The Show
- Authors
- Aarons, Mark
- Publisher
- Victoria Scribe Publications
- Tags
- pol055000 , bio010000 , pol036000 , rel084000
- ISBN
- 9781925322316
- Date
- 2017-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
- Size
- 0.35 MB
- Lang
- en
In 1942, on the recommendation of 26-year-old Bob Santamaria, Australia's Catholic bishops created a clandestine church organisation to smash the Communist Party's massive trade union base. Soon, The Movement, working closely withASIO, became a sophisticated intelligence agency that would influence every corner of politics.Santamaria based his Movement (also called The Show) completely on the Communist Party, copying its spectacularly successful union-organising machinery. Within a decade, it had defeated communist power in many major unions. He also adopted the communists' strategy of infiltrating the Labor Party, and embarked on an aggressive program to transform it into a Catholic political machine, helping spark the great Labor Split of the mid-1950s.Ironically, in modelling the Movement on his enemy, Santamaria imported its most odious characteristic: Stalinism. He rapidly embraced the characteristics of a Stalinist leader, actively cultivating his own 'cult...