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Lang and Socialism: A study in the Great Depression
The Great Depression is a significant but neglected period in Australian history. This book describes the formation within the New South Wales Labor Party of a mass- organised ginger group, known as the Socialisation Units, which tried to convert the Party to 'socialism in our time'. The group became so strong that it was in effect a party within the Party. At the 1931 Easter Conference it succeeded in committing the Labor Party to a positive policy of socialism. Although the decision was later revised, it remains unique in the history of Australian Labor Parties. Throughout the period of the Socialisation Units, J.T. Lang presided over the New South Wales Labor Party as charismatic leader and machine boss. We read of his Inner Group's effort to contain the Units through Party management, of the defeat of the Socialisation Units after a struggle for power within the Party, and of the subsequent loss to the Labor Party of many young idealists who had been attracted by the Units. For those interested in Australian history and politics in the twentieth century this book will colour in a period so far only dimly sketched, and a political leader still seen as a hero or villain of the Great Depression.
96 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1971
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August 25, 2025
Reading for Brisbane Socialism '25. Useful book on the leftward radicalisation during the Great Depression, in the form of the Socialisation Unit - propaganda groups connected to ALP branches. Never before or since in the history of the Australian Labor Party had it in its ranks so many members who identified as socialists. Hundreds of Units were formed across NSW, attracting thousands of worker members radicalised by the crisis of the Depression, drawn towards a socialist alternative to capitalism.
The Units were led by the 'socialism in our time' group; their strategy was to build the Units as a ginger group within the ALP, pressuring the leadership to adopt a platform of complete 'socialisation' (nationalisation) of industry. The Units organised propaganda and educational activity and were connected to ALP branch structures. Jack Lang's Inner Group were not initially hostile to the Units, but once the SUs began organising union cells (Lang's base was in the left union officialdom - party rules were gerrymandered to give weight to unions in deciding party leadership) and with the emergence of a radical current demanding complete socialisation in Three Years and a seizure of power, Lang's machine moved to systematically crush the Units. After the 1932 NSW election defeats, Lang used demoralisation in the party, and the vague policy of 'socialisation of credit', to attack the SOIT group as utopian and sectarian, laying the basis for the expulsion of the Units in 1933.
The two main problems with the SOIT group are interconnected. For them, socialism meant nationalisations, which could be about through the state apparatus. Secondly, SOIT thought that the vehicle for this transformation HAD to be the ALP, already having the leadership of the majority of Australian workers. They lacked the understanding that the ALPs base were the intermediary social layers of workers organisations; the union and party bureaucracy (making it a 'capitalist workers party'). This can explain the Lang and the Inner Groups conservatism and their implacable hostility to the socialisation objective, they were simply not anti-capitalist. What was needed was the SOIT to lead the masses of SUs in an organised split from Labor - but even this would've required a much deeper reckoning with the fundamentals of their politics (change doesn't come through Labor, if we want socialisation we have to fight the state, not work within it etc). This all would've required revolutionary socialist politics. Instead, SOIT acquiesed for fearing of splitting the ALP. Without a broader project or vision beyond lobbying the ALP leadership, the Units quickly atrophied and disappeared. A terrible waste of an incredible upsurge, which could have gone much further with revolutionary leadership.
The Units were led by the 'socialism in our time' group; their strategy was to build the Units as a ginger group within the ALP, pressuring the leadership to adopt a platform of complete 'socialisation' (nationalisation) of industry. The Units organised propaganda and educational activity and were connected to ALP branch structures. Jack Lang's Inner Group were not initially hostile to the Units, but once the SUs began organising union cells (Lang's base was in the left union officialdom - party rules were gerrymandered to give weight to unions in deciding party leadership) and with the emergence of a radical current demanding complete socialisation in Three Years and a seizure of power, Lang's machine moved to systematically crush the Units. After the 1932 NSW election defeats, Lang used demoralisation in the party, and the vague policy of 'socialisation of credit', to attack the SOIT group as utopian and sectarian, laying the basis for the expulsion of the Units in 1933.
The two main problems with the SOIT group are interconnected. For them, socialism meant nationalisations, which could be about through the state apparatus. Secondly, SOIT thought that the vehicle for this transformation HAD to be the ALP, already having the leadership of the majority of Australian workers. They lacked the understanding that the ALPs base were the intermediary social layers of workers organisations; the union and party bureaucracy (making it a 'capitalist workers party'). This can explain the Lang and the Inner Groups conservatism and their implacable hostility to the socialisation objective, they were simply not anti-capitalist. What was needed was the SOIT to lead the masses of SUs in an organised split from Labor - but even this would've required a much deeper reckoning with the fundamentals of their politics (change doesn't come through Labor, if we want socialisation we have to fight the state, not work within it etc). This all would've required revolutionary socialist politics. Instead, SOIT acquiesed for fearing of splitting the ALP. Without a broader project or vision beyond lobbying the ALP leadership, the Units quickly atrophied and disappeared. A terrible waste of an incredible upsurge, which could have gone much further with revolutionary leadership.
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