Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
Encyclopedia
The Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) (CPA(ML)) is an Australian political party based on the writings of Karl Marx
, Vladimir Lenin
, Joseph Stalin
and Mao Zedong
. The party describes its ideology as Marxism-Leninism
, and does not use the term "Maoism
" which is commonly applied to it by others.
The CPA(ML) was founded in 1964, following a split in the Communist Party of Australia
(CPA). The split was a result of the rupture in the early 1960s between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
and the Communist Party of China
(see Sino-Soviet split
). The leading figure in the breakaway group was Ted Hill
, a Melbourne
barrister who had been Victorian
State Secretary of the CPA. Other noted figures were Paddy Malone and Norm Gallagher
of the Builders Labourers Federation
, Clarrie O'Shea
of the Tramways Union and Ted Bull of the Waterside Workers Federation.
During the early 1970s the CPA(ML) attracted some following among radical students at some Australian universities, notably Monash University
and La Trobe University
in Melbourne and Flinders University
in Adelaide
. The CPA(ML) operated on university campuses through "front" organisations such as the Worker-Student Alliance (WSA) and the Monash Labor Club. Its most notable student leaders were Albert Langer
and Jim Bacon
(Bacon later renounced communism and became Labor
Premier of Tasmania). Some academic figures, such as the historian Humphrey McQueen
, also supported CPA-ML policies, even if they did not become party members.
Until the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 the CPA(ML) followed the Chinese Communist Party's "line" with absolute loyalty. The party paper Vanguard reprinted Chinese statements verbatim and lauded every achievement of the Chinese Communist Party. During the Cultural Revolution
of the 1960s the CPA-ML echoed the ultra-revolutionary rhetoric of the Chinese media, calling for immediate world revolution and railing against the "modern revisionists" of the Soviet Union
and the pro-Soviet parties such as the CPA, which they described as "the Aarons
revisionist clique."
Nevertheless the CPA(ML) immediately supported the sudden change in Chinese policy in 1972, when United States
President Richard Nixon
visited Beijing
and established a Sino-American alliance against the Soviet Union
. This, however, caused major disaffection among the party's student following. The Worker-Student Alliance collapsed in 1973 and the party lost its leading position on the far left of student politics.
The CPA(ML) and its remaining student followers abandoned Maoist rhetoric and began to promote "Australian independence" as the first stage in the struggle for socialism, forming new fronts such as the Australian Independence Movement and using the blue Eureka Flag
rather than the red communist flag. This eventually led a split in the party, with those opposed to the new "nationalist" line leaving in 1978.
During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s various dissidents left the party or were expelled, founding groups that disagreed with the analysis of the CPA(ML). Supporters of the cultural revolution that left included the Clarrie O'Shea backed Committee to Reconstruct the Communist Party of Australia founded in 1984 and which later changing its name to the Committee for a Revolutionary Communist Party in Australia, and the Marxist Workers Party of Australia who continue to publish Red Flag
. The Red Eureka Movement formed in 1977/1978 now exists through the website www.lastsuperpower.net. The last major split in 1988 resulted in the formation of the National Preparatory Committee of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Australia
by supporters of Norm Gallagher
. What remained of the party continued to defend the Chinese Communist Party.
Ted Hill's retirement in 1986 and death in 1988 left the party with no recognised public figure. CPA(ML) founder and prominent trade unionist, Norm Gallagher
, was initially jailed for alleged corruption but following an appeal the trial and verdict were declared "unsafe". The current Chairperson of the CPA(ML) is Bruce Cornwall. The party continues to publish Vanguard on a monthly basis but otherwise conducts little visible political activity.
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
, Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
, Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
. The party describes its ideology as Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...
, and does not use the term "Maoism
Maoism
Maoism, also known as the Mao Zedong Thought , is claimed by Maoists as an anti-Revisionist form of Marxist communist theory, derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong . Developed during the 1950s and 1960s, it was widely applied as the political and military guiding...
" which is commonly applied to it by others.
The CPA(ML) was founded in 1964, following a split in the Communist Party of Australia
Communist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991; it was succeeded by the Socialist Party of Australia, which then renamed itself, becoming the current Communist Party of Australia. The CPA achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted...
(CPA). The split was a result of the rupture in the early 1960s between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
and the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
(see Sino-Soviet split
Sino-Soviet split
In political science, the term Sino–Soviet split denotes the worsening of political and ideologic relations between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War...
). The leading figure in the breakaway group was Ted Hill
Ted Hill (Australian Communist)
Edward Fowler Hill was an Australian barrister and communist activist. He was chairman of the Communist Party of Australia from 1964 to 1986....
, a Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
barrister who had been Victorian
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
State Secretary of the CPA. Other noted figures were Paddy Malone and Norm Gallagher
Norm Gallagher
Norm Gallagher was a controversial Australian trade unionist, and Marxist-Leninist who led the militant Builders Labourers Federation as federal Secretary and as Victorian State Secretary....
of the Builders Labourers Federation
Builders Labourers Federation
The Builders Labourers Federation is an Australian trade union organisation which existed from 1911 until 1972, and from 1976 until 1986, when it was permanently deregistered in various Australian States by the federal Labor government and some state governments of the time. This occurred in the...
, Clarrie O'Shea
Clarrie O'Shea
Clarence Lyell O'Shea, more commonly known as Clarrie O'Shea , was the Victorian State Secretary of the Australian Tramway & Motor Omnibus Employees' Association who was jailed in 1969 by Sir John Kerr for contempt of the Industrial Court when he disobeyed a court order that his union pay $8,100 in...
of the Tramways Union and Ted Bull of the Waterside Workers Federation.
During the early 1970s the CPA(ML) attracted some following among radical students at some Australian universities, notably Monash University
Monash University
Monash University is a public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. Monash is a member of Australia's Group of Eight and the ASAIHL....
and La Trobe University
La Trobe University
La Trobe University is a multi-campus university in Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1964 by an Act of Parliament to become the third oldest university in the state of Victoria. The main campus of La Trobe is located in the Melbourne suburb of Bundoora; two other major campuses are...
in Melbourne and Flinders University
Flinders University
Flinders University, , is a public university in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1966, it was named in honour of navigator Matthew Flinders, who explored and surveyed the South Australian coastline in the early 19th century.The university has established a reputation as a leading research...
in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
. The CPA(ML) operated on university campuses through "front" organisations such as the Worker-Student Alliance (WSA) and the Monash Labor Club. Its most notable student leaders were Albert Langer
Albert Langer
Albert Langer is an Australian political activist, best known for his 1996 conviction and gaoling on contempt charges after breaching an injunction forbidding his advocacy of marking electoral ballot papers in a way discouraged by the Australian Electoral Commission...
and Jim Bacon
Jim Bacon
James Alexander Bacon, AC was Premier of Tasmania from 1998 to 2004.-Early life:Bacon was born in Melbourne; his father Frank, a doctor, died when Jim was twelve, leaving him to be raised by his mother Joan. He was educated at Scotch College and later at Monash University, but he did not graduate....
(Bacon later renounced communism and became Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
Premier of Tasmania). Some academic figures, such as the historian Humphrey McQueen
Humphrey McQueen
Humphrey McQueen is an Australian author, historian, and cultural commentator. He has written many books on a wide range of subjects covering history, the media, politics and the visual arts...
, also supported CPA-ML policies, even if they did not become party members.
Until the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 the CPA(ML) followed the Chinese Communist Party's "line" with absolute loyalty. The party paper Vanguard reprinted Chinese statements verbatim and lauded every achievement of the Chinese Communist Party. During the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
of the 1960s the CPA-ML echoed the ultra-revolutionary rhetoric of the Chinese media, calling for immediate world revolution and railing against the "modern revisionists" of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and the pro-Soviet parties such as the CPA, which they described as "the Aarons
Laurie Aarons
Laurence "Laurie" Aarons , Australian Communist leader, was National Secretary of the Communist Party of Australia from 1965 to 1976. He was born in Sydney, son of Sam Aarons, a leading member of the Communist Party and a veteran of the Spanish Civil War. The Aarons family was of German-Jewish...
revisionist clique."
Nevertheless the CPA(ML) immediately supported the sudden change in Chinese policy in 1972, when United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
visited Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
and established a Sino-American alliance against the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. This, however, caused major disaffection among the party's student following. The Worker-Student Alliance collapsed in 1973 and the party lost its leading position on the far left of student politics.
The CPA(ML) and its remaining student followers abandoned Maoist rhetoric and began to promote "Australian independence" as the first stage in the struggle for socialism, forming new fronts such as the Australian Independence Movement and using the blue Eureka Flag
Eureka Flag
The Eureka Flag is a design; a dark blue field with a central white symmetric cross consisting five eight-pointed stars, representing the Crux constellation....
rather than the red communist flag. This eventually led a split in the party, with those opposed to the new "nationalist" line leaving in 1978.
During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s various dissidents left the party or were expelled, founding groups that disagreed with the analysis of the CPA(ML). Supporters of the cultural revolution that left included the Clarrie O'Shea backed Committee to Reconstruct the Communist Party of Australia founded in 1984 and which later changing its name to the Committee for a Revolutionary Communist Party in Australia, and the Marxist Workers Party of Australia who continue to publish Red Flag
Red flag
In politics, a red flag is a symbol of Socialism, or Communism, or sometimes left-wing politics in general. It has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution. Socialists adopted the symbol during the Revolutions of 1848 and it became a symbol of communism as a result of its...
. The Red Eureka Movement formed in 1977/1978 now exists through the website www.lastsuperpower.net. The last major split in 1988 resulted in the formation of the National Preparatory Committee of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Australia
National Preparatory Committee of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Australia
The National Preparatory Committee of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Australia was a Marxist-Leninist communist organization in Australia that published the journal Eureka from 2000 to 2005....
by supporters of Norm Gallagher
Norm Gallagher
Norm Gallagher was a controversial Australian trade unionist, and Marxist-Leninist who led the militant Builders Labourers Federation as federal Secretary and as Victorian State Secretary....
. What remained of the party continued to defend the Chinese Communist Party.
Ted Hill's retirement in 1986 and death in 1988 left the party with no recognised public figure. CPA(ML) founder and prominent trade unionist, Norm Gallagher
Norm Gallagher
Norm Gallagher was a controversial Australian trade unionist, and Marxist-Leninist who led the militant Builders Labourers Federation as federal Secretary and as Victorian State Secretary....
, was initially jailed for alleged corruption but following an appeal the trial and verdict were declared "unsafe". The current Chairperson of the CPA(ML) is Bruce Cornwall. The party continues to publish Vanguard on a monthly basis but otherwise conducts little visible political activity.
External links
- The Vanguard expresses the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist).