163-515: Great Depression and Aftermath Cold War New Left Contemporary Active Historical 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 in a steady decline since its peak in 1945. Like most communist parties in
326-594: A false consciousness that was much less important than class conflict , and would disappear with the victory of socialism. Lenin's views prevailed, and were supported by Stalin, who became the Party's specialist on nationalities. The " Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia ", issued 15 November 1917, left the new Soviet state with undefined boundaries, and invited of other nations to join in. The "Declaration of
489-525: A military thrust into Ukraine in 1920 , he was met by a Red Army offensive that drove into Polish territory almost to Warsaw. However, Piłsudski halted the Soviet advance at the Battle of Warsaw and resumed the offensive. The " Peace of Riga " signed in early 1921 split the territory of Belarus and Ukraine between Poland and Soviet Russia. On 29 December 1922 a conference of plenipotentiary delegations from
652-524: A worldwide revolution . As the prospects for a revolution in Europe, particularly Germany, became increasingly dim through the 1920s, Trotsky's theoretical position began to look increasingly pessimistic as far as the success of Russian socialism was concerned. In 1925, the Soviet Union occupied the island of Urtatagai , which was considered Afghan territory at the time, due to the island being used as
815-638: A base to start border raids by the Basmachi movement . In 1926 the Soviet Union withdrew from the island after the Kingdom of Afghanistan agreed to restrain the Basmachi. With the resignation of Trotsky as People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs, the unity of the troika began to unravel. Zinoviev and Kamenev again began to fear Stalin's power and felt that their positions were threatened. Stalin moved to form an alliance with Bukharin and his allies on
978-418: A blind eye as there were no other accommodation available. For Australians, the decade of the 1930s began with problems of huge unemployment, because the fall of the stock markets on Wall Street reduced confidence throughout the world. Most governments reacted to the crisis with similar policies, aimed at slashing back government spending and paying back loans. The Australian government could do little to change
1141-478: A breakdown in the money system (at the time many Bolsheviks argued that ending money's role as a transmitter of "value" was a sign of the rapidly approaching communist epoch). Many city dwellers fled to the countryside – often to tend the land that the Bolshevik breakup of the landed estates had transferred to the peasants. Even small scale "capitalist" production was suppressed. The Kronstadt rebellion signaled
1304-472: A cage to prevent arrest. Overall campaigning was successful in terms of gaining improved welfare and relief as well as in disrupting and preventing housing evictions across Australia. Extraordinary sporting successes did something to alleviate the spirits of Australians during the economic downturn. In a Sheffield Shield cricket match at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1930, Don Bradman ,
1467-559: A conference in Melbourne where he recommended a traditional deflationary response of balanced budgets to combat Australia's high levels of debt and insisted that interest on loans be met. It entailed the balancing of the budget through expenditure and wage cuts, without additional overseas borrowing, necessitating reductions in social welfare programs, defence spending and other sweeping cutbacks. The Premiers and Prime Minister Scullin agreed to this Melbourne Plan , which would go on to form
1630-658: A copy of Krushchev's secret speech directly from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 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
1793-612: A couple of days later, Black Thursday would mark the start of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the subsequent global onset of the Great Depression. From the outset the Scullin administration was buffeted by the effects of the global economic crisis. Throughout Scullin's term, commodity prices continued to fall, unemployment rose, and Australia's big cities were depopulated as thousands of unemployed men took to
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#17327804830551956-551: A couple of days later, "Black Thursday" would mark the start of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the subsequent global onset of the Great Depression. From the outset the government was buffeted by the effects of the global economic crisis. With the government unable to implement the deflationary Premiers' Plan , Labor had split by 1931 over how to deal with the crisis, with Treasurer Ted Theodore failing to implement his Keynesian inflationary plans, and New South Wales Premier Jack Lang losing office over his plans to boost
2119-830: A devoted Australian public went into shock. The 1938 British Empire Games were held in Sydney at the Cricket Ground from 5–12 February, timed to coincide with Sydney's sesqui-centenary (150 years since the foundation of British settlement in Australia). Unlike the United States, where Franklin Roosevelt 's inflationary New Deal attempted to stimulate the American economy, New Zealand where Michael Savage 's pioneering welfare state tried to reduce hardship, or
2282-717: A fiery left-wing populist , campaigned vigorously against the provisions of the Melbourne Agreement. He was elected in a landslide in the NSW state election of 1930 . Scullin departed for an Imperial economic conference in London, necessitating an absence of five months, during which time he managed to secure reduced interest payments for Australia. With James Fenton as acting Prime Minister and Joseph Lyons as acting treasurer in his absence, Labor continued to negotiate Australia's economic response, with Fenton and Lyons advocating
2445-435: A letter (known as Lenin's Testament ) to the party criticizing him and urging his removal as General Secretary , a position which was starting to arise as the most powerful in the party. Stalin was aware of Lenin's Testament and acted to keep Lenin in isolation for health reasons and increase his control over the party apparatus. Zinoviev and Nikolai Bukharin became concerned about Stalin's increasing power and proposed that
2608-415: A major influence on the white paper. Between 1947 and 1949 Chifley also attempted to nationalise the banking sector, arguing that public control over the finance industry would assist in preventing further depressions. These plans saw bitter and protracted opposition from the media, conservative parties and the banks themselves. The High Court of Australia ruled that the proposed nationalisation of banks
2771-476: A mass base for their organization." Under Lenin, the Bolsheviks (Communists) controlled all of the media after 1917. The major national newspapers were Izvestia (the voice of the government), and especially Pravda (the voice of the party). Pravda acquired the first and best printing equipment for illustrations. The leading newspapers developed a specialized rhetorical vocabulary designed to enhance
2934-530: A more conservative fiscal approach and the unions and caucus calling for repudiation of debts. In 1931 at an economic crisis conference in Canberra , Jack Lang issued his own programme for economic recovery. The Lang Plan advocated the repudiation of interest payments to overseas creditors until domestic conditions improved, the abolition of the Gold Standard to be replaced by a Goods Standard where
3097-523: 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
3260-638: A primary producer within the British Empire , and Australia's important export industries, particularly primary products such as wool and wheat , suffered significantly from the collapse in international demand. Unemployment reached a record high of around 30% in 1932, and gross domestic product declined by 10% between 1929 and 1931. There were also incidents of civil unrest , particularly in Australia's largest city, Sydney . Though Australian Communist and far right movements were active in
3423-634: A row. Famous victories included the 1930 Melbourne Cup , following an assassination attempt and carrying 9 stone 12 pounds weight. Phar Lap sailed for the United States in 1931, going on to win North America's richest race, the Agua Caliente Handicap in Tijuana , Mexico, in 1932. Soon after, on the cusp of US success, Phar Lap developed suspicious symptoms and died. Theories swirled that the champion race horse had been poisoned and
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#17327804830553586-743: A scientific body of direction, a vanguard of activists, and a central control organ, the Tenth Party Congress banned factions within the party, initially intending it only to be a temporary measure after the shock of the Kronstadt rebellion . It was also argued that the party should be an elite body of professional revolutionaries dedicating their lives to the cause and carrying out their decisions with iron discipline, thus moving toward putting loyal party activists in charge of new and old political institutions, army units, factories, hospitals, universities, and food suppliers. Against this backdrop,
3749-546: A slow recovery. Unemployment, which peaked at 32% in 1932, was 11% at the start of the Second World War compared to 17.2% in the United States. Following Lyons' death in 1939, Robert Menzies assumed the United Australia Party leadership and the prime ministership, however the 1940 federal election resulted in a hung parliament . A year later, Menzies' minority government was brought down in
3912-417: A tightly knit and secretive organization could successfully overthrow the government; after the revolution, they argued that only such an organization could prevail against foreign and domestic enemies. Fighting the civil war would actually force the party to put these principles into practice. Arguing that the revolution needed not a mere parliamentary organization but a party of action which would function as
4075-698: A very small middle class . Following the February Revolution in 1917 that deposed Nicholas II of Russia , a short-lived provisional government gave way to Bolsheviks in the October Revolution . The Bolshevik Party was renamed the Russian Communist Party (RCP). All politics and attitudes that were not strictly RCP were suppressed, under the premise that the RCP represented the proletariat and all activities contrary to
4238-598: 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
4401-500: A young New South Welshman of just 21 years of age wrote his name into the record books by smashing the previous highest batting score in first-class cricket with 452 runs not out in just 415 minutes. The rising star's world-beating cricketing exploits were to provide much needed joy to Australians through the emerging Great Depression and Post World War One recovery. Between 1929 and 1931 the racehorse Phar Lap dominated Australia's racing industry, at one stage winning fourteen races in
4564-728: A ‘no confidence’ and the government fell. At the 1931 federal election , the ALP were left with just 14 seats after losing 32 seats, though an extra 4 seats were won by NSW Lang Labor. The Lyons-led United Australia Party in Coalition with the Country Party commenced its first term of government in January 1932. Before being voted out of office, the Scullin government had covered NSW's debt default. The federal government had paid NSW's bond installments and intended to recoup this money from
4727-492: 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 Secretary Sally McManus , and former NSW Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon . SEARCH maintains an office at Sydney Trades Hall and holds events across Australia. Its archives are held by
4890-702: Is the fourth-oldest political party in Australian political history since Federation , lasting for 70 years, 122 days. The Communist Party of Australia (CPA) was founded at the Australian Socialist Party Hall in Sydney on 30 October 1920 socialists inspired by reports of the Russian Revolution . The estimates for attendees at the founding ranges from below thirteen (Alistair Davidson) to twenty-six ( Stuart Macintyre ). Sixty invitations were issued. Groups included
5053-457: The nomenklatura system (a class of people who were granted key positions only with approval of the party) would evolve and become standard practice. In theory, this system was to be democratic since all leading party organs would be elected from below, but also centralized since lower bodies would be accountable to higher organizations. In practice, "democratic centralism" was centralist, with decisions of higher organs binding on lower ones, and
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5216-519: The 1925 New South Wales state election 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 , a talented Melbourne journalist who was the nephew of then- High Court Justice , H. B. Higgins . But in 1929
5379-597: The 1929 federal election . Scullin was elected Prime Minister in a landslide which saw Stanley Bruce voted out as the Member for Flinders , the only time until the 2007 federal election that a sitting Prime Minister lost his seat. The James Scullin Labor Government had just assumed power with the commencement of the Scullin Ministry on 22 October following the 1929 federal election , however just
5542-690: The 1946 federal election , before their defeat at the 1949 federal election by the Menzies-led Liberal Party of Australia in Coalition with the Country Party . The comprehensive economic and social reforms and reformist nature of the Chifley Labor government was such that between 1946 and 1949, the Australian Parliament passed 299 Acts , a record until then, well beyond Labor's Andrew Fisher 's 113 Acts from 1910 to 1913. Curtin and Chifley, who often used
5705-720: The Australian Socialist Party (ASP), some members from the Victorian Socialist Party (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 unionists, Jock Garden , Tom Walsh , and William Paisley Earsman , and suffragettes and anti-conscriptionists including Adela Pankhurst (daughter of the British suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst ), Christian Jollie Smith and Katharine Susannah Prichard . Most of
5868-568: The City of London at an average of £30 million per annum. In 1910, the federal government introduced a national currency, the Australian pound , which it pegged to the pound sterling . In effect, Australia was on the gold standard through the British peg. In 1914, Britain removed the pound sterling from the gold standard, creating inflation pressures. Britain returned the pound sterling to
6031-647: The Fifteenth Party Congress , Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the Communist Party itself as Stalin sought to deny the Opposition any opportunity to make their struggle public. By the time, the Congress finally convened in December 1927. Zinoviev had capitulated to Stalin and denounced his previous adherence to the opposition as "anti-Leninist" and the few remaining members still loyal to
6194-579: The House of Representatives when the two independents crossed the floor and switched their support to Labor, bringing John Curtin to power during World War II . At the 1943 federal election , Curtin led Labor to their greatest House of Representatives victory both in terms of proportion of seats and their strongest national two-party vote. Curtin died in 1945 however, and was succeeded as Labor leader and prime minister by Ben Chifley , who would lead Labor to their first successful federal re-election attempt at
6357-570: The Lang Plan in February 1931, which included a temporary cessation of interest repayments on debts to Britain and that interest on all government borrowings be reduced to 3% to free up money for injection into the economy. In 1929, as an emergency measure, Australia took the Australian pound off the gold standard, resulting in a devaluation relative to sterling. Starting in September 1930,
6520-800: 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
6683-746: The Miners' Federation and the Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia , 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 Francisco Franco 's troops. Throughout this time, members of the CPA were under constant surveillance by police and intelligence forces and harassed by
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6846-542: The Orgburo which Stalin headed be abolished and that Zinoviev and Trotsky be added to the party secretariat thus diminishing Stalin's role as general secretary. Stalin reacted furiously and the Orgburo was retained but Bukharin, Trotsky and Zinoviev were added to the body. Due to growing political differences with Trotsky and his Left Opposition in the fall of 1923, the troika of Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev reunited. At
7009-623: The Red Guard of Petrograd to take over the Provisional Government. The administrative offices and government buildings were taken with little opposition or bloodshed. The generally accepted end of this transitional revolutionary period, which will lead to the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) lies with the assault and capture of the poorly defended Winter Palace (the traditional home and symbol of power of
7172-691: The Right Opposition . At the Central Committee meeting held in July 1928, Bukharin and his supporters argued that Stalin's new policies would cause a breach with the peasantry. Bukharin also alluded to Lenin's Testament. While he had support from the party organization in Moscow and the leadership of several commissariats, Stalin's control of the secretariat was decisive in that it allowed Stalin to manipulate elections to party posts throughout
7335-1024: The Russian SFSR , the Transcaucasian SFSR , the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR , forming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. These two documents were confirmed by the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by heads of delegations Mikhail Kalinin , Mikhail Tskhakaya , Mikhail Frunze and Grigory Petrovsky , Alexander Chervyakov on 30 December 1922. Some of
7498-437: The Secret Speech , denouncing Stalin and Stalinism as fostering a cult of personality , and revealing many abuses of power Stalin had committed while in power. 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 , several high-ranking members including Ted Hill had received
7661-443: The Stalin's cult of personality with him being referred to as "leader" for the first time and becoming the subject of effusive praise from delegates. Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev formed a United Opposition against the policies of Stalin and Bukharin , but they had lost influence as a result of the inner party disputes and in October 1927, Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev were expelled from the Central Committee. In November, prior to
7824-418: The State Library of NSW. SEARCH is an acronym for "Social Education, Action and Research Concerning Humanity". 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
7987-422: The Twelfth Party Congress in 1923, Trotsky failed to use Lenin's Testament as a tool against Stalin for fear of endangering the stability of the party. Lenin died in January 1924 and in May his Testament was read aloud at the Central Committee but Zinoviev and Kamenev argued that Lenin's objections had proven groundless and that Stalin should remain General Secretary. The Central Committee decided not to publish
8150-552: The Unemployed Workers Movement which at its height had 30,000 members and was infamous nationally for its anti-eviction campaign in Sydney. The CPA was the first Australian political party to make a commitment to Aboriginal rights, which were included in its manifesto from 1931 onwards. The CPA, discussing in great detail the abuses suffered by Aboriginals, published a lengthy list of demands, calling for "full economic, political and social rights" for Aboriginal people. The Communist Party began to win positions in trade unions such as
8313-415: 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?)
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#17327804830558476-406: The White Army of Anton Denikin , by troops of the Ukrainian Peoples Republic headed by Symon Petliura , by gangs of warlord atamans and "Green" insurgent peasants , and even by some Red Army units. The Soviet government was able gradually to consolidate its hold on central Russia first and then to fight its enemies successfully. The Allied intervention and the Polish invasion allowed
8639-477: The conciliation and arbitration system of judicially supervised collective bargaining which had been the cornerstone of Australia's industrial relations system since the 1900s, which would allow employers alone to increase or decrease employee wages in response to economic and market conditions. The opposition Australian Labor Party , led by James Scullin , successfully depicted Stanley Bruce as wanting to destroy Australia's high wages and working conditions in
8802-515: The "Red" corner of a factory. The Soviet style involved citizens listening to party leaders, using in-person speeches, radio talks or printed speeches. There was little role for the journalist to summarize or interpret the text; there was no commentary or background or discussion. No one questioned or challenged the leadership. There were no press conferences and little in the way of broadcast news. Foreign correspondents were strictly prevented from any access beyond official spokesmen. The result
8965-526: The "Youth Carnival for Peace and Friendship" in Sydney , attracting 30,000 attendees. EYL opposed the introduction of National Service in Australia 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 (ACTU) and helped to arrange its Youth Weeks, and also ran youth camps across Australia, attended by thousands of young people. It protested
9128-617: The 1920s, including the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney's underground railway system in addition to the Commonwealth government beginning to fund major highways. New dams and grain elevators were built, and the rural railway network was expanded in nearly every state. Large sums of government money were made available to provide returned First World War servicemen with farmland and agricultural equipment under soldier settlement schemes. All these publicly funded projects were paid for by loans raised by both state and federal governments. Most of these loans were raised on capital markets in
9291-452: The 1924 New Zealand conference by CPA executive members Hetty and Hector Ross got the (also small) Communist Party of New Zealand (CPNZ) 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 (ALP) in 1924. The CPA ran candidates including Garden (for Sydney ) at
9454-475: The Australian Federal and State governments to cut spending by 20%, including cuts to wages and pensions and was to be accompanied by tax increases, reductions in interest on bank deposits and a 22.5% reduction in the interest the government paid on internal loans. The policy contrasted with the approach put forward by the British economist John Maynard Keynes and which was pursued by the United States, which held that governments needed to spend their way out of
9617-426: The Australian banks began to slowly devalue the Australian pound, and a year later it had been devalued 30% against the Pound Sterling. This had the economic effect of increasing the cost of imported goods and increasing the cost of servicing government overseas debts, which were denominated in the overseas currency, typically in sterling. Jack Lang , the Labor Party Leader of the Opposition in New South Wales and
9780-429: The Bolsheviks to play the nationalist card. Worsening economic conditions, however, created mass social turmoil. This came to a head after the final defeat of organised White military forces in the autumn of 1920 with mass peasant insurgencies, such as the Tambov Rebellion . They were brutally suppressed. The frontiers between Poland, which had established an unstable independent government following World War I , and
9943-416: The Bolsheviks, forcing Lenin into hiding. Still, rather than use force, many of the deployed soldiers and military personnel joined the rioters, disgracing the government and military at-large. It was during this time that support for the Bolsheviks grew and another of its leading figures, Leon Trotsky , was elected chair of the Petrograd Soviet, which had complete control over the defenses of the city, mainly,
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#173278048305510106-418: The CPA was formally banned on 15 June 1940 under the relatively new Menzies government (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%),
10269-406: 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 Comintern 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
10432-400: The Depression had attracted the support of prominent Australian conservatives, known as "the Group", whose number included future prime minister Robert Menzies . In parliament on 13 March 1931, though still a member of the ALP, Lyons supported a no confidence motion against the Scullin Labor government. The United Australia Party was then formed from a coalition of citizens’ groups and with
10595-418: The Depression, they remained largely on the periphery of Australian politics, failing to achieve the power shifts obtained in Europe, and the democratic political system of the young Australian Federation survived the strain of the period. The James Scullin Labor Government had just assumed power with the commencement of the Scullin Ministry on 22 October following the 1929 federal election , however just
10758-475: The Depression. The plan was signed by New South Wales Labor Premier Jack Lang , but he was a notable critic of its underlying philosophy and went on to pursue his own policy of defaulting on debt repayments, which led to confrontation with the Federal Scullin and Lyons governments and resulted in the Lang Dismissal Crisis of 1932. The Labor Party soon split into three separate factions. Jack Lang and his supporters, mainly in New South Wales, were expelled from
10921-422: The LYD was banned by the Menzies government 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
11084-431: The Lyons period gave Australia "stability and eventual growth" between the drama of the Depression and the outbreak of the Second World War. A lowering of wages was enforced and industry tariff protections maintained, which together with cheaper raw materials during the 1930s saw a shift from agriculture to manufacturing as the chief employer of the Australian economy - a shift which was consolidated by increased investment by
11247-418: The NSW Government. A dramatic episode in Australian history followed Lyons first electoral victory. When NSW Premier Jack Lang refused to pay interest on overseas State debts, the Lyons government stepped in and paid the debts and then passed the Financial Agreement Enforcement Act to recover the money it had paid. In an effort to frustrate this move, Lang ordered State departments to pay all receipts directly to
11410-540: 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. Following the invasion of the Soviet Union, the CPA shifted towards a collaborative United front approach to the Labor Party to fully support the Australian war effort against fascism. Party members held discussions with senior Labor ministers following Curtin government entering office in 1941, pledging to provide full support to mobilise resources for
11573-419: 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. In 1996 at the 8th National Congress
11736-867: The RCP established itself through the Russian heartland and some non-Russian areas such as Ukraine and the Caucasus . It became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) following the creation of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1922. Following Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin , General Secretary of the CPSU , became the leader of the USSR , being general secretary from the early 1930s to his death in 1953. During World War I , Tsarist Russia experienced military humiliation, famine and economic collapse. The demoralized Imperial Russian Army suffered severe military setbacks, and many captured soldiers deserted
11899-838: The Red Guard and Bolsheviks , fled Petrograd, leaving control in the hands of the Bolsheviks and remaining Left Socialist Revolutionaries. On 25 October 1917, the Sovnarkom was established by the Russian Constitution of 1918 as the administrative arm of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets . By 6 January 1918, the VTsIK , supported by the Bolsheviks, ratified the dissolution of the Russian Constituent Assembly , which intended to establish
12062-532: The Rights of the Toiling and Exploited People", issued in January 1918, announced that all nationalities would have the right to determine on what basis they would participate in the federal government of the new state. A new agency was set up, the People's Commissariat for Nationalities (NARKOMNATS) based in Moscow. It operated from 1918 to 1924 and had responsibility for 22 percent of the entire Soviet population. It
12225-473: The Socialist Party of Australia was renamed to Communist Party of Australia, thereby becoming the successor of the original party. 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
12388-593: The Treasury instead of into Government bank accounts. The New South Wales Governor , Sir Philip Game , intervened on the basis that Lang had acted illegally in breach of the state Audit Act and sacked the Lang Government , who then suffered a landslide loss at the subsequent 1932 state election . Australia would recover relatively quickly from the global financial downturn, with recovery beginning around 1932. Lyons pursued an orthodox fiscal policy, favouring
12551-801: The Tsar by the Provisional Committee of the State Duma in early March 1917 and received conditional support of the Mensheviks . Led first by Prince Georgy Lvov , then Alexander Kerensky the Provisional Government consisted mainly of the parliamentarians most recently elected to the State Duma of the Russian Empire , which had been overthrown alongside Tsar Nicholas II. The new Provisional Government maintained its commitment to
12714-604: The Tsar) on the evening of 26 October 1917. Bolshevik figures such as Anatoly Lunacharsky , Moisei Uritsky and Dmitry Manuilsky agreed that Lenin’s influence on the Bolshevik party was decisive but the October insurrection was carried out according to Trotsky’s, not to Lenin’s plan. The Mensheviks and the right-wing of the Socialist Revolutionaries, outraged by the abusive and coercive acts carried out by
12877-590: The United Kingdom where rearmament (from 1936) increased deficit spending, there was no significant mechanism for inflationary Keynesian economic policy responses in Australia. Australia's recovery during the 1930s was led by the manufacturing sector. Federation in 1901 had granted only limited power to the federal government. For example, income taxes were collected by the State governments. Some argued that Australia's protectionist high tariffs worked to hurt
13040-466: The United Kingdom's terms of trade . A sluggish economy in Britain naturally reduced British demand for imports from Australia throughout the 1920s and this had affected Australia's balance of payments. Throughout the 1920s the Australian unemployment rate floated between 6% and 11%. The Great War had also caused many necessary infrastructure projects to be delayed or abandoned, many of which began in
13203-524: The United States, did not embark on a significant Keynesian program of spending to recover from the Depression. Nevertheless, the Australian recovery began around 1932. Australians took consolation from sporting achievements through the Depression, with cricketer Don Bradman and race horse Phar Lap achieving long-lasting fame. The Great War ( World War I ) had depleted Britain's savings and foreign investments, and wartime inflation had deeply upset
13366-547: The West, the party was heavily involved in the labour movement and the trade unions . 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. At its peak it was the largest communist party in the Anglophone countries on a population basis, and held industrial strength greater than
13529-794: The Young Socialist League became part of Left Alliance . Notes: Footnotes: Great Depression in Australia Australia was affected badly during the period of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. As in other nations, Australia had years of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation , plunging incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement. The Australian economy and foreign policy largely rested upon its place as
13692-494: The amount of money in circulation was linked to the amount of goods produced, and the immediate injection of £18 million of new money into the economy in the form of Commonwealth Bank of Australia credit. The Prime Minister and all other state Premiers refused. With the rejection of the Theodore and Lang inflationary plans, the governments of Australia met to negotiate a compromise in 1931. The resulting Premiers' Plan required
13855-599: 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 and Mao Zedong gained control in China. A year later, North Korea invaded South Korea and in 1951, during the Korean War , the Liberal government of Robert Menzies tried to ban the Communist Party of Australia, first by legislation that
14018-472: The banking and financial components of the economy. The "commanding heights" employed the majority of the workers in the urban areas. Under the NEP, such state industries would be largely free to make their own economic decisions. In the cities and between the cities and the countryside, the NEP period saw a huge expansion of trade in the hands of full-time merchants – who were typically denounced as "speculators" by
14181-458: The basis of the Premiers' Plan . Ted Theodore , Treasurer in Scullin's Government, supported an inflationary policy of increased government spending in times of a recession, a view espoused in 1936 by John Maynard Keynes . The Senate and Commonwealth Bank (then also acting as the country's central bank) rejected Theodore's spending plans. The Labor Premier of New South Wales meanwhile announced
14344-608: The budget through a temporary cessation of interest repayments on debts to Britain and that interest on all government borrowings be reduced by 3% to free up money for injection into the economy. Labor defector Joseph Lyons helped to form the United Australia Party through the ending of the Nationalist Party of Australia and succeeded Scullin as Prime Minister of Australia from the 1931 federal election until his death in 1939. Thus Australia, unlike
14507-402: The cities. This, of course, is speculative market behavior, which was frowned upon by many Communist Party cadres, who considered it to be exploitative of urban consumers. In the meantime, the party took constructive steps to offset the crisis, attempting to bring down prices for manufactured goods and stabilize inflation, by imposing price controls on essential industrial goods and breaking-up
14670-490: The city's military force. Membership of the Bolshevik party had risen from 24,000 members in February 1917 to 200,000 members by September 1917. On 24 October, in the early days of the October Revolution , the Provisional Government moved against the Bolsheviks, arresting activists and destroying pro-Communist propaganda . The Bolsheviks were able to portray this as an attack against the People's Soviet and garnered support for
14833-607: The commonwealth government into defence and armaments manufacture. Lyons saw restoration of Australia's exports as the key to economic recovery. A devalued Australian currency assisted in restoring a favourable balance of trade. During the Great Depression, different parts of Australian society experienced different hardships, challenges and opportunities. There was increased movement of many people to and from country areas in search of work. City and urban people planted gardens to produce fruit and vegetables. In some urban areas co-operatives were formed based on barter systems to share what
14996-578: The composition of lower bodies largely determined by the members of higher ones. Over time, party cadres would grow increasingly careerist and professional. Party membership required exams, special courses, special camps, schools, and nominations by three existing members. In December 1917, the Cheka was founded as the Bolshevik's first internal security force following the failed assassination attempt on Lenin's life . Later it changed names to GPU , OGPU , MVD , NKVD and finally KGB . The Red Terror became
15159-501: The country, giving him control over a large section of the Central Committee. The Right Opposition was defeated and Bukharin tried again to join forces with Kamenev and Zinoviev but it was too late. The Russian Empire comprised a multitude of nationalities, languages, ethnic groups and religions. The spirit of nationalism, so strong in 19th century Europe, was significant in Russia, Ukraine , and Finland especially before 1900. Much later
15322-528: The countryside in search of menial agricultural work. The stagnant economy had reduced economic activity and therefore tax revenues. However, the debt commitments of both state and federal governments remained the same. Australia became severely at risk of defaulting on its foreign debt which had been accumulated during the relative prosperity and infrastructure-building frenzy of the 1920s. The Great Depression in Australia saw huge levels of unemployment and economic suffering amid plummeting export income. Although
15485-570: 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 . 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,
15648-426: The deflationary economic measures of the Premiers' Plan , and refused to accept NSW Premier Jack Lang's proposals to default on overseas debt repayments. Australia entered the Depression with a debt crisis and a credit crisis. According to author Anne Henderson of the conservative Sydney Institute [1] , Lyons held a steadfast belief in "the need to balance budgets, lower costs to business and restore confidence" and
15811-423: The dictatorial policies of Stalin and trying to revive the issue of Lenin's Testament which they had previously buried. Stalin now used Trotsky's previous criticisms of Zinoviev and Kamenev to defeat and demote them and bring in allies like Vyacheslav Molotov , Kliment Voroshilov and Mikhail Kalinin . Trotsky was dropped from the politburo entirely in 1926. The Fourteenth Congress also saw the first developments of
15974-555: The economic downturn was a product of international events, Australian governments grappled with how to respond. Conventional economists said governments should pursue deflationary policies. Radicals proposed inflationary responses and increased government spending. Division emerged within the Labor Party over how to respond. In August 1930, Scullin invited Sir Otto Niemeyer of the Bank of England to come to Australia to advise on economic policy. Niemeyer met with Federal and State leaders at
16137-404: The economy and that influential interest groups sought no change in this aspect of policy. Additionally, there was no significant banking reform or nationalisation of private businesses. The devaluation of the Australian pound, abandonment of the Gold Standard, recovery of major trading partners like the United Kingdom and public works projects instituted by State and local governments led to
16300-419: The economy would contribute to imbalances between supply and demand associated with monopolies. Due to the lack of incentives brought by market competition, and with little or no state controls on their internal policies, trusts were likely to sell their products at higher prices. The slower recovery of industry would pose some problems for the peasantry, who accounted for 80% of the population. Since agriculture
16463-466: The effects of the depression strongly. Because of the severe economic contraction, the reduction of purchasing goods, employers couldn’t afford to keep excessive workers. A five-year unemployment average for 1930-34 was 23.4%, with a peak of approximately 30% of the nation being unemployed in 1932. This was one of the most severe unemployment rates in the industrialised world, exceeded only by Germany. Many hundreds of thousands of Australians suddenly faced
16626-416: The effects of the slump and the tough economic times ahead. This affected the country in many ways. Because of economic downturn, people’s lives changed drastically. Australia had supplied huge amounts of wool for uniforms during World War 1, and many exports helped Australia achieve a high standard of living in the 1920s. The majority of the people of Australia lived very well prior to the fall, so they felt
16789-585: The ensuing Russian Civil War of 1917–23, Narkompros , the Soviet Ministry of Education , quickly assembled the Cheka Likbez (an acronym for the "Extraordinary Commission for the Liquidation of Illiteracy") which was to be responsible for the training of literacy teachers as well as organizing and propagating the literacy campaign. Radio was not neglected—it was a major new technology, and
16952-471: The events which led to the attempted exclusion of Egon Kisch from Australia in late 1934 and early 1935. Alongside this, the CPA formed the Workers Defence Corps (WDC). In the 1930s, the CPA began a campaign to create mass organisations to organise militancy in the working-class, while ostensibly independent, the CPA remained in control of such organisations. This result in the creation of
17115-468: The expansion of the social wage , 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 remained the dominant party of the Australian left. After 1945 and the onset of the Cold War , the party entered a steady decline. Following the new line from Moscow, and believing that
17278-542: 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
17441-412: The former Tsarist empire, were rendered chaotic by the repercussions of the Russian revolutions, the civil war and the winding down of World War I. Poland's Józef Piłsudski envisioned a new federation ( Międzymorze ), forming a Polish-led East European bloc to form a bulwark against Russia and Germany, while the Russian SFSR considered carrying the revolution westward by force. When Piłsudski carried out
17604-464: The front lines. Dissatisfaction with the monarchy and its policy of continuing the war grew among the Russian people. Tsar Nicholas II abdicated the throne following the February Revolution of 1917 (March 1917 N.S . See: Soviet calendar .), causing widespread rioting in Petrograd and other major Russian cities. The Russian Provisional Government was installed immediately following the fall of
17767-411: The gold standard in 1925 at pre-1913 parity, effectively revaluing both currencies significantly and unleashing crushing deflationary pressures and falling export demand. This had the immediate effect of making British and Australian exports far less competitive in non-British markets, and affected Australia's terms of trade. In 1931, as an emergency measure during the Great Depression, Australia left
17930-484: The gold standard, resulting in a devaluation relative to sterling. A variety of pegs to sterling applied until December 1931, when the government set a rate of £1 Australian = 16 shillings sterling. This was intended to ease entry of Australian goods into the British and other linked markets. Falling export demand and commodity prices placed massive downward pressures on wages, particularly in industries such as coal mining. Due to falling prices, bosses were unable to pay
18093-534: The government continue the use of Keynesian methods in economic policy as well as further expansion of the Curtin and Chifley economic and social legacies . History of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (1917%E2%80%931927) The ten years 1917–1927 saw a radical transformation of the Russian Empire into a socialist state, the Soviet Union . Soviet Russia covers 1917–1922 and Soviet Union covers
18256-456: The government, joining the opposition Nationalist Party to form the United Australia Party . The Australian Labor Party would remain in government through the parliamentary term however, with Scullin as Prime Minister, and except for a brief stint by Scullin, Theodore as Treasurer. The stance of Joseph Lyons and James Fenton against the far more radical proposals of the Labor movement to deal with
18419-479: The growing unpopularity of War Communism in the countryside: in March 1921, at the end of the civil war, disillusioned sailors, primarily peasants who initially had been stalwart supporters of the Bolsheviks, revolted against the economic failures of the new regime. The Red Army , commanded by Lev Trotsky , crossed the ice over the frozen Baltic Sea to quickly crush the rebellion. This sign of growing discontent forced
18582-443: The humiliation of poverty and unemployment. This was still the era of traditional social family structure, where the man was expected to be the sole bread winner. Soup kitchens and charity groups made brave attempts to feed the many starving and destitute. The male suicide rate spiked in 1930 and it became clear that Australia had limits to the resources for dealing with the crisis. The depression's sudden and widespread unemployment hit
18745-625: The illiterate older generations. The Likbez (eradication of illiteracy) campaign was started on December 26, 1919, when Vladimir Lenin signed the Decree of the Soviet government "On eradication of illiteracy among the population of RSFSR" ("О ликвидации безграмотности среди населения РСФСР"). According to this decree, all people from 8 to 50 years old were required to become literate in their native language. 40,000 liquidation points (ликпункты) were arranged to serve as centers for education, and achieving literacy. Fighting for time and funding during
18908-567: The instrument to eliminate groups defined as "enemies" of the new society . Summary executions were widespread, including in service of dekulakization ( redistribution of wealth from prosperous peasants). Leon Trotsky led the Red Army , despising " bourgeois democracy " and committed to the forced removal of the prosperous and political opponents, often through summary executions . He initiated concentration camps, labor camps, military control over labor, and state control of trade unions. At
19071-466: 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 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
19234-473: The leading Bolsheviks who came to power in 1917 had been pamphleteers or editors, including Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Bukharin, and Zinoviev. Lenin set up the daily newspaper Pravda in January 1912. Before it was suppressed by the government in 1914 it was a "singularly effective propaganda and educational instrument which enabled the Bolsheviks to gain control of the Petersburg labour movement and to build up
19397-441: The leftists and also often resented by the public. The growth in trade, though, did generally coincide with rising living standards in both the city and the countryside (around 80% of Soviet citizens were in the countryside at this point). Factories, badly damaged by civil war and capital depreciation, were far less productive. In addition, the organization of enterprises into trusts or syndicates representing one particular sector of
19560-495: The months between February and October 1917, the power of the Provisional Government was consistently questioned by nearly all political parties. A system of "dual power" emerged, in which the Provisional Government held nominal power, though increasingly opposed by the Petrograd Soviet , their chief adversary, controlled by the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries (both democratic socialist parties politically to
19723-588: 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 . In 1966, the party started their own magazine called Australian Left Review . In 1967,
19886-546: The non-Bolshevik Russian Democratic Federative Republic as the permanent form of government established at its Petrograd session held 5 and 6 January 1918. At the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets on 25 January 1918, the unrecognised state was renamed the Russian Soviet Republic . Prior to the revolution, the Bolshevik doctrine of democratic centralism argued that only
20049-498: The opposition were subjected to insults and humiliations. By early 1928, Trotsky and other leading members of the Left Opposition had been sentenced to internal exile. Stalin now moved against Bukharin by appropriating Trotsky's criticisms of his right wing policies and he promoted a new general line of the party favoring collectivization of the peasantry and rapid industrialization, forcing Bukharin and his supporters into
20212-547: The parties of " India , Latin America, and most of Western Europe". 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 before the seat was abolished. The party also held office in over a dozen local government areas across New South Wales and Queensland . After nineteen years of activity,
20375-588: The party and formed a left-wing splinter party officially known as the New South Wales Labor Party , commonly known as Lang Labor . The Minister for Public Works and Railways, Joseph Lyons , led a conservative faction, which believed in the deflationary approach of balanced budgets and cuts in spending and opposed defaulting on debt repayments. When the more radical Ted Theodore was reinstated as Treasurer by Scullin on 29 January, Joseph Lyons and James Fenton along with three others resigned from
20538-618: 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 ,
20701-429: 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
20864-537: The party leadership fell into disfavour with the Communist International (Comintern), which under orders from Joseph Stalin had taken a turn to radical revolutionary rhetoric (the so-called " Third Period "), 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 Jack Miles , Lance Sharkey and Richard Dixon ,
21027-520: The party received over 20,000 in Victoria 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 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
21190-611: The party to foster a broad alliance of the working class and peasantry (80% of the population), despite left factions of the party which favored a regime solely representative of the interests of the revolutionary proletariat. As millions died of starvation, Communist officials were paralyzed by the Russian famine of 1921–22 because they could not blame it on the usual enemies. Food was purchased abroad but it all went to cities, not to peasants. Eventually Herbert Hoover 's offer of $ 62 million worth of American food and $ 8 million in medicine
21353-560: The party's beliefs were "counterrevolutionary" or "anti-socialist." Most rich families fled to exile. During 1917 to 1923, the Communist Bolsheviks under Lenin surrendered to Germany in 1918, then fought an intense Russian Civil War against multiple enemies especially the White Army . They won the Russian heartland but lost most non-Russian areas that had been part of Imperial Russia. One by one defeating each opponent,
21516-402: 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
21679-475: The plan for a white paper on full employment. This white paper served a variety of roles; to establish the priority of full employment; to ensure the depression would not recur; and to propose ways to make these objectives possible. Dr H C 'Nugget' Coombs as director-general of the Reconstruction Ministry had major input into this policy. The economic theories proposed by J M Keynes in 1936 were
21842-592: The proletariat in any form was viewed as a "retrograde step" in Vladmir Lenin's April Theses . However, the Provisional Government still remained an overwhelmingly powerful governing body. Failed military offensives in summer 1917 and large scale protesting and riots in major Russian cities (as advocated by Lenin in his Theses, known as the July Days ) led to the deployment of troops in late August to restore order. The July Days were suppressed and blamed on
22005-664: The race to arrive first at the place of employment (the first person to turn up was usually hired.) This is depicted in the Australian film Caddie . Many Australians campaigned at a community level through organisations such as the Unemployed Workers Movement to demand improved welfare and relief. Authorities often attempted to repress protest through the use of repressive laws including bans on street marches and free speech. These in turn were resisted by campaigns of civil resistance, with Melbourne social realist artist Noel Counihan famously speaking from inside
22168-545: The right of the Bolsheviks). The Soviet chose not to force further changes in government due to the belief that the February Revolution was Russia's "crowing" overthrow of the bourgeois . The Soviet also believed that the new Provisional Government would be tasked with implementing democratic reforms and pave the way for a proletarian revolution . The creation of a government not based on the dictatorship of
22331-553: The right of the party who supported the New Economic Policy and encouraged a slowdown in industrialization efforts and a move towards encouraging the peasants to increase production via market incentives. Zinoviev and Kamenev criticized this policy as a return to capitalism. The conflict erupted at the Fourteenth Party Congress held in December 1925 with Zinoviev and Kamenev now protesting against
22494-580: The same time, the White Terror , mostly uncontrolled and perpetrated by such warlords as the Cossack atamans Grigory Semenov or Boris Annenkov , targeted suspected Bolshevik sympathizers. During the Russian civil war the Jewish communities of Ukraine , and to a lesser extent Belarus , suffered the worst pogroms ever to take place in these regions. They were performed by various armed units: by
22657-441: The soldiers who had just returned from war the hardest as they were in their mid-thirties and still suffering the trauma of their wartime experiences. At night many slept covered in newspapers at Sydney’s Domain or at Salvation Army refugees. The limited jobs that did arise were viciously fought for. The job vacancies were advertised in the daily newspaper, which formed massive queues to search for any job available. This then caused
22820-437: The spectre of another depression in their campaign rhetoric, utilised emergency wartime powers to introduce a command economy in Australia based on Keynesian principles. Unemployment was virtually eliminated in this period, being reduced to a record low of 1.1%. In 1942, income tax became federally controlled with the states conceding that the war effort needed a centrally controlled financial basis. In 1944, Curtin announced
22983-512: The spirit of nationalism appeared in central Asia, especially among the Muslim population. The Bolsheviks made use of the slogan " Self-determination " to fight imperialism and to build support among non-Russian nationalities. Lenin's position was that after the revolution all nationalities would be free to choose, either to become part of Soviet Russia or become independent. Left-wing Bolsheviks, most notably Georgy Pyatakov , derided nationalism as
23146-437: The status of agricultural surpluses . Rather than simply requisitioning agricultural surpluses in order to feed the urban population (the hallmark of War Communism), the NEP allowed peasants to sell their surplus yields on the open market. Meanwhile, the state still maintained state ownership of what Lenin deemed the "commanding heights" of the economy: heavy industry such as the coal, iron, and metallurgical sectors along with
23309-554: The support of the Nationalist Party of Australia . Lyons quit the ALP to become parliamentary leader of the newly established United Australia Party, with John Latham, Nationalist Leader of the Opposition, becoming the new party's deputy leader. In November 1931, Lang Labor dissidents chose to challenge the Scullin Labor government and align with the United Australia Party Opposition to pass
23472-506: The testament. Meanwhile, the campaign against Trotsky intensified and he was removed from the position of People's Commissar of War before the end of the year. In 1925, Trotsky was denounced for his essay Lessons of October , which criticized Zinoviev and Kamenev for initially opposing Lenin's plans for an insurrection in 1917. Trotsky was also denounced for his theory of permanent revolution which contradicted Stalin's position that socialism could be built in one country , Russia, without
23635-622: 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
23798-510: The totalitarian structure of society, with total truth emanating from the top, and all sorts of mischievous errors stemming from clumsy bureaucrats at lower levels, or from devious traitors and spies working on behalf of capitalism. The Communist leadership was rooted in printed propaganda. Taking over a nation where 90% could not read, they made schools and literacy a high priority in order to optimize printed journalism and propaganda through newspapers and magazines, as well as posters that reached
23961-416: The trusts in order to increase economic efficiency. Following Lenin's third stroke, a troika made up of Joseph Stalin , Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev emerged to take day to day leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the country and try to block Trotsky from taking power. Lenin, however, had become increasingly anxious about Stalin and, following his December 1922 stroke, dictated
24124-535: The united front period, the CPA's 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 , advocating nationalisation of electricity and
24287-408: The wages that workers wanted. The result was a series of strikes in many sectors of the economy in the late 1920s. Coal miners' strikes in the winter of 1929 brought much of the economy to its knees. A riot at a picket line in the Hunter Region mining town of Rothbury saw police shoot one teenage coal miner dead. The conservative Prime Minister of Australia , Stanley Bruce , wished to dismantle
24450-433: The war effort. The CPA supported calls for conscription , increased working hours , condemned strike action in war industries, and minimised criticism of John Curtin and his government. By 1942, the Curtin government legalised the CPA, exempted communist trade union and party officials from conscription, and provided the party's newspaper Tribune with a 'generous newsprint allocation' under wartime paper rationing. During
24613-419: The war, remaining in the Triple Entente with Britain and France. The Provisional Government postponed the land reforms demanded by the Bolsheviks. Lenin, and his Assistant Joseph Stalin embodying the Bolshevik ideology, viewed alliance with the countries of Western Europe and the United States as involuntary servitude of the proletariat, who was forced to fight the imperialists' war. As seen by Lenin, Russia
24776-486: The years 1922 to 1991. After the Russian Civil War (1917–1923), the Bolsheviks took control. They were dedicated to a version of Marxism developed by Vladimir Lenin . It promised the workers would rise, destroy capitalism , and create a socialist society under the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . The awkward problem, regarding Marxist revolutionary theory, was the small proletariat , in an overwhelmingly peasant society with limited industry and
24939-603: Was declared invalid by the High Court , then by referendum to try to overcome the constitutional 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 and the formation of the Democratic Labor Party comprising disaffected ALP members who were concerned over communist influence in Australian unions. In 1956, three years after Stalin died, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gave
25102-423: Was a rosy depiction of Soviet life in the Western media before Khrushchev exposed Stalin's horrors in the 1950s. The most famous exemplar was Walter Duranty of the New York Times . During the Civil War (1917–21), the Bolsheviks adopted War communism , which entailed the breakup of the landed estates and the forcible seizure of agricultural surpluses . In the cities there were intense food shortages and
25265-399: Was accepted, feeding up to 11 million people. Other outside agencies fed another three million. At the Tenth Party Congress, it was decided to end War Communism and institute the New Economic Policy (NEP), in which the state allowed a limited market to exist. Small private businesses were allowed and restrictions on political activity were somewhat eased. However, the key shift involved
25428-425: Was available. Single unemployed men had to make do in illegal camps or makeshift hostels in disused buildings, such as the old Redfern Fish Market . Shacks were built on the outskirts of large cities to house some who lost their homes, for example near the beach at Garie in the Royal National Park south of Sydney. There has been anecdotal evidence of families resorting to living in caves with authorities turning
25591-412: 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. At the party's 31st Congress in Sydney (2–3 March 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
25754-429: 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 Movement Against War and Fascism (MAWF) was founded to bring together all opponents of fascism under a communist controlled umbrella organisation. The movement instigated
25917-524: Was relatively more productive, relative price indexes for industrial goods were higher than those of agricultural products. The outcome of this was what Trotsky deemed the " Scissors Crisis " because of the scissors-like shape of the graph representing shifts in relative price indexes. Simply put, peasants would have to produce more grain to purchase consumer goods from the urban areas. As a result, some peasants withheld agricultural surpluses in anticipation of higher prices, thus contributing to mild shortages in
26080-402: Was reverting to the rule of the Tsar , and it was the job of Marxist revolutionaries, who truly represented socialism and the proletariat , to oppose such counter-socialistic ideas and support socialist revolutions in other countries . Within the military, mutiny and desertion were pervasive among conscripts. The intelligentsia was dissatisfied over the slow pace of social reforms; poverty
26243-441: Was unconstitutional. The government unsuccessfully appealed the decision in the Privy Council . In 1949, the combined perceived threats of international and domestic communism and industrial unrest along with the public's waning support for extended rationing and intervention following the close of the War saw the return of Menzies to the prime ministership. Though Menzies was a conservative, his sixteen subsequent years in power saw
26406-431: Was used for political speeches. Soviet authorities realized that the "ham" operator was highly individualistic and encouraged private initiative– too much so for the totalitarian regime. Criminal penalties were imposed but the working solution was to avoid broadcasting over the air. Instead radio programs were transmitted by copper wire, using a hub and spoke system, to loudspeakers in approved listening stations, such as
26569-497: Was worsening, income disparities and inequality were becoming out of control while the Provisional Government grew increasingly autocratic and inefficient. The government appeared to be on the verge of succumbing to a military junta . Deserting soldiers returned to the cities and gave their weapons to angry, and extremely hostile, socialist factory workers. The deplorable and inhumane poverty and starvation of major Russian centers produced optimum conditions for revolutionaries. During
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