University of Melbourne ALP Club

The University of Melbourne Australian Labor Party Club is a political student club at the University of Melbourne. It is the oldest student political club in Australia, founded in 1925. Many members go on to be members of Parliament. It was founded to provide a means of organising students who support the Australian Labor Party. The Club has been hugely influential on the University of Melbourne Student Union, and its members have held numerous positions within it. The Club is strongly associated with the Labor Left of the Australian Labor Party. 
== History ==
The ALP Club was originally established as the Labour Club in 1925 by Lloyd Ross, Brian Fitzpatrick and Ralph Gibson. The Club grew to have 200 members, and in 1932 was the largest club on campus. In response to Communist influence on the Club, in 1934 B. A. Santamaria formed a more moderate Labour-aligned club, the Radical Club. Throughout the 1930s, the club produced a magazine Proletariat to distribute their ideas. In the 1950s, future Victorian Premier John Cain and future Opposition Leader Clyde Holding were involved in the organising of the Club. 
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the ALP Club was closely involved in the Left Alliance, a group of left-wing students that opposed the union between the Labor Club (affiliated to the Labor Right) and Liberal Club. 
In 2003, the Clubs & Societies Department of the Student Union, which had a Liberal Club and Labor Club majority, disaffiliated the ALP Club on a technicality. Despite lengthy attempts to overturn this decision, the student union was put into liquidation before the issue could be resolved. 
The Club has been affiliated to the Melbourne University Student Union (MUSU), and more recently the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU). After rebuilding throughout the early-mid 2000s, tickets for the Student Union election that had the involvement of the Club have won the majority of elections, usually under the banner of the Stand Up! ticket. 
== Politics ==
In recent history the club has been decidedly left-leaning. This is in contrast to the University of Melbourne Labor Club, who are associated with the Labor Right. The existence of two Labor/ALP Clubs simultaneously is a result of a split in the Labor Club in 1949.
Currently, the Club is aligned with the National Labor Students, the national Labor Left student faction. Prior to the formation of NLS in 2006, the club was part of Australian Labor Students (ALS), and had been part of the National Organisation of Labor Students (NOLS) prior to the split between NOLS and ALS in 1997.
In 1950, the stated goal of the club was: The A.L.P. Club, working from the basis of the A.L.P. platform, stands for the progressive reformation of society by democratic means, so as to achieve social justice for allThis goal continues to this day. The Club has previously supported campaigns for free education and free healthcare, universal student unionism, feminism and democratic socialism among other concerns. 
== Past Presidents ==
Year	President
2020	Gurpreet Singh
2019	Hannah Buchan
2018	Alice Smith
2017	Dominic Cernaz/ James Bashford
2016	Hana Dalton
2015	Nathaniel Seddon-Smith
2014	Lindsey Motteram
2013	Annalivia Carli-Hannan
2012	Anna Morrison
2011	Noni Sproule
2010	Bruno Freidel
2009	Onagh Bishop
2008	Onagh Bishop
2007	Michael Griffith
2006	Dean Rizzetti
2005	Caitlyn O'Dowd
2004	Joshua Cusack
2003	Paul Erickson
2002	Benjamin Barnett
2001	Benjamin Barnett
2000	Daniel O'Keefe
1999	Alan Black
== External Links ==
* Melbourne University ALP Club on Facebook
== References ==
Category:Student political organization
Category:Student organizations
Category:Political youth organizations
Category:Student politics
Category:Student political organizations in Australia
Category:Student political organizations in Melbourne
Category:Organizations established in 1925