The Industrial Groups were groups formed by the Australian Labor Party in the late 1940s, to combat Communist Party influence in the trade unions.
In 1941 B.A. Santamaria founded the Catholic Social Studies Movement, generally known simply as "the Movement". The Movement quickly gained a large influence in the Industrial Groups. Members of these groups were informally called 'Groupers'.
Under the influence of the Movement, the Groupers opposed not just the Communist Party, but elements within the Labor Party who they believed were insufficiently opposed to communism.
Although supportive of the Industrial Groups at first, Labor leader 'Doc' Evatt turned against them, causing a split in the Labor Party, with many 'Groupers' resigning or being expelled, and the formation of the Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist), later to become the Democratic Labor Party.
Famous quotes containing the words industrial and/or groups:
“The industrial world would be a more peaceful place if workers were called in as collaborators in the process of establishing standards and defining shop practices, matters which surely affect their interests and well-being fully as much as they affect those of employers and consumers.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“Only the groups which exclude us have magic.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)