"People treated me with equality": Indigenous Australians visiting the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War

Journal article

Piccini, Jon. (2016). "People treated me with equality": Indigenous Australians visiting the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War. Labour History: A Journal of Labour and Social history. 111(111), pp. 45 - 57. https://doi.org/10.5263/labourhistory.111.0045
AuthorsPiccini, Jon
Abstract

This paper discusses the entwining of Australian communists, trade unions and indigenous activists: a much-studied topic. However, I approach it from a "transnational" perspective, unearthing intersections between global ideas and local activism through a case study of how the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) and trade union bodies under its control or influence sent particular indigenous activists abroad during the 1950s and 1960s. It looks at why the CPA would invest the time and money in these trips, and what indigenous Australians thought they could get out of them. In so doing, it explores the possibilities and limits of this form of globally-centred solidarity, and adds a new dimension to our understanding of international communist and trade union politics.

Year2016
JournalLabour History: A Journal of Labour and Social history
Journal citation111 (111), pp. 45 - 57
PublisherLiverpool University Press
ISSN0023-6942
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.5263/labourhistory.111.0045
Page range45 - 57
Research GroupSchool of Arts
Publisher's version
File Access Level
Controlled
Place of publicationUnited kingdom
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