White Australia Policy – The Background 

In the simplest means, White Australia Policy was a restrictive immigration policy pursued in Australia. But if we dig deep, it was a systematic racial approach by the capitalist ruling class. In the mid-19th century there was a shortage of labour and Chinese and Pacific Islanders were brought in as labour. By the 1880s developing trade unions were calling for a policy to protect the “White working man”. By 1890 all states had legislation to preserve the purity of White Australia, Alfred Deakin being one of its strongest advocates. The new Commonwealth government legislated to exclude non-Europeans in its 1901 Immigration Restriction Act. The main device used was to be a dictation test in any European language – with the language being chosen to ensure failure. This policy of exclusion continued until the 1950s. The Labour administration repudiated the policy in the early 1970s.  

By Kathy Newnam

Crisis of capitalism 

The defining feature of Australian politics today is the ongoing retreat of the organised working class. In the face of the serious capitalist economic crisis there is no mass expression whatsoever of the working class alternative. The class-collaborationist leadership of the trade union movement is unwilling and incapable of challenging the ruling class solutions to the crisis – cutting deals for pay cuts, shorter hours and other solutions demanded by the bosses to supposedly “save jobs”.