R.A. Howard, “A Real Alternative,” freeEnterprise, December 1974-January 1975, (vol. 1, no. 10), p. 1.
[Thanks to the still political Maureen Nathan for access to her archives.]

Maybe we’re suicidal, but there it is: the Workers Party, with a platform that is as consistent as we know how to make it.

We hope you like it and we hope you take it into your life and nurture and encourage it as if it was your own child, because before we are through, it’s going to need it. We didn’t expect much applause for our efforts and we were right, but if we can find enough encouragement and support from our friends then that won’t matter. We’ll win anyway.

For those of us who have been fighting for the Objectivist-Ayn Rand philosophy, and more generally for libertarianism, Saturday night, January 25 was a beautiful night, and the Workers Party is something we are very proud of. Longtime fighters, Patrick Brookes and Merilyn Giesekam, later friends Ramon Barros and Mark Tier, Maureen Nathan and Jan Thompson — these are the people, along with yours truly here, who represented the freeEnterprise group in the formation of the new party. And we all made sure that it was at least launched with proper ceremony that night.

One thing that has become obvious during the preparation for the beginning is that businessmen with the moral courage to stand up and be counted are few and far between. John Singleton and Lang Hancock are two such men. Most of the others we spoke with will wait and see whether we become respectable before they join. Which is a bit of a chicken and egg situation because their joining could make us respectable anyway. So far they have only reminded me of a man aboard a sinking ship turning down a place in a lifeboat because he doesn’t want to make the sharks angry by denying them a feed.

Dr John Whiting and Dr Duncan Yuille are another two men who have demonstrated their moral courage before. Dr Whiting has publicly taken on most of our sacred cows — notably the Repatriation Department, via his book Be In It, Mate. The rest he took on in Wake Up, Mate and through his association with Duncan Yuille, with the GP’s Society. As Secretary of the Society, Duncan Yuille has had a lot of experience in catching flak, and in provoking the gunners. (It should be mentioned here that both John and Duncan have resigned from their executive positions in the GP’s Society so as to be free to work in the Workers Party, and that the Society has no connection with the Party at all, although we in the Party believe in what the Society is doing.)

We had hoped to mail to certain people that we know (amongst them all freeEnterprise subscribers) copies of the Party platform just prior to the launch date. It was perhaps ironical that because of printing delays caused by the NSW powermen’s strike we weren’t able to do so. However, I hope you have, one way or another, received a copy of the platform by now.

Which brings me to the most important part of what I have to say: I urge you to be just an interested spectator at this fight. Work for us. The prize is your life, your way.

You can help us in many ways. Money, of course, is of crucial importance, particularly in these early, difficult stages. Join the Party, donate if you can, work on your friends. If you sit down and think about the people you know — family, friends, business acquaintances, hairdressers, grocers, milkmen, teachers … you will be surprised at the opportunities that exist.

Just as important is the promotion of our ideas and we are sorry we couldn’t have made the fight a bit easier for you by leaving all those undesirables like drugs, immigration, non-compulsory schooling, censorship etc. out of the platform, but we were feeling devilish! Perhaps better than anyone else, however, we know the difficulties in promoting the platform, but it has to be done. We’ve been sick a long time, and there’s no easy cure. TANSTAAFL!

Membership is what is going to count as far as the other political parties are concerned. As professional numbers men, votes are the only thing in the final analysis, that they are worried about. If we can get the numbers they have to take us seriously, so give that one some thought.

Let’s not commit suicide in Australia slowly over the next five years, and let’s not kid ourselves that the Liberal-Country Parties or the Labor Party promise us anything but that. The growth of Government control and regulation, slow though it may be, does have a logical conclusion — totalitarianism.

Robert P. Baker once said that: “the cause of freedom may well be lost before men realise that it is worth fighting for.” We in the Workers Party believe it’s worth the fight. Why not join us?

(For those who can make it, the Workers Party holds public meetings every Monday night, 6 p.m. at the Koala Motor Inn, Oxford Square, Oxford Street, Sydney. All are welcome and entrance is free.)