Visions of the future: political labour’s temporality and socialist objectives in Britain and Australia, 1918–21

Abstract

Abstract This article is a comparative study of political temporality and the concept of the ‘future’ in British Labour and Australian Labor. It deepens knowledge of how Labo(u)r’s political culture has been forged through debates over socialism, focusing on the socialist objectives of 1918 and 1921. As a result, it allows an appreciation of phenomena such as the rise of Jeremy Corbyn and ‘Corbynism’. It is focused around a reading of the major conferences of each party, as sites of power negotiation, debate and ideological creation. These sources are complemented by an extensive reading of labour newspapers and pamphlets from both countries.