Maoism in the Developed World

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.