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Concept
Hard left
Summary
Hard left or hard-left is a term that is used particularly in Australian and British English to describe the most radical members of a left-wing political party or political group. The term is also a noun and modifier taken to mean the far-left and the left-wing political movements and ideas outside the mainstream centre-left. The term has been used to describe wings and factions of several political parties across the world, such as the left-wing of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom and left-wing factions of the Australian Labor Party.
As with the Labor Right faction, the Labor Left faction of the Australian Labor Party is split between multiple competing sub-factions, called "fractions". These vary between state branches and in union support and affiliation.
In New South Wales, the left is split mainly between the so-called "hard" left and "soft" left. The hard left focused on a top-down executive approach on selecting candidates and was historically focused on the trade union movement and international issues, and organised around figures like Frank Walker, Arthur Gietzelt, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The soft left focused on party democracy, giving ordinary members of the ALP a voice and domestic issues, and around politicians Peter Baldwin and Jack Ferguson. Notoriously, elements of the "soft left" have often stood by more left wing values than elements of the "hard left" despite the contradicting name, for example the "hard left" supported criminalising protests whereas the "soft left" opposed this through their candidates such as protest lawyer Cameron Murphy and NSW MLC Anthony D'Adam.
In Victoria, the term "hard left" historically referred to the far-left "Tomato Left" faction, which included Bill Hartley, George Crawford, and Joan Coxsedge.
The term was first used in the context of debates within both the Labour Party and the broader left in the 1980s to describe Trotskyist groups such as the Militant tendency, Socialist Organiser and Socialist Action.
Official source
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