"Socialism" in Queensland (1933)

Pamphlet Review from the August 1933 issue of the Socialist Standard

Distant Pastures Look Green

[Since the following article was written by our Australian Comrade there have been certain changes in the Governments of the Australian States, but this does not invalidate the argument.]

When we were young and our mothers chased us to Sunday School to give the old man a chance to have his Sunday nap after his weary week’s toil, we were taught to sing the old ditty, “There is a happy land, far, far away." Whether or not we sang to help us forget the miserable land in which we dwelt we did not know, but it is amusing to learn that Labour politicians were serving up a political version of that old dirge to the workers in old England at that time in order to catch votes. Like the preachers, the politicians always seem to know of a better world somewhere, but it is never where we are. Therefore we are not surprised to hear that the I.L.P. .was telling the English workers that there is a happy land, way down south, where Labour Politicians have established Socialism—to wit, Queensland.

The I.L.P. for many years has sold a pamphlet entitled “Socialism in Queensland" by S. B. M. Potter, and to show English workers that our Australian pastures were not as green as they were painted in Britain we offer a brief report on the conditions in the I.L.P.'s distant paradise.

On page 3 we are told that a clean sweep had “been made of capitalist governments and that Labour was in office in five of the six Australian States. Since the pamphlet was written there have been elections and, at the present time of writing, there are Labour Governments in New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria. In Tasmania, Queensland, and Western Australia, the Labour Governments were kicked out. In the Federal Parliament the Labour Party held power, having been swept in on a wave of dissatisfaction against the Bruce-Page coalition Government in 1929. The distribution of the seats may be one factor, but political confusion and lack of understanding is the main cause of the contradictory vote casting. In many cases where a majority of electors send a majority of Labour candidates into the Lower House the same electors send a majority of Nationalist candidates into the Senate. The voting qualifications are the same and the result, consequently, reflects the confusion which exists among electors generally. It is with such an electorate that the I.L.P. claim that Socialism had been established.

The Ryan Government

Mr. Potter refers to the wonderful administration of the Ryan Government in Queensland and stresses the “anti-profiteering" policy embarked upon by Mr. Ryan. Sugar was reduced in price; meat was made cheaper; fish, food in general, and other commodities were reduced in price. When we know that wages are adjusted almost automatically in Australia in accordance with cost of living figures compiled by the Commonwealth Statisticians, all this talk about low price commodities sounds very cheap.

Besides, wherever the Labour Party has indulged in Nationalisation, especially in Queensland, there have been strong suspicions regarding the manner in which the transactions have been carried out. The findings in the Royal Commission on the Mungana Mines transactions confirmed these suspicions to such an extent that Mr. Theodore, ex-Premier of Queensland, was sued by the Nationalist Government for restitution and damages in connection with having enriched himself enormously by the sales of the mines to the State. So glaring were the charges against him that Mr. Theodore had to relinquish his post as Federal Treasurer. His returning to that position before the charges had been dealt with by a court provided an excuse for a section of the Australian Labour Party, who can see the writing on the wall, to get into the Nationalist Party.

But let us glance at a few matters concerning the Labour "Socialist” Government in Queensland which Mr. Potter does not mention. In 1919 the meat workers were on strike and a bitter fight ensued between the meat workers and the meat barons. Did Mr. Ryan help the meat workers during the struggle? When the meat workers began picketing to prevent the scabs from taking their jobs and breaking the strike, Mr. Ryan rushed police reinforcements to the strike centres and the most brutal attacks were made on meetings of strikers by the Labour Government's armed police. The following excerpts from the local Labour paper contain historical mementoes of the occurrences: —

Daily Standard, July 4th, 1919.

Resolution carried at the Returned Soldiers’ and Sailors’ League:—

That we protest against the Police firing into an unarmed crowd on Sunday night last and this meeting demands a public inquiry from the Minister of Justice.

Daily Standard, July 14th, 1919.

One could near small groups conversing about the arrest that afternoon of Messrs. Carney and Kelly, and the Police refused to furnish information or grant bail. Also the fact that Kelly had been taken from a sick bed and thrown into a cold cell.

Daily Standard, July 18th, 1919.

At a meeting of the Railway men last night 500 men were present. The position of the men suspended for refusing to scab was discussed. . . . Much resentment is felt in Union circles over the Government suspending the men for refusing to scab.

Mr. Carney moved

That this meeting of combined W.P.O.s protest against the Hunnish Police methods in the searching of houses and the examining of women and children, particularly regarding the gun raids, and the same be wired to the Premier at once.

It was also decided to take no action in selecting a Labour candidate until such time as an inquiry “be made at Townsville into the police action on ‘Bloody Sunday,' June 29th, 1919." The Daily Standard reports further that “Mr. Bolger considered that the State Government should be informed that its action in sending the police to fight Unionists was antagonistic to Labour interests in Townsville." The reply that the meat workers got from Mr. Ryan, the I.L.P.’s hero, was: “One thing is certain—that the authority of the Executive Government will be upheld." (D.S., July 9th, 1919.) However did Mr. Potter miss these “Socialistic" activities of the Labour Governments?

Let us leave the meat workers and take a trip to the Arbitration Court with the Railway men. In connection with the latter the Daily Standard published the following on September 13th, 1919: —

The Government yesterday made a protest in the Arbitration Court against Mr. Justice McCawley’s decision to fix the Basic Minimum Wage for Railway employees at £3 7s. 6d. . . . Mr. Madsen (for the Government) quoted Knibbs, to show that the cost of living in Brisbane was the lowest on the list with the exception of Perth. ... If the Basic Wage were increased 3s. per week it would cost the State an additional £122,000 per year. ...

Here we have a glaring example of the effect of the low prices on the wages of the workers in “Socialist" Queensland.

On page 6 Mr. Potter quotes the Crewe Chronicle, where it says: . . . “Turning to the railways, Socialistic management and control have proved disastrous." We are not siding with Mr. Potter in his opposition to the Chronicle, but we must point out the error of the latter here. The Daily Standard, October 28th, 1919, reported “Comrade" Fraser's speech thus: —

He said it was a fallacy to say that they could not have high wages and low prices, and quoted instances in the Railways of how men were being paid higher wages than formerly and were able to show lower production costs.

In 1913 the value of output was 1161,560,763.

In 1913 the wages paid were £33,606,087.

In 1914 the value of output was /166,450,508.

In 1914 the wages paid were £34,103,703.

In 1915 the value of output was £169,066,700.

In 1915 the wages paid were £33,210,654.

In 1916 the value of output was £172,574,845.

In 1916 the wages paid were £33,828,840.

In 1917 the value of output was £206,386,646.

In 1917 the wages paid were £36,618,218. 

While the value of the output from 1913 increased by nearly £45,000,000 the advance in wages or labour’s share was only £4,000,000. . . .  A strong Labour Party is the only hope in sight.

Notwithstanding these facts the railwaymen had to fight the Labour Government tooth and nail in an endeavour to protect their wages. Truly, as Mr. Potter says, the men who guided Queensland’s political destinies had an “eye to the future of the State,” but the Queensland workers were overlooked by these

"Socialistic” visionaries of the future.

Railway workers have probably suffered more than any other section of Queensland workers at the hands of the Labour Governments. Although it has been referred to in previous issues of the Socialist Standard we might mention, in passing, the incident of 1927, when the railway men refused to scab on the sugar workers, and Mr. McCormack, then Labour Premier, not only sacked about 11,000 of them, but refused to let them have their jobs back until they signed a declaration that they would not take any such action in future!

Mr. Potter devotes a good deal of his pamphlet to the success of State trading under Labour Governments. Nationalist politicians quote figures just as voluminously to show the reverse. Between Labour and Nationalist politicians figures are distorted for the purpose of bolstering up their cases or knocking down the case of the opponent. Results are what counts .with us, and the conditions of the Queensland workers speak volumes for the anti-working class character of the Labour Party.

The object of Labour administration, according to. Mr. Potter, is to cheapen foodstuffs. Whatever benefit this can be to workers whose wages are based upon cost of living figures compiled by the Government Statistician we have yet to learn. Comparison with New South Wales shows how the workers in the latter State would be in advance of the Queensland workers for seven adjustments out of nine from 1923 to 1928. The index numbers and wages were: —

The foregoing should be sufficient to convince even an I.L.P.'er that “Socialist" Queensland is not such a “happy” land after all.

We who have lived in sunny Queensland have had our minds seared, not by the tropical sun, but by the red-hot attacks of Labour Politicians. It might be alright to put this stuff across Mr. Churchill, who said that Labour was unfit to govern, but when Mr. Potter has had as much Labour rule as have had the Australian workers, he might write in a different strain.

As to the I.L.P., it is their business to find an election cry, and to them one is as good as another, as long as it gets the votes. As for the Socialist Party, we do not potter about with capitalism, we want to end it. All the fanciful pictures of distant pastures leaves us cold. As soon as the workers agree with us and act in accordance with the principles of the Socialist Party, all pseudo Socialism will be abolished along with the capitalist system, by the establishment of a system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in the interests of the whole community.  

W. J. Clarke,

Socialist Party of Australia.