Frank Salter

The National Alliance was formed in January 1978 in Sydney, and established branches in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Newcastle, and Adelaide. Its full name was Australian National Alliance. It was originally run by a three person Directorate, Frank Salter (National Secretary), Myles Ormsby, and one other (the third party to the Directorate was changed on several occasions). Frank Salter became the party's first National Chairman in December 1979. [1]

The National Alliance invoked a labour-nationalist tradition as the basis of its White Australia republicanism, advocated a policy of armed neutrality, and flew the Eureka Flag. The anti-Russia propaganda of the then Liberal Party's coalition government (led by Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser) was denounced as an "anti-Soviet hate campaign", ANA accusing Australia's politicians of being subservient to an unofficial alliance of political interest (directed against the Soviet Union) between the USA, China, and Japan - with ANA pointing out that the then potential war between Russia and China had "racial undertones". [2]

The organisation opposed Asian immigration, and ran a long campaign against accepting Vietnamese refugees into Australia. The ANA published the magazine Audacity, opened an office in the Sydney central business district, and built a basic national structure in its first two years of operations. It was critical of the establishment in Australia of a local National Front, drawing attention to the distinction between the NF in Australia, which was pro-monarchy and pro-British Commonwealth, and ANA, which was republican. [3]

In June 1979, Frank Salter contested the Grayndler by-election and received 863 votes (1.64%); ANA issued election posters in Italian and Greek - a tactic that had never before been utilised by any other anti-immigration, pro-White Australia organisation. Salter was later led into involving ANA in various enterprises in 1979-80 (including moving from the original office to expensive office premises in Kings Cross), which resulted in the effective bankrupting of the organisation. The June 1980 edition of the party's internal bulletin, Alliance News, published Frank Salter's resignation as ANA's Chairman, due to combined university and work committments; although, in his thesis "The Other Radicalism", James Saleam writes that Salter had sought to "water down" the anti-U.S., labour-nationalist, and militant references so as not to "confuse" new recruits, but that this course was rejected by leading activists, and so he resigned (however, it is quite possible that Salter resigned for both reasons). After Frank Salter's resignation, the ANA was run by a Sydney-based committee (consisting primarily of Eddie Azzopardi, Pat Leyman, and Jim Saleam). However, the combination of internal division and financial loss had dealt a major blow to the party, and thus the fortunes of the group declined. The reduced organisation went on to contest the seat of Parramatta, with Jim Saleam as candidate, in the October 1980 federal election (1248 votes: 1.81%); however, the organisation's future seemed somewhat shaky. [4]

In April 1981, the National Alliance amalgamated with the Immigration Control Association (including the ICA's electoral organisation, the Progressive Conservative Party) to form the Progressive Nationalist Party. This amalgamation had the benefit of bringing together the young activists of National Alliance (keeping their basic ideology and membership intact) with the well-organised national anti-immigration forces of the ICA. [5]