Description:
In 1945, the Communist Party was a major force in Australian working class life. By 1980 it was a demoralised rump. O'Lincoln traces the decline from an influential but Stalinist movement ending with a drift into the political mainstream.
Brief description: Tom O'Lincoln (1947-2023) joined the radical student movement in Germany in 1967 and was subsequently a socialist organiser, unionist, linguist, educator and journalist. As an activist, Tom was a leading figure in the establishment and growth of the International Socialist political tendency in Australia. As a writer, Tom's work spanned several decades of commentary and analysis of government and working class politics. In longer publications, Tom's work covered political economy, Australian history and Marxist theory. His works include Into the Mainstream: The Decline of Australian Communism, Australia's Pacific War: Challenging a National Myth, The neighbour from hell: two centuries of Australian imperialism, and Years of Rage: Social Conflicts in the Fraser Era. His political memoirs, The Highway is for Gamblers, were published in 2017. Tom died in October 2023.