The Guardian 2 April, 2008
Successful Sydney District Conference
The Communist Party of Australia has great opportunities before it at present of building its numbers and its links with the working masses, if only the Party Branches get out and get active amongst the people. That was the overriding theme of the Sydney District Conference of the CPA on Sunday March 30.
Twenty delegates, representing all the Branches of the Party in the Sydney District, attended the biennial conference. The delegates were joined by Comrade Peter Symon, the General Secretary of the CPA representing the Central Committee of the Party.
Also attending were two fraternal delegates: Comrade Michael Perth from the CPA State Committee in South Australia and Comrade Janis Hamilton, Secretary of the Wollongong Branch of the CPA.
The Conference received the report of the Sydney District Committee on the work of the Party over the last two and a half years, as well as special reports on the new challenges and opportunities facing the peace movement, the campaign against the privatisation of electricity in NSW and the need for only a few more signatures to successfully be able to register the Party for participation in federal elections.
In addition, Conference delegates were urged to ensure that all Party organisations mobilised for maximum participation in the campaigns and actions opposing the militarisation of Australia’s economy, focusing in particular on the protests being planned around the arms expo to be held in Adelaide in November.
Communist Party members cannot simply be passive observers of the people’s struggles, the Conference was told. The Conference elected a new District Committee and that new DC was called upon to organise a contingent of CPA members and supporters from Sydney to go to Adelaide in November and join the protest actions there.
The rest of the Party in Sydney will be expected to take part in support activities in Sydney itself, both preparing materials and raising funds before the contingent leaves for SA and organising solidarity activities during the protests in Adelaide.
In other campaigns, Party members reported on the popularity of the petitions opposing the privatisation of electricity generation in NSW. It is clear that the mass of the people are firmly against this move by the Iemma government, but the Labor Party leadership seems determined to foist privatisation on to the people of NSW.
CPA members and Branches have also been active participants in, often actual organisers of, Your Rights At Work committees across Sydney, and delegates reported on the positive benefits accruing to the Party through this activity. Participation in environmental struggles, such as the various campaigns against long-wall coal mining, was as also favourably reported.
Deficiencies in organisation were criticised, as was the failure of Branches in the District to recruit more young people. The presence of a significant number of young people was a feature of the recent State Conference in South Australia, so it is not that the CPA is unattractive to youth. The failure is clearly with Party work in the Sydney District, and the new DC will have the task of turning this around, presumably drawing on the successful experiences of the South Australian comrades.
A feature of the Sydney Conference was the emphasis on song, with the power of progressive songs being the theme of one contribution (accompanied by numerous examples), as well as another delegate commemorating the 30th anniversary of the International Brigades in the fight against fascism in Spain in the 1930s by singing an Irish song about the heroic sacrifice of the Brigades.
And, of course, the Conference closed with a stirring rendition of the anthem of the Revolution, The International.