Australia 1920's
The conservative alliance, led by ex-ALP renegade and former prime minister Billy Hughes and prime minister Stanley Bruce, was quick to seize on socialist ALP factions and Irish militancy as evidence of 'Bolshevik Communism'.
Intro
The war, which had at first submerged national divisions in a wave of patriotism, had in its last years deepened those divisions, increasing the gulf between radicals and conservatives, those eligible who had fought and those who had not, and adding new divisions between pro- and anti- conscriptionists and between strikers and ‘loyalist’ strike breakers.
Paragraph 1
Following the end of World War I, it took eighteen months to return 260,000 Australian soldiers to their home and with them they brought the world-wide “Spanish influenza’ epidemic, which caused almost 12,000 deaths in Australia.
The soldiers had been told they would return to a land fit for heroes but Australia’s economy could not quickly adjust to the addition of so many workers. Initially 417,000 men had enlisted in the AIF, which resulted in women emerging from their homes to fill the jobs left empty in support of the armed forces. The War provided women with the opportunity to depart from their traditional roles into new and challenging jobs and when soldiers returned to the workforce, women were not ousted from their jobs as they worked as efficiently as men and were paid less. This lead to the Commonwealth and State governments giving employment preference to ex-servicemen but this did not always solve the problem and was often resented by others who were deprived of job opportunities. Unionists generally believed that they should be given preference over non-unionists regardless of war service. Working-class ex-servicemen thus, had a conflict of loyalties. Many ex-soldiers were resentful of what they saw as ingratitude in Australia, alienation between troops and civilians developed, bitterly dividing society.
Paragraph 2
Enormous numbers of
Intro
The war, which had at first submerged national divisions in a wave of patriotism, had in its last years deepened those divisions, increasing the gulf between radicals and conservatives, those eligible who had fought and those who had not, and adding new divisions between pro- and anti- conscriptionists and between strikers and ‘loyalist’ strike breakers.
Paragraph 1
Following the end of World War I, it took eighteen months to return 260,000 Australian soldiers to their home and with them they brought the world-wide “Spanish influenza’ epidemic, which caused almost 12,000 deaths in Australia.
The soldiers had been told they would return to a land fit for heroes but Australia’s economy could not quickly adjust to the addition of so many workers. Initially 417,000 men had enlisted in the AIF, which resulted in women emerging from their homes to fill the jobs left empty in support of the armed forces. The War provided women with the opportunity to depart from their traditional roles into new and challenging jobs and when soldiers returned to the workforce, women were not ousted from their jobs as they worked as efficiently as men and were paid less. This lead to the Commonwealth and State governments giving employment preference to ex-servicemen but this did not always solve the problem and was often resented by others who were deprived of job opportunities. Unionists generally believed that they should be given preference over non-unionists regardless of war service. Working-class ex-servicemen thus, had a conflict of loyalties. Many ex-soldiers were resentful of what they saw as ingratitude in Australia, alienation between troops and civilians developed, bitterly dividing society.
Paragraph 2
Enormous numbers of