rty headquarters to get your passport fixed. "I went with him to the very large CP warehouse in Leninstrasse.
Within a few days I was on my way to Moscow via Finland. At the time it was dangerous to travel through Poland. I was able to get through to Moscow without any trouble at all. That was because before I left Australia Moxon had advised me to place Communist Party papers on the top of my luggage so that at the Soviet Union border I would be quickly processed. It worked very well, and I was asked at the border if I knew what to do when I got to Moscow. "I know only one word," I said, "and that's Comintern!" The officer replied that would get me there.
Upon arriving in Moscow I went straight to the Anglo-American secretariat of the Comintern. After presenting my credentials I was told that I was expected to give a report on Australia to a meeting in two days time of the executive committee of the Communist International.
I was somewhat nervous about doing this, and I said so. I thought I was only going to be a student in Moscow. Although I had been in the CPA for several years at that time, nearly all of it had been spent in northern Australia, in and around Townsville. p> But they wouldn't have it - I was still to give the report. Outside the office a person was waiting for me. He said that he had heard the conversation and offered to help me. It turned out that he was a leader of the Profintern - the Red International of Labour Unions - and he had a broad knowledge of the Australian labour movement.
In the report to the Comintern leadership there were two points that I wished to emphasise. The first concerned the Queensland Resolution on running candidates against the Labor Party, which was soon to be applied in NSW by standing CPA candidates against those from the ALP. p> I knew that Kavanagh was strongly opposed to this, and because of that his point of view should at least be brought to the attention of the Comintern leadership. Moxon supported the Queensland Resolution, however, and this is where he and Kavanagh parted company.
Secondly, it was my opinion that it would greatly assist the Australian party if they were to send a Comintern official or representative to Australia.
There was a large crowd in the room when I went to give my report. As soon as I began to speak, everyone in the room in all directions was talking. I thought I had done my dash, and after only a few sentences I stopped. The chairman told me to keep going, that they were only interpreting what I was saying. They had little technical equipment for translating in those days. p> It was only a few weeks after the report that I was told that an organiser from the Comintern was being sent to Australia. He was an American by the name of Harry Wicks, who used the party name Herbert Moore.
The American students were anxious to find out who was being sent, and when I told them it was to be Wicks, a fellow leader of the Communist Party of the United States, they burst out laughing. "What," they said, "He's the greatest no-hoper there is. We have just dumped him from our leadership. " It made me wonder how seriously the Comintern was taking the CPA. But when I later returned to Australia I was to see how effective Wicks/Moore had been in helping to Stalinise the CPA.
The Lenin School was situated in what was once a nobleman's building. The building had been converted into rooms holding three or four students. Additional sections contained classrooms, a library and office staff. They had a tremendous library, which was open day and night. p> The Anglo-American sector of the Lenin School consisted of students from Australia, Canada, Britain, New Zealand and Australia - in all about 15 to 20 students, with a big group from Britain. The curriculum consisted of Marxian economics, the materialist conception of history, philosophy, party structure, strategy and tactics. The method of teaching was exceptionally good because it made the student his own instructor.
At the first meeting each student was given a list which contained some 10 questions on the subject matter to be discussed.
Underneath were placed the literature and sections of each book in which you could obtain help for your answer. When everyone was satisfied with what had to be done, the class was dismissed for research on the answers. The notice board would then inform you of when you conference was to be held, and these would last for days, until the subject had been exhausted.
Some to the students who had gone to the Lenin School were pure opportunists and careerists. They went out of their way to impress in order to gain a good report and a good job in the party in Britain or America.
For myself and the New Zealander, who did not have to compete, it was far more satisfactory. I was indeed happy to see that this point was not lost on...
