This collection of biographies of 100 Australian communists celebrates the foundation of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) a century ago.
The CPA started small on 30 October 1920 but its members’ dedication and the course of world events made it a national, even international force.
They worked on the wharves, building sites, railways, factories, mines, shops and hospitals. Others were novelists, playwrights, filmmakers, and lawyers. Many were union officials. One was Australia’s only Communist Member of Parliament. Some were seared by World War, Depression, or the Cold War. Others were propelled by the social movements of the sixties and seventies and the struggles for peace, women’s liberation and gay rights.
What drew them together was their passion for a world without war, without divisions of race and class, for a society based on cooperation and shared wealth. They believed that ordinary people working together could change the world. The CPA was the first party to oppose the White Australia policy, to stand up against fascism, and to fight for Aboriginal rights. It was the first communist party in the world to condemn the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
They helped build hundreds of social movement organisations through which people fought to have their say in the future. Their books, plays, films, art and songs helped create a uniquely Australian culture. Many were subjected to surveillance and repression, discrimination at work, and constant public attacks. Few were ever acknowledged in history books or the media.