T h is book is centred on the Communist Party of Australia from its foundation until the mid-1950s. But it is not intended to be a history of the party. There is little about the facts and problems of organisation and virtually nothing about the struggles within the party on questions of theory, strategy, and tactics. Rather, it is an attempt to set the Communist Party and Communist ideology as expounded by the party in the context of Australian politics, more particularly the politics of the labour movement, over a period of thirty-five years. Because the Australian party was deeply concerned with international issues and closely dependent for its policy and interpretation of events on the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, it has been necessary to extend the canvas beyond Australia. Likewise, because the Communist Party saw itself as having a total world view, it has also been necessary to touch on some matters which are not normally thought of as being political. Thus the book is highly selective, episodic, and not strictly chronological. If it gives a general impression of what Communists thought, why they thought as they did, and how in general they acted, it will have succeeded in its purpose. If, also, it stimulates other scholars to study more closely questions raised, either directly or by implication, it will have been even more successful. Since the book depends in part on personal experience it is only fair to state that I joined the Communist Party in 1936 because it seemed to me to be the only party in Australia fully committed to a struggle for socialism and against fascism. I left it, with regret, in 1957, because this no longer seemed to be the case. As is usual in the writing of any book I contracted many debts of gratitude but I will mention only two. My wife, Anne, played a much more positive part than the one which is often allotted to wives in prefaces. My greatest debt, however, is to Moira Scollay who did much of the research on which the book is based and who also made many helpful suggestions as to interpretation. Canberra 1974 Robin Gollan 1 From War to Depression For radicals all over the world the Russian revolution was the most important fact of the forty years after 1917. Australian radicals, although far from the scene of action, were no exception. A minority in the Australian labour movement had criticised capitalism in general and Australian capitalism in particular from the 1890s onwards. The alter native socialist society which was foreshadowed took many different forms, as did the means proposed to achieve it. The Russian revolution, being the first successful revolution carried through in the name of socialism, was an achievement and a model of which all socialists would henceforth have to take note. In Australia only a small minority, but one which grew to significant proportions between the mid-1980s and the mid-1940s, ever identified with the revolution and what flowed from it. But for all socialists it was a fact in relation to which they had to determine their own posi...