A Hindsight View 1929-2009: Why many became Communists and Why the Ideological Conflict Continues

Abstract

In 2007 I was given the great honour of being asked by Warren Keats OAM to edit an autobiographical work documenting his experience as an Australian communist. Having already read some of his other works, including an autobiography of his childhood and a historical novel, I was excited at the prospect of reading of his more political exploits. I was not disappointed. It proved to be a rollicking read, ranging from meeting members of the Indonesian communist underground in the late 1940s to being spied on by the South American secret police, from witnessing injustice and mateship in exotic locations around the world to having his family life actively disrupted by Australian authorities because of his political activity. A 'Hindsight View' is a book that will be invaluable for leftists, activists, historians and academics especially in adult education, politics, peace studies and history. It is a cogent political account interwoven with fascinating personal reminiscences. It conveys the excitement of wartime experience and the flavour and zietgiest of the times. It is a unique and eye-opening view of history quite at odds to more conservative histories. It reveals the little known fact of widespread communism in Australia during and post WWII and the little known history of the brutal Dutch colonisation and the heroic Indonesian independence struggle.