Lawrence Louis Sharkey (19 August 1898 – 13 May 1967), commonly known as Lance Sharkey or L. L. Sharkey, was an Australian

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

ist and communist leader. From 1948 to 1965 he served as the secretary-general of

Communist Party of Australia The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian political parties, Australian political party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membersh ...

(CPA). Sharkey was an orthodox Communist throughout his political career, closely following the prevailing Soviet line in each major turn of policy.

Biography

Early years

Lawrence Sharkey was born on 18 August 1898 at Warree Creek, near Cargo, via

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. His farming parents, Michael and Mary, were Irish and raised him as a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

: a religious background he would share with numerous other Australian communist officials. He left school when only 14 years old, and commenced an apprenticeship as a coachmaker in Orange. Later he worked as a farmhand, claiming that itinerant bushworkers drew him into the anti- conscription struggle during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and into support of the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...

. After

Sharkey moved to Sydney and obtained a job as a lift attendant, also becoming a militant activist in the Sydney Federated Miscellaneous Workers Union. In 1922 Sharkey became a member of the Sydney labor union council. Sharkey was elected to the executive of the Miscellaneous Workers' Union, but lost that post in another election in 1925. In 1928 he became a union delegate to the Labor Council of New South Wales.

Political career

By this stage Sharkey had already been a member of the

(CPA) for four years. Elected to the executive of the CPA in 1926, he was dismissed from it the following year, when he resisted the turn from a 'united front' with the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

(ALP). In 1928, he re-emerged as a strong advocate of the Comintern's new '

Third Period The Third Period is an ideological concept adopted by the Communist International (Comintern) at its Sixth World Congress, held in Moscow in the summer of 1928. It set policy until reversed when the Nazis took over Germany in 1933. The Comint ...

' line of opposition to all forms of reform. Sharkey was elected to the CPA's governing Central Committee and rose to prominence in the party alongside his factional allies Bert Moxon and J.B. Miles. After they won control of the party in 1929, Sharkey was appointed editor of the party's newspaper ''Workers' Weekly''. He continued to edit that paper and another party publication, ''The Tribune,'' throughout the 1930s. Sharkey was named chairman of the CPA in 1930. He remained in this post without interruption until 1948, despite the twists and turns of party policy during that time. In the summer of 1930 Sharkey visited the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

for the first time as one of the Australian party's representatives to the 5th World Congress of the

Red International of Labor Unions The Red International of Labor Unions (russian: Красный интернационал профсоюзов, translit=Krasnyi internatsional profsoyuzov, RILU), commonly known as the Profintern, was an international body established by the Comm ...

(RILU). At the 7th World Congress of the Comintern Sharkey was elected as an alternate to the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI). When

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Sir Robert Menzies ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

declared the CPA illegal in June 1940, Sharkey and other party leaders went

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground ...

. A year later Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union entered the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

as an ally of Britain. The ban on members of the CPA was accordingly relaxed, and Sharkey resumed open political activity. In 1942 the ban was removed completely. With the onset of the Cold War Sharkey displaced Miles as the Australian Communist Party's secretary-general. The CPA became openly hostile to the ALP, and withdrew its previous conditional support of the American-sponsored program of post-war reconstruction.

General Secretary

At the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of Australia between May 7–10, Sydney, New South Wales, Sharkey was elected general secretary. He took over from Jack Miles whom stood down from nomination. On 9 June 1965, Sharkey's resignation of general secretary of the Communist Party was accepted. Sharkey resigned due to ill-health and was replaced by Laurie Aarons. Lance Sharkey 1949

In March 1949 Sharkey told a Sydney journalist that "if Soviet Forces in pursuit of aggressors entered Australia, Australian workers would welcome them." For this statement Sharkey was tried and convicted of sedition. The High Court upheld his conviction and he was sentenced to three years imprisonment, but eventually served a total of 13 months. On his release, he undertook a national speaking tour. He then spent six months at a

sanatorium A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, are antiquated names for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often ...

in the Soviet Union, for treatment of a heart condition. Under his strong leadership he was able to ensure that the CPA did what many other countries' Communist parties failed to do: namely, minimise the impact of

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

's repudiation of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

early in 1956, and of the Soviet invasion of

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

later that year. In November 1960 Sharkey attended the Meeting of 81 Communist and Workers Parties in Moscow, at which the CPA initially sympathised with the Chinese in the

Sino-Soviet split The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the China, People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union caused by Doctrine, doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications ...

. Ultimately, though, it backed the Soviets. Eleven months afterwards, Sharkey attended the

22nd Congress The 22nd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 183 ...

of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Moscow.

Later years, death, and legacy

Increasingly ill, Sharkey ceded supreme control of the CPA to Laurie Aarons in June 1965. Thereafter he held a ceremonial post as the party's vice-chairman. He died of a heart attack on 13 May 1967 in Sydney. His body was

cremated Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre i ...

. Sharkey was lauded by many in his wartime and post-war heyday as a hero, but his reputation sank during the 1960s, along with the fortunes of the party as a whole. In a 1998 book, the historian of Australian Communism

Stuart Macintyre Stuart Forbes Macintyre (21 April 1947 – 22 November 2021) was an Australian historian, and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne from 1999 to 2008. He was voted one of Australia's most influential historians. Early lif ...

(who had long since abandoned his own CPA membership) noted the hyperbolic way in which Sharkey was portrayed during the cult of personality period of the 1930s:

" harkeywas presented as a son of the soil, steeped in communist theory, yet always a man of the people. The list of his virtues was directed so unerringly to his limitations as to suggest parody. It was noted that 'like all the leaders of our Party, Comrade Sharkey was temperate in his habits'; in fact his binges in Moscow were notorious. He was a brilliant mass agitator; actually his oratory was leaden. He had an instinctive genius; yet when he took up Lenin's favourite pastime of chess, lesser party members had to be careful to lose."Macintyre, ''The Reds'', p. 362.

Footnotes

Writings

* ''Nationalisation of Banking and Socialisation of Credit: A Critical Analysis of the Policy of the Labour Party, from a Lecture delivered in May 1933.'' Sydney: Communist Party of Australia, 1933. * ''Nationalisation of Banking: An Analysis of the Socialisation of Credit: Lang's Part in the Signing of the Premiers' Plan.'' Sydney: Modern Publishers, 1933. * ''An Appeal to Catholics: Democracy, Fascism, Mexico, Spain, Peace, War.'' Sydney: Modern Publishers, n.d. 938 * ''Democracy for Whom? A striking Contrast: Democracy in Australia and the Soviet Union.'' Sydney: Central Committee, Communist Party of Australia, n.d. . 1941 * ''Manifesto: Communist Call to Defend Australia.'' Melbourne: Political Rights Committee, n.d. . 1942 * ''History: Communist Party of Australia, from a lecture by L. Sharkey. Twenty years of the Communist International.'' With Otto Kuusinen. Sydney: Communist Party of Australia, 1942. * ''The Trade Unions: Communist Theory and Practice of Trade Unions.'' Sydney: N.S.W. Legal Rights Committee, 1942. * ''Growth of Trade Unionism in Australia.'' n.c.: n.p., 1942. * ''Australia Marches On.'' Sydney: N.S.W. Legal Rights Committee, 1942. * ''The Soviet and the Japanese War.'' Sydney: N.S.W. Legal Rights Committee, 1942. * ''For National Unity and Victory over Fascists, LIft Communist Party Ban.'' Sydney: Legal Rights Committee, n.d. . 1943 * ''The left, "Dr." Lloyd Ross and Nationalisation.'' Sydney: Legal Rights Committee, 1943. * ''Congress Report on the Work of the C.C. from the 12th to the 13th Party Congress.'' Sydney: Communist Party of Australia, 1943. *
A Reply to Father Ryan
'' Sydney: Communist Party of Australia, 1943 * ''An Outline History of the Australian Communist Party.'' Sydney: Communist Party of Australia, 1944. * ''The W.E.A. Exposed: And an Exposition of the Principles of Democracy and Marxian Socialism.'' Sydney: Communist Party of Australia, 1944. * ''Results of the Victory over Fascism.'' Sydney: Central Committee, Australian Communist Party, 1945. * ''The Story of Government Enterprise in Australia.'' With E.W. Campbell. Sydney: Communist Party of Australia, 1945. * ''Dialectical and historical materialism: Quotations from the Works of Marx, Engels, Plekhanov, Lenin and Stalin.'' With S. Moston. Sydney: Current Book Distributors, 1945. * ''Labour Betrayed!'' Sydney: Current Book Distributors, 1946. * ''Australian Communists and Soviet Russia.'' Sydney: Current Book Distributors, 1947. * ''For Australia, Prosperous and Independent: The report of L.L. Sharkey to the 15th Congress of the Australian Communist Party, May 1948.'' Sydney: Current Book Distributors, 1948. * ''The Labor Party Crisis.'' Sydney: Communist Party of Australia, n.d. . 1952 * ''Petrov's 25,000 Dollar Story Exploded: The Devastating Answer to Petrov's "Moscow Gold" Story as Presented to the Petrov Commission.'' With Edward F. Hill. Newtown: R. S. Thompson, n.d. . 1955 * ''Basic Questions of Communist Theory: Documents Relating to the Cult of the Individual and to Hungary.'' Sydney: Current Book Distributors, 1957. * ''Socialism in Australia: Communist View on Democratic Socialism.'' Sydney: Current Book Distributors, 1957. * ''Socializm v Avstralii.'' (In Russian). Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1958. * ''18th Congress, April 1958 : Report of L.L. Sharkey, General Secretary.'' Sydney: Current Book Distributors, 1958. * ''The Trade Unions.'' Sydney: Current Book Distributors, 1959.

External links

An Outline History of the Australian Communist Party
by L.L. Sharkey.

Marxists Internet Archive Marxists Internet Archive (also known as MIA or Marxists.org) is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Eng ...

, retrieved 22 September 2009. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharkey, Lance 1898 births 1967 deaths Marxist journalists Communist Party of Australia members