The Wire

For many people, Communism as an alternative ideology to Capitalism died in 1989, the year that the Iron Curtin fell in Europe. But with global poverty seemingly worse than ever and war a menace that continues to stalk our planet, can we learn something from the ideals and aspirations of the people who helped nurture the Communist Movement in the 20th century. And does the ideology have something to say too? Author Jeff Sparrow believes we do have much to learn from the story of Communist Party in Australia and one of its founders Guido Baracchi. To this end he has penned his first book Communism: A Love Story. Born to a privileged background, educated alongside Robert Mensies, Guido Baracchi was a controversial character, some would say womanizer, who traveled to Communist Russia with one of his loves Betty Rolland and saw first hand the extremes of a totalitarian state. Back in Australia, and was twice kicked out of the party he founded. Jeff Sparrow was recently in Sydney to discuss his book and he caught up with Erica Vowles, and told her about Baracchi’s greatest contribution to communism, that of being one who was not afraid of speaking out against the failures of the model as seen in Stalinist Russia.