Why did the old Communist Party of Australia fail?

[The Epitome of Justice]

Howcome the old communist party of Australia failed? They were one of the most successful communist parties in the western world and their era of prosperity was from the 1930s to the 1940s. The decline started in 1949 and the party was founded in 1920. Australia once had one of the world's most militant trade unions because of them.

The former CPA was Australia's biggest left party before the greens. They were owned for 3-4 generations by the Aarons family. The CPA declined in membership and eventually dissolved in 1991 with the materials given to the SEARCH foundation sadly.

They ended up being more disruptive than revolutionary and made lots of strikes which were theorised by people to be attempts to destabilise the economy. The trade unions were once powerful because of the former CPA. The Aaron's family who owned it until the 1970s-80s believed in the notion of the end justifying the means which made them use deceit sometimes.

During the 1960s-1970s two parties split off from the former CPA. One is "Communist Party of Australia(current" which claims to be Marxist-Leninist and the other being "Communist Party of Australia(Marxist-Leninist)" which happens to be the Maoist one. They are it's survivors and their websites can still be found today and continue to operate.

[Kingfish]

Other members might be able to give you a better answer about why it was bound to fail but as for some historical events/reasons:


-It was became dependent on the USSR and later China for financial support which meant it became increasingly less independent and representative of the interest of the Australian working class.


-Most of its union strength was limited to high level members in union leadership rather than mass support.


-The strike of 49 failed.


-Neoliberalism and globalisation in cooperation with the accord agreement created by the Labour government under Hawke (effectively it was a deal to not strike or agitate in return for greater prosperity brought from making the economy more “efficient”) destroyed the strength of the union movement as a whole.


Likewise whilst it some high ranking members in a few unions (in particularly shipping and mining) it was never really that powerful or popular, especially compared to the communist parties in countries like France or Italy. It was a paper tiger more than anything and importantly this was even reflected by the official USSR policy who believed that infiltrating the Australian Labor and Liberal parties would be a more fruitful solution.

[1xAntifa]

Suggest you check out

John Sendy Comrades Come Rally: Recollections of an Australian Communist. Thomas Nelson, Melbourne,. 1978. [have luck finding this one, the binding on my copy splintered years ago..that crappy seventies paperback glue.]

Tom O'Lincoln Into The Mainstream: The Decline of Australian Capitalism
Source: Into the Mainstream Tom O'Lincoln;
Published: by Stained Wattle Press 1985;
Which is online at https://www.marxists.org/subject/stalinism/into-mainstream/
for nix.

[1xAntifa]

oops that should have said communism not capitalism, Freudian or what?

Two more references

Jack Mundy Green Bans, People and Politics gives a good account of coal-face activism in the late sixties early seventies from a [nominally] communist union leader. The Builders Labourers use of Green Bans was pioneering work that has permanently altered the global landscape, no pun intended. A related volume if you can find it is a BLF/CPA co-publication Taming the Concrete Jungle from the early seventies from memory.

lastly, John Sendy Comunism History Thoughts and Questions 1978 is a CPA pamphlet from 1978 and is also online free http://www.reasoninrevolt.net.au/objects/pdf/d0453.pdf

[A.J.]

Howcome the old communist party of Australia failed? They were one of the most successful communist parties in the western world and their era of prosperity was from the 1930s to the 1940s. The decline started in 1949 and the party was founded in 1920. Australia once had one of the world's most militant trade unions because of them.


The main factor, IMHO, as to why communist parties in most imperialist countries declined in strength during the post-WW2 era was due to increasing economic affluence diminishing the appeal of communism.

The other is ideological. The revisionism that afflicted the communist from WW2 onwards(see fetishisation of popular front tactics) led to communist parties essentially becoming social-democratic.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

They ended up being more disruptive than revolutionary and made lots of strikes which were theorised by people to be attempts to destabilise the economy. The trade unions were once powerful because of the former CPA. The Aaron's family who owned it until the 1970s-80s believed in the notion of the end justifying the means which made them use deceit sometimes.

Just so it's clear where I'm coming from, I'm a Trotskyist. I would say the rot had set in much before the Second World War, with the Popular Front, the betrayals in China etc. But one decisive blow to the numerical strength of the official Communist Parties was their role in the stabilisation of bourgeois rule in the sixties and the seventies. A generation of young militants was thoroughly disgusted with the CPs and left for Trotskyists, Maoist etc. organisations (many of them no better than the CPs to be honest) while the older members increasingly found themselves in an organisation that couldn't distinguish itself from the social-democrats.

That said, why would it be a bad thing to "destabilise the economy"? "The economy" is not some magical thing that benefits everyone; like "jobs" and "the GDP" it just means that the capitalists have it well.

[The Epitome of Justice]

The main factor, IMHO, as to why communist parties in most imperialist countries declined in strength during the post-WW2 era was due to increasing economic affluence diminishing the appeal of communism.That is where I think the "Jason Unruhe" guy got it right. The outsourcing of cheap labour jobs to poorer nations, in exchange for better wages + conditions in the first world. What would have to be done in updating the socialist movement for the 21st century to follow the escape of the corporate cheap labour into the third world?

There is one remnant of the old CPA left called CPA(M-L) and they are pretty organized. They act like the old CPA from the 1920s - 1960s aswell in methods used or operation methods.

[PikSmeet]

The main factor, IMHO, as to why communist parties in most imperialist countries declined in strength during the post-WW2 era was due to increasing economic affluence diminishing the appeal of communism.

The other is ideological. The revisionism that afflicted the communist from WW2 onwards(see fetishisation of popular front tactics) led to communist parties essentially becoming social-democratic.

Australia was an imperalist country?

As for revisionism, you mean the tankies got it right then, what the workers want is Stalinism?

[The Epitome of Justice]

Australia was an imperalist country?

As for revisionism, you mean the tankies got it right then, what the workers want is Stalinism?I think he means "Social Democracy". Yeah it was kind of built on it and they have been outsourcing jobs or importing cheap labourers in the form of "457 visas".

[A.J.]

Australia was an imperalist country?

You mean is Australia a net exporter of capital? Yes it is.


As for revisionism, you mean the tankies got it right then, what the workers want is Stalinism?

Sorry, I have no idea what you mean here.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

It did not help that Communist parties in the Democratic West, starting in the 30s, began to reflect more the national interest of the USSR than the class interests of the global working class. That's where you get the kind of flip flopping we saw from the CPUSA on Nazi Germany - first opposing Nazi Germany, then supporting the MR pact, then turning against Nazi Germany again.