The Cold War in the Unions

This is an important book, particularly for those of us interested in Australian history and politics. Ever since 1970, when he was a student at my alma mater, Monash University, Keith Harvey has consistently fought for the well-being of workers and for decades staunchly opposed communists and those pro-communists who supported them.

Harvey’s first-hand account of his long-time courageous involvement in the anti-communist movement, especially in our trade unions, has national implications for the Australian labour movement and the Australian Labor Party. In part, this is because Memoirs of a Cold War Warrior covers ALP Prime Minister Bob Hawke’s ultimately successful attempt to bring four major anti-communist trade unions back into the Labor Party. This story has not been told in detail before.

Harvey initially joined the ALP in late 1974. But after the Socialist Left faction in 1978 engineered his dismissal from a position at Trades Hall in Melbourne, Harvey allowed his ALP…