Liam Byrne - Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin

Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin

Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin

The making of the modern Labor Party: 18761921

Liam Byrne

MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRESS

An imprint of Melbourne University Publishing Limited Level 1,

715 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia

www.mup.com.au

First published 2020

Text Liam Byrne, 2020

Design and typography Melbourne University Publishing Limited, 2020

This book is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means or process whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publishers.

Every attempt has been made to locate the copyright holders for material quoted in this book.

Any person or organisation that may have been overlooked or misattributed may contact the publisher.

Series: History

Series Editor: Joy Damousi

Text design and typesetting by J & M Typesetting

Cover design by Phil Campbell

Cover images: Portrait of John Curtin aged 34 years, John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. Records of the Curtin Family, 1919. JCPML00381/16.

Portrait of James Scullin, Johnstone, OShannessy & Falk, National Library of Australia, 1920.

Printed in Australia by OPUS Group

9780522876468 (hardback)

9780522876475 (paperback)

9780522876482 (ebook)

Contents

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Professor Joy Damousi and Catherine McInnis at Melbourne University Publishing for making this book possible. Gratitude is also due to Meryl Potter for her hard work copy-editing the manuscript.

I could never have completed this book without the love and support of my family, particularly Amy, Cato, Mum and Dad. Thank you for everything.

I have been privileged to work at the Australian Council of Trade Unions during the period in which I wrote this book. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work for the labour movement under the leadership of ACTU Secretary Sally McManus. I want to offer special thanks to Emma Kingdon who did so much to teach and guide me, as well as for being a wonderful friend. Most of all, thanks to all the union members who are the beating heart of the movement, and who I learn from, and am inspired by, every day.

Many thanks to Professor Barbara Keys, Professor Marilyn Lake and Professor Stuart Macintyre for the generosity they showed me, the wisdom they shared with me, and the opportunities they gave to me.

I could not have done this without the support of all my friends who I just cannot thank enough. But special thanks are owed to three friends who are my family, and who read and provided comments on drafts of this book, Edo Anzon, Emma Shortis and Chloe Ward.

Jackie Dickenson and Sean Scalmer supervised my PhD, and even after their official duties ended, were so incredibly generous with their wisdom, advice and support. I could not have told this story without them and I would not have wanted to. Thank you is simply not enough. Jackie and Sean, you have done so much more than help me write this book, you have both exemplified the type of historian, educator, and person, I aspire to be.

For everything they have done, this book is dedicated to Jackie and Sean.

A note on terminology

In 1891 trade unions in Queensland and New South Wales created political parties to represent the labour movement in parliament. These parties were to be distinct from the liberal parties whose leading figures were largely drawn from the ranks of the middle class. The Labor Parties were considered to be the representatives of the union movement in the parliamentary sphere and were expected to act as such.

After Australias Federation, the Labor Parties of the new states formed a national organisation, now known as the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Until 1912, it was common to spell the partys name as either the Labour or Labor Party. From 1912, the spelling was standardised as the Australian Labor Party.

The ALP was a federal institution. Individual members joined their state Labor Party, which affiliated as an organisation to the federal ALP.

Each state branch had its own distinctive party form and identity, including its own name. In Victoria, the state party was initially known as the Political Labor Council (PLC). The PLC was founded in 1901 and was renamed the Victorian Branch of the Australian Labor Party in 1917.

Due to the possible confusion of such a large number of names for what was, in essence, the one political party, the following conventions have been adopted in this text.

Australian Labor Party (ALP) is the term used by the author to refer to the organisation on a federal level.

The Victorian state branch of the Labor Party is identified as the Political Labor Council or as either Victorian Labor or the Victorian Labor Party.

Where there is a certain conflation across the state and federal levels, Labor Party has been used.

In accordance with convention, the term labour movement refers to the broader social movement of working people, institutionalised politically in the Labor Party and industrially in the trade unions, rather than the party alone.

Introduction

Those who mould the age

The prime minister was dead. For almost a week, a single light in a window of the Lodge had burned deep into the night. There, John Curtin had lain in his sickbed. At 4 am on 5 July 1945, just weeks before Japans surrender, his heart finally gave out. Prime minister for three years, nine months, and one day, Curtin had never led his country in a time of peace. Reluctantly summoned to the highest office at a time of extraordinary challenge, it was his steadfast leadership that guided Australia through its great crisis in 1942, when a Japanese invasion seemed not just possible but imminent. When the supposed guarantee of British imperial protection was proven false and the times called for someone willing to lead amid the uncertainty, Curtin was there.

But now he was gone.

The nation mourned. A pall lay over the parliament that day. Tribute was paid from all sides of politics to the man who had provided the leadership that nobody else could at the time it was needed most.

Prime ministers and generals, kings and presidents, all sent their messages of grief. Representatives of the working class Curtin had served throughout his political career spoke of the acts of kindness and generosity that had

It was clear he was loved and admired, though his leadership had not always been warm. Often, it was associated with strictness and austerity, as Curtin demanded sacrifice for the war effort. Notable themes emerged in the tributes. He had few close friends, few intimates. He often appeared cold, and distant. He eschewed social events and did not join in blokey conversation. He seemed more the frustrated scholar than the amicable peoples leader. But his steadfastness, his honesty and his humility had won him a place in the hearts of those who worked with him, and among the millions who had come to rely on him to lead them through the dark times. There was something fundamental about Curtin that was unknowable, and unknown. But he had always been there: through the terrors of war, the sacrifices, the trials and the transformations. Peace was finally almost at hand.

But he was gone.

Later that night, after a day of mourning, former Labor prime minister James Scullin took to the airwaves. In an eloquent speech transcribed and published in full by the labour newspaper the