Delegates to the Australian Labor Party’s Easter Conference at the Trades Hall Melbourne Clip 2

Daniel McNamara (1876-1947) was general secretary of the Victorian party from 1925 to 1947 and was secretary of the federal executive of the party from 1925 to 1946. Edward (Jack) Holloway (1865-1967) was general secretary of the Trades Hall Council from 1915 to 1929. James Scullin (1876-1953) had become deputy leader of the federal party in March 1927. In April 1928 he became Labor leader and in October 1929 led the party to federal victory. He was Prime Minister until the election of December 1931. John Barnes (1868-1938) was president of the AWU from 1924 until his death, and party leader in the federal Senate from 1932 to 1935. Joseph Hannan (1875-1943) was federal president of the party from 1924 to 1928. William Duggan (1884-1934), president of the Trades Hall Council, in 1927 had chaired the Third All-Australian Trade Union Congress at which the ACTU was established.

Delegates to the Australian Labor Party's Easter Conference at the Trades Hall Melbourne synopsis

This is mute newsreel footage, edited with caption cards identifying individual delegates, of the Victorian Labor Party’s 1928 Easter conference at the Melbourne Trades Hall.

Delegates to the Australian Labor Party's Easter Conference at the Trades Hall Melbourne curator's notes

This short film is one of a collection of archival campaign films held at the NFSA on behalf of the Australian Labor Party. Essentially it’s a visual record of the delegates attending the Victorian party conference at Melbourne Trades Hall in 1928. The conference was significant because a decade had passed since the 1916-17 divisions over conscription, and the ALP was finally reconsolidating and presenting itself once more as a true political force. As one of the captions states, ‘the stalwarts of the Labor cause were all there’. The general tone of all the captions reflects the optimism of the gathering. In his address to the conference, the newly-elected President of the Victorian branch, Richard Crouch, made a plea for national unity. On 12 October the following year, James Scullin led the ALP to a landslide federal election victory.

The film represents a rare opportunity to view moving footage of a collection of key historical figures of the ALP and the labour and trade union movement.

Notes by Adrienne Parr