The Workers Defence Corps (WDC) was an Australian communist paramilitary organisation during the Great Depression.
[3][1] The WDC was based on similar organisations formed in Britain during the 1926 United Kingdom general strike by the Communist Party of Great Britain for protecting picket lines from police and paramilitaries, which the WDC also undertook.
[3][4][5] The organisation was first active in 1929 during the Northern Coalfields lockout, where it was used to coerce strikebreakers and defend picket lines from police.
[3][4] The WDC is most notable for its clashes with the New Guard, but also engaged in bank robberies and reprisals against police officers.
[6] The WDC saw itself as a Red Army that would eventually lead a nationwide Communist revolution.