The Victorian Council Against War and Fascism: A Rejoinder

Abstract

History1 were not as enlightening as they might have been because the authors were blinkered by a pre-occupation to prove the obvious?that the Movement was communist inspired and sustained. Len Fox has argued2 that Rose should have been more circumspect about Communist Party control;3 and Slater [p. 96] in straining to uncover a communist conspiracy is led into false assertions.4 These articles focus too narrowly on the inner councils of the Anti-War Movement and ignore its public activities which deserve attention because the objective of the Movement was to influence public opinion. There is no analysis of the major developments of the mid thirties, essential for any explanation of the Victorian Council Against War and Fascism (VCAWF claims that manipulation was prevalent preclude insights into the gradation of political attitudes and the compromises and tensions involved in political alliances. Alternative avenues of activity were available (such as the Labor Anti-War Committee and the League of Nations Union) and supporters of the Anti-War Movement would have made a considered decision as to which avenue to pursue. But Slater engages in personal denigration and Rose, apparently ignorant of the voluntary effort and sacrifice which mark such organisations, makes misleading claims, such as that the 'four [sic] full-time staff members [of the Victorian branch] spent nearly all their time trying to raise money for their own meagre salaries'.6 Rose rightly proposes that a study of the Movement Against War and Fascism (MAWF it is unfortunate that his own account is so circumscribed. This article is an attempt to make good the deficiencies. While recovery from the Depression was hesitantly under way by the mid-1930s, hardship remained widespread in an all-pervasive climate of repression and uncertainty. Fascism was not an overt menace in Australia but liberal democracy was threatened by mass unemployment, compul