Comrades! Lives of Australian Communists

Abstract

<p>This collection of biographies of 100 Australian communists celebrates a century of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA). The CPA started small, on 30 October 1920, but its members' dedication and the course of world events made it a national, even international, force. They worked on the wharves, building sites, railways" in factories, mines, shops and hospitals. Others were novelists, playwrights, filmmakers, singers and lawyers. Many were union officials" one was Australia's only Communist Member of Parliament. Some were seared by World War, Depression, or the Cold War. Others were propelled by the social movements of the sixties and seventies. What drew them together was their opposition to the global dominance of capitalism, their desire for industrial and social justice, and the impulse to escape religious orthodoxy and class and gender privilege.Communists dared to think about a world without war, without divisions of race and class" of a society based on cooperation and shared wealth, and an economy run for the people. They believed that ordinary people, working together, could change the world.The CPA was the first party to oppose the White Australia policy, to stand up against fascism, and to fight for Aboriginal rights. Its members imposed the world's first Green Bans, and they helped build hundreds of social movement organizations though which people fought to have their say in the country's future. The books, plays, films and songs created by its members helped create a uniquely Australian culture. Many were subjected to surveillance and repression by Australian political police, discrimination at work, and constant public attacks. Few were ever acknowledged in history books or the media. To mark the centenary of the Communist Party of Australia, the SEARCH Foundation, in association with the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, is compiling short biographies of Australian communists. This selection of 100 will be supplemented by many more on the SEARCH website (www.search.org.au)</p>