Socialism in Australia dates back at least as far as the late-19th century. Notions of

socialism Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...

in Australia have taken many different forms including

utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

in the style of

Edward Bellamy Edward Bellamy (March 26, 1850 – May 22, 1898) was an American author, journalist, and political activist most famous for his utopian novel ''Looking Backward''. Bellamy's vision of a harmonious future world inspired the formation of numerou ...

, the

democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within ...

reformist Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement. Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can ...

electoral project of the early

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

(ALP), and the revolutionary

Marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...

of parties such as the

Communist Party of Australia The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian political parties, Australian political party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membersh ...

History

Pre-Federation

Pre-federation Australian socialism was highly influenced by philosophical ideologies arising from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Social scientists who had visited Australia at the time noted the lack of influence from continental socialist ideologies such as

, labelling Australia as having " socialism with no doctrine". In particular, the works of the American author

were highly influential, which advocated for the democratic nationalisation of all industry. The prominent

Australian Socialist League The Socialist Labor Party was a socialist political party of Australia that existed from 1901 to the 1970s. Originally formed as the Australian Socialist League in 1887, it had members such as George Black, New South Wales Premier William Hol ...

was by the 1890s "modelled on, of all things,

Daniel De Leon Daniel De Leon (; December 14, 1852 – May 11, 1914), alternatively spelt Daniel de León, was a Curaçaoan-American socialist newspaper editor, politician, Marxist theoretician, and trade union organizer. He is regarded as the forefather o ...

Socialist Labor party The Socialist Labor Party (SLP)"The name of this organization shall be Socialist Labor Party". Art. I, Sec. 1 of thadopted at the Eleventh National Convention (New York, July 1904; amended at the National Conventions 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, 1924 ...

". Due to the significant influence of American socialist writers, the political sociologist Robin Archer considered that pre-federation "Australian leftism was more American than American leftism itself".

Socialist colonies

In the late 1890s, the colonies of Cosme and

New Australia New Australia was a utopian socialist settlement in Paraguay created by the New Australian Movement. The colony was officially founded on 28 September 1893 as Colonia Nueva Australia and comprised 238 people. History The New Australia ...

were founded in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

by groups of Australian socialists. The settlement of New Australia was founded in 1893 by the supporters of the utopian socialist

William Lane William Lane (6 September 1861 – 26 August 1917) was an English-born journalist, author, advocate of Australian labour politics and a utopian socialist ideologue. Lane was born in Bristol, England into an impoverished family. After showin ...

. Lane's socialism was inspired by Edward Bellamy as well as his unorthodox belief that

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

played a role in preventing a socialist society from forming. Due to these beliefs, New Australia was built around the values of creating "a brotherhood of

English-speaking Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the '' Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest langua ...

Whites" which preserved the " colour-Line" which was seen as necessary in order to achieve

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

. After conflict over Lane's supposed incompetent management, 58 colonists left New Australia in 1894 to found the colony of Cosme several kilometres south, and the original colony was soon after dissolved. Founding of the Australian Labor Party The predecessors to the then-democratic socialist

were founded throughout the 1890s, with Labor formed through the merger of various unions and socialist parties. The ALP briefly took power at the state level in Queensland in 1899 - the first socialist government in the world at any level.

Post-Federation

Unions

The

Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia The Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia (WWF) was an Australian trade union that existed from 1902 to 1993. After a period of negotiations between other Australian maritime unions, it was federated in 1902 and first federally registered ...

was led by several Communist Party members during its history, such as Jim Healy. Under Healy, the Workers Federation went on strike in 1938 to prevent pig iron being shipped to Japan, to protest the invasion of China. In 1945, the union declared a ban on working Dutch ships, labelled the "

Black Armada The Black Armada ( id, Armada Hitam) was a name applied to Dutch merchant and military vessels which were prevented from sailing to the newly proclaimed independent Indonesia from Australian ports due to waterfront strikes or 'black bans' by mari ...

", during the Indonesian National Revolution. Socialism was a major ideology behind the

Builders Labourers Federation The Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) was an Australian trade union that existed from 1911 until 1972, and from 1976 until 1986, when it was permanently deregistered in various Australian states by the federal Hawke Labor government and some ...

and the

green ban A green ban is a form of strike action, usually taken by a trade union or other organised labour group, which is conducted for environmentalist or conservationist purposes. They were mainly done in Australia in the 1970s, led by the Builders La ...

s in the 1970s. The Victorian branch of the union was primarily led by members of the

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

CPA (M-L) such as Norm Gallagher, while the New South Wales branch was led by members of the

(CPA) such as Jack Mundey. In 1974, Gallagher and several affiliated Maoist workers occupied the New South Wales branch office and expelled CPA-affiliated unionists. After union officials, including CPA members, agreed upon the

Prices and Incomes Accord The Prices and Incomes Accord was an agreement between the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the Australian Labor Party government of Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Treasurer (later Prime Minister) Paul Keating in 1983. Employers were not par ...

in 1983 which traded lower rates of industrial action for parliamentary reforms, it signalled "the end of the renegade, guerrilla actions of the BLF to stop work and take radical protest activities". The union was de-registered shortly afterwards, during the Hawke Labor government, and members were blacklisted from working on construction sites.

The Australian Labor Party

A number of socialists have been influential figures in ALP history. Notable among them was

John Curtin John Curtin (8 January 1885 – 5 July 1945) was an Australian politician who served as the 14th prime minister of Australia from 1941 until his death in 1945. He led the country for the majority of World War II, including all but the last few ...

( Prime Minister of Australia), Jim Cairns (the

Deputy Prime Minister of Australia The deputy prime minister of Australia is the deputy chief executive and the second highest ranking officer of the Australian Government. The office of deputy prime minister was officially created as a ministerial portfolio in 1968, althoug ...

under

Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the ...

), Jack Lang (the radical

Premier of New South Wales The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales acting as the legislatu ...

Tom Uren Thomas Uren (28 May 1921 – 26 January 2015) was an Australian politician and Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1975 to 1977. Uren served as the Member for Reid in the Australian House of Representatives from 1958 to 1990, bei ...

Eddie Ward Edward John Ward (7 March 189931 July 1963) was an Australian politician who represented the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in federal parliament for over 30 years. He was the member for East Sydney for all but six-and-a-half weeks from 1931 u ...

, and many early figures in Labor history, including

James Scullin James Henry Scullin (18 September 1876 – 28 January 1953) was an Australian Labor Party politician and the ninth Prime Minister of Australia. Scullin led Labor to government at the 1929 Australian federal election. He was the first Cathol ...

and

Ted Theodore Edward Granville Theodore (29 December 1884 – 9 February 1950) was an Australian politician who served as Premier of Queensland from 1919 to 1925, as leader of the state Labor Party. He later entered federal politics, serving as Treasurer in ...

, who introduced Labor's socialist objective. Labor has undertaken some democratic socialist measures during its times in government, as well as many more decidedly

free market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...

measures since the Hawke government.

Ben Chifley Joseph Benedict Chifley (; 22 September 1885 – 13 June 1951) was an Australian politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Australia from 1945 to 1949. He held office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1945, follow ...

famously attempted to

nationalise Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

Australian banks in the 1940s, a policy of the party only dropped in the 1970s. Under Jack Lang during the Great Depression, the New South Wales branch of the Labor Party came to be dominated by the left wing. Socialisation units were established in party branches, advocating for the Labor government to begin to nationalise industry and abolish private property. Revolutionary elements were prominent; a sub-committee was established to produce strategies of socialism, producing the Payne Report. "The Payne Report was a bombshell within the units and within the party. It called for " social revolution, which means... complete destruction of the capitalist state apparatus... a dictatorship of the working class" following a " revolutionary conflict between the classes". If it remained vague on key points, it was nonetheless the clearest statement ever produced by the socialisation units of a revolutionary strategy for socialism..." Some recent, dissident figures in the party have attempted to pursue a more interventionist, democratic socialist agenda; Keating government minister Peter Baldwin ran on a

Bennite Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. A member of the Labour Party, ...

programme, in which, "He promised to revive the “dead letter” of the ALP’s commitment to socializing the

means of production The means of production is a term which describes land, labor and capital that can be used to produce products (such as goods or services); however, the term can also refer to anything that is used to produce products. It can also be used as an ...

by advocating for the nationalization of industry as part of the next Labor government’s program. He argued that industrial democracy would be crucial to this goal." Some parts of the

Labor Left The Labor Left, also known as the Progressive Left or Socialist Left, is political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). It competes with the more economically liberal Labor Right faction. The Labor Left operates autonomously in each s ...

continue to advocate for socialism. For example, the NSW Young Labor Left state on their website: "We believe in participatory and representative democracy; trade unionism and workers’ control of industry; the abolition of exploitation for private profit; the implementation of the ALP’s socialist objective; environmentalism and sustainability; as well as feminism, queer rights, and

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

justice." Their policy proposals include support for an Australian

Green New Deal Green New Deal (GND) proposals call for public policy to address climate change along with achieving other social aims like job creation and reducing economic inequality. The name refers back to the New Deal, a set of social and economic refo ...

prison abolition The prison abolition movement is a network of groups and activists that seek to reduce or eliminate prisons and the prison system, and replace them with systems of rehabilitation that do not place a focus on punishment and government institutiona ...

public ownership State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownershi ...

of industry,

industrial democracy Industrial democracy is an arrangement which involves workers making decisions, sharing responsibility and authority in the workplace. While in participative management organizational designs workers are listened to and take part in the decisi ...

, and Labor Party democracy.

Contemporary era

Following the collapse of the communism in Europe from 1989 to 1991, belief in socialism collapsed, resulting in the fall of the

and the shift of

towards non-socialist ideologies. The

was dissolved and the assets of the Communist Party were thereafter directed into the SEARCH Foundation, a not-for-profit company set up in 1990 "to preserve and draw on the resources of the Communist Party of Australia and its archives." During the fall of the Communist Party, several organisations and individuals moved toward the Greens movement. Several ex-Communist Party and

members joined the

Greens NSW The Greens NSW, also known as the NSW Greens, is a green political party in New South Wales and a member of the Australian Greens. First formed in 1991, the Greens NSW began as a state-level party before joining with other green parties in Austr ...

, inspired by the

movement. In Western Australia, members of the Alternative Coalition (consisting of members from the Communist Party of Australia, the Socialist Party of Australia, and the Democratic Socialist Party) merged with the

Nuclear Disarmament Party The Nuclear Disarmament Party (NDP) was an Australian political party formed in June 1984. It was founded by medical researcher Michael Denborough as the political arm of the Australian anti-nuclear movement, which had been active since the ear ...

to form

Greens Western Australia Greens Western Australia, commonly known as the Greens WA, is a member party of the Australian Greens in Western Australia. The Greens (WA) was formed following the merger of the Western Australian Green Party with the Green Earth Alliance comp ...

. An Alternative Coalition member, Christabel Chamarette, later became senator in 1992. The Democratic Socialist Party established "Greens Alliance" parties in South Australia, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory. However, in 1992 following the formation of the Australian Greens federation, the DSP was proscribed and members were banned from entering the Green parties. The new Green parties were broad-left coalition, with the founding documents of the Sydney Greens stating: In 1996 the Socialist Party of Australia, a splinter party from the CPA, changed its name to the

claiming the party was the rightful successor to the original party formed in 1920. In 2001, several socialist organisations formed Socialist Alliance in an attempt for left unity. The organisations at foundation included the Democratic Socialist Perspective, International Socialist Organisation, Freedom Socialist Party, Socialist Alternative,

Socialist Democracy Socialist democracy is a political system that aligns with principles of both socialism and democracy. It includes ideologies such as council communism, democratic socialism, and Soviet democracy, as well as Marxist democracy like the dictatorsh ...

, Worker-communist Party of Iraq, Workers League, Worker's Liberty, and Worker's Power. However, after several years, most affiliate organisations abandoned the Alliance. In January 2010, the last major organisation in the Alliance, the Democratic Socialist Perspective, voted to merge into the Socialist Alliance, in effect ceasing to exist as an affiliate organisation.

Socialist organisations in Australia

Political historian Geoff Robinson describes the contemporary left as a "movement of parties and electoral campaigning". There are currently two federally registered socialist parties which run in elections: the Socialist Alliance and the

Victorian Socialists The Victorian Socialists (VS) is a democratic socialist political party based in the Australian state of Victoria. Founded in February 2018, it is an electoral alliance of various socialist parties, organisations, community groups and trade u ...

. Although Socialist Action and the

are not registered for federal elections, they have successfully contested local government elections in the

City of Yarra The City of Yarra is a local government area (LGA) in Victoria, Australia in the inner eastern and northern suburbs of Melbourne. It is the second smallest LGA in the state with an area of , and in June 2018 it had a population of 98,521, ma ...

and the

City of Auburn The Auburn City Council (formally City of Auburn) was a local government area in the Greater Western Sydney region of New South Wales, Australia. Prior to its 2016 merger, the council area was located about west of the Sydney central business ...

. There are several organisations and parties which do not run in elections, either for ideological reasons or due to practical reasons, including the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist–Leninist), Socialist Alternative, and Solidarity.

Eco-socialism

Left Renewal

Left Renewal was established as a eco-socialist political faction of the

NSW Greens The Greens NSW, also known as the NSW Greens, is a green political party in New South Wales and a member of the Australian Greens. First formed in 1991, the Greens NSW began as a state-level party before joining with other green parties in Austr ...

in 2016.

SEARCH Foundation

Formed in 1990 as the successor organisation of the

Marxism–Leninism

Communist Party of Australia (Marxist–Leninist)

In 1961, the pro-China faction leader Ted Hill was expelled from the Communist Party of Australia during the events of the split between the USSR and China. Hill in the following years led a split from the party which cumulated in the formation of the

Communist Party of Australia (Marxist–Leninist).

Communist Party of Australia (1971–present)

In 1971, a group split from the Communist Party of Australia due to the party criticising actions of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, and formed the Socialist Party of Australia. In 1996, following the dissolution of the original Communist Party of Australia in 1991, the Socialist Party of Australia re-named itself to the Communist Party of Australia.

Australian Communist Party

Formed by Bob Briton in June 2019 as a split from the Communist Party of Australia (1971).

Trotskyism

Socialist Alternative

Formed in 1995 by expelled members of the International Socialist Organisation. In 2018, Alternative formed an electoral alliance with Socialist Alliance, forming the

Socialist Equality Party

Initially formed in 1972 as the Socialist Labour League. In 2010, the SLL was refounded as the Socialist Equality Party.

Solidarity

Initially formed in 1971 as the Marxist Workers' Group, then later the International Socialist Organisation. In 1995 several members were expelled and formed Socialist Alternative. In 2008, the ISO merged with several other parties to form Solidarity.

Other

Communist Party of Australia (1920–1991)

The Australian Communist Party was initially established in 1920. Within the decade the party became aligned with the Soviet

Communist International The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...

and renamed itself to the Communist Party of Australia. Following the 1930s, the party followed Marxist-Leninism, until the party became increasingly critical of the USSR in the 1960s. In 1967 the party ceased receiving funding from the USSR and from the 1970s onwards the party adopted

eurocommunist Eurocommunism, also referred to as democratic communism or neocommunism, was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more rele ...

theories. The Communist Party of Australia dissolved in 1991. The SEARCH Foundation was established as a successor organisation.

Socialist Alliance

Initially formed in 2001 by several socialist organisations in an attempt for left unity. However, by 2010, most constituent parties had left and the last major organisation in the Alliance, the ex-Trotskyist Democratic Socialist Perspective voted to merge into the Socialist Alliance.

Socialist Labor Party

Initially formed in 1887 as the Australian Socialist League. In 1901, the ASL formed the Socialist Labor Party to contest the 1901 Australian federal election. Between the late 1890s and 1905, the party shifted towards

De Leonism De Leonism, also known as Marxism-De Leonism, is a Marxist tendency developed by Curaçaoan-American trade union organizer and Marxist theoretician Daniel De Leon. De Leon was an early leader of the first American socialist political party, t ...

. The party declined after the 1920s, however, the party maintained its newspaper ''

The People The ''Sunday People'' is a British tabloid Sunday newspaper. It was founded as ''The People'' on 16 October 1881. At one point owned by Odhams Press, The ''People'' was acquired along with Odhams by the Mirror Group in 1961, along with the ...

'' until the early 1970s where it then ceased its activities.

Victorian Socialists

The Victorian Socialists is a

party established in 2018. The party is an

electoral alliance An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand in elections. E ...

of various socialist parties, organisations, community groups and trade unionists.

History

Pre-Federation

Socialist colonies

Post-Federation

Unions

The Australian Labor Party

Contemporary era

Socialist organisations in Australia

Eco-socialism

Left Renewal

SEARCH Foundation

Marxism–Leninism

Communist Party of Australia (Marxist–Leninist)

Communist Party of Australia (1971–present)

Australian Communist Party

Trotskyism

Socialist Alternative

Socialist Equality Party

Solidarity

Other

Communist Party of Australia (1920–1991)

Socialist Alliance

Socialist Labor Party

Victorian Socialists

Timeline

1870 to 1960

1960 to Present

See also

References