Revolutionaries And Reformists: Communism And The Australian Labour Movement 1920-1955
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Markings: Fair - Rubbed edges and bumping on spine and corners
At the turbulent intersection of ideology and industrial action, Revolutionaries and Reformists: Communism and the Australian Labour Movement 1920-1955 chronicles the fierce internal struggle that shaped the destiny of Australia's working-class politics across three transformative decades. Robin Gollan presents a meticulously researched account of how the Communist Party of Australia embedded itself within the labour movement, forging alliances, igniting conflicts, and ultimately contesting the soul of organised labour during an era of depression, world war, and Cold War paranoia. Gollan, one of Australia's most distinguished labour historians, argues with forensic precision that the relationship between communist activists and mainstream trade unionists was neither simply adversarial nor straightforwardly collaborative, but a complex, ever-shifting negotiation of power, principle, and pragmatism. Drawing on a deep command of primary sources and political context, he illuminates how international ideological currents collided with distinctly Australian conditions to produce a labour movement unlike any other in the world. This essential work of political and social history leaves the reader asking a question that still resonates today — when does the radical become the reformist, and at what cost?
Author: Robin Gollan
Format: Hardback
Published: 1975, Australian National University Press
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Markings: Fair - Rubbed edges and bumping on spine and corners
At the turbulent intersection of ideology and industrial action, Revolutionaries and Reformists: Communism and the Australian Labour Movement 1920-1955 chronicles the fierce internal struggle that shaped the destiny of Australia's working-class politics across three transformative decades. Robin Gollan presents a meticulously researched account of how the Communist Party of Australia embedded itself within the labour movement, forging alliances, igniting conflicts, and ultimately contesting the soul of organised labour during an era of depression, world war, and Cold War paranoia. Gollan, one of Australia's most distinguished labour historians, argues with forensic precision that the relationship between communist activists and mainstream trade unionists was neither simply adversarial nor straightforwardly collaborative, but a complex, ever-shifting negotiation of power, principle, and pragmatism. Drawing on a deep command of primary sources and political context, he illuminates how international ideological currents collided with distinctly Australian conditions to produce a labour movement unlike any other in the world. This essential work of political and social history leaves the reader asking a question that still resonates today — when does the radical become the reformist, and at what cost?