BA Santamaria was a political activist and traditionalist Catholic layman prominent in public affairs in 20th century Australia. He was a key figure in the disastrous split in the Australian Labor Party in 1954. This companion volume to Your Most Obedient Servant: BA Santamaria, Selected Letters: 1938-1996 is a selection from the documents he produced while working for the organisations he ran. These documents, unlike the many talks, articles and pamphlets he produced during his lifetime, have not previously appeared in the public realm.
The documents published here emanate from the five Catholic bodies he worked for and headed during his lifetime, the most important of which was the Movement. The Movement was an underground organisation which couldn't be named in public; it was known colloquially to its members as the Show. Bob Santamaria superintended all this – for many decades he was the supremo running the Show.
A hundred documents have been selected which cover his main activities, which reveal new angles on his strategies, and which throw light on the general principles which informed his various activities. These documents reveal new material on matters which are still the subject of controversy today.
