On the Logan Show Trial


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Appendix C i

Partial transcript of discussion on election of SL/ANZ Central Committee

OPM [OrganisationalPlenum Meeting/nationalconference] 16 March 1975

Keith: I support the slate proposed by the outgoing CC. Comrade Logan: I think that in the comrade there is a weakness in that I think I detect a liking for, and an ability to, wheel and deal and I think that this is an asset for the comrade, but at times is a bit excessive. The thing that clicks into my mind why this is so is that it is because of his background which is from a bourgeois party but that’s a bit superficial. Perhaps the judgement itself is superficial; but I think that, for example I think that during the discussion yesterday when Bill made a comment about how Doug was blocking with the wrong person, I think that that was sort of wheeling and dealing, and I’ve detected Bill do this before. I can recall another occasion just prior to me going down to Melbourne there was an argument in a special local meeting with comrade [Dave G] and myself, and I think someone else was arguing a line and Bill made a bloc with [Dave G] to effectively break up sort of the oppositional bloc so to speak, and I think that was done yesterday.

Bill: What were the circumstances of the previous one?

Keith: It was a special local meeting to discuss some fuck-up in the local, I think so, and it centered around a discussion around Tony and the responsibility that that comrade should shoulder.

I do not detect in this what I have called wheeling and dealing, cynicism, but I offer it as a criticism. I don’t think that politically it was good hygiene because as a result of that discussion and the one yesterday I was not sort of totally left with the feeling that in fact all the political things had been sort of evaluated. And I offer that as a fraternal criticism. No one else did seem to criticize him, comrade Logan.

Comrade [Adaire] Hannah: The comrade has a drive and has built—has been responsible for whipping together the organisation and is an integral part of the political bureau and will make a fine national secretary. I detect in the comrade, and I detect this in all leading women comrades, a hardness which I find difficult to cope with and I find it even sort of artificial but I think that this hardness is probably a result of the fact that women in the organisation have to struggle much harder than men to gain recognition as political leaders, but I find that difficult to cope with. Now, I’m not sure why I react against leading women comrades in a subjective way and I think it could be partly because of artificial hardness, it could also, and this has been pointed out to me, be because of male chauvinism. I think that comrade Adaire is consistently hard with all comrades, male and female, but I think that she is especially hard on the female comrades. Now I think probably that this is probably because she finds it easier to communicate with female comrades rather than say myself. That’s just an observation.

[John] Sheridan: is a very solid comrade and would play a very positive role on the Political Bureau. He has qualities which are different to the other comrades and are useful and necessary in a leadership of a party such as ours where we have sort of a variety in the ranks.

The comrade has a sense which sometimes is very accurate. I can recall that a lot of his observations about what the metal fraction were doing were very good. But on other occasions I find that his sense is not very accurate at all. And he says that in fact he senses things. Sometimes they’re accurate, sometimes they’re not.

The comrade functions very well in a collective, by rubbing shoulders and speaking to other leading comrades and that’s where he gets his main drive from, I think, rather than from sort of the ranks.

I have comments on all the other comrades proposed on the central committee and alternates and I’ll speak to them on another round.

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Posted: February 2008