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Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney
Subjects
Politics and Government
Politics
Political movements

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Political movements

Subject

Aboriginal politics to 1945

Aboriginal settlement Narrabeen Lagoon

Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship

Aborigines Progressive Association

Australian Aborigines Progressive Association

Redfern Aboriginal Authority

Transcript: Mr William Kennedy recalls collecting the dole at Liverpool Town Hall during the Depression

Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship

Aborigines Progressive Association

Australia First Movement

Australian Aborigines Progressive Association

Australian Committee for Cultural Freedom

Australian Conservation Foundation

Australian League

Australian Patriotic Association

Australian Peace Council

Australian Women's Guild of Empire

Black Power

Central Federation League

Chinese Empire Reform Association

Chinese Youth League

Chung Shan Society

Church of England Education Defence Association

Civic Reform Movement

Coloured Progressive Association

Eureka Youth League

Irish National League

Kuomintang Sydney branch

Local Option League

Military Union

National Alliance of Russian Solidarists

New South Wales Alliance

New South Wales Constitution Committee

Political Association

Protestant Political Association

Redfern Aboriginal Authority

Russian Monarchist Group

Sydney Push

Women's Loyalty League

Women's Progressive Association

Young Communists

The anti-transportation movement 1851

Mr William Kennedy recalls collecting the dole at Liverpool Town Hall during the Depression, interviewed in 1986

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Political movements

Aboriginal politics to 1945

In the first half of the twentieth century, Aboriginal people in Sydney used all the tools of organised political protest to protect their land and their children. The depredations of the Aborigines Protection Board in the late nineteenth century inspired this political revolt.

Aboriginal settlement Narrabeen Lagoon

Used until the 1950s, the Aboriginal camp at Narrabeen Lagoon was an important site for the Gai-mariagal people, offering shelter, fish and wetland resources.

Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship

Initiated by by Pearl Gibbs and Faith Bandler, the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship included non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people in its campaign for Indigenous rights.

Aborigines Progressive Association

The Aborigines Progressive Association had a leading role in organising the Day of Mourning on Australia Day 1938, and worked for full citizenship rights for Aboriginal people until the mid-1940s.

Australian Aborigines Progressive Association

Influenced by black political struggles in the United States, the Australian Aborigines Progressive Association demanded the dissolution of the Aborigines Protection Board, return of Aboriginal land, and an end to removal of Aboriginal children.

Redfern Aboriginal Authority

Formed in 1983 as a peak body for Aboriginal organisations, the Organisation for Aboriginal Unity was an early advocate for a treaty to be negotiated. In 2004 it intervened in state government plans to reacquire land at Redfern, and changed its name.

Transcript: Mr William Kennedy recalls collecting the dole at Liverpool Town Hall during the Depression

Mr William Kennedy was born in 1910 and was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960.' He remembers crowds of men gathering to collect the dole at Liverpool Town Hall during the Great Depression

Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship

Campaigning group founded in 1956 to achieve equal pay and citizenship for Aboriginal people.

full record »

Aborigines Progressive Association

Aboriginal organisation that fought for equal rights for Aboriginal people from 1937.

full record »

Australia First Movement

Australian nationalist movement which was anti-British, anti-communist and anti-semitic, eventually advocating an alliance with the Axis powers thereby leading to suppression of its members in 1942.

full record »

Australian Aborigines Progressive Association

Association campaigning for Aboriginal self-determination and land during the 1920s.

full record »

Australian Committee for Cultural Freedom

Australian arm of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, an anti-communist advocacy group funded by the CIA.

full record »

Australian Conservation Foundation

National conservation body established by Francis Ratcliffe from the scientific, political and public service domains.

full record »

Australian League

League created in Sydney by Rev. John Dunmore Lang, James Wiltshire and Sir Henry Parkes in 1850, which aimed to abolish transportation of convicts and establish universal male suffrage and a 'Great Federal Republic of Australia'.

full record »

Australian Patriotic Association

Organisation which sought representative government in the colony and championed the rights of emancipists against the conservative colonists who sought to exclude them. With the passage of the Constitution Act of 1842 and the incorporation of the city of Sydney as a municipality with a broadly based franchise, their goal was achieved and the association disbanded.

full record »

Australian Peace Council

Political group which formed partly as a response to the Federal legislation to dissolve the Communist Party in 1950.

full record »

Australian Women's Guild of Empire

Conservative, patriotic organisation which initially raised money for women and children during the Depression but also advocated industrial cooperation and developed strong anti-communist sentiments.

full record »

Black Power

Loose coalition of young Indigenous activists who emerged after Charles Perkins' Freedom Ride in 1965. It saw the necessity of Aboriginal people defining the world in their own terms and seeking self-determination without white interference.

full record »

Central Federation League

Organisation established to promote federation.

full record »

Chinese Empire Reform Association

Organisation to support the Emperor in China which was established by Chinese merchants in Sydney.

full record »

Chinese Youth League

Not for profit community organisation which began with strong ties to the Communist Party in China.

full record »

Chung Shan Society

Clan group which supported the republican cause in China.

full record »

Church of England Education Defence Association

Committee formed to protect denominational schools and resist the call for the abolition of the Public Schools Act of 1866 so that education could be secular, compulsory and free.

full record »

Civic Reform Movement

A non-aligned ratepayers' association who contested local political positions.

full record »

Coloured Progressive Association

Organisation of mostly Indian British subjects who lobbied for changes to the Australian Immigration Restriction Act in the early 20th century.

full record »

Eureka Youth League

Social action group with the aim of supporting the war effort while protecting the rights and conditions of women, youth and juveniles in industry and to provide training for a new socialist order.

full record »

Irish National League

Political organisation based on the Irish model which campaigned for self-government, further enfranchisement and economic reforms.

full record »

Kuomintang Sydney branch

Sydney branch of the Chinese political party of Sun Yat Sen which supported the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a republican government in China. At different times in its history it has combined a political and quasi government role depending on Chinese government representation in the country.

full record »

Local Option League

Temperance lobby group which sought to give voters in each electorate the right to prohibit the sale of liquor.

full record »

Military Union

Russian political association formed between the wars.

full record »

National Alliance of Russian Solidarists

Russian anti-communist organisation formed in Serbia in 1930 which spread worldwide with Russian emigrants.

full record »

New South Wales Alliance

Lobby group which identified parliamentary candidates who were sympathetic to the temperance movement.

full record »

New South Wales Constitution Committee

Committee formed to lobby for full powers of self government as it believed the Australian Constitutions Act passed in Britain in 1850 still restricted local control of revenue and legislation.

full record »

Political Association

Political organisation which championed democratic ideas and opposed unfair electoral distribution.

full record »

Protestant Political Association

Organisation formed to secure the return of Protestants to parliament and council after the attempt to assassinate the Duke of Edinburgh further inflamed the sectarian strand of colonial politics.

full record »

Redfern Aboriginal Authority

Peak body for Aboriginal organisations, active in resisting state government takeover of land in Redfern.

full record »

Russian Monarchist Group

Russian political group which supported the restoration of the Russian monarchy.

full record »

Sydney Push

Left wing intellectual group whose common bond was rejection of conventional morality and authoritarianism. Formed in the late 1940s, many of its ideas were adopted by society in general by the 1960s therefore undermining its perceived subversive position.

full record »

Women's Loyalty League

League formed to create a council representing all women's organisations which pledged to be loyal to the empire.

full record »

Women's Progressive Association

Campaigning organisation that broke away from the Women's Suffrage League in 1901 and allied itself more closely with the labour movement and the concerns of working-class women.

full record »

Young Communists

Young political group known by various names which existed from 1923.

full record »

The anti-transportation movement 1851

full record »

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[nla.news-article686628]

Mr William Kennedy recalls collecting the dole at Liverpool Town Hall during the Depression, interviewed in 1986

full record »

Mr William Kennedy was born in 1910 and was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900 to 1960.' He remembers crowds of men gathering to collect the dole at Liverpool Town Hall during the Great Depression.
Transcript

WILLIAM: The point of issue for the dole was the old police station. It was taken over then by the Department of Labour and Industry, they administered it. Then there was that many coming on to the dole that they had to move then to Liverpool Town Hall. And the crowds kept increasing. More and more were coming on the dole. You were issued with a dole ticket, not money. You had to wait until your name was called and you'd walk up through the crowd of people, get your dole ticket which was worth five shillings, later it increased to seven [shillings] and sixpence. Then you could only get the items that were listed on that ticket: bread, meat and so forth. Then on the other side of the ticket was a list of alternate items if the others weren't available. Men would be sitting around the Town Hall in the hundreds and they'd be addressed at different times by agitators. There were always these people coming along. And the names of some of the leading Communists that came along at that time were [Tom] Payne, [Jack] Sylvester, and Bella Weiner, she was a woman, a Jewess. Men were more receptive to listening because of their position, they listened very attentively to these fellows and a lot of them thought that was where their hopes lay.

Contributed By

Liverpool City Library

(Excerpt from interview with Mr William Kennedy, from the 'Looking back at Liverpool : an oral history of the Liverpool region 1900-1960' conducted in 1986 by Liverpool City Council, editor and project co-ordinator Catherine Johnson ; researchers Angela Imbrosciano, Verica Miiosavijevic, Kathleen Smith)

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