Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1937-1990 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent and medium
33 boxes
Context area
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
The Queensland Branch of the Communist Party of Australia began around 1920, the same time as it's parent party. It was one of the CPA's three largest branches. The party ceased operating in 1991.
Repository
Archival history
Collection previously titled as: Records, 1937-1990
Collection alternatively titled as: Communist Party of Australia Collection.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Includes: State committee minutes; correspondence; state and federal Communist electoral material 1937 onwards; Communist Party, Queensland Branch District Conference papers 1951-59; subject files covering issues such as 'Aboriginal issues' and 'Youth'; miscellaneous pamphlets and newspaper clippings; extensive range of photographs.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Unrestricted access.
Conditions governing reproduction
In copyright.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Uploaded finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Publication note
Material from this collection has been cited in:
Edmonds, P (2020) 'The good-looking bookseller and the ugly society. Bill Sutton and the people's bookshop'. Queensland journal of labour history, No. 31, Spring/Summer: 7-18.
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Alma MMS ID
Millennium Local System Number
Libraries Australia ID
OCLC Number
Access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Socialist Party of Australia (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Revised
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Revised, BS, 22-April 2024.
Revised, Linda Justo, 2-Aug-2021. Migrated from LMS: April 2019, P.A.