Labor Left

The modern Labor Left emerged from the Labor Party split of 1955, in which anti-Communist activists associated with B. A. Santamaria and the Industrial Groups formed the Democratic Labor Party while left-wing parliamentarians and unions loyal to H. V. Evatt and Arthur Calwell remained in the Australian Labor Party.[7]

The split played out differently across the country, with anti-Communists leaving the party in Victoria and Queensland but remaining within in most other states. This created a power vacuum which allowed the Left to take control of the Federal Executive and Victorian state branch, while its opponents were preserved elsewhere.[7]

From 1965 organised internal groups emerged to challenge the control of the Left, supported by figures such as John Button and Gough Whitlam. After the Victorian branch lost the 1970 state election in the midst of a public dispute with Whitlam over state aid for private schools, the South Australian Left, led by Clyde Cameron, and New South Wales Left, led by Arthur Gietzelt, agreed to support an intervention which saw the Victorian state branch abolished and subsequently reconstructed without Left control.[7]

During the 1980s, after a prolonged dispute over ideological and tactical issues a split occurred within the South Wales Labor Left creating two fractions; the 'Hard Left' and the 'Soft Left'.[8] A significant event which caused the split was the election of the Secretary Assistant of the New South Wales Labor Party, where the Hard Left faction supported Anthony Albanese while the Soft Left faction supported Jan Burnswoods.[8] The Hard Left faction aligned itself and gained support from grassroots movements, maintaining "closer links with broader left-wing groups, such as the Communist Party of Australia, People for Nuclear Disarmament and the African National Congress" as well as the wider trade union movement.[8] The Soft Left was aligned with the Labor Right faction and rank and file party branches.[8] The factions had significantly different views on policy. The Soft Left supported Keating's privatisation of the Commonwealth Bank and Qantas, as well as the Gulf War, while the Hard Left members were more often against these.[8]