Political papers

Containers:

Box 143-152 (MS 4887) and Folios 35-37 (MS 4887)

Component identifier:

Series 26

Content Summary:

Hardy's political correspondence, circulars, notes, drafts of articles and lectures, together with printed material and press cuttings he collected on politics have been arranged in this series. They reflect his commitment to the Communist Party, which he joined in 1940.

Placed at the beginning are a small number of letters and circulars dating from 1960 until 1972, which Hardy received from the Australian-Soviet Friendship Society and its successor the Australian-USA Society; the Young Socialist League of Australia; Amnesty International; the Central, Sydney district and Education Committees of the Communist Party of Australia; the committee of the Victorian Moratorium Campaign; the Youth Campaign against conscription; the Australian left review and the Tribune.

Hardy's writings follow. Where notes, drafts and typescripts have been kept, the original order has been maintained. They include his speech to the Chinese May Day delegation (1956); articles 'Egon Kisch in Australia', 'Current struggles of the Australian workers', 'Notes on the struggles of the Australian labour movement' (c1960) and 'An open letter to Eric Lambert'; and a series of lectures he gave to the Eureka Youth League, Sydney in 1965.

Also contained are a small number of papers relating to Hardy's candidature for the seat of Mackeller (N.S.W.) in the general election of 1955.

Placed next are circulars and papers associated with the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st. Congresses of the Communist Party of Australia (1958-67), the Youth Peace Festival, Berlin (1951), the World Congress for General Disarmament and Peace, Moscow (1962), the Australian Congress for International Co-operation and Disarmament, Sydney (1964), and the Peace Foundation Conference on Czechoslovakia (1969).

The collection contains a quantity of processed and typescript material including the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th bulletins of documentation of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation entitled Conference on solidarity with Czechoslovakian socialism (1969); the papers delivered at the Conference for Left Action (1969); material received from I. Evans in 1969 concerning a proposed World Peace Makers' Association, and the Education bulletin no. 1 and other literature issued by the Radical Education Foundation (1969); 'a pageant' by Jim Crawford written in 1960 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Australia.

Press cuttings and publications collected by Hardy contain material relating to the Royal Commission on Espionage (1954), the Mt Isa strike (1965), Australia's participation in the Vietnam War and the conscription issue during the 1960s, political events in Hungary (1956), Czechoslovakia (1968) and Indonesia (1956-57 and 1962).

The publications include single copies of Soviet news bulletin (1965), Press research: a peace information service (1969), Green light (1952), Headlights (1959), Tribune (1949, 1955 and 1959) and the Guardian (1949 and 1956) and speeches made by N.S. Khrushchev from 1959 to 1962 which were subsequently published as pamphlets. Other publications related to labour, production, housing, education science, agriculture and the replies of women in the USSR.

Folio Items 35-37: Russian books, Russian publications and ACTU booklet and notes

For other political papers see the consignments of 1982 (Box 186) and 1988 (Boxes 238-241).

Immediate source of acquisition:

The papers of the writer Frank Hardy were purchased by the Library in seven consignments between 1975 and 1988.

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