Bartholomew Augustine (Bob) Santamaria was born in Melbourne in 1915 in Brunswick a Melbourne suburb to Italian immigrant parents who operated a fruit shop in that suburb. Santamaria was educated by the Christian Brothers, he then went on to Melbourne University to study Arts and graduating in Arts and Laws. Santamaria was a member of the Campion
Society, which was a small association of study groups made up mostly of university men. (Santamaria 1997:14).
In the early 1930s the concept of Catholic Action began to come to prominence in Australia. Catholic Action can be defined as:-
The principle espoused in papal directives in the 1930s. Catholic Action meant that lay members of the Church ought to engage in social activities aimed at spreading the principles of their religion into the workplace and into recreation (McConville 1987:158).
Mannix, as an influential member of the Catholic Hierarchy, approached Santamaria in 1937 to help in the formation of the Australian National Secretariat of Catholic Action (ANSCA). Santamaria was appointed assistant director, becoming director in 1947 after the original director was subtly deposed while overseas. ANSCA was the coordinating body for Catholic Action throughout Victoria and then Australia. It was headquartered in Melbourne. The ANSCA involvement was Santamaria’s first position.
Under ANSCA a number of constituent bodies were established e.g. YCS (Catholic Action in Schools) which Santamaria did not control– and the National Catholic Rural Movement (NCRM) which Santamaria did control. ANSCA was dissolved by the Bishops in 1954.
Santamaria’s second position was Secretary, and driving force, behind the NCRM from its founding in 1939 up to 1960. The NCRM supposedly was to bring catholic action and ideas to
rural areas, it was in fact the Movement in rural areas. In the words of Kevin Peoples (2012) Santamaria ‘pressed the NCRM into acting as his anti-communist arm in rural Australia’.
Blaxland (2015:116) reported that although Santamaria was the ‘public face of both the NCC and the DLP’ and a ‘prolific writer and commentator’, ASIO management saw Santamaria’s views as ‘unremarkable’. As one ASIO officer commented on one of Santamaria’s pamphlets:-
Simply expressed it is the old conspiracy theory modernised. The plot is simplified by reducing it to a simple black and white issue . . . there are some very serious defects in the whole thesis.
Molony (2004:129) defines Catholic Action as ‘simply those things officially done by the laity, men and women, in the name of the Church. That definition clearly excluded political action.’ However, as events unfolded it was quite clear that Mannix and Santamaria intended Catholic Action in Australia to include political action where they thought it appropriate.
The Catholic Social Studies Movement (The CSSM or The Movement) began in 1941 ‘as a loose Melbourne network’ (Morgan 2007: xiv). It was set up by BA Santamaria and Bert Cremean to combat communism in the unions. Cremean was a Labor member of the Victorian Parliament. ‘It was Cremean who first suggested the co-ordination of Catholic trade union groups to combat communism; from this idea 'the Movement' emerged’ (Geoff Browne 1993). The Movement’s existence was not announced and it was not part of Catholic Action. The Movement assisted and supported the industrial groups. Santamaria was described as the liaison officer between the CSSM and the Bishops – this was his third position. However, Santamaria was seen as the de facto head of the CSSM (Morgan 2007:xiv). It was the Movement that Evatt denounced in 1954.
Members of the Movement became heavily involved in the Groups in the fight against the Communist influence in the Unions. Movement members who were engaged in that activity were known as ‘Groupers’, and some observers such as SA’s Clyde Cameron (1990:86, 92) believed that the Movement was the driving force ‘behind the Groups’.
McManus (1977:35ff) discussed the Movement’s involvement with the Industrial Groups. He put forward the view that the activities of Santamaria’s Movement were not secret and that the ALP members in the Victorian Trades Hall knew of Santamaria’s activities. Santamaria’s interactions with the Victorian Trades Hall and ALP members was facilitated by HM Cremean who was both Deputy leader of the Victorian Parliamentary Labor Party and Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union
To be eligible to be a member of the Movement a person had to be a Catholic. The Movement though not formally linked to the Industrial Groups, provided a considerable part of their muscle. The term ‘Grouper’ was applied to both groups.
Bramble and Kuhn (2011:65) comment that ‘as the Groupers prospered, the Movement expanded its influence within the ALP which started to sound alarm bells. The ALP officials were happy to help the Groupers to get rid of their Communist opponents but were not so pleased when the Groupers began to move against Labor union leaders and politicians labelled corrupt or insufficiently anti-communist.’
Movement members joined the Industrial Groups and contributed to their activity. Ormonde (1996:62) claimed that the Movement operated behind the cover of the officially sponsored ALP Industrial Groups – ‘and the term Grouper ultimately became almost synonymous with being pro Movement.’ Similarly, Allen (1988) claimed that ‘without Movement support the Industrial Groups would probably not have achieved most of their successes’.
Morgan (2007:75) indicated that a letter written by Santamaria to Mannix dated 11 December 1952 showed that Santamaria’s ambitions went well beyond ridding the ALP of Communist influence. Santamaria wrote:-
The Social Studies Movement should within a period of five or six years be able to completely transform the leadership of the Labor movement, and to introduce into Federal and State spheres large numbers of members who possess a clear realisation of what Australia demands of them, and the will to carry it out. Without going into details, they should be able to implement a Christian social programme in both the State and Federal spheres, and above all, to achieve co-ordination between the different states in so doing. This is the first time that such a work has become possible in Australia and, as far as I can see in the Anglo-Saxon world since the advent of Protestantism.
In addition, Dalziel (1967:138) reported that in the Bombay Examiner (the newspaper of the Catholic Archdiocese of Bombay), Santamaria was reported as speaking of ‘permeating and penetrating organised Labor which was allegedly under the threat of takeover by Communist infiltrators’.
Santamaria’s letter to Mannix shows an agenda that went much further than merely ridding the Labor party of communists. The Santamaria agenda including hijacking the ALP’s policies in order to put in place a ‘Christian social program’. Significantly Santamaria does not define what a ‘Christian social program’ means or who will decide if the social program is ‘Christian’ or not.
Ormonde (1996:62) claimed exposure of the Movement was also supported by prominent Catholics amongst others because of a ‘powerful conviction’ that Santamaria had a quasi- religious as well as a political vision for the Labor Party, both being pursued by the process of ‘secret permeation.’ This process would cleanse the Labor Party of not only its ‘crypto communists’, but also of its political liberals and agnostics.
Murray (1970:56) commented that:-
Santamaria as well as being a militant anti-communist also had the politician’s instinct for a good issue, soon made ‘the threat from the North’ into a high priority issue for the
Movement.
Santamaria did much to paint China, Vietnam and Indonesia as threats to Australia’s security and very much ‘unknown quantities’ as near neighbours to Australia.
After the 1955 split in the ALP the Catholic Bishops were divided over the Movement – it had ceased to be a unified organisation. In July 1956, most Movement officials had resigned and formed a new body the Catholic Social Movement (CSM). Santamaria was head of the CSM, which was his fourth position. About half the Bishops supported the CSM. The CSM was short lived, as following a ruling from the Vatican that the Catholic Church should not be involved in political activity, the CSM was dissolved.
Most of the CSM officials joined a new body the National Civic Council (NCC) formed in 1957, which was, and still is today, a private secular organisation, with very little or no involvement by the Australian Catholic Hierarchy. This was Santamaria’s fifth and final position.
The National Civic Council spelt out its strategy with regard to the DLP in 1959 (Morgan 2008:316-17). Its basic policy included creating a second Labor party – the DLP with disciplined preferences. Then to divide the ALP into two sections – the Left and the Right creating unity between the Right and the DLP resulting in the majority Labor party which will endorse industrial groups that will fight in the Communist unions
These objectives show a plan to reunite with the ALP, but only to the right wing of the party and not the left. It seems there was to be no compromise at all in respect of the left wing of the ALP. Further the dividing of left and right in the ALP seems a very ambitious objective with no certainty of success. What would the left of the ALP do? Forming a new party would not be out of the question. The end result could still be a divided Labor movement with a very vocal left wing party.
Molony (2010:308) commented that Santamaria followed where Mannix had led and betrayal of the divine mission of the Church . . . had been taking place since the late 1940s in Australia and primarily in Melbourne. That Mannix must be regarded as the principal actor in the betrayal rather than Santamaria is unquestionable.
Santamaria was seen in some quarters as a person who saw threats and enemies everywhere. He was a ‘behind the scenes man’ rather than operating in public forums (McCallum 2001:38). He was also one who was not amenable to party discipline (McManus 1976).
Interaction of the DLP and the National Civic Council was complex, secretive and religious not political in nature (Brennan 1972:11). The interactions of Santamaria and his various
organisations add a level of complexity to the DLP. Given that Santamaria was never a member of the DLP. Santamaria was pushing for an ALP free of communist influence. However, he went much further than that. As previously mentioned in this chapter, Santamaria was engineering towards a ‘takeover’ of the ALP.