Australia First Movement

Not to be confused with theAustralia First Party.

Australia First Movement

Abbreviation	AFM
Formation	October 1941(October 1941)
Dissolved	1940s
Type	Political organisation
Legal status	Defunct
Headquarters	Sydney,New South Wales
Region served	Australia
Official language	English
Main organ	•The Publicist

TheAustralia First Movement(AFM) was afascistmovement, founded in October 1941.It grew out of theRationalist Association of New South Walesand theVictorian Socialist Party,and was led by formerRhodes scholarPercy StephensenandAdela Pankhurst.It has been alleged that writerMiles Franklinwas also involved in the AFM, as she attended three AFM public meetings in December 1941, and had long time literary associations and friendships with Stephenson, Herbert and Dark. However, historian Jill Roe has documented Franklin's clear opposition to the political views of the AFM in her 2008 biography of Stella Miles Franklin. The AFM was inspired by the activities of retired businessmanWilliam John Miles,who had campaigned during the 1930s under the "Australia First" slogan.

Between 1936 and 1942, Miles published 16 volumes of a newsletter titledThe Publicist,to which he contributed.He was a leading member of the Rationalist Association, and usedThe Publicistas his mouthpiece.Before 1939, it described itself as being "for national socialism" and "for Aryanism; against semitism".In January 1942, the ailing Miles transferred editorship ofThe Publicistto his co-author Stephensen, and had no involvement in the Australia First Movement, dying later that year.

The Australia First Movement has been characterised asanti-Semitic,anti-war and pro-isolationist, and advocated Australia's independence from theBritish Empire.It attracted the support of theCatholicweekly,The Advocate,as well as theOdinistAlexander Rud Mills.By 1938, those who were later associated with the Australia First Movement were advocating a political alliance with theAxis powersofGermany,ItalyandJapan.A number of members came from a far-left background: Stephensen, Pankhurst and Walsh were formerCommunists.

In March 1942, four members of the Australia First Movement in Perth, and sixteen in Sydney, were arrested, based on the suspicion that they would provide help to Japanese invaders.Two were convicted of conspiring toassist the enemy,and others were interned for the duration of the war.Adela Pankhurst,of the famoussuffragettefamily, had visited Japan in 1939 and was arrested and interned in 1942 for her advocacy of peace with Japan.In hisofficial historyof Australian involvement in theSecond World War,Paul Hasluckcriticised those internments as the "grossest infringement of individual liberty made during the war".

See also

• New Guard
• Centre Party
• Far-right politics in Australia

Further reading

• Muirden, Bruce (1968).The Puzzled Patriots: The Story of the Australia First Movement.Melbourne University Press.ISBN9780522839074.
• Winter, Barbara (2005).The Australia First Movement.Interactive Publications.ISBN978-1-876819-91-0.