For around 60 years, the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) was the main force to the left of the ALP in the workers’ movement. They lead both heroic struggles, and replicated many of the bureaucratic and moderate practices of the rest of the trade union officials. This session will draw out the key lessons from the theory, strategy and practice of the CPA. It will trace how the party’s Stalinism prevented it from developing a truly revolutionary approach to the unions, instead leading it to accommodation and compromise with the right wing of the unions and with the Labor Party.