Jack Kavanagh (politician)

John Patrick Marcus Kavanagh (12 July 1879 – 6 July 1964) was a socialist leader in Canada and Australia.

Political activist in Canada

He was a leading member of the Socialist Party of Canada from 1908 to 1921. At the founding meeting of the Worker's Party of Canada, which was the public face of the underground Communist Party of Canada, he was elected to the National Executive Committee of the party in February 1922.

Political activism in Australia

Kavanagh moved to Australia in 1925, and was a central leader of the Communist Party of Australia until 1930, when the Comintern removed him from the leadership. He was expelled from the party in January 1931, readmitted, and then expelled a second time in 1934 after being accused of Trotskyism. In 1940, Kavanagh joined the Communist League of Australia which was the Australian section of the Fourth International.

References

Sources

• David Akers, Margaret Sampson, John Patrick (Jack) Kavanagh (1879-1964) Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 14, 1996
• A. Davidson, The Communist Party of Australia (Stanford, California, US, 1969)
• F. Farrell, International Socialism and Australian Labour (Syd, 1981)
• David Akers, Rebel or Revolutionary? Jack Kavanagh and the Early Years of the Communist Movement in Vancouver, 1920-1925, Labour/Le Travail (St John's, Newfoundland, Canada), 30, Fall 1992, p 9
• Kavanagh papers (Australian National University Archives)
• J. N. Rawling papers (Australian National University Archives).
• Gordon Finlay private family papers

External links

• Jack Kavanagh joins the Fourth International (1940) Article by Kavanagh on his decision to join the Trotskyist movement.
• What is happening in the Communist Party? Gilbert Giles Roper, 1937