Group linked to Soviets got GetUp! going with its David Hicks campaign, by Brad Norington.

The first big campaign run by GetUp! — to free David Hicks from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay — received funding from a communist-backed organisation with close links to the former Soviet Union.

The Australia USSR Friendship Association gave GetUp! at least $10,000 in 2006 to help pay for newspaper ads that backed the then fledgling activist group’s “Bring David Hicks Home” campaign.

The ads were authorised publicly by GetUp! and did not mention the friendship association or other donors, which preferred to use GetUp! as the public brand. …

With GetUp! consistently ­refusing to identify early donors, Mr Sharkey’s upfront confirmation of support is the first time details of how the Hicks campaign was funded have been released. …

The biggest donor to GetUp! in its 12-year history is the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, which donated $1.12 million to fund a TV advertisement attacking Tony Abbott’s alleged “archaic” views of women during the 2010 election campaign. GetUp! authorised the ad when it aired nationally, and no mention of the CFMEU was made until a later funding disclosure. …

GetUp! national director Paul Oosting and his predecessors have consistently maintained that GetUp! is “fiercely independent”, “sets its own agenda”, and does “not accept funding from political parties”. They have promoted GetUp! as a grassroots advocacy organisation mainly funded by small donors that “aims to build a more progressive Australia”.

But Getup! does receive a slew of big donations every year from individuals and organisations. …

Since then, the association has made further donations to GetUp! with donations of $5000 in 2010, at least $5000 and possibly more in 2015, $10,000 in 2016, and $3000 so far this year.

SJWs on history: Soviet Union good, prominent white guys like Robert E. Lee or Captain Cook bad. I can just imagine the talk at PC dinner parties this weekend.

hat-tip Stephen Neil