The Labor movement and the Secession Referendum: What Australian history teaches

March 31, 1933

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An editorial by John Curtin on the Secession referendum, referencing the history of Australian politics and the Labor movement

THE LABOR MOVEMENT AND THE SECESSION REFERENDUM
WHAT AUSTRALIAN
HISTORY TEACHES
(By J. Curtin)
The history of the people of Australia is the history of two
periods. Both eras are full of instruction. In particular have
they a meaning and a message for the workers.
The first phase is that of separation, reaction, the rule in
the Parliaments of squatting and financial interests, of sweat-
ing, long hours, low wages, and a trades unionism too weak,
because of divisions and coercion, to do more than protest
against intolerable wrongs.
Furthermore, to the first period belongs the stain of black
labor, of convict labor, of indentured labor, the Truck Acts,
and the laws of repression under which the democracy was
trampled in the interests of land-grabbers, boomsters, and the
political agents of financial swindlers.
The second period is that of the rise of Labor as a force
in Australian government. It is marked by the steady growth
of trades unionism, the unity in organisation and policy of the
workers' movement, the overthrow of forces that were inher-
ently evil in the public life, and the gradual raising of the
standard of living and comfort of the masses.
This second period is the period of Australia as a nation,
of the founding of the Commonwealth, the emergence of co-
operation on the part of the workers in all parts of the con-
tinent to assist each other, and the progressive amelioration of
the laws under which a united people unitedly dealt with the
problems of life.
Based upon the principle that unity
is strength, the Labor Movement ac-
complished in the second period re-
forms which had been vainly sought
for years in the previous era of sepa-
rate colonies and reactionary Parlia-
ments. The story is a long record of
travail. It is part of the history of our
country. But it is too pregnant of
significance to he ignored.
DEMOCRACY IN THRALL.
In all the colonies the history of the
years prior to Federation is the history
of the struggle for the enfranchisement
of men and women as men and women.
Even as I write the fact is that in the
five of the six States where there are
Legislative Councils the franchise still
denies to the democracy the right to
elect the second chambers. Only one
person in every three, for example,
may vote to elect the Legislative
Council in Western Australia.
Before Federation the Parliaments
were the fortresses of privilege and
wealth in every State. In all of them
the power to govern was so abused
that each had a black record of land
scandals, financial swindles, capitalis-
tic profiteerings, and public robbery.
Sweaters, squatters, financiers, and
their political agents controlled the
governments.
POWER AND PELF.
Financial institutions held vast areas
of Crown land and profiteered by the
sub-letting of the national property.
Favored individuals did likewise, and
grew rich from the sub-letting of the
auriferous and pastoral and forest
areas of the Crown. In the Parlia-
ment of Western Australia as late as
last year a Bill was passed extending
certain pastoral leases, which still had
a currency of years to run, by another
period of nearly 50 years. The tradi-
tion, you will see, still survives in our
own State.
The Land Acts facilitated every
kind of "dummying." and titles were
secured to vast tracts of country by all
manner of improper practices. In this
State notorious instances are on record.
The financial institutions used the gov-
ernments as instruments to strengthen
their peculative powers.
POLITICAL CORRUPTION.
In 1890 the "British Investor's Re-
view" issued a warning to the public
of Great Britain that the then Govern-
ments of the colonies "permitted
swindles to go unpunished." Finan-
ciers controlling banks closed the doors,
wiped off their personal liabilities by
compositions of a farthing in the
pound. The Parliament, unchecked by
the voteless democracy, allowed these
rascalities to proceed.
ADULT FRANCHISE.
The dawn of Federation opened a
new era in the life of the people. It
was not long before the Parliament of
the Commonwealth was elected by the
votes of the adulthood of the nation.
This principle applied to both Federal
Houses. The power of the people was
felt. It expressed itself in the pro-
hibition of indentured labor and in the
insistence that Australia was to be a
White-Labor country. This principle
of nationality was not racial: it was
an economic provision to protect the
standards of work and wages.
Industrially, the law of the Federa-
tion encouraged the growth of Union-
ism on a continent-wide basis. The ef-
fect of this legislation has not yet
been adequately measured by the
Workers, The coming together of
unionism nationally meant a new
power to the workers. It gave them
resources in negotiation and in action
that enabled Australia to assume the
leadership in the industrial world in
respect to the rights of labor and the
duties of industry.
The effect of Commonwealth policy
had its influence in every part of the
country and the States, which before
Federation were the sanctuaries of
sweating and injustice, had to come up
to the average industrial standard.
From 1900 down to the advent of the
world war the workers of Australia
were making more progress in the
realisation of economic justice under
capitalism that any of their confreres
elsewhere.
THE HALT TO PROGRESS.
It is certain that but for the dislo-
cating incidence of the war and the
set-back it gave to Labor there would
have been evolvled in Australia a Labor
policy, implemented in the Parliament
of the nation, that would have amazed
and inspired the world in the use of
constitutional processes in the service
of democracy.
That great new chapter had only
opened when it was closed by the iron
hand of war and war's demands. It
is undoubted that the Federation had
the burden of the war and the war
debt to carry. But that is not the real
explanation of the position that has
developed. The root fact is that the
people, who now groan at the effects
of the Federation, repeatedly placed
in control of the Federation the party
of reaction and the upholders of the
rights of wealth. To this fact is at-
tributable the errors which have
caused complaint.
RULE OF REACTION REVIVED.
The Commonwealth, in short, since
the war, has been ruled by the same
political interests that control the Up-
per Houses of the States. Labor men
and women must realise this fact bef-
fore they judge a system which offers
them a stage for the realisation of their
hopes much more effectively than any
State can offer.
The Labor Movement postulates the
principle of unity. It envisages the
goal of a Co-operative Commonwealth.
That is the objective. In the day-to-
day struggle it seeks improvements in
conditions. On the basis of separate
and independent Governments for the
States the most reactionary and the
worst-conditioned State will set the
pace for the others. This is what hap-
pened previously. It is what will hap-
pen again.
DIVIDE AND CONQUER.
There is a menace in the prospect of
giving the destiny over Labor to the
exclusive property franchise of the Up-
per Houses of the States. In the past
thirty years these ramparts of reaction
have had to temper their treatment of
the workers to the alternative of an
appeal to the Commonwealth. With
secession from the Federation this
check will be gone. They will be the
masters of the situation.
The history of the people over all the
years is a warning that no Laborite
should tolerate complete power being
vested in a Parliament unless that
Parliament is in both its Houses an-
swerable to all the people. Only in
Queensland is that the position as
things stand.
Secession means fragmenting the
nation: it means sundering the Austra-
lian Labor Movement into mere local-
ised factions; it means a revival of
outgrown divisions and insularities.
And, more menacing than any other
consideration, it devitalises the democ-
racy by giving a fresh lease of despot-
ism to the forces of conservatism and
reaction.

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