Julia Gillard

Julia Gillard

Julia Gillard is a former Labor Party Prime Minister of Australia.

Australian Fabian Society

Gillard is a member of the Australian Fabian Society.

Socialist Forum

Socialist advisor

Socialist Forum members Mark Burford (author of a 1983 article in the Journal of Political Economy called ‘Prices and Incomes Policy and Socialist Politics’, which argued that ‘socialists in the labour movement’ must support the Accord ‘as a policy that indeed has socialist components’, using it to pursue ‘socialist aims in the Australian setting’; later a senior administrator in the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet under Jeff Kennett and Steve Bracks, and an advisor to Julia Gillard; now a management consultant at Nous Group, and a board member of the ‘progressive’ think-tank Centre for Policy Development)

Public Officer

1988 Socialist Forum AGM

• Trade Unions - The Next Three Years Laurie Carmichael

• Launch of Pamphlet Series by Brian Howe - Brian Howe, Race Mathews

• Dennis Altman with Senator Bob McMullan

• Julia Gillard and Gerry Kitchener

• Max Ogden

• Caroline Hogg

Socialist Forum comrades

Socialist Forum AGM November 25, 1987.

Present Ross Adamson, John Alford, Margaret Davies, Pier De Carlo, Peter Dyer, Lesley Ebbels, Liz Fyfe, Julia Gillard, Bruce Hartnett, Philip Hind, Jane Hollingshead, Vern Hughes, Gerry Kitchener, Max Lorkin, John Mathews, Rivkah Mathews, Bette Moore, Phil O'Donoghue, Max Ogden, Harry Parsons, Steve Prytz, Julia Pullen, Candy Strahan, Hal Swerissen, Bernie Taft, Mark Taft, Michael White, Lindsay Woods, Trudy Wyse.

Apologies Arthur Apted, Mark Burford, Sarah Charlesworth, Dave Davies, Leigh Hocking, Sue Mathews, Gerard Mullaly, Elizabeth Parsons, Rob Reid Smith, Linda Rubinstein, Meredith Sussex, Col Sutherland.

Membership of the Socialist Forum

In the run-up to the 2007 Australian elections, then ALP deputy leader Gillard was the centre of controversy, after then Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello exposed her past ties to to a Communist Party of Australia-linked organisation, Socialist Forum. On 17 October 2009, Gillard was interviewed by ABC journalist Tony Jones. Jones queried Gillard on Costello's allegations. Below is an excerpt from the interview:

Jones: "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?"

Gillard: "(Laughs) Tony, I think that question shows how silly all of this is getting, though I suspect in this interview, probably the Howard Government would think you're the dangerous radical. After all, I'm only from the Labor Party, you're from the ABC."

Jones: "Well look, seriously, Peter Costello has thrown this out. Let's deal with it properly. What's the Socialist Forum? Were you an organiser for it? And when did that happen, if you were?"

Gillard: "Tony, it's 2007 and I'm a 46-year-old woman. What Peter Costello is referring to is more than 20 years ago when I was in my 20s. I was a full-time university student and I had a part-time job for an organisation called Socialist Forum, which was a sort of debating society. It ultimately amalgamated with the Fabian society, which of course is a long-running ideas and debating group in Australian politics and indeed in British politics before Australian politics. I've worked in the cleric and administrative work."

Jones: "It wasn't a front organisation for Communists?"

Gillard: "Certainly not. It was an organisation where people who identified themselves as progressives, some in the Labor Party, some outside the Labor Party, would come together and would talk about ideas. I did clerical and administrative work, Tony. This is so long ago. It's the days before modern computers and the internet, in the days where if you wanted to put out a meeting notice to people you wouldn't send an email, you'd get out an envelope and put it in your IBM electric typewriter and type up the address and then get the next one. That's the sort of thing I used to do."

During her time as a member of the Socialist Forum, Gillard acted as its public officer, secretary, and legal adviser on the drafting of its constitution. In a pamphlet from the mid-1980s, Ms Gillard described herself as a "socialist and a feminist" and someone who joined the ALP at 16. The pamphlet also stated that, of the 200-plus member forum, approximately 45 were mebers of the Communist Party of Australia and about 80 were members of the Australian Labor Party.

Center for American Progress, 2013

Julia Gillard, Justin Trudeau, Madeleine Albright, John Podesta.