The Neoliberal Australian Labor Party Once Tried to Nationalize the Banks
Today the Australian Labor Party is among the most neoliberal parties in the world. But after World War II, Australian Labor PM Ben Chifley wanted to nationalize the banks. No surprise, the bankers ferociously stopped him.
Former prime minister Ben Chifley arrives at Parliament House in Canberra for an Australian Labor Party conference in June, 1948.(SMH NEWS / Getty Images)
In 1947, Ben Chifley’s Labor government proposed nationalizing the country’s banks. It was the biggest challenge to capital by a reforming government in Australia’s history, igniting what historian A. L. May called “the Battle for the Banks.”
In response to Chifley’s move, competing factions of capital united, pooling their resources, connections, and institutions to face down the threat. The Australian capitalist class recognized that an attack on one section of capital by a Labor government threatened their collective interests.
To reinforce the campaign, the Right revived right-wing mass organizations dating back to the Great Depression and set up hundreds of new anti-socialist groups. Bank employees and their unions also rushed to the side of their bosses.
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