National communisms: British and Australian roads to socialism in the early Cold War period, 1945-56

Abstract

After the Second World War, British and Australian communists were at the peak of their influence. The time was ripe for a national offensive. Riding a wave of optimism informed by the war, both parties attempted to create a ‘national communism’ in line with local political, social, and economic circumstances. The dissolution of the Communist International in 1943 gave credence to local policymaking – there were to be many ‘roads to socialism’. Four years later, informed by the Cold War, both parties were absent from the newly established Cominform. Operating on the margins of the international communist movement, new lines of development opened for both parties.
This thesis will focus on the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in the immediate post-war period analysing their respective ‘national communisms’. Employing a comparative, transnational framework, the thesis will contrast both movement’s fortunes and experiences analysing how they interpreted the new ‘national roads to socialism’ policy between 1945 and 1956. British and Australian communists took diverging paths, which were informed by local connections to nation, race, identity, and empire. It will argue that communist policy was co-ordinated in line with broader local and national developments. Loyalty to the Soviet Union endured, but post-war national communisms were an early attempt to indigenise communism, which complicates the image of a monolithic international communist movement. The thesis will add to our understanding of international communism, its points of interaction with the nation, and to the burgeoning literature in comparative, transnational history.

Date of Award	22 May 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Edge Hill University
Supervisor	DANIEL GORDON (Director of Studies), ROGER SPALDING (Supervisor) & CHARLIE WHITHAM (Supervisor)