Category: Comintern
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New special issue of Twentieth Century Communism journal
This is just an announcement that the special issue of Twentieth Century Communism that I co-edited with Daniel Edmonds and Oleksa Drachewych has been published. The theme is international communism and anti-colonialism in the twentieth century. You can find the whole issue here and the introduction (free to download) here. I have an article in the issue…
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New book chapter on anti-colonialism and communism in Britain, Australia and South Africa
In September 2017, I travelled to Hamilton, Canada to take part in a workshop held at McMaster University on the Communist International and anti-colonialism, ‘race’ and national liberation, organised by Oleksa Drachewych and Ian McKay. I spoke about my research on the Communist Parties in Britain, Australia and South Africa and anti-colonialism in the inter-war…
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The Communist Party and the ‘White Australia Policy’, 1920-45
To celebrate the submission of the manuscript for our edited collection on the history of the Australian far left in the Cold War era, I am posting an excerpt from a chapter by Jon Piccini and I on the Communist Party of Australia and immigration restrictions, primarily the ‘White Australia Policy’. The following section looks…
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How to navigate the Comintern archives online: A guide for the non-Russian speaker
In 2015, the Russian government made freely available the scanned papers of the Communist International that had been digitised in the 1990s. Access to this digital archive was limited to a number of universities in Europe, as well as the Library of Congress in Washington DC. The new portal made the thousands of scanned documents…
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For those on academia.edu, join my feedback session on transnational communism & anti-racism in WWII
I just thought I’d post this there for anyone on academia.edu and has an interest in transnational communist history. I am currently running a feedback session on the site for my paper ‘”Our Soldiers Need Guns!” Communists and the Enlistment of Black Soldiers in the Second World War in South Africa, Australia and the United…
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Communism, anti-racism and the ‘imperialist war’ phase in South Africa, USA and Australia, 1939-41
With the anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War this week, this post is an extract from a paper that I am writing on the Communist Parties in South Africa, the United States and Australia and their agitation for black soldiers to join the war effort after the Soviet Union joined the Allies…
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New Communist History Online Resources
Just a quick post to let those interested in Communist history that there are two new online resources to play with! Firstly, the Russian Archives have now made the Comintern Online Archive free to access. The website is only navigable in Russian at the moment, but after playing around with Google translate, I have been…
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Fairfax to students: ‘You silly young people. Don’t you know the sixties are over!’
Since the student protests that kicked off last Wednesday, Fairfax Media in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have run three comment pieces on how the students needed to drop the traditional mass street protest of the 1960s/1970s and employ ‘new’ tactics in the fight against higher education cuts. First there was Annabel Crabb, who wrote: I’m…
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CPSA and anti-colonialism beyond its borders
I have started my archival research in South Africa and am currently ploughing through the extensive collection of Jack and Ray Simons’ papers. One thing that is very noticeable, but not particularly surprising, is that the issue of ‘race’ and the relationship between black and white workers is present in almost every Communist Party of…
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New stuff for those interested in communist history
For those interested in communist history, I just thought I’d flag two new publications. Firstly, there is a new issue (#6) of Twentieth Century Communism journal has just been published by Lawrence & Wishart. Now published twice a year, this journal has some of cutting-edge historical research on communism (particularly communism in the Western world).…
New Historical Express 