Members who were later prominent included John Curtin (Prime Minister of Australia 1941–45), Frank Anstey (a federal Labor MP 1910–34), Maurice Blackburn (a federal MP 1934–43), Don Cameron (a Senator 1938–1962), Fred Katz (a Senator 1947–1951),[1] and John Cain (three times Premier of Victoria).
[2] By 1921, after the foundation of the Communist Party of Australia, the then secretary Robert Ross advocated a eugenicist stance, stating to 'keep your races pure'.
[2] The VSP did not primarily contest parliamentary elections, seeing itself mainly as a force for socialist education in the wider Labor movement.
[3] These included more mainstream activities such as "regular lectures on political topics, speakers classes, the writing and distribution of radical literature, and public protest" to more eccentric such as "dances, camps, bicycle riding clubs, choirs, a Sunday School for youth".
"The labour movement's championing of democratic rights and improved standards of life has so altered the Australian environment as to make Bolshevism inapplicable," he wrote.