Labor People

How much do you know about the history of Australia’s oldest political party, the Australian Labor Party? You know the big names: Curtin, Chifley, Whitlam, Hawke and Keating. But what about the names behind the big names? The unsung and overlooked True Believers who have been the backbone of the Labor Party for 130 years? In Labor People, Chris Bowen investigates the stories of six great Australians, passionate servants of their party. Spanning the 1890s to the 1970s, in paying tribute to these Labor warriors he also tells an important part of the history of Labor and Australia. Who was the first loyal deputy and lynchpin of the earliest Labor governments? Which leading advocate of votes for women went on to play an important but unrecognised role in Australia’s literary history? Who did Labor turn to in its darkest First World War hours when its very existence was under threat? Who did Curtin and Chifley turn to for their hardest jobs? Which Labor loyalist called her own party out on police brutality when it wasn’t fashionable? Which minister was Whitlam’s steadiest performer? The answers to all these questions and more lie in the pages of Labor People.