However, as Joanne P. Cloud wrote in 1987, “the CPA-ML suffered a body blow when its one sizable union connection, the BLF, was deregistered … and prohibited from organizing workers.” The party warned that “the successful smashing of the BLF would set a dangerous precedent that would expose the union movement to further attacks.”[574] Subsequently, the state government of Victoria seized $42 million of assets from the Builders Laborers Federation.[575]
The CPA-ML and the Chinese Communist Party
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the CPA-ML maintained close contact with its Chinese counterparts. Even before his formal break with the CPA, E. F. Hill announced that he was going to visit the People’s Republic of China. When CPA Secretary General Sharkey said that he had no right to do so without first consulting with the party leadership, Hill replied that since he had not renewed his CPA membership card, he was not bound by CPA discipline and intended to continue with his plans to visit China. When he actually did so, he was cordially received by the Chinese party leaders, and Mao Tse-tung gave him a farewell dinner before he returned to Australia.[576]
On various subsequent occasions, delegates of the CPA-ML visited China. For example, in March 1974, E. F. Hill and Norm Gallagher (then Vice Chairman of the CPA-ML) visited Peking on the invitation of the Central Committee of the Chinese Party. On that occasion, Angus Mclntyre noted, The Chinese laid out the red carpet for them. Chou En-lai, Chang Chun-chiao, and Madam Chiang were the hosts at a banquet in their honor. … The Peking People’s Daily made the greetings sent by the Central Committee of the CPC to the CPA (M-L), on the occasion of its tenth anniversary, its front page lead story. This unusual treatment for a fraternal greetings message caused comment in Western diplomatic circles.’”[577]
In November/December 1975, Hill visited Enver Hoxha in Albania. Then in January 1976, he sent a message of condolence to Mao on the death of Chou En-lai, and in the following month Hill and A. E. Bull, who had replaced Norm Gallagher as vice chairman of the CPA-ML, visited China. They met there with Chang Chun-chiao and Wang Hung-wen, and in April, Hill, Bull and O’Shea, as Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of the CPA-ML, sent a cable expressing support for the dismissal of Teng Hsiao-ping, and welcoming the appointment of Hua Kuo-feng as first vice chairman of the Central Committee and Premier of State Council. The three also sent a message of condolence on the death of Mao.[578]
Hill and the CPA-ML apparently had some trouble keeping up with the rapid political changes in China after Mao’s death. We have noted that on at least two visits to China he had conferred with members of the “Gang of Four.” Concerning the CPA-ML’s problems with the rapidly changing situation in China, Angus Mclntyre wrote in 1978 that “In 1976—1977 the CPA (ML) wanted to adjust its general line to the new policies of the Chinese Party Chairman Hua Kuo-feng. At first the CPA (M-L) leadership was seriously embarrassed by the disgrace of the Gang of Four and the return to power of Teng Hsiao-ping; in 1976 Hill had praised some of the former and criticized Teng. … On 27 October 1976, two days after the appearance of the People’s Daily criticism of Chiang Ching, Hill saw his error and wrote an article supporting the actions of the Chinese party against the Gang of Four. … For good measure, he wrote a forty-five page personal explanation of his change of heart.”[579]
Subsequently, the Australian CPA (ML) endorsed the Three Worlds Theory, and delegations visited China in December 1976, December 1977 and July 1979.[580]
Joanne P. Cloud noted that “In 1986 the Vanguard,” the CPA-ML’s “theoretical” newspaper, “found itself twisted into intellectual knots to approve Beijing’s opening of the economy to competition and simultaneously to disapprove Canberra’s moves to the right on economic issues.”[581] The following year, Michael Denby noted “a remarkable toning down in criticism of the Soviets,” and that the CPA-ML had “participated in the ‘fightback conference’ of various far left groups.”[582]
Conclusion
Australian Communists were first attracted to the Chinese party by what seemed to be its “soft” policies during the early years of the People’s Republic. When, at the end of the 1950s, that line hardened and true quarrel with the Soviet leadership came out into the open, the older generation of leaders of the Communist Party of Australia were presented with a grave crisis of conscience, which most of them at first resolved by remaining loyal to their old association with the CPSU. However, in the early 1970s, the CPA became highly critical of the Soviet leadership, particularly the invasion of Czechoslovakia, leading to a split and the formation of an avowedly pro-Moscow group, the Socialist Party of Australia.
Meanwhile, E. F. Hill, one of the junior members of the old hardline leadership of the CPA who had been particularly critical of the Chinese position in the early 1950s, ended up leading a pro-Chinese schism in the CPA on the basis of his approval of their hardline positions of the late 1950s and afterwards. This split resulted in the formation in 1964 of the Communist Party of Australia-Marxist Leninist, a peculiarly secretive and doctrinaire organization.
Although the CPA-ML had a solid trade union base in the state of Victoria and also succeeded in getting a foothold in the unions of New South Wales, it was not a major factor in Australian organized labor generally. Also, in the broader political scene, its influence was minimal, in part at least due to its refusal to participate in elections.
Although the CPA-ML had some difficulty in following the changes in line of the Chinese party, it finally succeeded in veering around to support of the Hua-Deng leadership by the end of the 1970s. Although there apparently were expulsions, demotions and resignations over the years of those dissenting from E. F. Hill’s leadership, these did not result in any major organizational splits in the party. Neither the CPA-ML nor any substantial part of it had by 1980 veered off in an Albanian direction, after Enver Hoxha’s split with Mao’s successors.
Maoism in New Zealand
Maoism in New Zealand had a unique distinction. There, the Communist Party of New Zealand (CPNZ), which had been founded in December 1920 and had been a member of the Communist International as long as the Comintern existed, sided with the Chinese Communists in their split with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It was the only one-time Comintern member party to do so.
Long-Term Problems of the Communist Party of New Zealand
The Communist Party of New Zealand was never a significant force in the country’s politics. It reached its high point in terms of membership right after World War II, when it had about 2,000 card holders. By the late 1960s it was estimated that this number had fallen to between 300 and 400. The party never was able to elect anyone to the national parliament or any other public office; the nearest it came was in 1931, when one of its nominees for parliament obtained 6.15 percent of the vote in his constituency.[583]
574
Joanne P. Cloud, in Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, 1987, Hoover Institution, Stanford, Calif., page 165.
575
Michael Danby, in Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, 1988, Hoover Institution, Stanford, Calif., page 141.
577
Angus Mclntyre, in Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, 1975, Hoover Institution, Stanford, Calif., pages 281—282.
583
Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, 1968, Hoover Institution, Stanford, Calif., page 442.