Author: Admin

Cat Links Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, LH Melbourne, Peter Love

Citizen Love – teacher, activist, scholar, and friend

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Our dear friend Peter Love is no more. His involvement with the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History spans fifty years. For the last thirty-five of those years, Peter has been president of its Melbourne Branch. He personified his ‘communitarian civic ideal’ with an ‘unassuming nationalism, simple decency and a willingness to place the public good before private benefit’. Befitting a man who operated according to the ‘Old Mates Act’ and practised noncontractual reciprocity, his friendship circles were large. He will be sorely missed. … Continue readingCitizen Love – teacher, activist, scholar, and friend

Cat Links Book Launch, Book launch, Events of Interest

Book Launch: ‘Histories of Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Australia’

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Join authors Evan Smith, Jayne Persian, Vashti Jane Fox and Jeff Sparrow in the launch of ‘Histories of Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Australia’. Friday 31 March at 6:00pm-7:30pm Catalyst Social Centre 144-146 Sydney Road, Coburg. Free drinks and nibbles will be provided before and after the talk. RSVP essential. … Continue readingBook Launch: ‘Histories of Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Australia’

Cat Links Book launch, Book Launch, Carmel Shute, Communist Party of Australia, Events of Interest, Frank Bongiorno, Joy Damousi, Julie Kimber, Julius Roe, Stuart Macintyre

The Party: Book Launch

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The long awaited launch of Stuart Macintyre’s second volume of the history of the CPA is happening on Wednesday 16th March in the Solidarity Hall of Victorian Trades Hall. Hosted by SEARCH Foundation and the Melbourne Labour History Society, the event will feature a formal launch and a panel discussion. Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History at the Australian National University and a close colleague of Stuart, will launch the book. The launch will be followed by a panel discussion on Stuart Macintyre’s contributions to Australian labour history in general and the history of communism in Australia in particular, moderated by Carmel Shute, former historian and CPA member. … Continue readingThe Party: Book Launch

Cat Links Book Review, Michael Easson

Labouring People

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Chris Bowen, the former Treasurer, now Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy, is an avid reader, and curious about the motivation, thinking, and conflicts that rule the hearts and minds of political folk. His latest book tributes six, largely forgotten, Australian Labor men and women, never household names. In doing so, Bowen says that many books: “…tend to focus on the big names or the big dramatic moments: the election wins, the reforms, the splits, the challenges.” But there is more to the Labor story: there are many thousands of personalities who make up the movement. … Continue readingLabouring People

Cat Links Charlie Chaplin, Cold War, communism, Phillip Deery

Charlie Chaplin and the FBI

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(Phillip Deery, Charlie Chaplin and the FBI): There is much more to the political harassment and persecution of Charlie Chaplin. J. Edgar Hoover first took an interest in the ‘little tramp’ in 1922, the year after ‘The Kid’ opened. But it was not until World War II that his FBI file, numbered 100-127090, began to thicken. FBI agents noted that he was the main speaker at a CPUSA-backed Artists Front to Win the War in Carnegie Hall on 16 October 1942, which called for a second front. He addressed the crowd as ‘comrades’ and praised the Soviet Union, then a wartime ally. … Continue readingCharlie Chaplin and the FBI

Cat Links Book Review, Raymond Evans

A Book of Doors

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These were better days. Definitely: perhaps so much better because we were young back then. And those who were there naturally see them through that rosy-golden glow. But more likely better because it was us – the young ones ourselves – who had made them better. That is what is often missed: we were actually the vectors of historical advance. We took hold of the times and wrestled them to our novel requirements. We rode them with exhilaration for a while to the forefront of surging change. … Continue readingA Book of Doors