The Sydney University Labor Club is the oldest [1] political society in Australia. It is one of the most influential Australian university political societies. Many of the club's alumni have gone on to prominent political careers.[ citation needed ] The club is associated with the left of the Australian Labor Party.
In early 1925, a Labor group began orienting around University of Sydney Union debate nights. It was in April, though, that the club was officially formed, with a visit to Sydney University by a son of Ramsay MacDonald; the club usurped an official Union dinner to host the visiting party first. [1] H.V. Evatt was the inaugural president of the club, which soon ceased to function after a 1927 split within the New South Wales Labor Party between Jack Lang and Peter Loughlin. In 1931, the club was reformed and it affiliated to the Labor Party, sending one delegate to its state conference. Problems arose again with the figure of Lang. Disaffiliation followed in 1934 and the club renamed itself the 'Socialist Club'. The club's 1939 constitution was written by future governor-general John Kerr. [2]
In 1940, the club came under the control of the Hughes-Evans executive of the state party, and in 1944 followed the State Labor Party into the Communist Party. In 1949, students wary of communist influence split to form the ALP Club, which was more closely aligned with the Labor Party. It exists today as the official body of Young Labor at the University, and is controlled by the party's Unity faction. [3]
The club has been involved in both activist struggles and more institutional means of achieving change. Its members were prominent in the Freedom Rides, anti-Vietnam War protests, and the establishment of the Department of Political Economy in the 1960s and 1970s. From 1965, club members organised over 100 branches of High School Students Against the War in Vietnam in Sydney high schools. [4] In late 1965, the club briefly changed its name to the 'Socialist Club' before returning to the original name in 1968. The communists retained control until the annual general meeting on 29 March 1966, when New Left Labor activists, including Jennie George, Sandra Levy, and Jim Percy, were elected in a 19-14 vote.
In early 1969, the club set up a shopfront at 67 Glebe Point Road in Glebe to coordinate its anti-Vietnam War activities.
The club had a strong presence in Sydney University student politics in the new millennium, with every president of the Students' Representative Council from 2001 to 2013 being a member. Its influence in campus politics declined dramatically. Only 5 of 33 student councillors elected at the 2016 elections came from the club. The club continues to participate in activism, particularly around the quality of education and National Union of Students campaigns.
From 2013 the Club was rocked by internal strife over political direction, with part of National Labor Students, the university Labor Left faction, leaving to establish a new grouping in Sydney Labor Students. [5] [6] A splinter club, the Young Workers' Club, formed in 2016 but ran for only one year because of low membership, with the Union deregistering it because of inactivity. More recently, the club has stabilised and become more active, and is associated with Young Labor Left. [7] [ non-primary source needed ]
Edward Gough Whitlam was the 21st prime minister of Australia, in office from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he was the head of a reformist administration that ended with his removal as prime minister after controversially being dismissed by the governor-general of Australia, Sir John Kerr, at the climax of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Whitlam is the only Australian prime minister to have been removed from office in this manner.
Sir John Robert Kerr was an Australian barrister and judge who served as the 18th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1974 to 1977. He is primarily known for his involvement in the 1975 constitutional crisis, which culminated in his decision to dismiss the incumbent prime minister Gough Whitlam and appoint Malcolm Fraser as his replacement, unprecedented actions in Australian federal politics.
The Democratic Labour Party (DLP), formerly the Democratic Labor Party, is an Australian political party. It broke off from the Australian Labor Party (ALP) as a result of the 1955 ALP split, originally under the name Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist), and was renamed the Democratic Labor Party in 1957. In 1962, the Queensland Labor Party, a breakaway party of the Queensland branch of the Australian Labor Party, became the Queensland branch of the DLP.
Arthur Augustus Calwell was an Australian politician who served as the leader of the Labor Party from 1960 to 1967. He led the party to three federal elections.
James Ford Cairns was an Australian politician who was prominent in the Labor movement through the 1960s and 1970s, and was briefly Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister in the Whitlam government. He is best remembered as a leader of the movement against Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, for his affair with Junie Morosi and for his later renunciation of conventional politics. He was also an economist, and a prolific writer on economic and social issues, many of them self-published and self-marketed at stalls he ran across Australia after his retirement.
The Petrov Affair was a Cold War spy incident in Australia, concerning the defection of Vladimir Petrov, a KGB officer, from the Soviet embassy in Canberra in 1954. The defection led to a Royal Commission and the resulting controversy contributed to the Australian Labor Party split of 1955.
Edward John Ward 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 until his death in 1963. He served as a minister in the Curtin and Chifley Governments from 1941 to 1949, and was also known for his role in the ALP split of 1931.
Thomas Uren 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, being appointed Minister for Urban and Regional Development (1972–75), Minister for Territories and Local Government (1983–84) and Minister for Local Government and Administrative Services (1984–87). He helped establish the heritage and conservation movement in Australia and, in particular, worked to preserve the heritage of inner Sydney.
Australian Young Labor is the youth wing of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) representing all ALP members aged 15 to 26. Former presidents of AYL have included former NSW Premier Bob Carr, former Federal Minister for Agriculture Tony Burke, Special Minister of State Senator John Faulkner, former Australian Workers Union National Secretary and current Member for Maribyrnong and former Federal Labor Leader Bill Shorten as well as dozens of State Ministers and MPs.
Honi Soit is the student newspaper of the University of Sydney. First published in 1929, the newspaper is produced by an elected editorial team and a select group of reporters sourced from the university's populace. The name is an abbreviation of the Anglo-Norman "Honi soit qui mal y pense".
The University of Sydney Union (USU), established in 1874, is the student-run services and amenities provider at the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia. The USU's key services include the provision of food and beverages, retail outlets, live music and other entertainment, clubs & societies, festivals and events including the biggest Orientation Week (OWeek) in Australia.
The University of Sydney Students' Representative Council (SRC) is the representative body for undergraduate students at the University of Sydney. In addition to a student-elected council and student advocacy portfolios, the SRC coordinates a free Legal Service and Caseworker service for all undergraduate students at the University of Sydney. These services provide legal, academic appeal, migration, tenancy and study advice to students. The SRC has a reputation as Australia's most radical student union, and has been instrumental in leading student activism on a range of issues including education, feminist justice, environmentalism, First Nations justice and queer rights. The longest-running weekly student newspaper in Australia, Honi Soit, is funded by the SRC.
Harry Frederick Ernest "Fred" Whitlam was Australia's Crown Solicitor from 1936 to 1949, and a pioneer of international human rights law in Australia. He was the father of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, and had a great influence on his son's values and interests.
Donald Robert Willesee was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served as a Senator for Western Australia from 1950 to 1975. He held ministerial office in the Whitlam Government as Special Minister of State (1972–1973) and Minister for Foreign Affairs (1973–1975). He also served as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate from 1966 to 1967.
Allan Duncan Fraser was an Australian politician and journalist. He served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1943 to 1966 and from 1969 to 1972, representing the Division of Eden-Monaro for the Labor Party.
John Murray Wheeldon was an Australian politician and journalist. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served as a Senator for Western Australia from 1965 to 1981. He held ministerial office in the Whitlam Government as Minister for Repatriation and Compensation (1974–1975) and Minister for Social Security (1975). He was known for his views on Australian foreign policy and after leaving politics became an editorial writer for The Australian.
Samuel Herbert Cohen QC was an Australian politician and barrister. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served as a Senator for Victoria from 1962 until his death in 1969. He was also a member of Gough Whitlam's shadow ministry from 1967. He was the first Jew elected to the Senate.
Alan Douglas Joseph Reid, nicknamed the Red Fox, was an Australian political journalist, who worked in the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery from 1937 to 1985. He is noted for his role in the Australian Labor Party split of 1955 and his coinage of the term "36 faceless men" to describe the members of the Australian Labor Party's Federal Conference.
The University of Tasmania Liberal Club (TULC) is a politically affiliated club based at the University of Tasmania. The club is closely tied with the Liberal Party of Australia and at times through its history has been a constitutional branch of the Tasmanian Division. The club is the fourth oldest of its kind in Australia after the University of Melbourne Liberal Club founded in 1925, the Sydney University Liberal Club in 1933 and the University of Western Australia Liberal Club in 1944. The club hosts policy debates, annual dinners, student election campaigns, and guest speaker events with members of parliament. It is an affiliate of the Australian Liberal Students' Federation and the Tasmania University Union.
The Left Alliance was an Australian organisation of socialist, feminist, and progressive students that flourished in the 1980s and 1990s.
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