Jim Cairns (1914–2003)

Second (revised) edition - paperback. After falling from government, Jim Cairn shared his frustration with bureaucracy and the political process to affect real change in people's lives: "Frequently I have become very depressed at my inability to correct what is sometimes a small injustice. Over the years, I have had to give up hundreds of cases of injustice because, even from the position of Deputy Prime Minister, I have not been able to order or persuade some part of the bureaucracy to correct injustice. I am conscious of the fault that grow in me of a willingness to give up without fighting hard enough. but the vital thing is to say to my friends and to those who believe in what I believe in 'Never give up the struggle.'"… (mais)

First edition - paper back. Written on the verge of the ALP's historic 1972 federal election victory, Jim Cairns forecast that a Labor government would inevitably find its power to implement social change seriously circumscribed by an entrenched capitalist hegemony. Encouraged by the example of the Moratorium movement, he had flagged his belief that the quest for socialism must shift emphasis away from centralised state power and political reformism to grass roots activity directed at nurturing a counter hegemony to capitalism.… (mais)