Why would a member of the luckiest generation in history join a communist party, and dedicate their lives to radical change?
As part of the celebrations for the 100 anniversary of the Communist Party of Australia in 2020, SEARCH members had the idea of asking Communist Party of Australia (CPA) members born after World War II - why they joined the CPA.
A podcast series made-up of excerpts from 18 of the first-round interviews conducted since 2020 has been created. Episode 1 is an introduction to the series. A new episode will be published each week. And a second round of interviews is currently underway.
Join us as we go about capturing the individual rationales for what many on the left considered incomprehensible then, and quixotic now.
Thanks to our interviewees (30 so far currently younger-than-old-but-older-than-young (aka baby boomers).
This series can be seen as a compliment to the other material produced for the centenary year of the CPA. In SEARCH's book Comrades! Lives of Australian Communists (SEARCH, 2020) we published biographies of 50 women and 50 men, some famous and some not, who had been part of the CPA. SEARCH also produced a one-day series of six one-hour online forums to commemorate the Centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of Australia in October 1920, co-hosted by the State Library of NSW which you can view on the SEARCH YouTube Channel.
We are committed to the work of preserving the history of the CPA – but we don’t know everyone who was ever a member of the Party, so if you know someone who should be interviewed, let us know.
Comments and suggestions are welcome, and can be sent to the Search Foundation at admin@search.org.au.
