The current left-turn of the Communist Party of Australia took a sharper turn at its recent national congress. Nine of the 38 member national committee were not re-elcted, Those who were 'purged' included T.Wright, State Secretary of the Sheet Metal Workers Union and a founder member of the party; E.V.Elliott, Federal Secretary of the Seamans Union of Australias E.Rose a labour historian; W.J.Brown, Administrator of the Trade Union Education and Research Centre.
Tt now seems likely that there will be a split inside the CPA and a pro-Moscow party set up. This will mean that there will be three ‘Communist! parties in Australia, since there is already a Maoist party in existence.
Over the last few years there has been developing inside the CPA a current led by Laurie Aarons - the National Secretary - which has steadily moved to the left and has taken up positions on a number of issues independent of both Moscow and Peking. There has been a steady move towards support for such ideascof workers' selfmanagement, and a critical appraisal of bureaucracy. The CPA denounved the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, and has just recently decided to withdraw its permanent correspondent from Moscow.
One of the disturbing features of this left turn is that it seems to be being: done at the expense of the CPA's trade union connections. Also it seems that although there have been a number of resolutions and statements made of a revolutionary character, there also seems to be developing some criticism from the left of the Aarons leadership for its lack of action on these.
We hope to carry a fuller report on the situation in Australia in a future “issue. Those who would like to understand some of the background to the above should ~~ read "A Strategy for the Left" by Laurie Aarons 1/44 pp and "The Communist Party of Australia - Draft Prgramme" 1/10 pp both available from BMS Publications. = . . ° * * . * ss . 2 * * ° . s . . o 2 » . * o . * . .* . . * . . . . . a * eo o oo