The Workers Defence Corps (WDC) was an Australian communist paramilitary organisation during the Great Depression.[3][1]
| Workers Defence Corps | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Lang's Army |
| Leader | Jack Fegan[1][2] Dave Williams |
| Foundation | 1929 |
| Dates of operation | c. 1929–1935 |
| Dissolved | 1935 |
| Country | Australia |
| Allegiance | Communist Party |
| Headquarters | Lithgow, New South Wales |
| Newspaper | Red Fist[3] |
| Active regions | New South Wales |
| Ideology | Communism Marxism–Leninism Anti-fascism |
| Allies |
|
| Opponents | New Guard Centre Party |
The WDC was based on similar organisations formed in Britain during the 1926 United Kingdom general strike by the Communist Party of Great Britain for protecting picket lines from police and paramilitaries, which the WDC also undertook.[3][4][5] The organisation was first active in 1929 during the Northern Coalfields lockout, where it was used to coerce strikebreakers and defend picket lines from police. The organisation was reformed in 1931 to defend Communist meetings from the growing fascist New Guard.[3][4]
The WDC is most notable for its clashes with the New Guard, but also engaged in bank robberies and reprisals against police officers. Most of which failed.[3] The WDC did have a successful string of weapons thefts.[3][2] The WDC assisted the Unemployed Workers Movement in opposing evictions.[6]
The WDC saw itself as a Red Army that would eventually lead a nationwide Communist revolution.[3][1][4]
Members of the WDC were involved in the 'Battle of Bankstown,' in which several hundred New Guardsmen brawled with Bankstown locals, workers, Unemployed Worker's Movement members and WDC members. The New Guard was reportedly defeated, with their vehicles heavily damaged. The riot then continued as the crowd searched Bankstown for New Guardsmen or police officers.[3][7]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c Moore, Andrew (2009). "Red devils and white reaction : Jack Fegan and the Workers Defence Corps of the 1930s". Journal of Australian Studies. 33 (2): 165–179. doi:10.1080/14443050902883389. S2CID 143105949. Archived from the original on 2023-07-27. Retrieved 2023-07-27 – via Western Sydney University.
- ^ a b "Jack Fegan, Edna Stack and the Sydney Left in the 1930s: A Memoir". Australian Society for the Study of Labour History. Archived from the original on 2023-07-27. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Moore, Andrew (2005). "The New Guard and the Labour Movement, 1931–35". Labour History (89): 55–72. doi:10.2307/27516075. ISSN 0023-6942. JSTOR 27516075. Archived from the original on 2023-10-20. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
- ^ a b c "REDS PLANNED WORKERS' DEFENCE CORPS". The Northern Star. 1949-06-24. Archived from the original on 2023-11-02. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
- ^ "The Reds and the General Strike – The Lessons of the First General Strike of the British Working Class". Marxists Internet Archive. Communist Party of Great Britain. Archived from the original on 2022-12-25. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
- ^ Wheatley, Nadia (2001). Sydney's anti-eviction movement: community or conspiracy?. University of Wollongong Press. pp. 146–173. ISBN 0947127038.
- ^ North, Alex (2020-08-23). "When Fascism Almost Came to Australia". Jacobin. ISSN 2158-2602. Archived from the original on 2023-07-27. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
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