This is the first part of my 4 part series on the SDA.
If you’re going to talk about the SDA you need to understand the man who reshaped the organisation in his own image.
B.A Santamaria is one of the most influential people in union history. He’s also a fascist.
So why am I calling him a fascist? He explicitly defended fascism in his 1934 masters thesis ‘Italy changes shirts: the origins of Italian Fascism’. He also defended Musolini and Franco in an infamous debate at Melbourne Uni.
Here’s Santamaria linking his project to fascism in his autobiography. Fascism is built into the core of his ideology.
He calls it anticommunism but let’s be 100% clear, Franco was a fascist dictator, backed by Mussolini and Hitler who killed hundreds of thousands of people.
If you thought he mellowed with age, think again. Here’s a Catholic priest talking about how Santamaria helped right wing dictatorships and their death squads identify human rights activists
Note the ‘communists’ include Catholic priests like Father Brian Gore.
I really want to you to remember this when we talk about the DLP split next week.
The leader of the ALP was Doc Evatt, a social democrat who had the audacity of opposing Menzies ban on the CPA and interning every radical in the country.
Santamaria was also a cheerleader for multiple genocides and atrocities committed by right wing dictatorships.
Including the US+Australian backed genocidal communist purge committed by the Indonesian military.
Santamaria was also heavily influenced by an open letter written by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 called ‘Rights and duties of capital and labour’.
It was extremely influential on the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese fascist movements which Santamaria idolized.
To explain why they this is influential we are going to have to look at one of the pillars of fascism: corporatism.
Despite the terms understandable misuse in popular discourse corporatism isn’t when corporations run society, the correct term for that is corporatoracy.
So what is corporatism?
It treats different groups in society as different parts of the same body.
These parts including business owners, unions, guilds etc are organised into corporate groups under the control of the ascendant state.
Here’s Musolini explaining the concept.
If this sounds familiar it’s because it’s the modus operandi of the SDA and their relationship with employers.
If you’ve ever worked in retail sector you know how this works out for workers. They get crushed.
We will talk about this more in part 3.
The great ‘Shoppies’ union sell outFor decades the ‘Shoppies’ union focused on campaigns against abortion and gay rights while its low paid members were being ripped-off billions of dollars.https://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2016/shopped-out/
Santamaria’s fascism is based on the fascist government in Portugal, a deeply theocratic project where there the division between church and state was abolished.
The theocratic project continues within the SDA:
– They stalled same sex marriage for a decade
– Opposed abortion and euthanasia
– Opposed mandatory reporting of preists abusing children
– Their MPs are the reason the ALP supported the bigot bill
Make no mistake Santamaria wasn’t the polite type of bigot towards the the queer community. He said the quiet part out loud.
He was given a TV show by 9 oligarch, Frank Packer which he used to denounce ‘aberrant sexual behaviour’ and ‘sodomites’.
How the Liberals got from ‘subsidies for sodomy’ to ‘let the people decide’Our old friend B.A. Santamaria was comfortable denouncing “aberrant sexual practices” and “sodomites” on national TV. His spiritual heirs are doing the same, if you listen closely enough.https://www.crikey.com.au/2015/08/13/how-the-liberals-got-from-subsidies-for-sodomy-to-let-the-people-decide/
His bigotry wasn’t limited to the queer community either. He was an open racist who called for white Christian expansion while denouncing the ‘Red Asiatic Flood’.
Once again the authoritarian and racist legacy lives on in the SDA.
When Kevin Rudd decided to open concentration camps on Manus and Nauru the man he chose for the job was Tony Burke, an SDA aligned MP.
Rudd plan in tatters as camps labelled ‘gulags’Australia’s offshore detention centre network is in crisis, with more staff turning on a ”cruel and degrading” system they say makes riots inevitable.https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/rudd-plan-in-tatters-as-camps-labelled-gulags-20130724-2qjqo.html
I really want to stress how anti-democratic Santamaria was.
He infiltrated the Union movement and ALP using every dirty trick on the book and openly supported Menzies attempt to ban and lock up his political opponents en masse.
This has had a profound effect in the SDA.
Undemocratic structures, collaboration with employers and a high turnover have given a conservative Catholic vanguard control of the largest private sector union in Australia.
This has left members powerless as their values and livelihoods are undermined by the leadership using the SDA resources and power to pursue their fascist agenda.
It has made people like Don Farrell some of the most powerful people in the parliament.
The autocratic methodology hasn’t been contained to the union. It’s part of the right faction that collaborated with Anthony Albanese to destroy grass roots democracy in the NSW branch
These people despise democracy. They only care about their crusades
Labor’s Anthony Albanese Is Not a Friend of Australia’s Left — And He Never WasAnthony Albanese may be the first federal leader of the Australian Labor Party to hail from the Socialist Left. However, his track record in New South Wales shows that he rose to his current position …https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/11/australian-labor-party-anthony-albanese-new-south-wales-right-wing-politics
Their grubby little mitts were also all over the Victorian branch stacking scandal.
One of Somyurek’s flunkies, Nathan Croft was affiliated with the SDA before being expelled from the ALP for his role in the scandal.
ALP members expelled, party reshaped in wake of branch stacking reportThe expulsions of Victorian members deemed to be fake comes as an investigation into branch stacking in Labor, led by former premier Steve Bracks and former federal MP Jenny Macklin, nears completion.https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/alp-members-expelled-party-reshaped-under-explosive-branch-stacking-report-20201111-p56dpn.html
As you can see BA Santamaria has has left a toxic imprint on the SDA because of the DLP split he’s also left a lasting legacy on the Liberal party as well.
Some of the former DLP people didn’t go back to the ALP, the went to the liberal party including Tony Abbott.
There’s a fantastic quarterly essay called ‘Political Animal’ by David Marr which goes into how Abbott was shaped by his mentor, going as far as calling him Australia’s first DLP prime minister. It’s excellent if you want to understand Abbott.
Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbotthttps://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2012/september/1347234466/david-marr/political-animal-making-tony-abbott#mtr
This link with the Liberal Party will be crucial when we talk about why the SDA has never been held accountable in part 4.
It’s also going to be crucial in understanding why hard right Liberals like Eric Abetz (google Otto Abetz) are so fond of the SDA.
As you can see this has turned into a monster of a thread.
Next week we are going to talk about how Santamaria infiltrated the union movement, the DLP split and why Bob Hawke let the fascists back into the ALP.
I’d like to thank @motorcymick, @realDeanCool, @MsCharlie, @andrewfx_51 and @DamienEvans7 for help with research on this.
I’d also like to thank @King_Owl for helping me manage the fascism in this responsibly. If you’re interested in antifascism check him out.
– by independent journalist Ozwobbly.
Bert
March 5, 2022 at 05:09
I believe that the Shop, Distributive & Allied Employees’ Association is a blot on the union movement, and that B. A. Santamaria is a blot on humanity.
I remember him from his Point of View television program.
Michael Mann
March 5, 2022 at 19:03
I also, remember Mr Santamaria’s Point of View program. It had a huge impact on my interest in politics, but I was too young to fully understand what he was rambling on about.
Even so, his words certainly ignited a political spark in me.