Social democracy

The choice of Dimitrov as Secretary was significant.Dimitrov had recently been accused by Hitler's government of trying to burn the Reichstag.Historians' knowledge of this significant aspect of the Seventh Congress policies is scanty.When a communist presence in the Labor Party is acknowledged it is invariably minimised.No historian of Australian Labor has understood either the depth of CPA penetration nor its origins.Within the labour movement, both the CPA and the ALP members shared a common culture.Yet on the surface, 1936 was a year in which Labor splits healed.Since 1931 two Labor Parties had existed in New South Wales.One supported the NSW-based Jack Lang and the other allied to the federal Labor Party.By 1936 a tenuous re-marriage was concluded between the two parties.