Reconstructing Australian Communism

Abstract

In December, 1971, the Communist Party of Australia suffered its second split in eight years. In 1963, a relatively small grouping had left the party to form the Peking-oriented Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist). By comparison, the later split was far more traumatic: it took three years-during part of which period the party was virtually paralysed-to come to a head; it compromised the CPA internationally; and the new party, the Socialist Party of Australia, took with it much of the CPA's trade union support and many of its most experienced cadres. In this article I shall attempt to show that this trauma represented an important stage in the party's coming to terms with its own history, and was inevitable if the party was to develop as an effective revolutionary force. Further, I shall argue that, despite its critical weakness immediately following the 1971 split, the CPA is now demonstrating the potential to lead a viable communist movement in Australia.