# Labor split (1955)

URL: https://allhistories.com/australia/timeline/1955-labor-split
Location: Melbourne, Hobart and Australia-wide
Themes: Key Events

In 1955 the Australian Labor Party split over the influence of anti-communist “Industrial Groups” within the labour movement. In October 1954 federal leader H. V. Evatt publicly attacked a small group of members, particularly those influenced by B. A. Santamaria’s Catholic Social Studies Movement. At the federal conference in Hobart in March 1955, the expelled Victorian executive and its supporters were excluded. Anti-communist groups had been organised within unions in the late 1940s to win back control from communist officials, and many of their members were Catholic. Tensions grew over their methods and their influence in the party. The Petrov affair and Evatt’s response deepened the divisions. The Movement had organised within the party and unions, and critics accused it of seeking to control Labor from outside. Many Labor members also feared sectarian division. Expelled members formed the Australian Labor Party (Anti-Communist), which became the Democratic Labor Party in 1957. Its preferences went largely to the Liberal–Country coalition, helping keep Labor out of federal office until 1972. The split was particularly bitter in Victoria and Queensland, where it brought down a Labor government in 1957. Its legacy shaped Australian politics for a generation. It also divided families and parishes.

## Why it matters
The split kept Labor out of federal power for nearly two decades and reshaped the party system.

Ruler at the Time: [Elizabeth II](https://allhistories.com/australia/rulers/elizabeth-ii)

Prime Minister: Robert Menzies (Liberal (coalition with Country))
Governor-General: Sir William Slim

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Australian Labor Party split of 1955](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Labor_Party_split_of_1955)
- [Wikipedia — B. A. Santamaria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._A._Santamaria)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica topic lookup — Australian Labor Party split 1955](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Australian+Labor+Party+split+1955)