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)

Legacy

Despite its usually peripheral role in Australian politics and its ultimate failure, the Communist Party had an influence far beyond its numbers. From 1935 to the 1960s it occupied leadership positions in a number of important trade unions, and was at centre of many major industrial conflicts. Many of its members played leading roles in Australian cultural life, such as the novelists Katharine Pritchard, Judah Waten and Alan Marshall, the painter Noel Counihan and the poet David Martin.

Related Topics:
1935 - Katharine Pritchard - Judah Waten - Alan Marshall - Noel Counihan - David Martin

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In some ways the negative influence of the Communist Party was more important than anything the party itself did. Conservative politicians such as Stanley Bruce in the 1920s and Robert Menzies in the 1950s won elections by linking the Labor Party with Communism. In the early 1950s Catholics in the Labor Party were led by hatred of Communism to form "Industrial Groups" to combat Communist influence in the unions. This led in 1954 to a party split and the formation of the Democratic Labor Party, which used its second preferences at elections to keep the ALP out of power.

Related Topics:
Stanley Bruce - Robert Menzies - 1954 - Democratic Labor Party - Second preferences

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Communist Party and its members campaigned for many years for causes such as improved conditions for industrial workers, opposition to fascist and other dictatorships, equal rights for women and civil rights for the Aboriginal people. It achieved some successes in these areas, and many of its positions were later taken up by the political mainstream. But the party never succeeded in persuading many people that Communism was the answer to these problems. Against these achievements must be set the party's long history as an apologist for Stalin's regime in the Soviet Union. It was revulsion against this which led most of the party's best members to leave sooner or later.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~