United States' Government Assistance to the Catholic Social Studies Movement, 1953-4

Abstract

Between 1945 and 1947, four state branches of the Australian Labor Party (N.S.W., Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia), formed A.L.P.-endorsed Industrial Groups in trade unions to work against growing communist influence.1 From the very beginning, the Catholic Social Studies Movement, led by B. A. Santamaria, which had been given Catholic episcopal support in September 1945 in the same cause, worked through the Groups, and was the dominant influence within them.2 In March 1955, following the October 1954 attack on the influence of the C.S.S.M. within the A.L.P. by the party's federal parliamentary leader, H. V. Evatt, official endorsement of the Groups was withdrawn by the party's Federal Conference.3 Both before and after the A.L.P. split, opponents of the Groups charged that the Groups had received assistance from the United States Government, in line with United States' foreign policy of encouragement to all anti-communist forces. It was alleged that two separate types of assistance were given: financial and material. Leslie Haylen (A.L.P. member for the federal electorate of Parkes, N.S.W.), mentioned both types of assistance in charges made at an April 1955 Victorian state election campaign rally,4 and subsequently in the House of Representatives.5 First, Haylen alleged that the Groups had received ?7,000 through U.S. labor attache, Herbert Weiner, to help further their opposition to communists in trade unions. Weiner, a known supporter of the Groups, had considerable interest in and knowledge of communist union activity.6 Secondly, Haylen alleged that there existed a 'link between the United States Information Service in