100th anniversary of the Communist Party of Australia

On October 30^th, 2020, the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) will mark its 100th anniversary. The Party was founded at a conference on 30^th October 1920 at the Sydney Trades Hall as response to two factors – the appalling conditions of the working class and the inspiration of the revolutionary developments in Russia with the 1917 Great October Socialist Revolution. It was the outcome of the experience gleaned in the struggles of the labour movement from 1890 to 1920 and was one of the decisive revolutionary acts of the Australian working class.

From 1920 to today generations of communists have campaigned for workers’ rights, peace, Aboriginal land rights, migrant and women’s rights, social justice and much more. They have faced violence, jail, discrimination and lies and slanders but through it all they have maintained a fierce flame of a commitment to fighting for their class and the downtrodden and to building a socialist future. They share an impressive history of courageous, committed, determined and staunch struggle from 1920 to 2020.

Among the activities that have been scheduled for the celebration of the 100th anniversary, the CPA will hold an online forum via zoom on Friday 30^th October 2020 where speakers will refer to the experience of the previous years but will also focus on the future tasks. 

The ideas the CPA fights for are summarized in the Party's website:

The Communist Party of Australia believes there is a way to overcome Australia's economic and social problems. To do this it is necessary to change the direction of politics in Australia and, eventually, to replace the capitalist system with a socialist one.

The Communist Party is a party of activists who work in trade unions, peace and environmental groups, solidarity organisations and a variety of other community movements as well as running campaigns in the name of the Communist Party.

The members of the CPA work to eliminate unemployment, poverty, injustice, homelessness, racism and war. These problems arise from the domination of our society by huge profit-hungry private corporations.

We work for a society in which publicly owned enterprises will play the major role in the economy.

We encourage the participation of people in democratic decision making and management.

We want a society in which Aboriginal people, women, and migrants are treated equally and with dignity.

We work for a society where the environment is protected.

We believe that the needs of the people should be put first and not the wealth and profits of private corporations.

We strive to develop the Communist Party into a party capable of helping to educate, organise, unite and fight together with all the left, progressive and democratic political forces in building a broad people's movement with the working class as its core.

Many demands have been won in the past and we believe much more can be achieved by a movement which is united and determined to stand up for what is right.

The work of Party members and the Party's policies are guided by a set of ideas which are called Marxism-Leninism.

Wage and salary earners and their families, professional people, farmers, pensioners, unemployed people, students make up over 85 per cent of our population. They are the overwhelming majority.

These are the people suffering because of the exploitation imposed by monopolies, the privatisation of public enterprises, deregulation, cuts in government spending, and unemployment. The Communist Party of Australia is on their side.

IN DEFENSE OF COMMUNISM ©