‘The "White Australia" policy must go’ : The Communist Party of Australia and immigration restriction 

Book chapter


Piccini, Jon and Smith, Evan. (2019). ‘The "White Australia" policy must go’ : The Communist Party of Australia and immigration restriction . In In Piccini, Jon, Smith, Evan and Worley, Matthew (Ed.). The Far left in Australia from 1945 pp. 77-96 Routledge.
AuthorsPiccini, Jon and Smith, Evan
EditorsPiccini, Jon, Smith, Evan and Worley, Matthew
Abstract

The Australian far left has a long and conflicted history of engagement with the politics of whiteness. The Immigration Restriction Act, colloquially known as the ‘White Australia Policy’, was amongst the first acts of the newly created Australian commonwealth in 1901. It was strongly argued for by the left of politics, particularly the Australian Labor Party, who saw it as a means of securing the union movement’s gains from cheap foreign labour. Against such a backdrop, this chapter examines the Australian far left’s opposition to immigration controls, asking to what degree was its intervention significant in the eventual ending of the policy in 1973. Early, frustrated opposition to the policy by the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) was given energy by the end of World War II, which saw both the first cracks in the policy – as southern and eastern European migration was encouraged for the first time – and the emergence of a stronger line of far left critique. The CPA published a pamphlet interrogating White Australia in 1945 and opposed the deportation of Chinese refugees as well as a host of others in the immediate post-war era. At the same time, however, the CPA was calling for immigration quotas owing to housing shortages and opposed the immigration of particular nationalities, derided as ‘Balts’, who were seen as anti-communist.

Page range77-96
Year2019
Book titleThe Far left in Australia from 1945
PublisherRoutledge
Place of publicationLondon ; New York
ISBN9781138043855
0429945655
Web address (URL)https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/acu/reader.action?docID=5450823&ppg=92
Publisher's version
License
All rights reserved
File Access Level
Controlled
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Print19 Jul 2018
Publication process dates
Deposited18 Nov 2021
Permalink -

https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/8x16y/-the-white-australia-policy-must-go-the-communist-party-of-australia-and-immigration-restriction

Restricted files

Publisher's version

  • 88
    total views
  • 0
    total downloads
  • 2
    views this month
  • 0
    downloads this month
These values are for the period from 19th October 2020, when this repository was created.

Export as

Related outputs

‘Thinking in Papua New Guinean terms’ : The sensitive files case of 1972 and Australia’s migrated archive
Piccini, Jon. (2023). ‘Thinking in Papua New Guinean terms’ : The sensitive files case of 1972 and Australia’s migrated archive. History Workshop Journal. pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/dbad018
Australia and the United Nations
Piccini, Jon and Burke, Roland. (2022). Australia and the United Nations. In Australia on the World Stage - History, Politics, and International Relations pp. 198-212 Taylor & Francis Inc. (US). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003221197
Over sexed, over paid and over here … again? Americans on R&R in Vietnam-era Sydney
Dixon, Chris and Piccini, Jon. (2022). Over sexed, over paid and over here … again? Americans on R&R in Vietnam-era Sydney. Australian Historical Studies. 53(3), pp. 433-451. https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2022.2032225
Humanitarianism in the age of human rights : Amnesty International in Australia
Piccini, Jon. (2022). Humanitarianism in the age of human rights : Amnesty International in Australia. In In Damousi, Joy, Burnard, Trevor and Lester, Alan (Ed.). Humanitarianism, empire and transnationalism, 1760-1995 : Selective humanity in the Anglophone world pp. 305-326 Manchester University Press. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526159564.00021
The Ex-Services Human Rights Association of Australia, the Vietnam War and the remaking of the Anzac tradition
Piccini, Jon. (2022). The Ex-Services Human Rights Association of Australia, the Vietnam War and the remaking of the Anzac tradition. Australian Journal of Politics and History. 68(1), pp. 54-71. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.12720
“A fundamental human right”? Mixed-race marriage and the meaning of rights in the post-war British Commonwealth
Piccini, Jon and Money, Duncan. (2021). “A fundamental human right”? Mixed-race marriage and the meaning of rights in the post-war British Commonwealth. Comparative Studies in Society and History. 63(3), pp. 655-684. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417521000177
‘That brotherhood may prevail’ : International House Brisbane, race and the humanitarian ethic in Cold War Australia
Piccini, Jon. (2020). ‘That brotherhood may prevail’ : International House Brisbane, race and the humanitarian ethic in Cold War Australia. History Australia. 17(4), pp. 695-710. https://doi.org/10.1080/14490854.2020.1838930
Myth and myth-making
Piccini, Jon. (2020). Myth and myth-making. In In Lewis, Jenny M. and Tiernan, Anne (Ed.). The Oxford handbook of Australian politics pp. 1-19 Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198805465.013.3
Human rights in twentieth century Australia
Piccini, Jon. (2019). Human rights in twentieth century Australia Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108659192
Reading and contesting Germaine Greer and Dennis Altman: The 1970s and Beyond
Piccini, Jon and Stevenson, Ana. (2019). Reading and contesting Germaine Greer and Dennis Altman: The 1970s and Beyond. In In J. Piccini, E. Smith and M. Worley (Ed.). The Far left in Australia from 1945 pp. 249 - 266 Routledge.
Australia, the long 1960s, and the winds of change in the Asia-Pacific
Piccini, Jon. (2018). Australia, the long 1960s, and the winds of change in the Asia-Pacific. In In C. Jian, M. Klimke and M. Kirasirova, M. Nolan, M. Young and J. Waley-Cohen (Ed.). The Routledge handbook of the global sixties: Between protest and nation-building pp. 119 - 130 Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315150918
‘Women are a colonised sex’: Elizabeth reid, human rights and international women’s year 1975
Piccini, Jon. (2018). ‘Women are a colonised sex’: Elizabeth reid, human rights and international women’s year 1975. Australian Historical Studies. 49(3), pp. 307 - 323. https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2018.1482931
Transnational protest, Australia and the 1960s
Piccini, Jon. In S. Berger and H. Nehring (Ed.). (2016). Transnational protest, Australia and the 1960s Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52914-5
"People treated me with equality": Indigenous Australians visiting the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War
Piccini, Jon. (2016). "People treated me with equality": Indigenous Australians visiting the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War. Labour History: A Journal of Labour and Social history. 111(111), pp. 45 - 57. https://doi.org/10.5263/labourhistory.111.0045
“More than an abstract principle”: Reimagining rights in the Communist Party of Australia, 1956–1971
Piccini, Jon. (2015). “More than an abstract principle”: Reimagining rights in the Communist Party of Australia, 1956–1971. Journal of Australian Studies. 39(2), pp. 200 - 215. https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2015.1018924