Communist Party of Australia (revived)
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- For the pre-1991 Communist Party of Australia, see Communist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia is a minor (unregistered) political party in Australia. It was founded as the Socialist Party of Australia (SPA) in 1971, when a group of members of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) resigned or were expelled from that party as a result of their opposition to its policies. They took the view that the CPA should not become a left social-democratic party, and should continue as a Marxist-Leninist party. This position put them at odds with the CPA leadership. The CPA leadership had become increasingly critical of the Soviet Union, particularly over the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. The SPA was led by a group of veteran trade union officials such as Pat Clancy and Peter Symon.
The old CPA was dissolved in 1991. The SPA, believing itself to be the rightful successor to the original CPA formed in 1920, changed its name to Communist Party of Australia at its 8th National Congress in October 1996. It remains a minor party, with at most a few hundred members, and polls negligible totals when it contests parliamentary elections. Michael Perth contested the seat of Port Adelaide, in 1998 and 2001, the only lower house seats contested by the party in the recent past, but polled less than 1% of the vote in both cases. It retains a core of activists in some trade unions, particularly in the maritime and mining industries. It publishes a weekly newspaper called The Guardian. Peter Symon is still the party's General Secretary. Its National President is Hannah Middleton. The party also has a youth branch, the Communist Youth of Australia, though it is active only in Sydney.
The revived CPA remains a traditional, albeit small, Communist Party, proclaiming itself to be a Marxist-Leninist party whose ultimate objective is the revolutionary transformation of Australian society and the establishment of socialism in Australia. It describes its objective as being to "change the direction of politics in Australia and eventually, to replace the capitalist system with a socialist one."[1]
Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Soviet model of socialism, the CPA continues to defend the historical legacy of the Russian Revolution. "Socialist societies eliminated mass unemployment," the CPA says. "They provided advanced and comprehensive social welfare, education and health facilities for all. Modern housing was provided at extremely low rentals. Culture was developed and became available to all. Equal pay and opportunities for women reached a high level. Education, sports and cultural facilities were provided for young people. Generous assistance was given to the developing countries."
The CPA's analysis of the failure and collapse of the Soviet Union is stated as follows: "The Soviet Union and other Eastern European socialist countries were the first socialist societies. Many difficulties had to be faced and overcome and many mistakes were made. Some things were done badly — socialist democracy was not implemented fully, social life and the economy were allowed to stagnate. But we do not conclude that socialism is a failure."
