“Aussies and Stinking Reds”: The Anti-Fascism of the Communist Party of Australia

The Sydney May Day demonstration in 1956 was largely a peaceful affair, but around its edges conflict flared. A new Far Right organisation called the Australian Party mobilised against the march, declaring it filled with “stinking Reds.” The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), while condemning the Australian Party, urged physical restraint. The day ended without arrests. This article takes this moment of confrontation as the starting point for a deeper investigation of the CPA’s anti-fascism over time; from the 1920s through to the 1950s. This research is situated in historical studies of the politics of the CPA and also the developing field of contemporary anti-fascism studies.