Ben was joined this week by Osmond Chiu, Per Capita research fellow and contributor editor for the Labor Left magazine Challenge, to discuss the factions of the Australian Labor Party.
Read Osmond’s 2020 piece in Jacobin on the history of Labor’s factions.
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Thanks, very educational.
Bottom line is the membership is quite Left Wing, the Parliamentarians usually less so.
AWU was crucial in the Qld Labor Governments 1915-’29 & 1932-’57. Qld branch disaffiliated with Labor in the Sixties and didn;’t reaffiliate until Goss was leader, restoring influence and funding which led to their long run in Government fro 1989-2012.
However, the RC into Trade Unions uncovered ghost memberships where big business paid Unuin Tickiets for non existent workers, which padded the AWU membership numbers at the expense of the Left faction. Since then there’s been the CFMEU/ETU controlled Palaszczul Governent in Qld and a similar governent in Vict0oria.