The CPA and Aboriginal Activismwas RE: Scholarship and politics (wasRe: Proyect v Woods)

[Gary Maclennan <g.maclennan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greg is correct we should pay tribute to the work done on behalf of the
Aborigines people by Australian communists.  this began actually in the
1930s and peaked around the strikes Greg refers to.

Frank Hardy's friend Cecil Homes made at least two films about aborigines
and Torres Strait Islanders. (the subject of another brilliant  chapter in
my thesis BTW.; also available on request).

There was however in CPA thinking a strain of Social Darwinism which is
also present in Marx and Engels' own writings on aboriginal cultures. thus
the Cultural Commissar Jack Blake tried to discourage a CPA influenced
artist from painting aborigines as it was too"depressing" a subject.

regards

Gary