Labor Left Progressive/Socialist Left | |
---|---|
Abbreviation | LL |
National Convenors [1] | |
Newspaper | Challenge Magazine |
Ideology | |
Political position | Centre-left |
National affiliation | Australian Labor |
Colours | Red |
Federal Parliamentary Caucus | 47 / 103 |
Part of a series on |
Labour politics in Australia |
---|
The Labor Left, also known as the Progressive Left or Socialist Left, is a 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 state and territory of Australia, and organises as a broad alliance at the national level. Its policy positions include party democratisation, economic interventionism, progressive tax reform, refugee rights, gender equality and same-sex marriage. [2] The faction includes members with a range of political perspectives, including Keynesianism, trade union militancy, Fabian social democracy, New Leftism, and democratic socialism. [3]
Most political parties contain informal factions of members who work towards common goals, however the Australian Labor Party is noted for having highly structured and organised factions across the ideological spectrum. [4]
Labor Left is a membership-based organisation which has internal office bearers, publications, and policy positions. [4] The faction coordinates political activity and policy development across different hierarchical levels and organisational components of the party, [5] negotiates with other factions on political strategy and policy, and uses party processes to try to defeat other groups if consensus cannot be reached. [6]
Many members of parliament and trade union leaders are formally aligned with the Left and Right factions, and party positions and ministerial allocations are negotiated and divided between the factions based on the proportion of Labor caucus aligned with that faction. [4] [6]
This section needs expansionwith: sources on the modern history of the Left, and its history outside Victoria and New South Wales. You can help by adding to it. (January 2016) |
Historian Frank Bongiorno has noted that there had been a number of organisations associated with the left wing of Labor before the 1950s, from the Australian Socialist League in the 1890s, the industrial left which emerged during World War I, the early supporters of Jack Lang, and the State Labor Party of the 1940s. [3]
The modern Labor Left emerged from the Labor Party split of 1955, in which anti-communist activists associated with B. A. Santamaria and the Industrial Groups formed the Democratic Labor Party while left-wing parliamentarians and unions loyal to H. V. Evatt and Arthur Calwell remained in the Australian Labor Party. [7] The earliest formal factional organization was the NSW Combined Unions and Branches Steering Committee (later known as the NSW Socialist Left), which was formed in January 1955. [3]
The split played out differently across the country, with anti-communists leaving the party in Victoria and Queensland but remaining within in most other states. This created a power vacuum which allowed the Left to take control of the Federal Executive and Victorian state branch, while its opponents were preserved elsewhere. [7] Tom Uren described the left of the Labor Party Caucus upon his election to Parliament in the late 1950s as "a loosely knit grouping... consist(ing) mostly of anti-Catholics, although some members were militants or socialists". [3]
From 1965 organised internal groups emerged to challenge the control of the Left, supported by figures such as John Button and Gough Whitlam. After the Victorian branch lost the 1970 state election in the midst of a public dispute with Whitlam over state aid for private schools, the South Australian Left, led by Clyde Cameron, and New South Wales Left, led by Arthur Gietzelt, agreed to support an intervention which saw the Victorian state branch abolished and subsequently reconstructed without Left control. [7] Leftists in the Victorian party subsequently regrouped as the formally organized Socialist Left faction. In Queensland, the left coalesced around senator George Georges. Despite an increasing level of organisation in the grassroots party, this was not reflected within the Parliamentary caucus: Ken Fry noted that when he was elected to Parliament in 1974, meetings of left MPs were irregular and they responded to events in an ad hoc manner. The Labor Left suffered the loss of two of its key leaders in the mid-1970s with the downfall of Jim Cairns and the elevation of Lionel Murphy to the High Court of Australia, yet it continued to make advances in terms of nationwide organisation: right-wing power broker Graham Richardson has acknowledged that "at the beginning of the 1980s the Left was the only national faction". [3]
Labor leftists continued to formalise their organisation into the 1980s. In New South Wales, the Steering Committee (which later became known as the Socialist Left in 1989) made advances in branches across the state in the late 1970s and early 1980s under the leadership of Peter Baldwin, initially in the suburbs of Sydney before spreading to the inner cities. This culminated in the deselection of the right-aligned MP for Sydney, Les McMahon, and the selection of Baldwin as Labor candidate for the seat. This was followed by other Labor Right MPs in Sydney's Inner West similarly being usurped by left candidates. [8]
In Tasmania, the Broad Left formalised itself in 1983, having taken control of the state party after reforms democratised it in 1976. [3] [9] In the Australian Capital Territory, the Left Caucus was founded after a left candidate was not preselected in 1982. However, the Left were unable to translate their organisational advances into a presence in the Hawke government: although about a third of the Parliamentary caucus were aligned with the Left at the time, only one member was appointed to Hawke's first cabinet, Stewart West: leading left-winger Brian Howe placed high in the ministry ballot, but was relegated to a junior ministerial position. This came against the background of an increasing factionalising across the party and the emergence of a centre-left faction which joined with the Labor Right to dominate the Hawke government. Left influence was also restricted by the ALP's binding pledge committing legislators to accept caucus discipline, allowing members little freedom to dissent. Left influence also declined at the national conference, with the faction losing its conference majority in the early 1980s. [3]
During the 1980s, prolonged disputes over tactical issues and personality conflicts resulted in a split occurring within the New South Wales Labor Left, creating two sub-factional groupings; the 'Hard Left' and the 'Soft Left', [10] the latter of which was the successor of the Baldwinites. [8] A significant event which caused the split was the election of the Secretary Assistant of the New South Wales Labor Party, where the Hard Left faction supported Anthony Albanese while the Soft Left faction supported Jan Burnswoods. [10] The Hard Left faction was more closely aligned with left-wing groups external to the Labor Party, maintaining "closer links with broader left-wing groups, such as the Communist Party of Australia, People for Nuclear Disarmament and the African National Congress" as well as trade union officials, political staffers, lobbyists and student politicians, while the Soft Left's main base of support was among rank-and-file party branch members. [10] [8] In terms of tactics, the Hard Left favoured a top-down approach of transactional negotiation with the Labor Right, whilst the Soft Left advocated a continuation of the Baldwinite bottom-up strategy of mobilising the grassroots membership to win party positions. This difference in approach led to struggles between the two factions over candidate selections, with the Hard Left using their control over the party apparatus in tandem with sections of the Right to deselect Soft Left MPs across the state, particularly in western Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong. For example, in Newcastle Bryce Gaudry was deselected in favour of the Right's Jodi McKay, following which about 130 members resigned or were expelled from the city's ALP branches, previously the largest in the state. [8] The factions also had differing views on policy. While members of both the Soft and Hard Left opposed the Hawke/Keating government's privatisation of the Commonwealth Bank and Qantas, the Hard Left was seen as being more staunchly resistant to these changes. [10]
Lindsay Tanner, writing in the early 1990s, argued that the principal "axis of division" with the ALP cut across the traditional left-right divide, namely the opposition of "rationalists" and "traditionalists", with the former supporting the Prices and Incomes Accord and union mergers, and abandoning or watering down their commitment to traditional Labor objectives such as public ownership, non-interventionism in foreign policy, and maintenance of working-class living standards, whilst the latter were negative towards the Accord, opposed to union mergers, sympathetic toward economic autarky, and attached to traditional Labor policy objectives. [11] This divide can be seen through the career of Joan Kirner, who served as Premier of Victoria between 1990 and 1992 and was the first member of the modern Labor Left to lead a government, who supported the ascent of Paul Keating to the post of Prime Minister and his decision to privatise Commonwealth Bank to finance a bailout for the ailing State Bank of Victoria. This resulted in the formation of a splinter group from the Socialist Left, the Pledge faction, which opposed privatisation: in 1996, Pledge allied with another left split, the Labour Renewal Alliance, and the right wing Labor Unity faction to take control of the party away from the Socialist Left. [12] [3]
Jurisdiction | Major Left grouping | Conference floor percentage 2015 | Majority |
---|---|---|---|
New South Wales | NSW Left | 40% [13] | No |
Victoria | Victorian Socialist Left | 49% [14] | Stability pact with the TWU-SDA |
Western Australia | Broad Left | 84% [13] | Yes |
Queensland | The Left | 49% [15] | Yes |
ACT | Left Caucus | 51% [13] | Yes |
South Australia | Progressive Left Unions and Sub-Branches | 35% [13] | No |
Tasmania | The Left | 70% [13] | Yes |
Northern Territory | The Left | 60% [13] | Yes |
National | National Left | 48% [13] | No |
Name | Seat | Other position(s) | State/territory | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Anthony Albanese | Member for Grayndler | Prime Minister of Australia Leader of the Labor Party | New South Wales | [16] |
Tanya Plibersek | Member for Sydney | Minister for Environment and Water | [16] | |
Stephen Jones | Member for Whitlam | Assistant Treasurer Minister for Financial Services | [17] | |
Sharon Claydon | Member for Newcastle | |||
Susan Templeman | Member for Macquarie | |||
Pat Conroy | Member for Shortland | Minister for International Development and the Pacific Minister for Defense Industry | [18] | |
Anne Stanley | Member for Werriwa | |||
Linda Burney | Member for Barton | Minister for Indigenous Australians | ||
Jerome Laxale | Member for Bennelong | |||
Catherine King | Member for Ballarat | Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, and Regional Development | Victoria | [19] |
Brendan O'Connor | Member for Gorton | Minister for Skills and Training | [19] | |
Andrew Giles | Member for Scullin | Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs | [18] | |
Julian Hill | Member for Bruce | |||
Maria Vamvakinou | Member for Calwell | |||
Lisa Chesters | Member for Bendigo | |||
Libby Coker | Member for Corangamite | [20] | ||
Ged Kearney | Member for Cooper | Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care | [21] | |
Kate Thwaites | Member for Jagajaga | [22] | ||
Mary Doyle | Member for Aston | Victoria | ||
Graham Perrett | Member for Moreton | Queensland | ||
Josh Wilson | Member for Fremantle | Western Australia | ||
Patrick Gorman | Member for Perth | Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister | [23] | |
Anne Aly | Member for Cowan | Minister for Early Childhood Education Minister for Youth | ||
Zaneta Mascharenhas | Member for Swan | [24] | ||
Mark Butler | Member for Hindmarsh | Minister for Health and Aged Care Deputy Leader of the House | South Australia | [19] |
Louise Miller-Frost | Member for Boothby | |||
Tony Zappia | Member for Makin | |||
Julie Collins | Member for Franklin | Minister for Housing | Tasmania | [25] |
Brian Mitchell | Member for Lyons | [25] | ||
Jodie Belyea | Member for Dunkley | Victoria | ||
Carina Garland | Member for Chisholm | Victoria | ||
Fiona Phillips | Member for Gilmore | New South Wales | ||
Tracey Roberts | Member for Pearce | Western Australia | ||
Marion Scrymgour | Member for Lingiari | Northern Territory | ||
Jenny McAllister | Senator for New South Wales | Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy | New South Wales | |
Jess Walsh | Senator for Victoria | Victoria | ||
Murray Watt | Senator for Queensland | Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries | Queensland | |
Sue Lines | Senator for Western Australia | President of the Senate | Western Australia | |
Louise Pratt | Senator for Western Australia | Western Australia | ||
Penny Wong | Senator for South Australia | Leader of the Labor Party in the Senate Leader of the Government in the Senate Minister for Foreign Affairs | South Australia | [16] |
Carol Brown | Senator for Tasmania | Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport | Tasmania | [25] |
Anne Urquhart | Senator for Tasmania | Tasmania | [25] | |
Katy Gallagher | Senator for the Australian Capital Territory | Minister for Finance Minister for the Public Service Minister for Women | Australian Capital Territory | |
Malarndirri McCarthy | Senator for the Northern Territory | Northern Territory | ||
Linda White | Senator for Victoria | Victoria | ||
Fatima Payman | Senator for Western Australia | Western Australia | ||
Tim Ayres | Senator for New South Wales | Assistant Minister for Trade | New South Wales | |
Nita Green | Senator for Queensland | Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef | Queensland | |
Karen Grogan | Senator for South Australia | South Australia | [26] |
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also commonly known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia and one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party has been in government since being elected at the 2022 federal election, and with political branches in each state and territory, they currently form government in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory, and the Northern Territory. As of 2023, Tasmania is the only state or territory where Labor forms the opposition. It is the oldest continuous political party in Australian history, being established on 8 May 1901 at Parliament House, Melbourne, the meeting place of the first federal Parliament.
The Labor Right, also known as Modern Labor or Labor Unity, is a political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) at the national level that is characterised by being more supportive of free markets and more or equally socially conservative than the Labor Left The Labor Right is a broad alliance of various state factions and competes with the Labor Left faction.
Martin John Ferguson is an Australian former Labor Party politician who was the Member of the House of Representatives for Batman from 1996 to 2013. He served as Minister for Resources and Energy and Minister for Tourism in the Rudd and Gillard governments from 2007 to 2013.
Graham Frederick Richardson is an Australian former Labor Party politician who was a Senator for New South Wales from 1983 to 1994 and served as a Cabinet Minister in both the Hawke and Keating governments. He is currently a media commentator, public speaker, and political lobbyist.
Kim John Carr is an Australian former politician who served as a Senator for Victoria between 1993 and 2022. Representing the Labor Party, he was a minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments.
Branch stacking is a term used in Australian politics to describe the act of recruiting or signing up members for a local branch of a political party for the principal purpose of influencing the outcome of internal preselection of candidates for public office, or of inordinately influencing the party's policy.
Hard left or hard-left is a term that is used particularly in Australian and British English to describe the most radical members of a left-wing political party or political group. The term is also a noun and modifier taken to mean the far-left and the left-wing political movements and ideas outside the mainstream centre-left. The term has been used to describe wings and factions of several political parties across the world, such as the left-wing of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom and left-wing factions of the Australian Labor Party.
Australian Young Labor (AYL), also known as the Young Labor Movement or simply Young Labor, is the youth wing of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) representing all party members aged between 15 and 26. The organisation operates as a federation with independently functioning branches in all Australian states and territories which serve under the relevant state or territory branch of the federal Labor Party, often coming together during national conferences and federal elections. Young Labor is the oldest continuously operating youth wing of any political party in Australian history, being founded in 1926.
The Australian Labor Party National Executive, often referred to as the National Executive, is the executive governing body of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), charged with directly overseeing the general organisation and strategy of the party. Twenty members of the National Executive are elected by the party's National Conference, which is the highest representative body of the party's state and territory branches. The other eight members are party ex-officio members.
Lang Labor was a faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) consisting of the supporters of Jack Lang, who served two terms as Premier of New South Wales and was the party's state leader from 1923 to 1939. It controlled the New South Wales branch of the ALP throughout most of the 1920s and 1930s. The faction broke away to form separate parliamentary parties on several occasions and stood competing candidates against the ALP in state and federal elections.
The Electrical Trades Union of Australia (ETU) is an Australian trade union.
The Ferguson Left is a political sub-faction in New South Wales within the Australian Labor Party (ALP) founded by Jack Ferguson.
The Australian Labor Party Caucus comprises all the elected members of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in both Houses of the national Parliament. The Caucus determines some matters of policy, parliamentary tactics, and disciplinary measures against disobedient MPs. It is alternatively known as the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party (FPLP).
Allan Clyde Holding was an Australian politician who served as Leader of the Opposition in Victoria for ten years, and went on to become a federal minister in the Hawke government.
Rose Butler Jackson is an Australian Labor Party politician serving as a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council since 8 May 2019. Since 5 April 2023, she has been serving in the Minns ministry as Minister for Water, Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness, Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Youth, and Minister for the North Coast. She is the former Assistant General Secretary of NSW Labor.
Mark Christopher Butler is an Australian politician. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has served in the House of Representatives since 2007. He was a minister in the Gillard and Rudd governments and also served as national president of the ALP from 2015 to 2018.
The New South Wales Labor Party, officially known as the Australian Labor Party (New South Wales Branch) and commonly referred to simply as NSW Labor, is the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The branch is the current ruling party in the state of New South Wales and is led by Chris Minns, who has served concurrently as premier of New South Wales since 2023.
The Australian Labor Party split of 1955 was a split within the Australian Labor Party along ethnocultural lines and about the position towards communism. Key players in the split were the federal opposition leader H. V. "Doc" Evatt and B. A. Santamaria, the dominant force behind the "Catholic Social Studies Movement" or "the Movement".
Socialism in Australia dates back at least as far as the late-19th century. Notions of socialism in Australia have taken many different forms including utopian nationalism in the style of Edward Bellamy, the democratic socialist reformist electoral project of the early Australian Labor Party (ALP), and the revolutionary Marxism of parties such as the Communist Party of Australia.
The history of the Australian Labor Party has its origins in the Labour parties founded in the 1890s in the Australian colonies prior to federation. Labor tradition ascribes the founding of Queensland Labour to a meeting of striking pastoral workers under a ghost gum tree in Barcaldine, Queensland in 1891. The Balmain, New South Wales branch of the party claims to be the oldest in Australia. Labour as a parliamentary party dates from 1891 in New South Wales and South Australia, 1893 in Queensland, and later in the other colonies.