- The Guardian
- Issue #2169
30 October this year marked the 105th anniversary of the foundation of the Communist Party of Australia. It was an historic event and signalled the formation of a party taking Marxism as its guide.
A number of events influenced the formation of communist parties at that time, not only in Australia, but also in a number of other countries as well.
It was shortly after the ending of World War I, caused directly by capitalism and resulted in enormous loss of life and devastation. The experience of this war was a contributing factor in the Russian socialist revolution of 1917 and revolutionary upsurges in many other European countries.
In Australia, the modern working class was beginning to emerge with the foundation of a steel industry in 1912 when BHP was established.
Labor Party governments had sided with the imperialist governments of Europe in the war and attempted to conscript soldiers to fight overseas.
Some utopian socialist organisations existed before the formation of the Communist Party of Australia and they had awakened an understanding of the class nature of society and opposed capitalism. But their solutions to the problems of the working people were inadequate.
However, the first publication of the writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and others brought scientific socialist ideas to readers.
On the one hand, the reformist, compromising policies of the Labor Party became apparent. On the other hand, the one-sided anti-parliamentarianism of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was seen to represent a blind alley in the struggle for the overthrow of the capitalist system and its replacement by a social system based on the interests and needs of the working people.
The 105 years of the Communist movement in Australia have been marked by ups and downs and by many achievements. The movement has persisted despite the never-ending campaigns of the capitalist class to exorcise it from society and, these days, to declare that socialism has been tried and found to be a failure and is now dead. They only wish it were true!
Communist parties exist in more countries than ever and in a number of countries they have formed governments and are building socialist societies such as China, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and the DPRK. In other countries Communist parties participate in the present governments – South Africa, Sri Lanka, Italy, and Cambodia, for example, and lead provincial, state, and local governments as in India and Japan.
The working class has grown enormously in the last 105 years and is by far the single largest class in many countries. Workers comprise the overwhelming majority of the populations of all countries.
Millions remain poor, impoverished and unemployed in a period when all human needs could be met by the productive capacity that exists. The necessity to bring an end to the capitalist system has never been more apparent or necessary. The recently announced obscene profits of Australian banks and resources companies, show what wealth is being ripped out of the sweat and toil of the working people, wealth which could have been used for the overall benefit of the working people.
Marxist and Leninist ideas remain true and are the only reliable guide to a better society. It was socialist ideas and policies that rapidly transformed the once backward economy and lives of the Russian people. It was socialist ideas and policies that enabled the people of Vietnam, China, and Cuba to defeat the efforts of imperialism to strangle those countries. It is socialist ideas and policies that could also redistribute wealth in Australia and reverse the present environmental destruction which is a direct result of capitalist rip, tear, and bust economic practices.
That is why we commemorate the foundation of the Communist Party of Australia and can confidently reaffirm the Manifesto to the Workers of Australia which was issued by the CPA shortly after its formation in 1920 (see page 8). It declares “the capitalist system of production and distribution has outlived its usefulness and become reactionary and destructive of humanity …”
Socialist ideas based on the collective social needs of men and women can eliminate war from the affairs of humanity. Socialism alone can save humanity from catastrophic climate change. At 105 years old and counting, that’s what the Communist Party of Australia is working towards.
