I was a member of them for a few good years.
They are a wonderful group that I would highly recommend.
Bob Briton is a great guy that was always really friendly to me (I still have a book he gave me on the history of the CPSU from the 30s on my bookshelf) and much of the leadership seems to be made up of solid 'old labour' types.
While they lack much of a cohesive ideology beyond simple Marxism-Leninism; Just about every senior member has been involved in militant unionism for decades, resulting in an informal ideology that I could only describe as a hybrid of Marxist-Leninism and De Leonism.
Even if you are not looking to join.
I would advise anyone who happens to be in Sydney to make a trip to their office.
They have a massive bust of Lenin there that was a gift from the embassy of the USSR in the late 80s.
It was a crazy experience for me when I first came across it - like I had stepped into an alternative timeline where the USSR never fell.
The party pretty much just exists as a stack of newspapers that is infrequently sneaked into the Melbourne union hall at this point.
Most of its old membership have ether died, retired from politics or Joined the CPA.
While always rather kooky, they were a serious Maoist party in their prime.
When I was a member of the CPA, I would often talk to a former CPA(ML) member about his time with them during their prime years; Apparently much of the party (including the guy I talked to) had spent time in China being taught how to conduct a protracted guerilla war during the 50s and 60s.
Being given the basics in how to conducted a guerilla war (as planned by their PLA military trainers) against the Australian government over a beer by a guy in his 70s is quite the experience.
Bob is pretty much spot on regarding them.
Really they are a group that combines all of the worst stereotypes regarding trot groups.
They have a creepy cult of personally surrounding their founder, they are riddled with internal cliques, they are utterly obsessed with id-pol, they are sectarian to the point of actively attempting to sabotage other left wing groups events and to top everything else off - they are almost certainly the product of some ASIO operation.
I really cannot say anything about them as I never interacted with them or knew anyone that did back when I was a Socialist.
However them being trots would be enough for me to advise caution.
A pretty cool group everything considered.
As far as trots go they are not at all sectarian and as such were the main group that my CPA branch collaborated with.
In all of my interactions with them, they were always very nice and helpful.
They do have a bad habit of attempting to 'poach' members from other organisations however.
An irrelevancy.
The party mainstream are just neo-liberals in red.
Fundamentally, the fact that they attempt to hide their contempt for working people is the main thing that separates them from the Liberals.
They are not salvageable.
SJWs and filthy hippies that are more concerned with empty 'feel good' policies then having a coherent ideology or educated positions.
The official party of the Australian anti-vaxxers - so expect them to be against vaccinations (doubtlessly wanting to replace them with 'crystal healing') in the next few years.
A seriously underrated group from my interactions with them.
While I cannot speak for branches other then the Brisbane one circa 6 years ago, they seem to be a great group of people.
They are non-sectarian and friendly to the point that I helped them carry their banner during a may-day march.
Do you have access to a large amount of capital?
If not then no.
Do you have some revolutionary new ideology that is sure to capture the hearts and minds of the average worker?
If not then no, again.
I'm not a socialist, so I do admit that I'm rather biased here.
But I do not see any socialist group that lacks a great deal of funding our has some super new ideology doing very well.
The only reason why I think the two ideologies that I have formulated have a chance of succeeding is that they both are able to take power without relying upon the average worker.
The average worker in the dystopia that is modern Australia is far to depressed, distracted and tired to care much about revolutionary politics I think; Hell, just about every adult younger then 40 seems to have retreated into some safe adolescent shell of pop-culture to escape the harsh reality of neo-liberalism.
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