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Peter Kerr

Labor Essays 1982: Socialist principles and parliamentary government published on behalf of the Australian Labor Party by Gareth Evans and John Reeves

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November 1982, no. 46
Peter Kerr reviews 'Labor Essays 1982: Socialist principles and parliamentary government published on behalf of the Australian Labor Party' edited by Gareth Evans and John Reeves

Times are changing within the Labor party. As L.F. Crisp points out in his essay on the branches, the new membership is often educated middle class and keen to discuss the International Situation where once the thing was to have a few beers and raffle a chook. Even Bill Hayden, despite his cop background, reflects some of the new flavour of the party with his too often carping manner, redolent of the classroom pedant. That Labor Essays – ‘designed to stimulate creative thought within and without the party’ – should have begun to appear in 1980 seems not unrelated to the growing desire within the party for intellectual as well as emotional satisfaction.

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Mr Santamaria and the Bishops: Studies in the Christian movement by Gerard Henderson

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September 1982, no. 44
Peter Kerr reviews 'Mr Santamaria and the Bishops: Studies in the Christian movement' by Gerard Henderson

Gerard Henderson takes as the subject of this important book the relations between the bishops of the Catholic Church and its lay organisation, the Catholic Social Studies Movement during the period from 1940 to the 1960s. The study is particularly welcome as neither Church nor Movement were given to public self-exposure. Henderson, by using the files of the National Civic Council and the minutes of relevant episcopal committees, has given us an insight into the conflicts within the church over its role in political activity in this period

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