Seventy-five years ago, under the impact and inspiration of the October 1917 Russian Revolution, the Communist Party of Australia was founded. 26 people attended the founding conference in Sydney on October 30, 1920. There were two main groupings, those from the Australian Socialist Party, and the “Trades Hall Reds” around TLC secretary Jock Garden, plus former IWW members and representatives from other small groups.

The campaign against the Vietnam War here developed in similar ways to the movement in the US. Of course Australia was a junior partner, and tagged along behind the US. But the Australian ruling class had its own aims and ambitions and interests in South-East Asia. In 1964 the Australian government introduced conscription to provide the cannon fodder – the “death lottery”: birth dates were balloted to determine who would be called up. In 1965 they sent the first contingent of troops to Vietnam.

The crimes of rampaging capitalism today are all too visible. Susan George’s talk last night, the talks and panels today, have given us many reminders. We’re here BECAUSE we’re conscious of this. And we’re also conscious, and perhaps a little afraid, of the tremendous financial, military, ideological resources at the disposal of the ruling classes.

Comrades, we’re living in tumultuous times, in vital times. They’re crucial times for building, for rebuilding our organisations, the organisations of the oppressed, of the opposition. Greed, aggression, cruelty, exploitation are on the rampage. Clinton’s arrogant aggression in bombing Iraq again last week said it all.

The reasons why we need a revolutionary party, and Lenin’s outstanding contributions on this question, was thoroughly covered by Reihana’s talk yesterday. The aim of this talk is to look at the sort of party we’re building and some of the basic concepts and methods of our party-building approach.

Comrades, this Resistance Conference will prove to be a vital gathering. It comes at a crucial turning point in world politics. The contradictions of capitalism are deepening, yet the old misleaders of the movements of the workers and oppressed have been defeated and discredited, while the new generation has not yet forged the weapons it needs – its leadership, its organisation.

This is a time of major upheavals in the world socialist movement. The developments unleashed in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe since Mikhail Gorbachev came to power are leading to possibly the biggest shake-up in the socialist movement since the victory of Stalin and Stalinism in the Soviet Communist party. We are confronted with the possibility of the definitive exposure and defeat of Stalinism, which has shackled the Communist movement since the death of Lenin.

In September 1944 the Communist Party of Australia had reached 23,000 members. It had led mass struggles of the unemployed during the 1930s. It had developed substantial support amongst Australian workers. During the late ‘40s CPA members occupied leadership positions in unions representing nearly half the organised working class. At the end of WWII the CPA had 4000 of its members in the armed forces. Its national weekly had a circulation in the tens of thousands, and it published separate weekly papers in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia as well.