Communist Party of Australia - Institution

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Following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the establishment of a Communist International, a conference was held in 1920 to form an Australian Communist Party (which broke up into two distinct camps). By the end of that decade the Communist Party of Australia was established along the lines of the Communist International, to whose line it adhered until the 1960s. The CPA criticised the Australian Labor Party and its affiliated trade unions for their failure to adopt a socialist line. The onset of the cold-war in 1945 put communism in Australia under considerable strain. The Stalinist orthodoxy was rejected by many, with the Maoist Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) formed in 1967 and the pro-Soviet Socialist Party of Australia formed in 1971. The party became more open to the ideas of the New Left, which emerged from universities, but its abandonment of a Leninist model of organising undermined its reason for existence. Its members dissolved the party in 1991.

See Alastair Davidson, The Communist Party of Australia (1969), Stuart Macintyre, The Reds (1998).

Links to documents are available below or by decade:
1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980-1991.

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Resources

Books

Women in our new world, Current Book Distributors, Sydney, 1947. Image PDF Details
Australia's way forward [extracts from the Program of the CPA, Syndey, 1964], Sydney, 1964. Image PDF Details
Towards Socialism in Australia: Program of the Communist Party of Australia, Australian Radical Publications, Sydney, 1979. Image PDF Details
What's happening in the C.P.A.? Will the Communist party split?, D. B. Young, Sydney, c1970. Image PDF Details
Aarons, Eric, Economics for workers, Newsletter Printery, Sydney, 1958. Image PDF Details
Aarons, Laurie, The people against Menzies and monopoly : Communist Party policy speech (abridged), delivered at Trades Hall Sydney, November 3rd, Communist Party of Australia, Sydney, 1961. Image PDF Details
Dixon, Richard, Defend your freedom, Current Book Distributors, Sydney, 1950, 20 pp. Image PDF Details
Dyson, Ambrose., Ambrose Dyson, Ambrose Dyson Memorial Committee. [This scan courtesy of the University of the Melbourne Library], 1953. images PDF Details
New Theatre Melbourne, 50 Years of New Theatre. Melbourne N.T. 1936-86, Melbourne, 1986, 54 pp. PDF Details
O'Lincoln, Tom, Into the mainstream: the decline of Australian Communism, Stained Wattle Press, Sydney, 1985. Image PDF Details
Orr, W and Nelson, C, Coal; the struggle of the mineworkers, Central Council Miners' Federation, 1930s?. Image PDF Details
Sharkey, Lance, The trade unions; communist theory and practice of trade unionism, Australian Communist Party, Sydney, September 1942. Image PDF Details

Book Sections

'Political Resolutions', in The Way Forward. Resolutions of the 15th Congress of the Communist Party of Australia, 1948. Image PDF Details
'On the work of CPA locality branches; Political Program for Queensland;; Committees; Party Organisers', in CPA: The Party of Australian Democratic Socialism (Queensland State Conference November 1980), Brisbane, November 1980. Image PDF Details
Communist Party of Australia Central Committee, 'Differences in the communist movement', in Differences in the communist movement: views of the Communist Party of Australia, Sydney, 1963. Image PDF Details
Gibson, R, 'Marxist study classes', in My years in the Communist Party, International Bookshop, Melbourne, 1966. PDF Details
Gibson, Ralph, 'Victory over the Hill group', in My years in the Communist Party, International Bookshop, Melbourne, 1966. Image PDF Details
Gibson, Ralph, 'My approach to Communism', in My years in the Communist Party, International Bookshop, Melbourne, 1966. Image PDF Details
Gibson, Ralph, 'Struggle against war and fascism', in My years in the Communist Party, International Bookshop, Melbourne, 1966. Image PDF Details
Gibson, Ralph, 'The 20th Congress and Hungary', in My years in the Communist Party, International Bookshop, Melbourne, 1966. Image PDF Details
Gibson, Ralph, 'The challenge of Trotskyism', in My years in the Communist Party, International Bookshop, Melbourne, 1966. Image PDF Details
Gould, L.H. [Llewellyn Henry] and W.A. Wood, 'Trotskyism--"the left claw of the fascist pincer"', in How Russia smashed its fifth column, Current Book Distributors, Sydney, c1943. Image PDF Details
Lindsay, Jack, 'Breakthrough', in Fanfrolico and after, 1962 edn, The Bodley Head, London, pp. 246-68. Details
Milner, Andrew, 'Radical Intellectuals: an unacknowledged legislature?', in Verity Burgmann and Jenny Lee (eds), Constructing a culture: a people's history of Australia since 1788, McPhee Gribble/ Penguin Books, Melbourne, 1988, pp. 259-84. PDF Details
Smith, Bernard, 'Epilogue', in Bernard Smith (ed.), Noel Counihan: artsist and revolutionary, 1993 edn, Oxford University Press, Melbourne & New York, pp. 539-46. Details
Smith, Bernard, 'Years of hope', in Noel Counihan: artsist and revolutionary, 1993 edn, Oxford University Press, Melbourne & New York, pp. 198-225. Details
Smith, Bernard, 'The realisms of war', in Noel Counihan: artist and revolutionary, 1993 edn, Oxford University Press, Melbourne & New York, pp. 180-97. Details

Cartoons

Counihan, Noel?, 'Meet my big brother', Guardian; offical organ Victorian State Committee Australian Communist Party (Melbourne), 20 February 1948. Image PDF Details
Dyson, Ambrose, 'Peace', Guardian, 2 December 1949. Image PDF Details
McClintock, Herbert, 'Welcome back Bob, I've certainly missed you', Tribune (Sydney), no. 487 (new series), 22 January 1949. Image PDF Details
McClintock, Herbert, 'Truth of socialist achievement', Tribune (Sydney), no. 513 (new series), 27 April 1949. Image PDF Details

Constitutions

Constitution of the Communist Party of Australia 1943, 1943. Image PDF Details

Fliers

Peace and trade with Asia, Vote Communist 1, 1954?. Details
Not wanted, United to defeat Menzies, 1954?. Image PDF Details
Communist Party of Australia, Soldiers' Guardian: Unite! Fight for Independence and Victory!, Freedom Printing and Publishing Company/ Communist Party of Australia, Melbourne, 1940s, 1 pp. PDF Details
Communist Party of Australia, Workers Unite!, c 1940s, 1 pp. images PDF Details
Flanagan, B., Unity Proposals for a Labor Government, Authorised by B. Flanagan; Printed by Fraser and Jenkinson Pty Ltd, 341-5 Queen St, Melbourne., Melbourne, 1941, 1 pp. PDF Details

Journals

Australian New Writing, no. 1, Current Book Distributors, Sydney, 1943, 4-80 pp. PDF Details
Baracchi, Guido (ed.), Proletarian Review, 1920-1922. Image PDF Details

Journal Articles

'Condemn no communist unheard - and that includes Hill', International - organ of the Australian Section of the Fourth International (Sydney), no. 23, 15 March 1962. Image PDF Details
'Why there cannot be unity with modern revisionists', The Australian Communist; a journal of Marxist-Leninism, no. 20, May 1966. Image PDF Details
Blake, J.D. [under psudonym F.Kelso], 'Ideological political struggle', Review; organ of theory and practice of the A.C.P., no. 3, Febuary 1951. Image PDF Details
Gillett, Judy, 'Is there room for us all under the umbrella', Join hands; a journal of women, liberation and socialism, August 1972. Image PDF Details
Henry, J.C., 'All for the fighting fund (a report to the Central Committee meeting, 18-20, 1949)', Communist Review, April 1949. Image PDF Details
Hill, E.F., 'The Party as the inheritor of socialist trends in the Victorian Labor Movement', Communist Review, August 1945. Image PDF Details
Hill, E.F., 'Democratic centralism and revisionism', Australian Communist, c1963. Image PDF Details
Miles, J.B, 'Art for the people', Communist Review, August, Central Committee Communist Party of Australia, Sydney, 1948, pp. 260-1. Image PDF Details
O'Connor, Vic, 'A criticism of Adelaide's "Angry Penguins"', Communist Review, August, Central Committee Communist Party of Australia, Sydney, 1944, pp. 302-3. Image PDF Details

Manuscripts

Unidentified typescript including "Unity for Victory" and "Wage a People's War Against Hitler", 1940s. PDF Details

Newsletters

Workers' voice; bulletin of the industrial committee of the Communist Party, vol. 1, September 1979. Image PDF Details
Communist Soldiers' Committee, Soldiers' Guardian: Published by the Communist Soldiers' Committee, Place of publication not identified, 1940s, 8 pp. PDF Details

Newspapers

Communists in the Fighting Services (ed.), Citizen Soldier: Published by Communists in the Fighting Services, vol. 2, no. 2, Communists in the Fighting Services, Sydney, 21 August, 1942, 6 pp. PDF Details

Newspaper Articles

'Why the toiler', Toiler (Brisbane), 25 October 1924. Image PDF Details
'How Labour Government persecute unemployed', Toiler (Brisbane), 25 October 1924. Image PDF Details
'At last! A step forward. Militants form a left wing movement', Toiler (Brisbane), 1 December 1924. Image PDF Details
'Aboriginals: ruthlessly exploited', Workers' Weekly, Communist Party of Australia, Sydney, 16 May 1930. Transcript HTML Transcript PDF Details
'New South Wales State Conference of Unemployed Workers' Movement', Workers' Weekly (Sydney), 31 July 1931. Image PDF Details
'March 8 is International Women's Day', Worker's Weekly, Community Party of Australia, Sydney, 6 March 1931. Image PDF Details
'Aborigines. Darwin U.W.M. Will Fight for Justice', Workers' Weekly, Communist Party of Australia, Sydney, 6 November 1931. Transcript HTML Transcript PDF Details
'Communist Party's Rights for Aborigines Draft Program of Struggle against Slavery', Workers' Weekly, Communist Party of Australia, Sydney, 24 September 1931. Transcript HTML Transcript PDF Details
'Legality won for the Communist Party', North Queensland Guardian, 8 January 1943. PDF Details
'Brisbane May Day celebrations great demonstration for unity', North Queensland Guardian, 7 May 1943. Image PDF Details
'Big increase in communist vote', Guardian (Offical organ Victorian State Committee Communist Party of Australia) (Melbourne), 16 June 1943. Image PDF Details
'Unity Vital for Labour Victory in Federal Elections', North Queensland Guardian, vol. 1, no. 19, 14 May 1943. Image PDF Details
'Women's Employment Board rates demanded at mass meeting', North Queensland Guardian, 16 July 1943. Image PDF Details
'Land armies must join air forces to smash Axis Powers in Europe', North Queensland Guardian, 11 June 1943. Image PDF Details
'Labor unity spells victory; why Communist Party seeks ALP affiliation', Guardian; offical organ Victorian State Committee Australian Communist Party (Melbourne), no. 127, 4 February 1944. Image PDF Details
'Why we seek unity with Labor Party', Guardian; offical organ Victorian State Committee Australian Communist Party (Melbourne), no. 1944, 28 January 1944. Image PDF Details
'Communist-Labor affiliation; will guarantee promise of Teheran Pact', Guardian; offical organ Victorian State Committee Australian Communist Party (Melbourne), no. 133, 17 March 1944. Image PDF Details
'First Communist MLA: Paterson wins Bowen', Tribune (Sydney), no. 47 (New series), 20 April 1944. Image PDF Details
'Allies mass 2 million to link with Red Army', Tribune (Sydney), 8 March 1945. Image PDF Details
'Housewives' Rally in Stirring Peace Call', Tribune, 8 June 1949. Image PDF Details
'World's leading intellectuals appeal to Australians: "Unite for Peace"', Guardian, 20 May 1949. Image PDF Details
'Program for peace, plenty, independence of Australia: communist Senate manifesto', Guardian (Offical organ Victorian State Committee Communist Party of Australia) (Melbourne), 11 November 1949. Image PDF Details
'U.S. Launched Invasion of Korea; Press Blacks Out Truth, To Drag Us In', Guardian, 20 May 1949. Image PDF Details
'KMT's downfall - New Chinese Gvt. this year', Tribune (Sydney), no. 487 (new series), 22 January 1949. Image PDF Details
'Aboriginal strikers in WA seized at revolver point, put in chains', Tribune, 1949. Transcript HTML Transcript PDF Details
'Peace movement gathers way; plans for congress on April 16', 15 March 1950. Image PDF Details
'Australian Peace Congress Greeted by Famous World Figures', Tribune, 29 March 1950. Image PDF Details
'Stop War against Korea End 'Blood Loan' Plot', Tribune, 12 August 1950. PDF Details
'Peace Movement Broadened by Students, Ex-Servicemen', Tribune, 1 Febuary 1950. Image PDF Details
'Brisbane people take action on Maralinga bomb tests', Brisbane Guardian, Frank Marriot at Coronation Print, Brisbane, 27 September 1957. Image PDF Details
Carey, Kit, 'Aborigines and democracy', Communist Review, February 1945. Transcript HTML Transcript PDF Details
Gould, L.H., 'Intellectuals and the party', Communist Review, October 1944. Image PDF Details
H.J.M., 'Slave Labor - imagined and real', Workers' Weekly, Communist Party of Australia, Sydney, 11 September 1931. Transcript HTML Transcript PDF Details
James, Hannah, 'The problem of the Aborigines', Communist Review, April 1945, pp. 234-235. Transcript HTML Transcript PDF Details
Wright, T, 'Fight for the Aborigines (Report to Central Committee meeting, 14-16 February, 1947)', Communist Review, April 1947. Transcript HTML Transcript PDF Details

Pamphlets

Ballot-Riggers at Work! Defend the Unions, Communist Party of Australia, 1953, 22 pp. PDF Details
Communist election manifesto, R. Shayler, Gray and Frew, Melbourne, 1931. Image PDF Details
A great day for the Australian Labor Movement, 1942. Image PDF Details
Stick together, Central Brisbane District Committee Communist Party, Brisbane, 1943. Image PDF Details
The present and the future demand more child care facilities, Women's Committee Australian Communist Party (Qld), Brisbane, February 1944. Image PDF Details
What future?, Jobs, home, peace, H.B. Chandler, Coronation Print, Brisbane, 1946. Image PDF Details
Police thuggery in Brisbane, Central Rail Disputes Committee, Brisbane, 1948. Image PDF Details
Politicians--NOT a court---can decide that---YOU are a communist, if the referendum on September 22 is passed, 1950. Image PDF Details
The truth about Korea, A. Robinson at Coronation Print, Brisbane, 4 July 1950. Image PDF Details
This Menzies Bill can put you in jail!, 1950. Image PDF Details
Australian Peace Congress Programme, 1950. Image PDF Details
You can be shot on suspicion if the High Court upholds Anti-Communist Act, Demand the repeal of the anti-democratic Communist Party Dissolution Act, Newsletter Printery, Forest Lodge, 1950. Image PDF Details
Why not a referendum on prices?, Worker Print, Brisbane, 1951. Image PDF Details
Say no to Menzies' power grab, Coronation Print, Sydney, 1951. Image PDF Details
March for peace, Coronation Press, Brisbane, 1952. Image PDF Details
Menzies Concocted Spy Plot, A Bobinson at Coronation Printery, Brisbane, 1954. Image PDF Details
Strengthen the fight against Menzies' men - all brands, Communist Party State Program, W.H. Tregear, Melbourne, 1955. Image PDF Details
Appeal fo women electors, Industrial Print, Melbourne, 1958. Image PDF Details
Demand summit talks now, E.A. Bacon at Coronation Print, Brisbane, 14 July 1958. Image PDF Details
10,000,000 loan now, For Brisbane's sewerage, W. Bowden at Coronation Print, Brisbane, 1961. Image PDF Details
For peace, jobs, homes, democracy, Fight monpoly, defeat the Menzies Government, D.B. Young, Sydney, 1961. Image PDF Details
Defend world peace, Act now against US threat to humanity, E.A. Bacon at Coronation Print, Brisbane, 25 October 1962. Image PDF Details
Peace forces precent Cuba invasion, Defend world peace, E.A. Bacon at Coronation Print, Brisbane, 6 November 1962. Image PDF Details
What are they doing to Queensland? A record of a guilty government., Brisbane, 1962. Image PDF Details
March with your mates on May Day, Newsletter Printery, Sydney, 1963. Image PDF Details
Vote for communist candidates, 1966. Image PDF Details
Full Human Rights for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders; a prorgam adopted by the 21st Congress of the Communist Party of Australia, June 1967, D.B. Young, Sydney, 1967. Image PDF Details
Communist Film Group, 1972. Image PDF Details
Equal Wages Equal Power, 1972-5(?). Image PDF Details
1920 / 1980 Sixty Years of Struggle for Socialism, Communists and the Labour Movement, National Conference, Melbourne, August 22-24, 1980. Image PDF Details
Communist Party of Australia, Melbourne, 1982. Image PDF Details
Statement from a general meeting of Victorian members of the Communist Party of Australia, Melbourne, 1984?. Image PDF Details
Issued for the workers at the Brisbane Abattoir, Brisbane, c1946. Image PDF Details
For a socialist democracy, c1976. Image PDF Details
Housewives - A Meaty Problem, R.D. Gentle, Brisbane, n.d. Image PDF Details
Aarons, Laurie, Party of the Working Class: Organisational Principles and Methods of Work of the Communist Party of Australia, Current Book Distributors, Sydney, July 1959, 39 pp. Image PDF Details
Blake, J.D., The great coal strike of 1949, Newsletter Printery, Sydney, August 1949. Image PDF Details
Campbell, E.W., Hands off Korea!, Authorised by A. Ogston, 93 Sussex St Sydney; Printed by D. Andrews, 288 King Street, Newtown., Sydney, 1950s, 8 pp. PDF Details
Communist Party of Australia, Communist Party Program for the Soldiers, Beaufort Press/ Communist Party of Australia, Sydney, 1940s, 2 pp. PDF Details
Communist Party of Australia, Constitution of the Communist Party of Australia: Section of the Communist International, Sydney, 1942, 10 pp. PDF Details
Communist Party of Australia, How to Organise: Branch Organisation and Work, Dimitrov Press/ Communist Party of Australia, Sydney, c 1940s, 8 pp. PDF Details
Communist Party of Australia Central Committee, Differences in the Communist Movement: Views of the Communist Party of Australia, [full pamphlet], Water damage on original, Current Book Distributors, Sydney, 1963, 26 pp. PDF Details
Communist Party of Australia Goulburn Branch, Eureka, Editorial, 1971. Image PDF Details
Communist Party of Victoria Soldiers' Welfare Committee, The Communist Party Speaks to ... The Army: Including the Communist Party Programme for Soldiers, Mebourne, 1940s, 4 pp. PDF Details
Crawford, R.M., The Internment of Horace Ratliff and Max Thomas, Australian Council for Civil Liberties, Melbourne, 1941, 1 pp. PDF Details
Henry, J. C., 25 years of the Australian Communist Party, Central Committee Australian Communist Party, Sydney, October 1945. Image PDF Details
Hill, E.F., Defeat Menzies' Fascist Bill, A communist publication, R.Brett, Melbourne, 1950. Image PDF Details
Hill, E.F., The Petrov Conspiracy, 1954. Image PDF Details
Lovegrove, D, Communists and the War, Labor Call Print, 1942. Image PDF Details
Miles, J.B., Communist Leader Speaks: Full Report of Speech by J.B. Miles General Secretary of the Communist Party of Australia, Delivered at and Broadcast from a Mighty Demonstration at Sydney Town Hall on June 22, 1942 to celebrate the Frist Anniversary of the Soviet Union's Fight for Democracy, Sydney, 1942, 10 pp. PDF Details
Miles, J.B. (Jack), Work among women, How to organise series no. 6, Marx House, Sydney, 20 November 1943. Image PDF Details
Sharkey, Lawrence, Australian Communist and Soviet Russia, Current Book Distributors, Sydney, 1947. Image PDF Details
Sharkey, Lawrence Louis, Socialism in Australia: Communist View on Democratic Socialism, Current Book Distributors, 1957, 26 pp. PDF Details
Thomas, Pete, Petrov stunt backfires, Current Book Distributors, Sydney, 1954. Image PDF Details
Varga, E., Changes in Capitalism During the War, With introduction by "Aussie"; reprinted from "International Review", May 1941, The Spartacus Press for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Australia, Sydney, August, 10 pp. PDF Details
Watson, G.R., Issued for the workers at the Brisbane abattoir, Brisbane, c1950. Image PDF Details
Wood, W. A., The Life Story of L. L. Sharkey: Fighter for Freedom, Current Book Distributors, Sydney, 1950. Image PDF Details

Policy Statements

Join Hands, A Journal of Women, Liberation and Socialism, The Left Challenge for the 'Seventies, a policy statement adopted for the 23rd congress of the Communist Party of Australia, April 1972, 1972. Image PDF Details

Posters

All over the world people march for May Day, Newsletter Printery, Sydney, 1962. Image PDF Details
There's a place for YOU in Australia's 75th anniversary May Day march, Newsletter Printery, Sydney, 1966. Image PDF Details
Counihan, Noel, Sack Bolte Instead, G. Bird, Melbourne, 1961. Image PDF Details

Programs

Foundations of Leninism: 6 Lessons, 1960s, 2 pp. PDF Details
Foundations of Leninism, 1960s, 1 pp. PDF Details

Short Stories

Prichard, Katherine Susannah, 'Communists are always young', in N’Goola and other stories, 1959 edn, Australasian Book Society, Melbourne, pp. 125-9. Details

Online Resources

Cahill, Rowan, Rupert Lockwood (1908-1997): Journalist, Communist, Intellectual, School of History and Politics, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, 460 pp, http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/3942/. Details
Cottle, Drew, 'How Australia Failed to Destroy Communism', Article published on the website of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Sydney, 2016, https://www.labourhistory.org.au/hummer/the-hummer-vol-10-no-1-2015/australia-failed/. Details

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Communist Party of Australia (1920 - 1991)