The Howard Government introduces anti-worker anti-union
work choices legislation

The reaction was a massive YOUR RIGHTS AT WORK campaign.
CPA members were active, sometimes in leadership roles, as the campaign grew in size and determination.

 A decade of resisting war and militarism

This decade was marked by wars or preparations for war -- wars against the peoples of Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen.

CPA members were active in resistance to these wars, to the Talisman Sabre US-Australian war games on our soil, to increasing military spending and to increasing Australian arms sales overseas.

The United Nations finally adopted a resolution banning nuclear weapons, following decades of commemorating Hiroshima Day and the work of the Nobel Peace Prize winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

ICAN is a coalition of non-governmental organizations in more than 100 countries promoting implementation of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This landmark global agreement was adopted in New York on 7 July 2017. ICAN was launched in Melbourne in 2007. War - Afghan War - Syrian War - Yemen War - US troops in Darwin - Talisman Sabre 2011

This decade has been marked by wars or preparations for war and the CPA has resisted everyone of them.

 Workers Rights and Trade Union Rights in the period 2010-2020

The war on workers in Australia continued unabated in this decade.  The Rudd-Gillard ALP Governments petered out in 2013 and were replaced by Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison LNP Governments.  While there was a minimal improvement of workers’ lives in the ALP era, the LNP locked up the workers in massive anti-union laws.  Wage growth was small or non-existent.  In NSW for example State workers such as teachers, nurses, and other frontline workers in the pandemic were given only  a 0.3% wage rise. 

The CPA continued to keep up the fight for workers rights.  Among the highlights from an industrial perspective were the strikes in the maritime Industry Port Botany against Hutchinson and Patricks. There were attacks on penalty rates and workers’ conditions.  The problems in the construction industry continued with the Australia Building and Construction Commission imposing massive fines and penalties on unions and individual unionist for so=called “misdemeanours” – actually acts to defend workers and trade union rights.

The CPA reached out to other strike struggles and gave practical support and encouragement to workers standing up for their rights.  An example of this was the support for striking workers at Coles Warehouse Smeaton Grange, close to Campbelltown. 

The CPA through its members and through its weekly paper, The Guardian, continues to advocate for the right to strike, for all workers to be in unions, for workers to have safe workplaces.

 Solidarity with South America

While the problems in Australia occupy the bulk of the party’s focus, we do not forget International Solidarity.  We have been particularly vigilant regarding South America and its struggles to remove itself from US imperialism over recent decades including the decade just past.  Various Left and Progressive Governments have arisen over the last period only to be shot back into the US dominated sphere often by coups, or economic sanctions or any of the various violent methods employed by the US.  Two stand out countries which have successfully resisted US aggression are of course Cuba and Venezuela and these two have attracted most of our attention in the period 2010-2020.  Two deaths have affected these two countries most deeply firstly the death of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela on March 5,2013 and the death of Fidel Castro of Cuba on November 25, 2016.  Solidarity with Cuba has been a long-standing tradition with the CPA and the Sydney and Perth sections of the party hold monthly vigils calling on the US to lift sanctions.  Venezuela has been another focus of our attention.

 Solidarity with Cuba

 The Housing Campaign

Since 1980 neoliberalism has been active in Australia in both major parties.  This system believes that government should NOT be responsible for housing or other services rather they should facilitate the private sector to more profitable without red tape.  In NSW by the beginning of this decade the state government began shedding public housing, they were encouraged to do this by the Howard’s Federal Government decision to stop the Federal-State Housing Grant of around $400 mill per year in NSW’s case.  Similar acts happened in other states and gradually the number and quality of Public Housing stock started to dwindle.  In Sydney a fightback against the destruction of the public housing began in 2011 led by the party in Glebe, later the Millers Pt went to privatisation.  At present public housing is under threat in Waterloo, Glebe, Erskineville, Redfern, and other parts of the state.  With the help of many people both party and from other parties a fight back against the destruction of public housing is happening.  We aim to improved and extend public housing not destroy it like the major parties.