CONCEPTOS DE ENRUTAMIENTO

are few educational activities, no exploration of new forms of propaganda, no awareness of the undercurrent of unrest that will be exploited by fascism if trade unionism allows the opportunity to pass.'91

For Lloyd Ross the radicalism of the railwaymen92 and the Miners' Federation93 proved that it was possible

for industrial militants to bridge the gap between socialist theory and trade union practice. Reformism had no

future.94 The possibilities of renewal lay rather among the militants with their belief in rank-and-file participation. Acting in this spirit they organised strikes, distributed

leaflets, formed shop committees and created united front organisations to deal with specific issues - anti-fascism, friendship with Russia, evictions, the plight of the

unemployed.95 The Communist Party dominated the newer grassroots organisations though it attracted few direct recruits.96 Within the trade union movement Communists

were in the forefront in facing up to the difficulty involved in choosing between reform and revolution. 'They must retain the sympathy of the worker by holding before him the prospect of immediate improvement, but their agitation would be

defeated if improvement were really w o n '.97 Most trade

91. Ibid. 92. Ibid., pp.189, 191 93. Ibid., p .190. 94. Ibid., p .192. 95. Ibid., pp.190-192. 96. Ibid., p .186. 97. Ibid.

unionists evaded this dilemma by scorning all pretence of consistency. The use of arbitration and informal agreements to secure 'increasing purchasing power' still was the

preferred option but unions were always prepared to

countenance strike action whenever a favourable opportunity arose.98

Lloyd Ross used the perspective of history to drive home the lessons of the Depression. During earlier crises the accepted ideas and methods of the labour movement had had to be overhauled. The depression of the 1890s, together with Lane's socialist crusade in Queensland, encouraged labour men to sever their links with the liberal parliamentary groups and create a party of their own.9^ Likewise following the conscription controversy the goal of socialisation had gained acceptance.^00 The changes were never sudden, however.

Initially, as Lloyd Ross readily acknowledged,101 Labor's objective was limited to piecemeal reform and from the start the 1921 objective was evaded, with Labor not being prepared to advance beyond seeking monetary causes and cures for

capitalism's ills.-*-92 But the ideal of socialism was not forgotten. It survived as a ghostly presence and as a result Labor was prevented from accepting a completely pragmatic approach. The socialists were the party's conscience: 'the

98. Ibid., pp.184, 187-188. 99. 'Lane to Lang', p.49. 100. Ibid., pp.54-59.

101. Ibid., pp.53-54. 102. Ibid., pp.60-61.

most active and unselfish workers in the Labor Party are those who have studied and accepted some form of

socialism1.103

Although able to generate a constant stream of articles, lectures and book reviews, Lloyd Ross found it rather more difficult to complete the task of finalising his definitive treatise on labour politics, which now bore the title 'The Australian Labour Movement A History and an Analysis'. Having been persuaded by C.M. Lloyd not to publish, he brought his manuscript back with him to New Zealand. During 1931-32 he wrote a number of new chapters dealing with the Depression and the current state of the

labour movement. The new material was added to the original section of his narrative which covered the history of

Australian labour from the convicts and early trade unions up until the formation of Labor parties and governments, ending with an account of Labor's fortunes during the Great War and the post-war decade. After returning to Australia Lloyd Ross sought responses to what he had written from trade unionists and members of his WEA classes, a process which went on

continuously throughout 1933 and 1934.104

Lloyd Ross's manuscript comprised 'a history of the Australian Labour Movement and an analysis of its present

103. Ibid., p.62.

104. NLA MS 3939, Box 24, 'Australian Labour Movement', p p .6-7.

views and position*. As a contribution to labour history his account was, he hoped, 'comprehensive and complete*. The

spadework accomplished by previous writers - notably Spence, Sutcliffe, Gordon Childe and George Black - was supplemented by original research of his own. The real value of the work was considered to lie elsewhere, however. Lloyd Ross

believed that, in terms of political analysis, he had written something completely original: his was 'the first attempt made to explain the motivation and manifestations of the past and present doctrines and workings of the Australian Labour Party*.105 often enough in the past he had argued that

Labor was repeatedly torn asunder and betrayed by its leaders mainly because it had no coherent political theory of its own. But he drew comfort from the idea that the movement was greater than the party. He was impressed by the success of the rank-and-file in maintaining its solidarity notwith­

standing the deceitfulness and disunity of Labor politicians. Essentially he wanted to discover 'why the Labour majority backed by influential opinion can move easily and unitedly as a Movement, while sponsoring such a variety of divergent

theories and while representing so many different interests'.106

The task of political analysis was to locate the

forces of regeneration within the labour movement. Once these were mobilised, the trauma of 1930-31 would be exorcised.

105. Ibid., pp.3-4. 106. Ibid., p .6.

The duty of the labour historian was to demonstrate that Labor's malaise existed long before the Depression thereby highlighting the need for more radical ideas and policies to be adopted. 'The chapters on the History of Labor'/ Lloyd

Ross later wrote, 'showed that the clash of interests, added to the difficulties of trying to alter an economic system slowly and constitutionally, produced expediency, corruption and divisions'.107

In rewriting labour history Lloyd Ross was especially anxious to rebut the reformist notion that

Australians, because of their fondness for state intervention in the economy, were irrevocably headed in the direction of

'socialism'. This notion was dangerous since it ruled out the need for coherent thinking and decisive action on Labor's part. Various commentators led by W.K. Hancock, Gordon

Childe and G.V. Portus had waxed eloquent on the 'socialistic' propensities of the Australian people.108 For Hancock,

State socialism was part of Australia's convict heritage,109 while for his part Portus considered that the constant

replenishment of Australia's democratic heritage beginning with Scottish Jacobin exiles and Irish rebels followed by Chartist immigrants and the Tolpuddle Martyrs meant that much necessary reform had already been accomplished by liberal reformers with Labor only needing to secure a further series

107. Ibid., p.551.

108. Ibid., pp.14, 15, 18.

of incremental advances for complete social harmony and well-being to be achieved.HO

The iconoclasm of 'A Worker Looks at Australian History' was steadfastly repeated in Lloyd Ross's treatise. Australia's colonial heritage hardly posed a challenge to private ownership. An instinctively socialist community had not been implanted in 1788. The convict era had had no

discernible effect on the nascent labour movement and should not be brought in to explain Australia's fondness for

State-run enterprises.H I The picture presented by Portus and Hancock was false because it arose 'from the attempt to analyse Australian socialism, as something indigenous as the Laughing Jackass, instead of setting it in its proper place as a world movement with common sources of inspiration and provocation'. H-2 The neighbouring colony of New Zealand, which did not have a convict past, had embraced State

socialism with an equal passion.113 state intervention in the antipodes needed to be examined in terms of 'fundamental factors in capitalism and democracy ' H 4 and it always had to be differentiated from the desire for socialist

reconstruction. In an attempt to elaborate on this latter point Lloyd Ross referred to the historical role of the small

110. Helen Bourke, 'Worker Education and Social Inquiry in Australia 1913-1929', PhD thesis, University of

Adelaide, 1981, pp.123-124.

111. 'Australian Labour Movement', pp.13-19. 112. Ibid., p .14.

113. Ibid.

farmer, whose dream of surviving as a private landowner

helped to inspire a large body of progressive legislation in colonial Australia and in time facilitated the formation of the Labor Party.115 Labor's socialist adherents viewed popular grievances in terms of a coherent theory, but from the outset the party attracted many other groups as well including the nationalists, liberal reformers and union officials whose subsequent infuence on Labor governments Lloyd Ross had long deplored. 'Those who found it easy to compel the State to carry out their desires, and those who had faith in the possibility of a New Order, joined together, because the interest of the one and the dreams of the other seemed to run along the same path'.116 Ever a source of unease, the contradiction between socialist aspirations and political pragmatism grew ever wider during times of crisis. The Depression was just such an occasion so that the ensuing collapse of party unity was only to be expected.

In his treatise Lloyd Ross touched upon two

initiatives that he felt had to be taken before Labor could hope to more effectively pursue its socialist aims. Labor needed to end its fixation with monetary reforms; and it had to free itself from the grip of oligarchical 'Inner

Groups'.117 In both respects the real object of Lloyd Ross's animus was J.T. Lang. The pervasive influence

115. Ibid., pp.90-92. 116. Ibid., p.92. 117. Ibid., p .708.

wielded by Lang and his ALP cronies in New South Wales (who comprised the definitive Inner Group) was incompatible with rank-and-file initiative and in the absence of such a force the socialisation objective was bound to remain a dead

letter. But Lloyd Ross did not despair. Notwithstanding Lang's dominance he felt confident that in the wake of the Depression a serious attempt to secure the adoption of more radical policies by the Labor Party was bound to be

successful. Once the political climate became more conducive to change Labor's activists would compel the party to pursue socialist measures. Lang, with his call for the

socialisation of credit, recognised the importance of

appeasing Labor's left-wing conscience. For this reason, the Communists, while no doubt attaining considerable influence

in the future, had no hope of capturing the leadership of the movement.^^ Led by political calculators, of whom Lang

was merely the most egregious, Labor would continue to

stumble along, with its determination and integrity preserved by the resolute idealism of the rank-and-file:

So Labor keeps on because the men who run the Leagues and pay the subscriptions are tainted neither by the corruptness of the inner circles nor by the doubts of the administrators. The men who cheer Lang do so with memories in their hearts of William Morris, Walter Crane, Jack London, Swinburne, William Lane, Bellamy and many another. While the faith of the masses keeps aflame through failure and disappoint­ ment, the Party can survive its own foolishness and

futility. The faith of the masses may be exploited by a Lang, but it even tends to purify a Lang and to make the individual influential, permanent,

inspirational, and desirable because he is

transfigured by the ideals of his followers.119

118. Ibid.

The presence of Labor's socialist minority thus served to redeem the party, at least in Lloyd Ross's estimation. Despite the disappointment suffered by his father after 1921, he still felt that it was possible to speak of Labor's obtaining ‘complete victory' - that is, socialist reconstruction - although the party's lack of coherent policies meant that he could not specify how and when it would 'win in the end'.120 Victory, however far

away, would bring Labor's travail to an end. The party would no longer have to corrupt itself by promising the electorate better conditions under capitalism. The periodic desertion of Labor by its parliamentary leaders testified to their

inability to satisfy the remorseless demands of the rank-and- file; that such men were entrusted to lead the party in the

first place was a further reflection of Labor's refusal to take the socialisation objective seriously. It was up to the party's activists to end this impasse. Only then would the real history of the Australian Labor Party commence.

At the end of 1934 Lloyd Ross dispatched his manuscript to the University of Otago with a view to its being examined as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Letters. He then turned to another project that he had on hand. His continuing involvement with adult education meant that the only time he had for prolonged research and writing was when the university was on vacation. He used this asset

to the full during the summer of 1934-35 when most of his working hours were devoted to preparing an account of the life and times of his father's hero William Lane.121

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