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“More than an abstract principle”: Reimagining rights in the Communist Party of Australia, 1956–1971
Piccini, Jon
Piccini, Jon
Author
Abstract
The Communist Party of Australia (CPA) increasingly adopted ideas of universal rights throughout the 1960s. Responding to changes in the Soviet Union and the party's increasing irrelevancy at home, leading members of the CPA theorised a universal notion of rights—one that applied equally either side of the Iron Curtain—to critique Soviet actions on a variety of questions. In a local setting, the party aired for the first- time significant critiques of its history and practices, particularly rethinking its fraught relationship with Australian democratic freedom and rights, and recasting itself as a defender and extender rather than an ideological opponent of such ideas. Though brief, this engagement with these previously apostate ideas tells us much about the nature of the Australian party during this turbulent period and adds to our understanding of the transnational evolution of activist rights rhetoric and ideas.
Keywords
Australian history, history of ideas, transnational history, human rights history, communism—twentieth century
Date
2015
Type
Journal article
Journal
Journal of Australian Studies
Book
Volume
39
Issue
2
Page Range
200-215
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Arts and Humanities
Faculty of Education and Arts
Faculty of Education and Arts
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Open Access Status
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Controlled