HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an
Australian political party The politics of Australia has a mild two-party system, with two dominant political groupings in the Australian political system, the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal/National Coalition. Federally, 16 of the 151 members of the lower house ...
founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membership and influence having been in a steady decline since its peak in 1945. Like most
communist parties A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
in the west, the party was heavily involved in the labour movement and the
trade unions A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...
. Its membership, popularity and influence grew significantly during most of the interwar period before reaching its climax in 1945, where the party achieved a membership of slightly above 22,000 members. Although the party did not achieve a federal MP, Fred Paterson was elected to the Parliament of Queensland (for Bowen) at the 1944 state election. He won re-election in
1947 It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country in ...
before the seat was abolished. The party also held office in over a dozen
local government areas A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a state, province, division, or territory. The phra ...
across New South Wales and Queensland. After nineteen years of activity, the CPA was formally banned on 15 June 1940 under the relatively new
Menzies government Menzies is a Scottish surname, with Gaelic forms being Méinnearach and Méinn, and other variant forms being Menigees, Mennes, Mengzes, Menzeys, Mengies, and Minges. Derivation and history The name and its Gaelic form are probably derived ...
(1939–1941). The party was banned under the ''National Security (Subversive Associations) Regulations 1940''. Two-and-a-half years later, the party was again a lawful organisation. When the party contested the federal election eight months later, it received its biggest vote total. Getting a total of 81,816 votes (1.93–2.00%), the party received over 20,000 in
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seyche ...
and Queensland, and over 19,000 in New South Wales. It was the party's biggest vote total since the 1934 federal election. However, by the late
1960s File:1960s montage.png, Clockwise from top left: U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War; the Beatles led the British Invasion of the U.S. music market; a half-a-million people participate in the 1969 Woodstock Festival; Neil Armstrong and Buzz ...
the party fell into single digit numbers before a brief spike in the mid 1970s. By the mid to late 1980s the party was effectively stagnant and the party was soon dissolved. To the present, the party is the fourth-oldest political party in Australian political history since Federation, lasting for .


History


Foundation and early years

The Communist Party of Australia was founded in Sydney on 30 October 1920 by a group of socialists inspired by reports of the Russian Revolution. Groups included the
Australian Socialist Party Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...
, some members from the
Victorian Socialist Party The Victorian Socialist Party (VSP) was a socialist political party in the Australian state of Victoria during the early 20th century. Most VSP members were also members of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), or later became members. A faction ...
(although the party itself did not join), as well as a variety of militant trade unionists. Among the party's founders were a prominent Sydney trade unionist, Jock Garden, Tom Walsh, William Paisley Earsman. Women suffragettes and anti-conscriptionists included
Adela Pankhurst Adela Constantia Mary Walsh ( Pankhurst; 19 June 1885 – 23 May 1961) was a British born suffragette who worked as a political organiser for the WSPU in Scotland. In 1914 she moved to Australia where she continued her activism and was co-found ...
(daughter of the British suffragist
Emmeline Pankhurst Emmeline Pankhurst (''née'' Goulden; 15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928) was an English political activist who organised the UK suffragette movement and helped women win the right to vote. In 1999, ''Time'' named her as one of the 100 Most Import ...
), Christian Jollie Smith and
Katharine Susannah Prichard Katharine Susannah Prichard (4 December 18832 October 1969) was an Australian author and co-founding member of the Communist Party of Australia. Early life Prichard was born in Levuka, Fiji in 1883 to Australian parents. She spent her childhood ...
. Most of the then illegal Australian section of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) joined, but the IWW soon left the Communist Party, with its original members, over disagreements with the direction of the Soviet Union and Bolshevism. In its early years, mainly through Garden's efforts, the party achieved some influence in the trade union movement in New South Wales, but by the mid-1920s it had dwindled to an insignificant group. A visits to the 1924 New Zealand conference by CPA executive members Hetty and Hector Ross got the (also small)
Communist Party of New Zealand The Communist Party of New Zealand (CPNZ) was a communist party in New Zealand which existed from 1921 to 1994. Although spurred to life by events in Soviet Russia in the aftermath of World War I, the party had roots in pre-existing revolutionar ...
agreeing to temporary affiliation with the CPA, and were followed by visits in 1925 by Harry Quaife, and by Norman Jeffery a bow-tie wearing former "Wobbly" (IWW member). Garden and other communists were expelled from the Labor Party in 1924. The CPA ran candidates including Garden at the
1925 New South Wales state election The 1925 New South Wales state election was held on 30 May 1925. This election was for all of the 90 seats in the 27th New South Wales Legislative Assembly and was conducted in multiple-member constituencies using the Hare Clark single transfe ...
in working-class seats against the ALP, but was decisively defeated. This prompted Garden to leave the party in 1926 and return to the Labor Party. The leadership of the party went to Jack Kavanagh, an experienced Canadian communist activist who had moved to Australia in 1925, and
Esmonde Higgins Esmonde Macdonald Higgins (26 March 1897 - 25 December 1960) was an Australian political activist and adult education proponent. He was a prominent figure in the early years of the Communist Party of Australia, serving as editor of its official ...
, a talented Melbourne journalist who was the nephew of a High Court judge,
H.B. Higgins Henry Bournes Higgins KC (30 June 1851 – 13 January 1929) was an Australian lawyer, politician, and judge. He served on the High Court of Australia from 1906 until his death in 1929, after briefly serving as Attorney-General of Australia in 1 ...
. But in 1929 the party leadership fell into disfavour with
Communist International The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...
, which under orders from Joseph Stalin had taken a turn to radical revolutionary rhetoric (the so-called "
Third Period The Third Period is an ideological concept adopted by the Communist International (Comintern) at its Sixth World Congress, held in Moscow in the summer of 1928. It set policy until reversed when the Nazis took over Germany in 1933. The Comint ...
"), and an emissary, the American Communist Harry M. Wicks, was sent to correct the party's perceived errors. Kavanagh was expelled in 1930 and Higgins resigned. A new party leadership, consisting of J.B. (Jack) Miles,
Lance Sharkey Lawrence Louis Sharkey (19 August 1898 – 13 May 1967), commonly known as Lance Sharkey or L. L. Sharkey, was an Australian trade unionist and communist leader. From 1948 to 1965 he served as the secretary-general of Communist Party of Austr ...
and Richard Dixon, was imposed on the party by the Communist International, and remained in control for the next 30 years. During the 1930s the party experienced some growth, particularly after 1935 when Communist International changed its policy in favour of a "united front against fascism." The
Movement Against War and Fascism The Movement Against War and Fascism (MAWF) was founded in Australia in 1933, as an Australian chapter of the World Movement Against War established in 1932 by the Comintern. The international movement was instigated by Willi Münzenberg the Ger ...
was founded to bring together all opponents of fascism under a communist controlled umbrella organisation. The movement instigated the events which led to the
attempted exclusion of Egon Kisch from Australia In late 1934 and early 1935, the United Australia Party government of Joseph Lyons failed to exclude Egon Kisch, a member of the Communist Party of Germany, from entering Australia. Whirling Reporter from Prague Egon Kisch was a Communist a ...
in late 1934 and early 1935. The CPA was the first Australian political party to make a commitment to Aboriginal rights, which were included in its manifesto from 1931 onwards.


Rise during World War II

The Communist Party began to win positions in trade unions such as the Miners' Federation and the
Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia The Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia (WWF) was an Australian trade union that existed from 1902 to 1993. After a period of negotiations between other Australian maritime unions, it was federated in 1902 and first federally registered ...
, although its parliamentary candidates nearly always polled poorly at elections. The party also set up an organization of the unemployed to resist evictions. Activists from the party joined the International Brigades to defend the Second Republic against
Franco Franco may refer to: Name * Franco (name) * Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975 * Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître" Prefix * Franco, a prefix used when re ...
's troops. Throughout this time, members of the CPA were under constant surveillance by police and intelligence forces and harassed by the courts. In 1939, after Soviet efforts to contain Nazi aggression through co-operation and alliance with France and Britain were rejected by the French and British, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a
Non-Aggression Treaty A non-aggression pact or neutrality pact is a treaty between two or more states/countries that includes a promise by the signatories not to engage in military action against each other. Such treaties may be described by other names, such as a tr ...
. Despite ideological opposition between the countries, the USSR agreed not to engage in hostilities against Germany at the outbreak of World War II (Australia declared war on Nazi Germany for invading Poland). Consequently, the Communist Party of Australia opposed and sought to disrupt Australia's war effort against Germany in the early stages of the War under orders of the Communist International on the grounds that it was a war between Imperialist nations, and not in the interests of the working class. Menzies banned the CPA after the fall of France in 1940, but by 1941 Stalin was forced to join the allied cause when Hitler reneged on the Pact and invaded the USSR. The USSR came to bear the brunt of the carnage of Hitler's war machine and the Communist Party in Australia lost its early war stigma as a result. 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. The Communist Party achieved a majority of seats in the New South Wales' Kearsley Shire from 1944 to 1947. The Shire was committed to
municipal socialism Municipal socialism is a type of socialism that uses local government to further socialist aims. It is a form of municipalism in which its explicitly socialist aims are clearly stated. In some contexts the word "municipalism" was tainted with th ...
, advocating nationalisation of electricity and the expansion of the
social wage Guaranteed minimum income (GMI), also called minimum income (or mincome for short), is a social-welfare system that guarantees all citizens or families an income sufficient to live on, provided that certain eligibility conditions are met, typicall ...
, and was unique for its commitment to activism around federal and international affairs. But the party remained marginal to the Australian political mainstream. The
Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms th ...
remained the dominant party of the Australian left.


Postwar

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 launched an industrial offensive in 1947, culminating in a prolonged strike in the coal mines in 1949. The Chifley Labor government saw this as a Communist challenge to its position in the labour movement, and used the army and strikebreakers to break the strike. The Communist Party never again held such a strong position in the union movement. In 1949, the USSR detonated its first
atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
and Mao Zedong gained control in China. A year later, North Korea invaded South Korea and in 1951, during the Korean War, the
Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and ...
government of Robert Menzies tried to ban the Communist Party of Australia, first by legislation that was declared invalid by the High Court, then by referendum to try to overcome the
constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princi ...
obstacles to that legislation. The 1951 referendum was opposed by the Communist Party as well as the Australian Labor Party, and was narrowly defeated. The issue of Communist influence in the unions remained potent and led to the
Australian Labor Party split of 1955 The Australian Labor Party split of 1955 was a split within the Australian Labor Party along ethnocultural lines and about the position towards communism. Key players in the split were the federal opposition leader H. V. "Doc" Evatt and B. A. ...
and the formation of the Democratic Labor Party comprising disaffected ALP members who were concerned over Communist influence in Australian unions.


Internal division and defections

In 1956, three years after Stalin died, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev revealed Stalin's crimes in the
Secret Speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...
—exposing in gruesome detail the mechanism of terror and system of arbitrary rule, usually against entirely innocent victims, that terrorised Russia for three decades. The Australian party leadership—entirely committed to Stalinism—was confused about what to do. It tried to suppress discussions of the speech, which was widely reported in the press. According to
Ralph Gibson Ralph Gibson (born January 16, 1939) is an American art photographer best known for his photographic books. His images often incorporate fragments with erotic and mysterious undertones, building narrative meaning through contextualization and s ...
, several high-ranking members including Ted Hill had received a copy of Krushchev's secret speech directly from the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first)Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...
However, the party denied the criticisms of Stalin within the party newspaper, Tribune. Disillusioned members began to leave the party. More left after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. In 1961, the leader of the "pro-China" faction of the party during the Sino-Soviet split, Ted Hill, was expelled from the party. Hill proceeded to lead a split of pro-China members of the party, which culminated in the formation of the smaller Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist). By the 1960s, the party's membership had fallen to around 5,000 members, 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. This period also saw the establishment of the National Training Centre in Minto, NSW, ostensibly for the purpose of educating in the ideology of Marxism-Leninism. The party became more openly critical about the Soviet Union and the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first)Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...
. In 1966, the party started their own magazine called
Australian Left Review ''Australian Left Review'' was a monthly journal of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) from 1966 to 1993. It was one of a number of left political journals founded in Australia in the post-war years, including '' Overland'' and ''Arena (first ...
. In 1967, the party ceased receiving payments from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union following a seminar by Laurie Aarons in the Soviet Union which argued that "ideas require free contest, not confined in a framework of established dogmas that can become a rigid or even ossified edifice". But the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 triggered another crisis. Sharkey's successor as party leader, Laurie Aarons, denounced the invasion, and a group of pro-Soviet hardliners left in 1971 to form a new party, the Socialist Party of Australia. Through the 1970s and 1980s the party continued to decline, despite adopting
Eurocommunism Eurocommunism, also referred to as democratic communism or neocommunism, was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more rele ...
and democratising its internal structures so that it became a looser radical party rather than a classic Marxist-Leninist one. The CPA conducted campaigns against nuclear weapons and the extraction of uranium, and supported the demands of indigenous peoples in Australia and abroad, especially in Papua New Guinea. It thus militated for the abolition of legislation judged repressive regarding indigenous people, for equal pay and for land rights. Its members helped Aboriginal workers in Pilbara lead the longest industrial strike ever in Australia. Internationally, the Communist Party of Australia was close to the Revolutionary Front for the Independence of East Timor (Fretilin) who resisted the Indonesian occupation in the 1970s and 1980s. By 1990, membership had declined to below the one thousand mark.


Dissolution

In 1991, the Communist Party was dissolved and the New Left Party formed. The New Left Party was intended to be a broader party which would attract a wider range of members, which did not happen, and the New Left Party disbanded in 1992. The assets of the Communist Party were thereafter directed into the SEARCH Foundation (acronym for "Social Education, Action and Research Concerning Humanity"), a not-for-profit company set up in 1990 "to preserve and draw on the resources of the Communist Party of Australia and its archives." The archives of the party are now held at the State Library of NSW and can be accessed with the written permission of the SEARCH Foundation. The State Library of New South Wales holds an extensive collection of material related to the Communist Party of Australia including oral history recordings, business papers, the personal papers of a range of men and women involved in the Party and a collection of images that were published in '' Tribune'', the Party's newspaper. The Victoria University Library holds the Crow Collection, donated by long-time Communist Party member Ruth Crow, which includes materials from her years campaigning for the Communist Party. The University of Melbourne collection is "one of the most significant from the CPA held in Australia", containing 20th-century materials from the Victorian branch.


Search Foundation

The SEARCH Foundation is a left-wing Australian not-for-profit company that was established in 1990 as a successor organisation of the Communist Party of Australia to preserve and draw on its resources and archives. It inherited over 3 million dollars from the CPA. SEARCH is an active membership-based organisation that runs speaking tours, publications and training programs. Members are welcome from across the Australian Left and include prominent political figures such as
Australian Council of Trade Unions The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), originally the Australasian Council of Trade Unions, is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated unions and eight trades and la ...
Secretary
Sally McManus Sally McManus (born 31 July 1971) is an Australian trade unionist, feminist and political activist who has served as the Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) since 2017. She is the first woman to hold the position of Secret ...
, and former NSW Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon. SEARCH maintains an office at
Sydney Trades Hall The Sydney Trades Hall is a heritage-listed trade union building located at 4-10 Goulburn Street in the Sydney central business district, in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by John Smedl ...
and holds events across Australia. Its archives are held by the State Library of NSW. SEARCH is an acronym for "Social Education, Action and Research Concerning Humanity".


Youth movement

Its youth wing worked under several different names at different times, including the Young Communist League (YCL); the Young Comrades Club (YCC); the League of Young Democrats (LYD); the Eureka Youth League (EYL); and lastly the Young Socialist League, which in 1984 became part of the Left Alliance. The youth wing of CPA worked under several different names in different periods from the 1920s onwards, including the Young Communist League (YCL), which was created in 1923 and published its own newspaper, ''The Young Worker'', and the Young Comrades Club (YCC), founded in 1927. At a meeting in Melbourne in 1937 attended by 1,500 people, the YCL changed its name to the League of Young Democrats (LYD). After the LYD was banned by the
Menzies government Menzies is a Scottish surname, with Gaelic forms being Méinnearach and Méinn, and other variant forms being Menigees, Mennes, Mengzes, Menzeys, Mengies, and Minges. Derivation and history The name and its Gaelic form are probably derived ...
in 1941, the Eureka Youth League (EYL) was established in December of that year, whose membership grew to 1,000 with a year. The EYL published a newspaper called ''Youth Voice'', and undertook activities relating to World War II and the working and living conditions of young people, as well as the peace movement during this war and the Korean War later. In 1952 it held the "Youth Carnival for Peace and Friendship" in Sydney, attracting 30,000 attendees. EYL opposed the introduction of
National Service in Australia Conscription in Australia, also called mandatory military service or National Service, has a controversial history dating back to the first years of nationhood. Military conscription was abolished by Australian law in 1972. Australia currently ...
in the 1950s. The Eureka Youth League also had an important role in the early promotion of jazz music in Australia in the 1940s under the leadership of Harry Stein. EYL collaborated with the
Australian Council of Trade Unions The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), originally the Australasian Council of Trade Unions, is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated unions and eight trades and la ...
(ACTU) and helped to arrange its Youth Weeks, and also ran youth camps across Australia, attended by thousands of young people. It protested the Vietnam War actively, but by 1968 membership had declined, and a change of name to the Young Socialist League did not last long. Camp Eureka, created in 1973, is still maintained as an historic and usable camp for up to 32 people. The Eureka Youth League was a founding member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, a membership later taken over by the Young Communist Movement. In 1984 (or 1987?) the Young Socialist League became part of Left Alliance.


Elected representatives


New South Wales

Broken Hill * Bill Flynn, Alderman of the
City of Broken Hill The City of Broken Hill is a local government area in the Far West region of New South Wales, Australia. The area contains an isolated mining city, Broken Hill, located in the outback of New South Wales and is surrounded by the Unincorporated F ...
(1953–1974). * Bill Whiley, Alderman of the City of Broken Hill (1962–1974). Bulli * Andrew Speed, Councillor of Bulli Shire for B Riding (1944–1947). Cessnock * Charles Evans, Alderman of the Municipality of Cessnock (1944–1947). * Herbert Wilkinson, Alderman of the Municipality of Cessnock (1944–1947). * Thomas Gilmour, Alderman of the Municipality of Cessnock (1944–1947, 1953–1962). Coonabarabran * Walter Frater, Councillor of
Coonabarabran Shire The Coonabarabran Shire was a local government area in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire was proclaimed on 7 March 1906 with the enactment of the ''Local Government (Shires) Act 1905'' and was centred on the town of Coona ...
(1953–1956). Kearsley * Jock Graham, Councillor of the Kearsley Shire (1944–1947). * Allan Opie, Deputy Shire President and Councillor of Kearsley Shire (1944–1947). * James Palmer, Councillor of Kearsley Shire (1944–1947). * Nellie Simm, Councillor of Kearsley Shire (1944–1947). * William Varty, Shire President and Councillor of Kearsley Shire (1944–1947). Lake Macquarie * William Quinn, Councillor of Lake Macquarie Shire for B Riding (1944–1947, 1953–1959). * R. Chapman, Councillor of Lake Macquarie Shire for B Riding (1944–1947), Deputy Shire President (1945–1946) and Shire President (1946–1947). * J. Thomson, Councillor of Lake Macquarie Shire for B Riding (1944–1947). Lithgow * Jock King, Alderman of the Lithgow City Council (1952–1956) North Illawarra * Jack Martin, Alderman of the Municipality of North Illawarra (1944–1947). Penrith * Mel McCalman, Alderman of the Municipality of Penrith for St. Mary's Ward (1953–1962). Randwick * Richard Ernest Wilson, Alderman of the Municipality of Randwick (1944–1948) and Deputy Mayor (1947–1948). Redfern * Patrick Levelle, Alderman of the
Municipality of Redfern The Municipality of Redfern was a local government area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The small municipality was proclaimed in 1859 as one of the first municipalities proclaimed under the new provisions of the ''Municipalities Act, 1858' ...
for Redfern Ward (1947–1948). City of Sydney * Ronald Maxwell, Alderman of the
City of Sydney The City of Sydney is the local government area covering the Sydney central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs of the greater metropolitan area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established by Act of Parliament in 1842, t ...
for City Ward (1953–1956). * Thomas Wright, Alderman of the City of Sydney for City Ward (1953–1959). * Jack Mundey, Alderman of the City of Sydney (1984–1987).


Queensland

* Jim Henderson, Councillor of the Shire of Wangaratta for Collinsville (1939–1944). * Fred Paterson, Alderman of the
Townsville City Council The City of Townsville is a local government area (LGA) located in North Queensland, Australia. It encompasses the city of Townsville, together with the surrounding rural areas, to the south are the communities of Alligator Creek, Woodstock an ...
(1939–1944) and Member of the Legislative Assembly for Bowen (1944–1950) (the only member elected at state or federal level).


Election results

;Average number of votes p/candidate (both houses)


See also

* Socialism in Australia *
Communist party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...


References

Notes: Footnotes:


Further reading

*
Stuart Macintyre Stuart Forbes Macintyre (21 April 1947 – 22 November 2021) was an Australian historian, and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne from 1999 to 2008. He was voted one of Australia's most influential historians. Early lif ...
, ''The Reds'', 1998, Allen and Unwin. 1st volume of a major history covering foundation to 1941. *
Alastair Davidson Alastair R Davidson is a male former rower who competed for England. Rowing career He represented England and won a silver medal in the eights and a bronze medal in the coxed fours at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver ...
, ''The Communist Party of Australia: A short history'', 1969. Covers foundation to the late 1960s. * * Tom O'Lincoln, ''Into the Mainstream: The Decline of Australian Communism'', January, 1985. . * Daisy Marchisotti, ''Land Rights: The Black Struggle'', Brisbane: Queensland State Committee, Communist Party of Australia, 1978. {{DEFAULTSORT:Communist Party Of Australia 1920 establishments in Australia 1991 disestablishments in Australia Australia–Soviet Union relations Australian labour movement Australia Communist parties in Australia Defunct communist parties Defunct political parties in Australia Far-left politics in Australia Industrial Workers of the World in Australia Political parties disestablished in 1991 Political parties established in 1920