Morris Graham

Unravelling Years of Minutes

The minute book of the Hamilton, New South Wales, Branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) lay in a drawer until 2001. It had been in the possession of branch member, Tom Mulholland, and came to light some 12 years after his death. It covered the period from 4 January 1934 to 10 May 1939.	1
I have synthesised the themes occurring in the minutes in an article titled, 'Years of Minutes' and this article, along with the minute book, an accompanying book of press cuttings from 1936 to 1941 and a list of the members mentioned in the minutes, have been placed in the Archives in the Library of the University of Newcastle. The press cuttings are mostly from Jack Lang's Century but include some press accounts of Hamilton branch meetings from the Newcastle Morning Herald.	2
The first pages of the book record not the minutes of the branch, but the minutes of the failed attempt from August 1932 to March 1933 to attract young members to the ALP through a Younger Set. Social functions were financial failures, the last one aiming at raising money to repay the loan to liquidate the debt for the October social. Nothing more was recorded of the Younger Set.	3
The minutes proper show a branch in action at a time when the ALP was in Opposition in the state and federally, Lang was the Labor colossus, Australia was not clear of the Great Depression, and fascism was gaining momentum overseas.	4
Over the period, 259 names of members were mentioned, but only five for all the six years, and 219 for one year only. Numbers at meetings ranged from 54 to a handful. Branch members dominated the positions in the federal and state electorate councils. Only one woman, a long-term member, held a branch office, as treasurer. Women's roles were to canvass support among neighbours in election campaigns, as fund-raisers in 'Popular Lady' competitions, and to provide lunches on polling day.	5
For the Hamilton branch there was no question that Lang was right. When two members spoke against the excesses of Lang's dominance, the branch expelled them. At the same time it supported John Curtin's efforts for party unity and saw no incongruity in linking Curtin and Langite, Jack Beasley, in a motion of congratulations.	6
The branch at first was comfortable with a common front with Communists, in 1934 proposing an ALP representative being sent to the USSR for May Day celebrations, and supporting the Congress against War and Fascism. By 1937 the branch backed Lang in rejecting any contact with Communist influences and endorsing the replacement of the Labor Daily by Lang's Century as the official Labor newspaper.	7
Branch meetings did not spend much time on national issues but followed the legislation of the Labour government in New Zealand with interest, sending 173 messages of congratulations, purchasing government booklets, and urging that Australia follow New Zealand in broadcasting the proceedings of parliament.	8
The branch's biggest local concern were the costly, but unsuccessful attempts to get Hamilton branch members elected to Hamilton Municipal Council in a series of elections and by-elections. It deplored the apathy of the Labor people who didn't vote. The branch was active in the lead-up to the Greater Newcastle Act in 1937 although none of the three Labor aldermen in the City Council was from Hamilton.	9
The minutes show differences from current party practice. Affiliated unions had the right to conduct their own ballots for political pre-selections which branches felt weakened their position. The rank and file chose the Senate ticket and candidates, including future Senators Amour, Arnold and Ashley, and fronted up at branch meetings around the State, including Hamilton, seeking support.	10
The branch functioned despite a chronic and critical shortage of funds, especially in 1934. It helped unemployed members with membership fees. Requests from other branches to aid families of sick or dead members were met in part or refused with regret. Payments of rent for the meeting hall, bills from the stationer, and conference expenses for delegates were often deferred. There was delight when a raffle for a cushion raised eight shillings and four pence, about a tenth of the then state basic wage.	11
When the revolt of the Labor Members of the Legislative Assembly against Lang peaked in 1939 the branch condemned the anti-Lang member for Hamilton, Joshua Arthur, and a vote of confidence in Mr Lang and the ALP was carried unanimously. There the minutes of the Hamilton Branch ended. The anti-Lang forces rallied, however, and when the branch resolved to stay with the Official Labor Party instead of Lang's State Labor Party the dissidents left and took the minute book with them. It was then used to record the minutes of the meetings of the Australian Labor Party (Non-Communist) in June and July 1940, the last entries in the minute book.	12
The Newcastle Morning Herald reported on 16 March 1941 that the Hamilton branch of the Non-Communist Party had reunited with Official Labor in time to work for the return of Labor to office under William McKell in New South Wales and John Curtin in Canberra. It is not known what happened to the minutes of the newly united branch that Tom Mulholland would have compiled as its first secretary.	13

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