The Communist Alliance was registered on 16 March 2009 with the

Australian Electoral Commission The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent statutory agency of the Australian Government responsible for the management and oversight of Australian federal elections, plebiscites, referendums and some trade union A ...

(AEC) as an Australian

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

. It was an alliance of a number of Communist groups, individuals and ethnic-based communist parties. The Alliance was formed to allow communists to run in elections under the Communist banner, while allowing the

Communist Party of Australia The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian communist party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membership and influence having been ...

, a member of the Alliance, to retain a separate, independent membership. The Alliance endorsed a candidate for the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

seat of Sydney in the 2010 federal election. The candidate received 0.83% or 656 of the 79,377 votes cast. It also endorsed two candidates for the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

in New South Wales, receiving 0.17% or 6,999 of the 4,333,267 votes cast. Communist Alliance changed its AEC registered name to "The Communists" on 24 August 2011, but the AEC deregistered The Communists as a political party on 22 May 2012 because it "failed to prove it still had 500 members eligible for enrolment."

References

External links

''The Guardian _ The Worker's Weekly'' article
on the Election Campaign

2009 establishments in Australia 2012 disestablishments in Australia Communist parties in Australia Defunct communist parties Defunct left-wing political party alliances Defunct political parties in Australia Political parties disestablished in 2012 Political parties established in 2009 Political party alliances in Australia {{Australia-party-stub