LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Monday, October 26, 2020

Revolutionaries and Reformists

Communism and the Australian Labour Movement 1920-1955

ROBIN GOLLAN

Preface

This book is centred on the Communist Party of Australia from its

foundation until the mid-1950s. But it is not intended to be a history

of the party. There is little about the facts and problems of organisation

and virtually nothing about the struggles within the party on questions

of theory, strategy, and tactics. Rather, it is an attempt to set the

Communist Party and Communist ideology as expounded by the party

in the context of Australian politics, more particularly the politics of

the labour movement, over a period of thirty-five years. Because the

Australian party was deeply concerned with international issues and

closely dependent for its policy and interpretation of events on the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union, it has been necessary to extend

the canvas beyond Australia. Likewise, because the Communist Party

saw itself as having a total world view, it has also been necessary to

touch on some matters which are not normally thought of as being

political. Thus the book is highly selective, episodic, and not strictly

chronological. If it gives a general impression of what Communists

thought, why they thought as they did, and how in general they acted,

it will have succeeded in its purpose. If, also, it stimulates other

scholars to study more closely questions raised, either directly or by

implication, it will have been even more successful.

Since the book depends in part on personal experience it is only

fair to state that I joined the Communist Party in 1936 because it

seemed to me to be the only party in Australia fully committed to a

struggle for socialism and against fascism. I left it, with regret, in 1957,

because this no longer seemed to be the case.

As is usual in the writing of any book I contracted many debts of

gratitude but I will mention only two. My wife, Anne, played a much

more positive part than the one which is often allotted to wives in

prefaces. My greatest debt, however, is to Moira Scollay who did much

of the research on which the book is based and who also made many

helpful suggestions as to interpretation.

Canberra 1974 Robin Gollan