The Catholic Anti-Communist Role within Australian Labor
| Author | Frank C. Langdon |
| Published date | 01 December 1956 |
| Date | 01 December 1956 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/106591295600900406 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
884
THE
CATHOLIC
ANTI-COMMUNIST
ROLE
WITHIN
AUSTRALIAN
LABOR
FRANK
C.
LANGDON
Canberra
University
College
ATHOLICS
in
Australia
have
demonstrated
a
rather
remarkable
c
adaptability
and
ingenuity
in
both
political
and
industrial
labor
prob~
lems.
This
is
particularly
so
in
regard
to
the
unusual
labor-union
tactics
against
Communists
in
which
they
have
played
a
leading
role
since
the
war.
In
the
methods
used
to
compete
with
Communists
on
their
own
terms
can
be
found
a
dynamic
approach
which
is
of
considerable
interest.
It
is
important
to
note
from
the
beginning
that
it
is
not
the
Roman
Catholic
Church
or
Catholics
as
a
religious
group
only
which
is
the
primary
focus
of
this
paper.
It
is
Catholic
labor
leaders
and
Catholic
social
action
and
inspiration
that
we
shall
consider.
These
methods
and
ideas
are
seldom
purely
Catholic
and,
in
fact,
cannot
be.
The
reason
for
this
is
that
Catholics
are
a
minority
in
the Australian
population
and
a
minority
in
the
Labor
party.1
They
must
attain
support
from
Protestants
if
they
are
to
be
leaders
or
if
they
are
to
gain
acceptance
for
their
ideas.
They
must
avoid
purely
Catholic
objectives,
and
they
must
espouse
ideas
with
a
wide
appeal.
In
addition
to
the
Catholic
inspiration
in
competing
with
Communist
leadership,
it
is
important
to
note
two
other
points.
The
past
Catholic
adjustment
to
the
labor
movement
and
the
past
leadership
by
Catholics
toward
socialism
in
Australia
have
prepared
them
for
the
unusual
role
they
have
played
in
regard
to
communism.
Furthermore,
recent
labor
reaction
against
Catholic
activities
in
the
labor
movement
may
result
in
alienating
many
Catholics
with
consequent
strengthening
of
conservatism
in
Australia.
The
close
identification
of
Australian
Catholics
with
the
labor
move-
ment
is
something
which
far
antedates
the
party
and
goes
back
into
Australian
history
Until the
current
postwar
deluge
of
immigrants,
nearly
1
Recently
the
Catholics
have
constituted
about
20
per
cent
of
the
general
population
of
Australia,
but
incomplete
tabulation
of
the
latest
census
indicates
the
figure
is
now
larger.
Table
I
is
an
estimate
of
the
ratio
of
Catholics
to
the
general
population
in
each
federal
electoral
division
of
the
state
of
Victoria,
which
is
the
principal
area
considered
in
this
paper.
There
is
a
strong
correlation
between
divisions
with
a
high
Catholic
percentage
and
divisions
held
by
Labor
party
members,
despite
the
fact
that
Catholics
nowhere
exceed
31
per
cent.
2
L.
F.
Crisp,
The
Parliamentary
Government
of
the
Commonwealth
of
Australia
(Lon-
don:
Longmans,
Green
&
Co.,
1949),
pp.
85-88.
There
is
also
a
second
edition
published
in
1954.
J.
D.
B.
Miller,
Australian
Government
and
Politics
(London:
Gerald
Duckworth
&
Co.,
1954),
pp.
75-76.
L.
Overacker,
The
Australian
Party
System
(New
Haven:
Yale
University
Press,
114,
125-27.
H.
V.
Evatt,
Australian
Labour
Leader
(Sydney:
Angus
&
Robertson,
1945),
third
edition,
pp.
2,
6.
L.
Webb,
Communism
and
Democracy
in
Australia
(Melbourne:
F.
W.
Cheshire
Pty.,
Ltd.,
1954),
p.
97.
885
all
Australian
Catholics
were
of
Irish
extraction.3
The
Catholic
group
in
the
new
country
therefore
generally
has
shared
some
of
the
national
characteristics
of
the
Irish,
particularly
that
of
distrusting
England.4
4
The
solidarity
of
this
social
group
was
heightened
by
its
predominantly
working-
class
origin.
It
was
natural
that
these
people
from
the
earliest
colonial
days
were
attracted
to
political
and
social
groups
opposed
to
the
English
Protestant
governing
class
and
were
interested
in
more
radical
reforms
and
working-class
goals.5
When
to
this
is
added
their
lively
political
sense,
it
is
no
wonder
that
they
came
to
exercise
considerable
influence
within
the
labor
movement.
The
unusual
influence
of
Catholics
today
in
labor
affairs
is
also
easier
to
understand
in
view
of
this
background.
The
prominence
of
Catholics
in
the
Labor
party
came
at
the
time
of
World
War
I
when
they
opposed
conscription.
In
1917
when
the
Labor
Prime
Minister,
W.
M.
Hughes,
returned
from
a
triumphant
tour
of
England,
he
was
convinced
that
voluntary
enlistment
for
the
European
war
was
insufficient,
and
he
thought
that
conscription
was
necessary.
He
therefore
initiated
a
referendum
proposal
to
permit
the
Australian
govern-
ment
to
use
compulsion.
This
referendum
followed
the
Irish
Rebellion,
which
had
aroused
considerable
anti-British
feeling
among
Australians
of
Irish-Catholic
extractions
They
came
to
have
less
and
less
enthusiasm
for
sending
further
aid
to
Britain
and
so
many
were
opposed
to
conscrip-
tion.
Dr.
Mannix,
the
Archbishop
of
Melbourne,
who
came
from
Dublin,
stepped
forward
to
lead
the
campaign
against
the
referendum.
The
Prime
Minister
chose
him
as
his
principal
antagonist,
perhaps
not
without
hoping
to
attract
a
big
share
of
the
predominantly
Protestant
voters.7
When
the
referendum
was
defeated,
the
breach
in
the
Labor
party
was
too
big
to
heal
so
it
split
apart.
Hughes
went
over
to
lead
the
conservatives
with
several
prominent
Protestant
labor
leaders.8
Most
of
the
remaining
top
party
leaders
were
Catholic.
In
the
succeeding
period
a
large
share
of
the
leader-
ship
continued
to
be
persons
of
Catholic
religious
affiliation,
although
this
did
not
prove
to
be
incompatible
with
considerable
radicalism
in
their
outlook.9
3
Crisp,
op.
cit.,
pp.
85-86.
Overacker,
op.
cit.,
p.
125.
4
Overacker,
op.
cit.,
pp.
125-26.
Crisp,
op.
cit.,
p.
86.
5
Crisp,
op.
cit.,
p.
86.
6
Evatt,
op.
cit.,
p.
409.
7
Overacker,
op.
cit.,
p.
126.
8
Ibid.,
p.
127.
9
L.
F.
Crisp,
The
Australian
Federal
Labour
Party,
1901-1951
(London:
Longmans,
Green
&
Co.,
1955),
p.
329,
table
of
national
origins
and
text
indicate
Roman
Catholic
membership
of
the
federal
parliamentary
Labor
party
and,
indirectly,
the
Catholic
share
of
the
leadership
of
the
entire
Labor
party.
This
was
about
12
per
cent
in
1901,
40
per
cent
in
1921,
and
50
per
cent
in
1931.
Webb,
op.
cit.,
p.
26,
writes
that
over
half
this
body
was
Roman
Catholic
in
1950.
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