Jack Beasley

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Albert "Jack" Beasley (born November 9, 1895 in Werribee , Victoria , † September 2, 1949 in Darlinghurst , New South Wales ) was an Australian politician, trade unionist, member of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) and the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and its various anti-communist splits.

Early life

Beasley came to Sydney with his family as a child , attended a Catholic school and became an electrician after graduating from school . He worked in the city administration of Sydney and became president of the union Electrical Trades Union (ETU) and from 1922 to 1928 he was president of the Trades and Labor Council of New South Wales and in the time of the party chairman of the CPA John Garden , he joined the party one that he soon left and joined the Australian Labor Party (ALP).

Political career

Lang Labor Party MPs (1935): Beasley (second seated from left), John Garden (fifth standing from left)

In 1928 Beasley was elected to the Constituency Division of West Sydney . When the federal ALP under Jim Scullin won the national election in 1929, he became a minister at special disposal with no specific area of ​​responsibility. He left this position in 1931 in response to Scullin's economic policies during the Great Depression . He then became the campaign manager for Jack Lang and when he left the federal ALP, he succeeded and became the leader of a political splinter group, the Labor Lang Party.

From 1932 to 1936 Beasley led this ALP splinter group in opposition to the coalition government of the United Australia Party of Joseph Lyons and the federal ALP. In 1935 Scullin resigned and in 1936 the new party leader of the ALP John Curtin reunited both parties in the federal ALP. In 1940 Lang broke again with the federal ALP and founded the Australian Labor Party (Non-Communist) in the federal parliament. Beasley also had contacts with leading figures in the fascist Australia First Movement .

In 1941 Curtin led this group back into the federal ALP, except for Jack Lang. When Curtin became Prime Minister in October 1941, he named Beasley Secretary of Defense and later entrusted him with Secretary of State for Transportation during World War II . When Curtin died in July 1945, his successor Ben Chifley appointed him Secretary of Defense and after the war he was transferred to London as High Commissioner , as Chifley was not taken with Beasley's past political behavior. Beasley held this post until his death.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Australian Dictionary of Biography (Online Edition) : John Albert "Jack" Beasley (1895-1949) (English), accessed March 23, 2011
  2. ↑ Barbara Winter: The Australia-First Movement and the Publicist, 1936-1942 . Glass House Books, Carindale 2005. ISBN 1-876819-91-X (English) Online on Google Books . Pp. 76, 166 and 245, accessed March 23, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Beasley, Jack
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beasley, John Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian Minister
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Werribee , Victoria
DATE OF DEATH September 2, 1949
Place of death Darlinghurst , New South Wales