Ask a Latvian what he/she thinks of Lee Rhiannon. Let’s start with some facts.
Lee Rhiannon joined the Socialist Party of Australia around 1971.
The SPA broke away from/was expelled by the Communist Party of Australia in 1971. The CPA, which was led by Laurie Aarons, became disillusioned with the communist rulers of the Soviet Union following Moscow’s invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The SPA group, which was led by her father Bill Brown, continued to support the communist rulers in Moscow following the break with the CPA.
In 1980-1981 the pro-Moscow Socialist Party of Australia itself split and the Browns were expelled/resigned from the SPA. They joined a new pro-Moscow communist organisation which took the name the Australian Association for Communist Unity. The AACU – headed by Bill Brown and Pat Clancy – survived until the collapse of Soviet communism around 1990. In his book The Communist Movement and Australia : An historical outline – 1890s to 1980s, W J (Bill) Brown made it clear that his split with the CPA and, later, the SPA turned on the fact that he regarded neither organisation sufficiently supportive of the Soviet Union.
Lee Rhiannon remained within the Brown/Clancy pro-Moscow communism faction until the time she was around 39 years of age. In other words, Lee Brown/O’Gorman/Rhiannon supported pro-Moscow communists from the time she was a teenager until the eve of her 40th birthday. In 1990 Lee Rhiannon joined the Greens.
LYC Price at posting:
$1.22 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
