Join us at the State Library, where the national archives of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) are held, to celebrate the release of Stuart Macintyre’s last book The Party and to pay tribute to Stuart’s wider contributions to Australian history, and to the labour and progressive movements.

Prominent Australian labour historian, Stuart Macintyre, finished the second volume of his history of the CPA not long before his untimely death in November 2021.

Sheila Fitzpatrick will present a keynote address. Sheila is a distinguished historian of the Soviet Union who has recently also worked on Australian immigration. Her new book, The Shortest History of the Soviet Union, was published this year.

Sheila’s presentation will be followed by a panel discussion on Stuart Macintyre’s contributions to Australian labour history in general and the history of communism in Australia in particular.

Panel Chair

Luke Whitington, Executive Officer of the SEARCH Foundation

Panel members

• Meredith Burgmann, historian, radical activist, former Labor President of the NSW Legislative Council, and unashamed fellow traveller
• John Faulkner, former ALP Senator and co-author with Stuart Macintyre of a history of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party
• Judy Mundey, socialist-feminist activist and former national president of the CPA — the first woman president of any Australian political party.

Drinks and light refreshments will follow the presentations and discussion.

Hosted by the SEARCH Foundation and the Sydney Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History

Please see the Special Conditions of Entry for this event.