Crusade or Conspiracy? : Catholics and the Anti-Communist Struggle in Australia

An account of the events leading up to the split of the Australian Labour Party in the mid-1950s. It explores the controversial role and activities of anti-communist Catholic organizations. Bruce Duncan interviewed many of the key players and has had access to the archives.

The split in the Labor Party in the mid 1950s was the culmination of an enormous struggle for the soul of the party, waged by fair means or foul. - Locked in bitter ideological dispute were, on the one hand, a small but energetic group of Communists and their sympathisers and, on the other, anti-Communist forces led by B.A. Santamaria. - Santamaria''s role, and the activities of his semi-clandestine - organisation, the Movement, created enormous controversy within the Catholic Church. The split and its aftermath had a profound impact on the landscape of Australian politics up to the present day. - Drawing on previously unreleased documents, this is the first comprehensive account of the events leading up to the split. - Bruce Duncan interviewed many of the key players and has had access to archives not open to previous scholars working on this topic. - This is likely to be the definitive work on the Movement, just as Stuart Macintyre''s book The Reds will be the standard reference on the Communist Party of Australia. - Illustrated with black & white photographs