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:
“Dead power is everywhere among us—in the forest, chopping down the songs; at night in the industrial landscape, wasting and stiffening the new life; in the streets of the city, throwing away the day. We wanted something different for our people: not to find ourselves an old, reactionary republic, full of ghost-fears, the fears of death and the fears of birth. We want something else.”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)
“The awareness of the all-surpassing importance of social groups is now general property in America.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)