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Last Updated: January 29, 2012
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POLITICAL PARTY INVOLVEMENT

On this page: Joan Coxsedge; Edith Morgan; Yvonne Smith; Marion Harper, Hellen Cooke

Joan Coxsedge

I joined the Labor Party. Back then, the Victorian Branch had a very progressive agenda, although all of that hit the wall in 1970 when the branch was federally intervened on. The Whitlamites believed the Victorian mob was too left-wing and might jeopardise their chances of being elected - when everyone knew after 23 years of Liberal (mis)rule, labor was a shoe-in regardless of what we were doing - but the feds didn't want any radicals hanging around to embarrass them, so in 1970 they sacked the entire branch.

The Federal Executive closed down the state office and handed power to a group of opportunists and shysters, although there was still a significant element of rank and file members angry about what had happened, determined to build something out of the fiasco.

These members formed the Socialist Left. Many women joined in - like Edith Morgan, who joined the Victorian ALP because of its progressive ideology - and others who saw that we were under siege and needed all the support we could get. During those early years, we didn't see that bumping people into parliament was the be-all and end-all of our existence, but that promoting socialist policy should be our main aim. And so, from the word go, I immersed myself in policy-making - Civil Rights, Anti-Uranium (where we did excellent work) and in 1974, became the first president of the Status of Women Committee, an office I held for many years.

We brought down excellent recommendations, very progressive stuff on a range of women's rights, including the decriminalization of prostitution and the fundamental right of women to contraception and abortion - a hot potato back then which has never gone away. Inevitably, we were attacked by the media, which was shockingly biased (like it is now), coming in with guns blazing against anyone even vaguely left-wing.

I was often the bunny, having to present our reports to state conferences, when male delegates would lick their macho chops (not all of them, I hasten to add) waiting for the girls, the sheilas, to come on. They would stand around the edges of the hall drinking cups of coffee, having a giggle at our expense.

It was an unsettling environment, to say the least, standing up in front of 350 delegates. I would take a deep breath and go for my life. Anything with a sexual connotation meant a full house. Some of the blokes should have been in the DLP (Democratic Labor Party), their views were so reactionary and anti-female. In 1973, I stood as a Labor candidate for Balwyn - the safest Liberal seat in the state - and a close friend became my campaign manager.

We ran a socialist/feminist campaign and I got national coverage due to my outspoken support for a woman's right to a free, safe abortion. The issue was prominently displayed on my main campaign leaflet, guaranteeing attention from the Right to Life organisation, which set up stalls outside some polling booths on election day itself, creating a few scuffles.

At one booth, police were summoned! In typical form, Marg and I organised a range of stunts to get our message across and had a ball, with lots of laughs. We stuck posters all over the electorate and one night got sprung by the cops!

For my campaign launch, we hired the Balwyn Cinema and showed the magnificent film, Sacco and Vanzetti. A full house, when Labor's leading lights turned up at my opening to give support (and to be seen) - Jim Cairns, Tom Uren, Moss Cass, George Crawford.

At the same time - as an additional fund-raiser - I exhibited some of my pen and wash drawings in the front section of the theatre. I also raised opposition to freeways, demanding support for more public transport (we're still waiting), public health, public education etc., all issues that are relevant today.

Being 'the candidate' gave me a platform and the fact that I was standing for office in Menzies/Peacock territory and only got 28% support in certain parts of the electorate didn't seem to matter. I was good copy.

It's a different story today with a more buttoned-up manipulative media, although I still firmly believe that you have to speak up for what you believe in and say it out loud - with passion - to put your case every chance you get, no matter how small your audience. If you say things people don't like, so what? They might get off their bums and respond, thereby creating a debate.

The worst thing, the very worst thing that can happen to a society is silence. A killer of democracy.

Which is precisely what is happening in this country right now. A deathly silence hangs over vital issues which should be shouted from the rooftops - our ongoing grovel to Washington hanging like an albatross around our collective neck, and our abysmal failure to protect the environment and public institutions are a few that spring to mind.

... In the late 1970s, the party asked me to stand for a safe Labor seat in the State Parliament. I didn't think I had a dog's chance of winning the pre-selection battle, but I scraped in by one or two votes. Mayhem erupted and I faced an extremely dirty campaign, both inside and outside the party, which had more to do with my 'extreme' views than anything else. A 'maddie'.

The same labels are used in England against people like Tony Benn, a friend of mine. It is fascinating watching this internationalisation of insults. But then, Tony gets a lot of positive coverage that we don't get. We hear from the same narrow little group of 'moderates' and academics, never the activists.

... For the 25 years I was an ALP member, I was reasonably effective for the first 15 years. After that it was a downhill run, particularly towards the end of my parliamentary term when I publicly criticised the party's increasingly right-wing direction and ran foul of the power-brokers. I concentrated on looking after people in my electorate, and used my office as a resource centre.

When I retired from parliament I quietly dropped out of the ALP altogether, because I couldn't see any point in staying in a party where deals were struck in advance before policy had a chance of being openly debated. National Conferences- the supreme policy-making body - are classic examples of media-hyped, manipulated PR stunts. Mere charades.

Many former members feel the same way. Our only hope now is to have people in the senate who will try and stop the worst excesses going on in the House of Representatives.

There is still the problem of Labor's hand-holding with the Liberals to support bad legislation. Since 9/11, 14 'security' bills have been passed (with labor's help) taking away our fundamental rights, with barely a squeak from our media, leaving people ignorant and uninvolved. A similar situation with the US Free Trade nightmare.

... One of the most interesting gatherings I attended was the week-long 'Women and Politics' conference in Canberra in September 1975 during the UN Decade for Women, just a few months before Whitlam was tossed out. I went along as the official Victorian ALP delegate - rather reluctantly at first - but loved every minute of it. There were overseas speakers, plenary sessions and workshops and a deal of stimulating discussion.

If Whitlam had hoped for a nice controlled 'ladylike' assemblage, he would have been bitterly disappointed. Enough female stirrers rolled up from around Australia to balance the numbers of Liberals, Christians and non-boat-rocking 'party' types to guarantee the very opposite. It was an amazing week. I gave a workshop, but there were so many workshops, it was impossible to keep up with the flow.

I vividly remember the words of a Canadian MP, who articulated the fundamental dilemma faced by feminists (and socialists). How far do we immerse ourselves in the structures of the state without being swallowed up whole? A question that has never been resolved. I believe in the Marxist theory of writing and action. That out of action comes learning. Sitting in an ivory tower reading and regurgitating other people's writings doesn't make you an 'expert' - which is what happens now - with academics pontificating on everything. Far better to get out and get involved. Which is what we did against our snoops and learned so much about our society.

Being in gaol is another great little learner! It's where you see our class system unadorned, without the bells and whistles. You could say that out of little nuts come many oak trees, if not always what you expect. For instance, when you develop a basic understanding of the ways of the world, you can't undo that knowledge and not understand, to return to blissful ignorance.

I question everything and believe nothing, until I've had a damn good dig around. How much easier to swan around shop, shop, shopping until you drop, or going to the footie. A luxury we can't afford.

... I question everything and believe nothing, until I've had a damn good dig around. How much easier to swan around shop, shop, shopping until you drop, or going to the footie. A luxury we can't afford.

Which is why we devoted an entire chapter to his 'dismissal' in 'Rooted in Secrecy', detailing what actually happened during that time, providing interesting insights into the way our secret unelected government works.

Chile suffered a bloody assault and straight-out coup d'etat when the US faced a progressive leader it hated, whereas in Australia the same reactionary forces used obscure laws and CIA figures in high places to get rid of Whitlam - with the help of our media. Murdoch led the pack (he helped put Whitlam there in the first place) - to ensure Labor lost the election. A leopard doesn't change its spots.

A British survey showed that every Murdoch newspaper around the world - with one exception - supports America's war in Iraq and Israel's brutality towards the Palestinians. Look at the way our elections are covered. Bullshit unlimited with important concerns brushed aside.

Edith Morgan

My dad was a socialist. He had an immense effect on our family. He was very clear on some issues, for example, the anti-war stuff in 1914 when they had those first world war posters like the

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR YOUR COUNTRY?" posters.

I wasn't alive then, of course. He was quite involved in the anti-conscription campaign. He was a strong figure in the union. He used to work down at Spotswood and if people were in trouble they would say "go and talk to Coldy, he'll know what to do (our name being Coldicutt).

He was a wonderful man and we are very, very proud of our father - the girls particularly.

Peace was the issue at that time. Dad took us all to Festival Hall when the Dean of Canterbury (the Red Dean) was here, who was a strong socialist advocate of the Soviet Union, and so forth.

It was a funny household in a sense. On the one hand we had mum with her very strong religious factor - though that diminished over time as her children all turned against religion, or just left it behind as something irrelevant in their lives - and on the other hand we had dad with his equally strong political convictions.

Most of the family was devoted to political action, and that was dad's influence.

...Bill eventually was in the airforce, training as a navigator, and so I went to Sydney to live. That is where all my kids were born, in Sydney. That was when I joined the communist party, so that was another life for me.

I was involved with Ernie Thornton, of the Ironworkers Union, and his wife. They just lived up the road. I got entangled with them and had wide association with communists in New South Wales.

There wasn't anti-Communist feeling then. Probably the only one who was really anti-Communist then was Menzies. He was a very strong influence, and of course it was touch-and-go whether we supported Hitler in those early years.

Of course you would have been too scared to support Hitler after the war had been going for some time, particularly when the Soviet Union came in.

I got involved in many campaigns through the communist party during and after the war. Then I joined the Union of Australian Women, too. I was there at the inaugural meeting.

... A strong nationalist feeling came in Australia after the war, an interest in Australian literature and films. There was that wonderful play that has never been properly shown. It was a musical, "Reedy River", written by somebody called Dick Diamond, I think. There was a strong peace campaign.

There was some contradiction between where we had been fighting fascism and peace. It was very difficult for some, that issue, because it was very important fascism was defeated. I think people generally, even those who would be strong antiwar activists like Joan Coxsedge, would have been out there in campaigns against Hitler.

...I joined the Labor Party to support Jim Cairns, who opposed the Vietnam war. The Labor party here stopped Jim Cairns from going to Monash to talk to the student groups. Stupid stuff!

I actually went to Trades Hall and appeared before everybody when I stood for preselection. I got such applause. I hadn't done it to get in - I did it because Race Mathews was standing for preselection without anybody opposing him. I ran close, two votes. I could have appealed but I didn't want it for myself, I was happy in my job, but I thought it was important to have a political perspective.

It was a very eclectic time to be in the Labor party. Issues were becoming differentiated. The abortion debate was on, for example. Going to meetings was very fascinating, seeing all the particular issues come out. I found it exciting, actually.

I stayed with the Labor party till Bob Hawke came in, when I got out.

... - At one time I was a member of the Clerk's Union and would go to the meetings at the Trades Hall. It was dominated by the old Democratic Labor Party people who were opposed to anything they saw as 'left'.

It wouldn't make any difference what issue you raised. If you were not one of them you would be howled down.

They were past masters at rules of debate. If there was any way they could stop a motion, they would do it. They had it right down pat, if they didn't have the numbers they would work out some way to have it deferred or declared invalid.

You get intimidated after a while, the atmosphere was so bad. The internal political war went on until the DLP dissolved, and some of it is still there.

- ... There were changes at that time. Positive changes like council opening up to people. It had been a very closed set.

But then other things happened. The outsourcing of council services changed a lot of the opening up of Council. At one time, all the people working on the Council staff knew the residents. They had been there for years and lived in the area. But that all went.

Also, the Home Help services and Meals on Wheels - all outsourced. A beautiful kitchen nearly wasted. Competitive tendering came in after my time. I wouldn't have been able to stop it - the government was all in favour of it.

Social justice and economic justice cannot be separated - they are intertwined. Look at Tony Blair's "Third Way". It is absolutely disgusting what he is doing. It is so obvious he is using all of this terrorism to give himself a chance to grandstand. It is insincere and dreadful.

But that is how Labor here has been going.

Now they are going to disassociate themselves from the union movement. Maybe they have had an undue presence, for example we have never had a lot of women, but the Labor party has lost the class issue.

To me, that is the only way you can really identify what the problems are. It is almost as if class doesn't exist any more. That has been a deliberate tactic. You don't hear the word 'working class' any more. They are stripping the awards and the things that have been run for people, steadily. And there is more coming.

On issues of equity and poverty I feel impelled to act.

Yvonne Smith

... - I was eighteen when I decided to join the Communist Party. I went along to a class at Marx House in the city, where the Communist party had study groups and a library. A young – later to be well-known communist – was holding forth in a fiery and, I thought, a rather exhibitionist way. I had no idea what these people were on about. I asked how to join and was told that someone would come to see me but nobody did, so I didn't join – then.

When I married I found out that my husband's father had been a foundation member of the communist party down at the wharves. He came back from the First World War with bad trench feet, faced unemployment and went through the lottery system to try to get a day's work. These injustices inspired him to get involved.

During the cold war things got pretty bad for anyone with communist connections. Don, my husband, joined but I didn't. By that time I had two small children.

Marion Harper

We married and moved to Richmond in the 1950's - a time of recession - and we lived behind a shop. We were quite poor and I remember a chap standing on the corner selling a newspaper called The Guardian. I used to walk passed him to go to the local shops and the headlines used to catch my eye.

I used to think 'well, that makes sense'. One day I got up the courage to buy one - it took a lot of courage for someone with my background. . I took it home and read it. My husband also read it and we thought 'this is good stuff, it really explains what is happening here in Richmond'. People sometimes couldn't buy food; kids were going to school with no shoes and yet big shops and businesses seemed to be thriving.

We wanted to know why there was such poverty in such a rich country, and this paper, The Guardian explained why. So the next time I went past the paper seller, I told him how much I appreciated the material.

He said "we are having a lecture next Friday. Why don't you come?"

So we went and that was the beginning of our activism. We learned there were alternative ways of looking at things. We learned that capitalism wasn't the only system, that there were solutions to problems, and that people were the only ones who could change society. That was the beginning of our involvement

... With the Progress Association and the tenants group I became immersed in all aspects of life in Darebin. I have been doing that since 1960. Now it is 2004 and I am 71, I am still doing that. Although I was expelled from the Communist Party in 1960, that didn't mean that I, or we, weren't still committed to socialism - we were!

We continued to carry out our responsibilities as socialists as much as we could, with awareness of the fact that the system of capitalism won't solve the problems of the working class and that we need a planned economy. So wherever we went, and we were quite well known, we never hid the fact we were members of the Communist Party - we were proud of it.

The people I worked with all knew and respected that. So, apart from a few reactionaries , I have never had anyone who has changed their view of our work because we were communists - although I have had people say to me "you don't look like a communist".

I often wonder what a communist looks like. We had lots of stoushes with conservative councillors who made statements about the' Progress Association meeting in a telephone box and led by communists,' that sort of thing, but otherwise I never found that the connection affected my work at all.

We never rejected our commitment to socialism and I continue today to believe, fervently, that there is no alternative to socialism. It is very important today, given the attacks, and more vicious attacks, on the working class movement, particularly under the guise of 'dealing with terrorism'.

My view is that , I believe that they are using terrorism to introduce vicious legislation that will be used to attack any attempt by the working class to organize and that it will be used against progressive organisations. I think we need to get terrorism into perspective. I think we need to talk to people about what is happening - and what is happening in housing, health, education, social welfare, social justice, democracy.

This is the terrorism that exists in Australia today, the terrorism by the State on peoples living conditions and quality of life. I think all of these things have to be talked about wherever we are working, because whereas someone with a health problem will see what is happening in health, if they don't have children at school, they won't see what is happening in education.

Really, it is an overall package. You can't isolate one issue from another, because there is no question that capitalist governments can't afford to wage wars of aggression and to still provide for the needs of the people.

People are going to have to say, strongly and in a united way "We pay taxes and we want those taxes returned to us in the form of services. We are not prepared to spend them on war unless we are being attacked."

Probably the most urgent task we have today is to unite the working class movement, and the trade union movement, and whatever allies we can find at the highest possible level.

When I look at small organizations fighting for the same things, but suspicious of each other, or are jealous of their territory or whatever, I would like to remind them there is a bigger issue, a more important issue - that is unity.

Then we can fight the real enemy, not each other.

HELLEN COOKE

Except occasionally I would have very clear ideas. One time was when I went along for the first time to lobby a parliament -arian. I told the others I was just coming to observe and I wouldn't say anything. But the politician singled me out after the introductions. He said "Oh, your name is spelt with an 'e' is it? You were born on the wrong side of the blanket" (a bastard). That set me up! I sat very straight after that.

He started talking about about how they were not interested in the peace movement any more. How, as far as they were concerned, if we were in the middle of the road, they would run us over.

I found myself on my feet. I said "We are the people who elected you. How dare you denigrate our efforts". I raved on for quite some time - to the astonishment of my friends who I had told that I couldn't even say a word.

The Senator was conciliatory. He was humble. He bowed low every time he spoke to us. He was sweet and kind and was never rude again. But he lost any respect I might have had for him. I never, after that, felt humble before a politician.

I thought that if this is any example of them, I needn't worry about how I express myself.

It was a lesson on how to become an activist on sheer indignation. I have met Prime Ministers and all sorts of people, but they are very constrained. It seems as a lobbyist that if you are not rich and if you don't wine and dine them, you don't matter.

They can be rude - extremely rude. I had one who just spread his legs in front of me. I was the only woman there and without actually unzipping his fly, he exposed his crotch and just sat there.

One part of my brain said that as he was looking at me, it was up to me to ignore this male power show and concentrate on getting across the issue we were there for - land rights. On the other hand, as a mother, I wanted to reach over and thump him on the knee and say "Would you stop that?"

When we talked to our associates from the other delegations we found that several of the women had experiences of being put down in one way or another. It was clearly the intention of some politicians to belittle the women.

Lobbying is an interesting experience. With the enormous money the paid lobbyists have and the enormous respect given to them by the politicians and influential bureaucrats, it seems almost useless to do it, but I think it is worthwhile. It is not rewarding but it has to be done.

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