Scholar, notes. Artem does not appear as a member of the ECCI in the study by Kahan, V., “The Communist International, 1919–43: The Personnel of its Highest Bodies”, in: International Review of Social History, XXI (1976), pp. 151–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 Davidson, , The CPA, pp. 16, 20Google Scholar, note.

23 Kahan, loc. cit., p. 159.

24 On Freeman's visit see Walker, B., Solidarity Forever (Melbourne, 1972), pp. 86–94.Google Scholar

25 But cf. the account of the recruitment of British trade-union representatives to the first Profintern congress in Martin, R., Communism and the British Trade Unions 1924–1933 (Oxford, 1969), pp. 12.Google Scholar See also Calhoun, D. F., The United Front. The TUC and the Russians 1923–1928 (Cambridge, 1976), pp. 12–20, 30–31.Google Scholar

26 See Howie, J., Reds in Congress. First Congress of the Red International of Labour Unions (Sydney, n.d.), p. 7.Google Scholar

27 Ibid., esp. pp. 34–35. See also Davidson, The CPA, p. 23.

28 See Lorwin, Labor and Internationalism, op. cit., p. 230.

29 Ibid., p. 231; Howie, Reds in Congress, op. cit., p. 36.

30 Foster, History of the Three Internationals, op. cit., p. 278.

31 See Martin, Communism and the British Trade Unions, op. cit., pp. 14–15; Lazitch and Drachkovitch, Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern, op. cit., pp. 239–41.

32 On W. Smith see Davidson, The CPA, p. 18. For a full account of the conference see Casey's “Russian Report” in the Adela Pankhurst and Tom Walsh Collection, Australian National Library, Canberra, Ms. 5894.

33 See Davidson, The CPA, pp. 6, 17, note.

34 Casey's “Russian Report”.

35 See Davidson, The CPA, pp. 22ff.

36 Lawrence, D. H., Kangaroo (London, 1923)Google Scholar, written during a brief visit to Australia in May-June 1922.

37 Labor Call, 6 July 1922, p. 4.

38 Fourth Congress of the Communist International: Abridged Report (London, n.d.), p. 230.Google Scholar

39 Labor Call, 14 September 1922, p. 2.

40 See Eudin, X. J. and North, R. C., Soviet Russia and the East, 1920–1927 (Stanford, 1957), pp. 269–70.Google Scholar For interpretative accounts of the PPTUS see Brimmell, J. H., Communism in South East Asia (London, 1959), pp. 65ff.Google Scholar; McLane, C. B., Soviet Strategies in Southeast Asia (Princeton, 1966), pp. 70–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

41 See Farrell, F., “The Pan-Pacific Trade Union Movement and Australian Labour, 1921–1932”, in: Historical Studies (Melbourne), XVII (1977), pp. 441–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

42 Ibid., esp. p. 447.

43 See Thèses et Résolutions adoptées au IIème Congrès de l'Internationale syndicale rouge (Paris, n.d.), p. 56Google Scholar; Labour Monthly (London), IV (1923), p. 243.Google Scholar

44 The Tasks of the International Trade Union Movement, being the Resolutions and Decisions of the Third World Congress of the Red International of Labour Unions (London, n.d.), p. 48.Google Scholar

45 Ibid.

46 Sydney Morning Herald, 20 and 24 April, 10 July 1928; cf. Inprecorr, 11 September 1924, p. 705.

47 See McLane, Soviet Strategies in Southeast Asia, op. cit., pp. 113–31; cf. Inprecorr, 11 September 1924, p. 704.

48 McLane, op. cit., pp. 133, 136.

49 Chesneaux, J., The Chinese Labor Movement 1919–1927 (Stanford, 1968), pp. 259–60.Google Scholar On the Chinese Labor Federation's role in establishing the PPTUS see Pan-Pacific Worker (Sydney), 2 April 1928, p. 4.

50 For Profintern discussion of the ACTU's affiliation with the PPTUS see L'lnter-nationale syndicale rouge au travail, 1924–1928 (Paris, 1928), esp. pp. 180–83.Google Scholar

51 For a comprehensive study of the Anglo-Russian Joint Advisory Council see Calhoun, The United Front, op. cit.

52 On the Third All-Australian Trade Union Congress's effect on the ALP's political stance see Wildavsky, A. and Carboch, D., Studies in Australian Politics (Melbourne, 1958), pp. 80ff.Google Scholar

53 Official Report of the All-Australian Trade Union Congress (Melbourne, 1927), pp. 1, 8, 10.Google Scholar

54 The All-Australian Trade Union Congress of 1921 claimed to represent all of Australia's 700,000 trade unionists. The ACTU claimed to represent approximately 500,000 unionists. For an estimate of the ACTU's real strength at this period see Hagan, J., The ACTU: A Short History (Sydney, 1977), esp. pp. 31ff.Google Scholar

55 Official Report of the All-Australian Trade Union Congress, op. cit., pp. 19–20.

56 Pan-Pacific Worker, 1 April 1929, p. 8.

57 Ibid., 15 April 1928, p. 1; Hardy, G., Those Stormy Years (London, 1956), pp. 198.Google Scholar

58 For slightly varying estimates of the numerical strength of the PPTUS see Lozovsky, A., The Pan-Pacific Trade Union Conference (Moscow, 1927), pp. 13–14Google Scholar; L'Internationale syndicate rouge au travail, op. cit., p. 106.

59 For accounts of third-period policies see World Communism, pp. 84–85; McLane, Soviet Strategies in Southeast Asia, pp. 64–70.

60 Report of the Fourth Congress of the R.I.L.U. (London, 1928), pp. 13.Google Scholar

61 Willoughby, C. A., Shanghai Conspiracy (New York, 1952), esp. pp. 283–90, 302–08.Google Scholar

62 See Pan-Pacific Monthly (San Francisco), May 1929, pp. 33–36; February 1930, pp. 15–22. The 1929 All-India Trade Union Congress at Nagpur split over the question of Secretariat affiliation and other issues related to the programme championed by a powerful and vocal Communist delegation. Subsequently the PPTUS retained only one firm Indian affiliate, the Girni Kamgar (Textile Workers') Union.

63 Pan-Pacific Worker, 1 October 1930, pp. 316–17; Brimmell, Communism in South East Asia, op. cit., pp. 103ff.; McLane, , Soviet Strategies in Southeast Asia, pp. 165ff.Google Scholar

64 Pan-Pacific Worker, 1 November 1929, pp. 6–11.

65 See ibid., 2 December, esp. pp. 10–20; Lozovskij, A., Protiv vojny, imperializma i reformizma: Doklad i zaključitel'noe slovo na Tichookeanskoj konferencii profsojuzov 16 avgusta 1929 g. (Moscow, 1929).Google Scholar

66 Pan-Pacific Worker, 2 December 1929, pp. 20–22; 1 March 1930, pp. 65–75.

67 ACTU debate of these matters is reported in the Australian Worker, 28 February 1930.

68 Ibid., 5 March.

69 See Workers' Weekly, 3 January 1930, p. 1.

70 Davidson, The CPA, p. 37.

71 Communist, 10 February 1922, p. 1; Direct Action, March 1922, p. 1.

72 See Lazitch, and Drachkovitch, , Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern, p. 115.Google Scholar

73 Labor Daily, 21 March and 2 May 1930.

74 Ibid., 26 September.

75 Jack Lang, op. cit., esp. chs 3 and 4.

76 Pan-Pacific Worker, 5 January 1931, p. 10.

77 Ibid.

78 Workers' Weekly, 31 July 1931, p. 2.

79 See Tasks of the Red Trade Unions and MMM: Resolutions of the Fifth Congress RILU (Sydney, 1931).Google Scholar

80 The experiments in dual unionism in which the CPA and the MMM became involved were the Pastoral Workers' Industrial Union of Australia (formed by AWU militants in 1930 and disbanded by the CPA in 1936) and an unsuccessful attempt in 1932 to establish a section of the Hamburg-based International of Seamen and Harbour Workers.

81 Red Leader, 4 January 1933, p. 2.

82 Ibid., 3 January, p. 1.

83 Ibid., 17 July 1935, p. 3; Davidson, The CPA, p. 60.

84 Red Leader, 11 January 1933, p. 4. On the ARU's affiliation with the Profintern see ibid., 14 September 1932, p. 14; 26 September 1934, p. 4; Nolan, F., You Pass This Way Only Once (Brisbane, 1975), ch. 5.Google Scholar

85 See Red Leader, 3 April 1935, p. 2.

86 World Communism, p. 376.

87 See Kisch, E., Australian Landfall (London, 1937; Sydney, 1968).Google Scholar

88 See Red Leader, esp. 2 January 1935, p. 2; 27 February, p. 2.

89 Ibid., 17 July, p. 3. Subsequently some attempt was made to continue the co-ordination of union opinion achieved by Red Leader through publication of the Trade Union Leader, a monthly journal of left-wing commentary.