Frank Anstey
Encyclopedia
- Not to be confused with F. Anstey, the pseudonym of British author Thomas Anstey GuthrieThomas Anstey GuthrieThomas Anstey Guthrie , was an English novelist and journalist, who wrote his comic novels under the pseudonym F. Anstey....
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
member of the Victorian and Commonwealth parliaments.
Anstey was born in London, England, the son of an iron-miner, who died five months before he was born, and had little formal education. He stowed away on a passenger ship when he was 11, and arrived in Melbourne in 1877. He spent ten years working on ships to the South Pacific islands. After spending a period as an itinerant worker (a "swaggie" in Australian slang), he moved to Sale
Sale, Victoria
Sale is a city in the Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria. It is the seat of the Shire of Wellington as well as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sale and the Anglican Diocese of Gippsland. It has a population of around 13,336, and is expected to reach a population of 14,000 soon...
, where he met Katherine Mary Bell McColl and they married in 1887—they had two sons. He became a cleaner in Melbourne, where he soon became involved in politics. He worked on the Melbourne tramways and became President of the Tramways Employees Union. Self-educated, he wrote extensively for Labor newspapers such as Tocsin and Labor Call.
Political career
In 1902 Anstey was elected as a Labor member of the Victorian Legislative AssemblyVictorian Legislative Assembly
The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of Victoria in Australia. Together with the Victorian Legislative Council, the upper house, it sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Melbourne.-History:...
for East Bourke Boroughs, and from 1904 was member for Brunswick, in the working-class suburbs of Melbourne. At the 1910 election
Australian federal election, 1910
Federal elections were held in Australia on 13 April 1910. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election...
, he switched to federal politics, winning the seat of Bourke
Division of Bourke
The Division of Bourke was an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was created in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. It was abolished in 1949. It was named for Sir Richard Bourke, who was Governor of New South Wales at the time...
in the House of Representatives
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
.
Despite his English birth, Anstey was an Australian nationalist. He saw Australia as an economic colony of the finance houses of the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
, which he (like many in the labour movement at this time), described as the "money power." His views were typified by this passage from a 1907 editorial in the newspaper of the Australian Workers Union:
In 1914 Australia, under the Labor government of Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher was an Australian politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister on three separate occasions. Fisher's 1910-13 Labor ministry completed a vast legislative programme which made him, along with Protectionist Alfred Deakin, the founder of the statutory structure of the new nation...
, entered World War I on the side of Britain. Anstey was one of the few Labor members who opposed the war from the start, and was for a time highly unpopular as a result, but by 1917 antiwar sentiment was growing and Anstey became one of the leaders of the movement against conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
for the war.
Anstey published a book called The Kingdom of Shylock, in which he described the "money power" which he said controlled and manipulated capitalism from behind the scenes. "London is, so far, the web centre of international finance," he wrote. "In London are assembled the actual chiefs or the representatives of the great financial houses of the world. The Money Power is something more than Capitalism. These men constitute the Financial Oligarchy. No nation can be really free where this financial oligarchy is permitted to hold dominion, and no 'democracy' can be aught but a name that does not shake it from its throne."
Anstey described this system as the "Black Masonic Plutocracy." "These men constitute the Financial Oligarchy, this group of speculators properly designated and distinguished as the Money Power, controls the whole mechanism of exchange, and all undertakings in the field of industry are subject to its will and machinations. It wields an unseen sceptre over thrones and populations, and bloody slaughter is as profitable to its pockets as the most peaceful peculation."
In The Kingdom of Shylock, Anstey identified the leaders of the "money power" in London as a group of private financiers associated with the circles of the infamous Morgan family in the United States. "After Medina came the Jew, Manessah Lopes," Anstey wrote. "Then came Samson Gideon and the Goldsmids – Abraham and Benjamin. They were succeeded by the Rothschilds."
The fact that some of Anstey's prominent targets were Jewish has caused critics to accuse him of anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
. The Australian labour historian Peter Love writes: "The anti-Semitism in The Kingdom of Shylock was no aberration. It arose from the logic of his [Anstey's] analysis combined with the cultural tradition of which he was a part. The vulgarities of Christian mythology had built up an accretion of hatred and suspicion towards Jews over many centuries. The resulting stereotype of the greedy and cunning Jewish financier was a commonplace convention in the writings of British radicals and American populists
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
. It was also a persistent theme among Australian labour radicals."
Following Labor's win at the 1929 election
Australian federal election, 1929
Federal elections were held in Australia on 12 October 1929. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election, with no Senate seats up for election, as a result of Billy Hughes and other rebel backbenchers crossing the floor over industrial relations legislation, depriving the...
, Anstey became Minister for Health
Minister for Health and Ageing (Australia)
The Minister for Health and Ageing is a portfolio in the Government of Australia with the responsibility for national health policy. The current Minister for Health and Ageing is Nicola Roxon...
and Minister for Repatriation
Minister for Veterans' Affairs (Australia)
The Australian Minister for Veterans' Affairs oversees income support, compensation, care and commemoration programs for more than 400,000 veterans and their widows, widowers and dependants....
in the government of Prime Minister James Scullin
James Scullin
James Henry Scullin , Australian Labor politician and the ninth Prime Minister of Australia. Two days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 occurred, marking the beginning of the Great Depression and subsequent Great Depression in Australia.-Early life:Scullin was...
. But Scullin's government soon fell victim to the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. Anstey supported the Premier of New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Jack Lang
Jack Lang (Australian politician)
John Thomas Lang , usually referred to as J.T. Lang during his career, and familiarly known as "Jack" and nicknamed "The Big Fella" was an Australian politician who was Premier of New South Wales for two terms...
, who advocated repudiating Australia's debt to British bondholders (see debt moratorium
Debt moratorium
A debt moratorium is a delay in the payment of debts or obligations. The term is generally used to refer to acts by national governments. A moratory law is usually passed in some special period of political or commercial stress; for instance, on several occasions during the Franco-Prussian War,...
) and using the funds to create employment in order to increase production. This may be compared to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
." In March 1931 Anstey was dumped from the Ministry by the Labor Caucus
Caucus
A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement, especially in the United States and Canada. As the use of the term has been expanded the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures.-Origin of the term:...
for supporting the "Lang Plan."
Despite this Anstey did not follow Lang out of the Labor Party. Demoralized and cynical, he stayed on the backbench until his retirement at the 1934 election
Australian federal election, 1934
Federal elections were held in Australia on 15 September 1934. All 74 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent United Australia Party led by Prime Minister of Australia Joseph Lyons with coalition partner the Country Party led...
, when he and his wife moved to Sydney. After his wife's death he moved back to Melbourne, where he died of cancer. Ironically, he had devoted his last years to financial speculation, and had become a wealthy man.
Anstey is principally remembered as the mentor of John Curtin
John Curtin
John Joseph Curtin , Australian politician, served as the 14th Prime Minister of Australia. Labor under Curtin formed a minority government in 1941 after the crossbench consisting of two independent MPs crossed the floor in the House of Representatives, bringing down the Coalition minority...
, on whom he had a great influence in Curtin's early years. Like Curtin, he was a heavy drinker. He wrote extensive unpublished memoirs but burned them shortly before his death. It is often rumored that he burnt these papers in a drunken rage, but this is unsubstantiated. Frank Hardy
Frank Hardy
Francis Joseph Hardy, or Frank, was an Australian left-wing novelist and writer best known for his controversial novel Power Without Glory. He also was a political activist bringing the plight of Aboriginal Australians to international attention with the publication of his book, The Unlucky...
wrote in his book, The Hard Way, that Frank Anstey received a visit from John Wren
John Wren
John Wren was an Australian businessman. He has become a legendary figure thanks mainly to a fictionalised account of his life in Frank Hardy's novel Power Without Glory, which was also made into a television series...
, immortalised in his other book Power Without Glory
Power Without Glory
Power Without Glory is a 1950 novel written by Australian writer Frank Hardy. It was later adapted into a mini-series by the Australian Broadcasting Commission .- Publication :...
, who asked him to eradicate any reference to him in his memoirs, to prevent it from being an exposé of his gambling empire. Anstey railway station
Anstey railway station, Melbourne
Anstey is a railway station in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located on the Upfield line in the suburb of Brunswick. It is located in Metcard Zone 1.The station is unmanned.-Facilities:...
in Melbourne is named in his honour.