ABSTRACT
The Australian labour movement was also analysed and found to be very backward indeed. As far as the contributors to Neue Zeit were concerned, opportunism and petty reformist policies that focused on demands for higher wages and shorter working hours were not likely to free the working class from its chains. They thought the Australian labour movement proved that a non-revolutionary Marxist labour movement would never do more than pick up a few crumbs that fell from the tables of the capitalists. An active, vigorous and intelligent proletariat is the first requisite for a socialist movement. Such a class does not as yet exist in Australia. The reason why all movements have been simply reform movements can thus be readily understood. Australia was first settled in 1788 as a penal settlement. This early settlement is perhaps as good an example of state-socialism as history affords.
