Communist Party of Australia

:This article is about the historical Communist Party of Australia, dissolved in 1991. For the current party, see Communist Party of Australia (revived)

History

In the later 1920s the party was rebuilt by Jack Kavanagh, a experienced Canadian Communist activist, and Esmonde Higgins, a talented Melbourne journalist who was the nephew of a High Court judge, H.B. Higgins. But in 1929 the party leadership fell into disfavour with the Comintern, which under orders from Stalin had taken a turn to extreme revolutionary rhetoric (the so-called "Third Period"), and an emissary, the American Communist Harry Wicks, was sent to sort the party out. Kavanagh was expelled and Higgins resigned.

Related Topics:
Jack Kavanagh - Esmonde Higgins - Melbourne - H.B. Higgins - 1929 - Comintern - Stalin - Third Period

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A new party leadership, consisting of J B (Jack) Miles, Lance Sharkey and Richard Dixon, was imposed on the party by the Comintern, and remained in control for the next 30 years. During the 1930s the party experienced some growth, particularly after 1935 when the Comintern changed its policy in favour of a "united front against fascism." The party began to win positions in trade unions such as the Miners Federation and the Waterside Workers Federation, although its parliamentary candidates nearly always polled poorly at elections.

Related Topics:
J B (Jack) Miles - Lance Sharkey - Richard Dixon - Comintern - 1935 - Fascism

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During the early stages of World War II the party was banned, but after the Soviet Union entered the war the party had a brief period of popularity. Its membership rose to 20,000, it won control of a number of important trade unions, and a Communist candidate, Fred Paterson, was elected to the Queensland parliament. But the party remained marginal to the Australian political mainstream. The Australian Labor Party remained the dominant party of the Australian working class, and always refused to enter alliances with the Communists.

Related Topics:
World War II - Soviet Union - Fred Paterson - Queensland parliament - Australian Labor Party

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After 1945 and the onset of the Cold War, the party entered a steady decline. Following the new line from Moscow, and believing that a new "imperialist war" and a new depression were imminent, and that the CPA should immediately contest for leadership of the working class with the Australian Labor Party, the CPA lauched an industrial offensive in 1947, culminating in a prolonged strike in the coalmines in 1949. The Chifley Labor government saw this as a Communist challenge to its position in the labour movement, and used the army to break the strike. The Communist Party never again held such a strong position in the union movement.

Related Topics:
1945 - Cold War - 1947 - 1949 - Chifley

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In 1951 the Menzies conservative government tried to ban the party, first by legislation that was declared invalid by the High Court, then by referendum to try to overcome the constitutional obstacles to that legislation, but the referendum was narrowly defeated. When Stalin died and Khrushchev revealed his crimes in the Secret Speech, members began to leave. More left after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. In 1961 the split between the Soviet Union and China was mirrored in Australia, with a small pro-China party being formed - the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist).

Related Topics:
1951 - Menzies - Declared invalid by the High Court - Constitutional - The referendum was narrowly defeated - Khrushchev - Secret Speech - Soviet invasion - Hungary - 1956 - 1961 - China - Pro-China - Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)

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By the 1960s the party's membership had fallen to around 5,000, but it continued to hold positions in a number of trade unions, and it was also influential in the various protest movements of the period, especially the movement against the Vietnam War. But the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 triggered another crisis. Sharkey's successor as party leader, Laurie Aarons, denounced the invasion, causing a group of pro-Soviet hardliners to leave and form a new party, the Socialist Party of Australia.

Related Topics:
Vietnam War - Invasion of Czechoslovakia - 1968 - Laurie Aarons - Socialist Party of Australia

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Through the 1970s and 1980s the party continued to decline, despite adopting the rhetoric of Eurocommunism and democratising its internal structures so that it became a looser radical party rather than a classic Marxist-Leninist one. By 1990 its membership had declined to less than a thousand, and in 1991 it was wound up. In 1996 the Socialist Party then took up the now-unused name of Communist Party of Australia (see Communist Party of Australia (revived)). This party, along with a number of small Trotskyist groups, maintains the Communist tradition in Australia, but none of these groups is of any political significance.

Related Topics:
Eurocommunism - Marxist-Leninist - 1990 - 1991 - 1996 - Communist Party of Australia (revived)

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