“I wish nothing better to anybody than good health, except a better system in which to enjoy it." - Bill Casey
Australia's
general election is in full swing but unfortunately there will be no
genuine socialist party involved. Sad to say, there is no socialist
party now existing in Australia.
Elections
are about who shall fill the top posts in the state and run affairs
in the interest of the established capitalist class. The choice that
is offered is not really a choice at all since the main parties
involved all stand for the same system. Experience over the years of
“Labour" governments shows that in practice they are just as
anti-working class as any government formed by openly pro-capitalist
parties. This is inevitable since the capitalist system can only
function in one way: as a profit-making system in the interest of the
profit-taking class. No government could change this economic law of
present-day class society. On the contrary, all governments are
obliged to abide by it and apply it whatever their original
intentions might have been.Politics is a game of ins and outs remote
from the lives of ordinary people who, even though they participate
in this game by exercising a “choice” when given the opportunity,
generally do so without illusions since they know by experience that
it makes very little difference to their everyday lives which
party—which particular gang of place-hunters—wins.
Politics is
seen, and presented, as a sort of never-ending TV soap in which
various media-puffed personalities vie with each other for power and
place. No wonder most people don’t want too much to do with
“politics". This is how it is today, but it need not always be
so.
To
go to the polling booth in Australia is compulsory, but workers do
not show much interest in politics. Not that it will make any
difference. All Australian political parties are reformist parties.
They act in the interest of the capitalist class, and the working
class will have to learn this.
When socialist understanding has spread sufficiently among the
majority wage earning class elections can be turned against the
minority capitalist class. But until this happens the spectacle will
go on and the use to which democratic forms are put will remain a
farce that is an insult to the intelligence of thinking men and
women.
On
January 22 1924, a small Socialist Party of Australia was formed and groups existed in Sydney, Melbourne and
Brisbane. These groups were endeavouring, as do socialists everywhere,
to gain the ear of their fellow workers. The distances are vast, but
nevertheless they keep in touch, distribute socialist literature and
use every opportunity to explain the cause of poverty, insecurity and
war.
It
was the story of a quite remarkable group of people. They included
William “Bill” Casey, William “Bill” Clarke, Jacob Johnson,
Barney Kelley, Marie Stanley, Stan Willis and, from Sweden, Charles
Sundberg. Casey was a seaman and an active member of the Australian
Seamen’s Union, as was Barney Kelley. Jacob Johnson was secretary
of the Sydney branch of the Seamen’s Union. Bill Clarke, also a
seaman, was Federal Secretary of the Australian Seamen’s Union, and
editor of its official journal. So much for the lie spread that the
Impossibilist socialist tradition did not involve themselves in trade
union work. Bill Clarke stood as socialist
candidate in 1934 for the seat of Port Melbourne, he urged his huge
personal following 'not to vote for me personally but for socialism.
I only want votes from people who understand what socialism means and
who appreciate its implications. Major political parties offered him
plum jobs, but these had no allure for him. He stood solely for a
world in which people have risen to a mastery over property, not one
in which people are mastered by it. As such, he was the Australia's
first socialist candidate: the first to stand solely for a vision of
socialism.
The
SPof A produce their own journal “Socialist Comment” which explained
the solution to the problems of the working class lay in the hands of
those who suffered most from it—the working class, and can only be
achieved when that class realises its historic mission, when, freed
from tho illusions bred by capitalism and fostered by religion, it
goes forward to solve for ever the problem of poverty by establishing socialism. Australian comrades often reside so far away from one
another that they are unable to meet and are only known to one
another by written communication. To maintain an organisation under
difficulties such as these is indeed a great task. To publish a
monthly journal and other socialist literature is a feat worthy of
commendation.
In
1962 the Communist Party of Australia had split into two factions ,
one taking the name “Socialist Party of Australia”. The
Australian Party therefore decided to change its name to “World
Socialist Party of Australia”. The situation is further confused by
the fact that, with the demise of the Communist Party “Socialist
Party of Australia” the name was picked up by a Trotskyist group.
Bill
Casey was a Manchester man and went to Australia some years before
World War I. Almost immediately on his arrival there he became
actively involved in a number of industrial disputes, including the
most historical ones recorded in Australian history. Labour
Government, job-conscious union officials and big businessmen all
attacked him. When, during the First World War, the Labour Prime
Minister of Australia tried to enforce conscription, Casey threw
himself into the fight and became one of the most enthusiastically
active members of the Anti-Conscription Army. That anti-conscription
campaign left an indelible mark on the history of Australia. Casey
was not formally a member of the Industrial Workers of the World but
at that time he subscribed to many of their ideas. Much of the I.W.W.
propaganda of those days took the form of parodying popular songs.
Bill Casey was a master of satire and made his opponents squirm under
the ridicule of his rhymes whilst his comrades eagerly awaited every
lampoon. The I.W.W. songs composed by Casey were sung all round the
world.
In
1919 Casey was involved in the seamen’s strike. It was about this
time when, having returned to sea, he met up with Jack Temple who had
been an active member of the Socialist Party of Canada. Temple weaned
Casey from the I.W.W. viewpoint and very soon Casey was expounding
the socialist case. In particular he became a caustic critic of the
“Communists” after the Bolshevik rise to power in Russia. He was
delegated to represent the seamen at an International Trade Union
Conference in Moscow. This was beset with difficulties all the way.
Forged passports, stowing away, “hopping” across frontiers,
guides often in the pay of both sides. The difficulty of getting into
Russia in those days was so great that the ultimate arrival in
Moscow, after much suffering, danger and perseverance was hailed as a
masterpiece of underground work. Once in Russia Casey and his
co-delegate, Barney Kelly, soberly tried to obtain a truthful
estimate of the position. A few days sojourn in Moscow drew the
following observations from Casey:
“Production
was in a straight-jacket, lethargy and indifference permeated the
whole economy, the people were ENTIRELY LACKING IN A SENSE OF TIME.
Industrial discipline was non est. Without the normal
industrial development of production and some measure of buying and
selling (war Communism was the order of the day) drift and
indifference would gradually strangle the economy of the Soviet.”
Before
they left, Lenin introduced the “New Economic Policy” which, in
essence, provided for the very things that Casey opined were needed
to stabilise the Russian economy.
Back
in Australia, he submitted his report to Tom Walsh (then a leading
Communist and foundation member of the Australian Communist Party and
General President of the Australian Seamen’s Union). Walsh rejected
the report and refused to publish it on the grounds that it
criticised the Bolsheviks and the Russian system. After spending some
time in Melbourne, Casey proceeded to Sydney where he again crossed
swords with Walsh who, carrying out the policy of the C.P. was
endeavouring to get the seamen to affiliate with the A.L.P.
(Australian Labour Party) from which body the seamen had seceded
because of the anti-working-class role of Labour governments and
politicians during the seamen’s strike of 1917 and 1919.
With
Jacob Johnson (Assistant Secretary, Sydney Branch of the Seamen’s
Union) and a handful of supporters, Casey pursued the fight against
affiliation with the Australian Labour Party. This fight continued up
to 1925 when an unexpected walk-out of British seamen, who left their
ships tied up on the Australian coast, overshadowed the affiliation
dispute. Incidental to the British seamen’s strike, both Walsh and
Johnson were arrested, brought before a tribunal set up under special
legislation, and sentenced to deportation from Australia. Casey
worked unceasingly to prevent the deportation. Those who were
associated with Casey believe that his activities on behalf of
Johnson was the most brilliant of his career. An appeal was made to
the High Court of Australia. The most eminent legal men in the
country were briefed both by the Crown and the appellants. Casey
worked day and night to defeat the machinations of what was openly
recognised as “A ship-owners’ government”. He marshalled facts,
ferreted information, countered the sabotage of Government henchmen,
suggested successful points of law, and finally his subtle optimism
triumphed. Dr. Evatt, one of Johnson’s counsel (now Attorney
General and ex-president of U.N.O.) unstintingly praised Casey’s
remarkable accomplishments. Many barristers have openly acknowledged
him to be “the cleverest lay-man they ever met”. The High Court
held the Tribunal's decision to deport to be ultra vires;
Walsh and Johnson were released from the Naval prison on Garden
Island where they had been held while awaiting deportation.
Following
the release and the settlement of the British seamen’s strike, the
fight around affiliation with the Labour Party again assumed an
important place in the Seamen’s Union. Finally Walsh’s move was
defeated and he was deposed from his position as G.P. Later, a high
officer of the N.S.F.U. visited Australia and reported that Havelock
Wilson had sent over £3,000 to help Walsh in the fight against
Johnson and Casey. In justice to this official, let it be said that
on hearing the facts of the case, he urged that no more money be sent
from the English Seamen’s Union for this purpose.
During
these periods, Casey consistently carried on socialist propaganda. He
debated almost every "leader” in the Communist Party. He
represented the S.P. of A. in debates with the Henry George League,
the Labour Party, the Communist Party, Currency Experts, and a host
of others. He trounced Individualist A. D. Kay who, after losing his
seat in Parliament and on the Meat Board, went to England to be
given, later, a job by Churchill during the last war. Casey conducted
Speakers’ Classes, Economics Classes, open air and indoor meetings
for the S.P.A.
For
many years he held official positions in the Seamen’s Union. He was
Secretary of the Brisbane Branch when he died. For years he found it
difficult to get jobs on ships. Victimised, he battled around on
scanty food, a few beers and a bit of tobacco. Long spells of
unemployment meant more time for Socialist activities. He never went
short while his friends had a few bob. His knowledge of philosophy,
economics, political and industrial history was amazing and his
uncanny ability to interpret industrial awards, surmount legal
difficulties with regard to the Merchant Shipping Act, the Australian
Navigation Act and the various Compensation Acts, redounded to the
benefit of his ship-mates. He was known as the Seaman Philosopher.
For
many decades a few brave workers have battled along doing what they could
to wake up the wage-slaves. One would think that
after over a hundred years of Marxism there would be a greater
understanding, but it seems that the younger generation do not
respond any more than their fathers. Capitalism’s power of recovery
and expansion seems to stifle the workers’ capacity to grasp the
realities of the situation, so quickly does it pass from one crisis
to another—bewildering those who don’t understand and hampering
the efforts of the few who do. Nevertheless the position is far from
being hopeless. Knowledge
of socialist principles will make the workers proof against being
misled by capitalist and Labour Party misrepresentation. In the words
of Australian comrades " . . . it is up to you what the
future will be: Socialism or Chaos?”
“Praise
Boss when morning work-bells chime,
Praise
him for bits of over-time,
Praise
him whose wars we love to fight,
Praise
Him. Fat Leech and Parasite”.
Casey
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