The Pope's Battalions

by Ross Fitzgerald

A prophet whose confident prophecies were frequently proved wrong, B.A. Santamaria profoundly affected 20th century Australian political life. Although he rarely gave interviews and never held elected office, Santamaria became widely known through his regular commentaries in the "Australian" and in his magazine "News Weekly".Building on his battle against Communist influence in the trade unions, Santamaria boldly attempted to capture the ALP and transform it into a European-style Christian Democrat party. The ensuing split was disastrous, demoralising the ALP, and casting Santamaria out of the Labor fold for all time.

368 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2003

About the author

Ross Fitzgerald AM, political commentator, biographer, novelist, historian and broadcaster, is Emeritus Professor of History and Politics at Griffith University. Professor Fitzgerald is the author of 39 books, including four previous Grafton Everest fictions. His memoir My Name is Ross: An Alcoholic’s Journey, published by New South Books Sydney, is available as an e-book and a Talking Book from Vision Australia.

Reviews

[Andrew Figueiredo · Rating 4 out of 5]

To start, it's worth noting that this is far from a light read, and the reason I don't give it 5 stars is because it's a little bit too dense, especially for readers who aren't insanely well versed in Australian politics. Hence, it took me quite some time to get into. Also, I wish Fitzgerald had gone more into the current incarnation of the DLP and how it relates to Santamaria's initial movements. The aforementioned density does, however, attest to the fact that this is a brilliantly crafted, well-researched piece about one of Australia's most interesting political figures.

Bob Santamaria isn't particularly well known in modernity, especially outside of Australia, but his story and legacy remain important to consider. His story explains some of the factors that prevent organized Catholic political movements from taking off in Western democracy. It elucidates the regional divisions in Australian politics, and particularly the evolution of ideologies within the ALP. It influenced the Australian labor union movement for many years and gave the right-leaning Coalition preference support for many years. Fitzgerald dives deep into The Movement and the Industrial Groups, exploring their influence in the labor movement and links to the Catholic Church. He also explains the ideology of anti-communism and distributism they espoused, providing a look both at Santamaria's labor and political influence.

Throughout, Fitzgerald takes a balanced approach to the DLP and Santamaria, noting that it derived some of its early stances from clerical nationalists like Salazar. He also makes note of how out-of-date many of Santamaria's ideas quickly became and how many of his predictions turned out to be entirely false. Fitzgerald's final summation of Santamaria is of him as one of the most powerful political failures in Australian history may seem harsh but is well supported by this extensive profile. Fitzgerald focuses not only on the mistakes Santamaria, Gair, McManus, Mannix, and co. committed, but on the structural changes that made this socially conservative, anti-communist movement lose relevance. Anybody interested in the nuances of Australian political history or in distributism as an ideology would do well to consider "The Pope's Battalions". This is a library book I'll certainly be jotting down some main points from. Well done.

[Warrren Gardiner]

The best researched book on Santamaria, Catholic politics and the Labor split