Impact of Russian Revolution on Labor Party In Australia

Written by: Ned K. on 20 August 2026

I have been reading Weevils In The Flour by Wendy Löwenstein.  The book is an oral record of Australian people of various backgrounds and occupations during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

One of the chapters is about a bookmaker, Harry, in Balmain who talks about the impact of the Russian Revolution of 1917 on the workers’ struggles and hopes in Australia.

Harry recalls a piece from the Australian Worker magazine of October 1921 which read,

“The Australian Labor Party was a respectable parliamentary party committed to reform, not revolt, but the left- wing was strong in the unions and pressed for change. At the Brisbane Conference in 1921 they forced through a motion that adopted ‘The  Socialisation of Industry, Production, Distribution and Exchange’ as the Labor Party objective. The parliamentarians, acutely embarrassed, managed to persuade the Conference to adopt immediately two follow-up motions which watered down the socialist objective before it got off the ground.”

Harry the bookmaker recalled the anger this caused among progressive workers and led to many joining the  then recently formed Australian Communist Party.

Over 100 years later in 2026, there are still many rank and file members and/or supporters of the Labor Party who are following the same path as Harry the bookmaker in 1921 who see even mildly progressive motions on key issues such as AUKUS, gambling, right to strike, renewable energy get canned by Labor leaders or watered down to become ineffective.

In 1921, a time when the Russian Revolution gave hope to millions of workers across the world for socialism, joining or supporting a Communist Party seemed a logical and practical option.

In 2026, millions of Australian workers and workers in other countries are learning through their own experiences the dead-end of what the Australian Worker in 1921 described as “a respectable parliamentary party”.

This trend is bound to continue as people look for a new social system based on people’s needs, not greed, wars of aggression and profit.

It is this trend among the people that is the reason why the corporate minority class try to divert people towards ultra right-wing politicians like One Nation on the one hand, while at the same time try to boost the profile of the “respectable parliamentary party” type such as ALP.

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