The "French Turn" in the Antipodes
Early Trotskyists and the Australian Labor Party, 1937-55
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2764840 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John Sebesta, John Sebesta John Sebesta, Douglas Fullarton, Douglas Fullarton Douglas Fullarton, Stephen Morrell (0000-0002-1297-5628), Stephen Morrell Stephen Morrell, Lyn Smith, Lyn Smith Lyn Smith |
| Year | 2014 |
| Issue | 107 |
| Pages | 129 |
| Publication date | 2014-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Labour History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0023-6942 • E-ISSN: 1839-3039 |
| Publisher | Liverpool University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.5263/labourhistory.107.0129 |
| OpenAlex | W2504440987 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 1 |
Mass social-democratic parties such as the Australian Labor Party have long been the major obstacle to small revolutionary organisations winning mass influence. This paper explores how the Australian Trotskyists of the 1940s attempted to overcome this through the tactic of entry. In the 1930s the “French Turn” by Leon Trotsky’s supporters in France and in the United States provided successful models of short-term entry. In Australia, however, entry was posed as a buffer against wartime illegality. The Communist League split in 1941, with the Labor Socialist Group (LSG) led by Nick Origlass embarking on a deep entry into the ALP, most actively in Victoria in the post-war period. When the Progressive Labour Party split from Labor after the smashing of the 1949 Coal Strike, LSG supporters joined it. Aside from this brief interlude, the strategy of long-term entry led not to strengthening the revolutionary forces but their liquidation into Laborism
Antipodes · Aside · Communism · Democracy · Economic history · Economics · League · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Project commissioning · Publishing · Social democracy · Socialism · Sociology · Anarchism and Radical Politics · Australian History and Society · Labor Movements and Unions · Law
| Highly cited | No |
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