Item F2458 - Papers relating to the Realist Writers group, Communist Party of Australia and Communist Arts Group/ collected by Peg Penberthy.

Identity area

Reference code

F2458

Title

Papers relating to the Realist Writers group, Communist Party of Australia and Communist Arts Group/ collected by Peg Penberthy.

Date(s)

  • 1960-1982. (Creation)

Level of description

Item

Extent and medium

52 items ; ill. ;

Context area

Name of creator

Biographical history

Name of creator

(1931-2007)

Biographical history

Name of creator

(1915-1985)

Biographical history

John Manifold, poet, was born in Melbourne and educated at Geelong Church of England Grammar School and Jesus College, Cambridge, where he became a member of the Communist Party. During the Second World War, he served in the British Army's Intelligence Corps in Africa and Western Europe. After the war he moved back to London before returning to Australia in 1949, settling in Wynnum, Brisbane. Manifold established the Realist Writers group in 1950, and was involved in a number of communist-associated groups, including the Communist Arts Group. As well as publishing poetry, he wrote non-fiction on various themes, notably Australian bush ballads which he collected and was particularly interested in.

Name of creator

Administrative history

Communist Arts Group (1967-).
Publicists - John Manifold, Peg Pemberthy, Bill Sutton, Geoff Wills, Nancy Wills.
Notes: This Group was associated with the Communist Party of Australia.

Name of creator

Administrative history

Established in 1920, the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) experienced significant growth in membership and influence throughout the 1930s and early to mid 1940s. The Queensland branch of the CPA established itself in Brisbane and regional centres especially the Townsville/Bowen/Collinsville region, known as the 'Red North'. Declared illegal between 1940 and 1942, the CPA continued, however, to function and grow in membership. In 1944, Fred Paterson was elected the state member for Bowen, the first and only CPA member elected to an Australian parliament. By the late 1940s, Cold War hostility and the CPA's increasing militancy saw the CPA under attack from the Chifley Labor government, the industrial groups within the trade union movement and the Liberal Party and business interests. In 1951, the Menzies government failed in its attempts to ban the CPA through a referendum. Yet the CPA was already experiencing significant decline that was only exacerbated by the Petrov 'spy' scandal and Royal Commission of 1954-55 and Chairman Khruschev's denunciation of Stalin's excesses in 1956. Of note is the fact that the Queensland CPA continued to maintain significant influence within the Trades and Labour Council of Queensland throughout the 1960s, largely as a consequence of the Council's Secretary Alec McDonald who died in 1969.
Objectives - To help build a broad alliance and left coalition which can transform society and build socialism while retaining the party's right to put its own independent position; to develop a stronger, larger and broader based party; to seek the opinions of workers and others in developing programmes for socialism; to help develop the independent activity, organization adn policieis of working people; to help develop the analysis of Australian society and the political understanding necessary for effective political activity.
Publicists - See Tribune and Queensland Guardian.
Notes: In 1963 the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) was formed from expelled members of the C.P.A. In 1971, the Socialist Party of Australia was formed as a result of a split in the C.P.A.

Name of creator

Administrative history

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Includes text of speech by Tom Burns on Jim Cairns, 1982 ; 3 poems by John Manifold ;and letters to Peg Penberthy at Mary Gilmore Art Gallery and Rare Books, Brisbane. Includes publicity leaflets, invitations, journals, notices of meetings, and circulars.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Unrestricted access.

Conditions governing reproduction

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

Related descriptions

Notes area

Note

Typescripts (printed, duplicated and photocopies) and manuscripts.

Alternative identifier(s)

Alma MMS ID

991007985929703131

Access points

Place access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

Status

Migrated

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

Migrated from LMS: April 2019, P.A.

Language(s)

Script(s)

Sources

Accession area