SEARCH Foundation

SEARCH Foundation
PredecessorCommunist Party of Australia
Formation1990; 34 years ago (1990)
HeadquartersSydney Trades Hall, Sydney, New South Wales
Location
  • Australia
Websitewww.search.org.au

The SEARCH Foundation is a left-wing, membership-based Australian not-for-profit organisation, with a number of high-profile members linked to the left of the Australian labour movement.[1] SEARCH is an acronym for "Social Education, Action and Research Concerning Humanity".[2]

The SEARCH Foundation advocates for a democratic socialist and ecologically socialist Australia, while working towards achieving greater democracy, economic and social equality, environmental sustainability, human rights, and international peace and cooperation.[3][4]

History

SEARCH was established in 1990 as a successor organisation of the Communist Party of Australia, with the object of promoting “greater understanding in the community of the main factors affecting social life, influencing social development and advancing social wellbeing.”[3][5]

SEARCH also owns and controls access to the Communist Party archives, which are held in trust by the State Library of NSW.[6]

Activities

SEARCH regularly holds national speaking tours and runs a socialist education program. The Foundation publishes SEARCH News, featuring articles on US politics, Australian politics, and other international political matters.[7] SEARCH also partners with policy analysis magazine Australian Options.[8]

Between 2007–2010, SEARCH held a series of roundtables in major Australian capital cities on progressive political issues, culminating in the Australian Left Renewal Conference at the University of Technology Sydney in May 2010.[9] SEARCH has supported International Women's Day marches and events in Sydney and Brisbane.

In 2020, SEARCH released a book entitled Comrades! Lives of Australian Communists, to mark the one hundred year anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Australia.[10]

Speaking tours

On 9 November 2017, SEARCH co-hosted an event in Melbourne, as part of a national tour for socialist and feminist author Beatrix Campbell.[11]

In March 2018, SEARCH hosted Jacobin editor Bhaskar Sunkara at Sydney Trades Hall.[12]

In 2018, with Amnesty International and United Voice, SEARCH hosted Singapore human rights and labour activist Jolovan Wham, who met with Commonwealth and New South Wales politicians to talk about human rights abuses in Singapore, which was subsequently the topic of an adjournment speech to the Australian Senate by Opposition Whip Anne Urquhart.[13]

On 18 December 2018, SEARCH hosted an Australian Labor Party National Conference Fringe Event with UK Labour MP and Shadow Minister Clive Lewis.[14][15]

Notable members

References

  1. ^ "Search Results - Organisations and Business Names". connectonline.asic.gov.au. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  2. ^ "Constitution of the Social Education, Action and Research Concerning Humanity Foundation (SEARCH Foundation)" (PDF). 3 November 2019. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  3. ^ a b "OUR MISSION". SEARCH FOUNDATION. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  4. ^ Warren, Christopher. "Ecological Socialism". SEARCH FOUNDATION. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
  5. ^ "Think tank secrets". The Sydney Morning Herald. 12 August 2003. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
  6. ^ "Communist Party of Australia Archives". archival.sl.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  7. ^ "SEARCH News". SEARCH FOUNDATION. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  8. ^ "Australian Options Magazine". australian-options.org.au. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  9. ^ "Secure Jobs in a Green Future: Proceedings of the National Left Renewal Conference, Sydney, April 6-7, 2013" (PDF). commonaction.org.au. 2013. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  10. ^ "Happy 100th Birthday to the Communist Party of Australia". jacobinmag.com. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  11. ^ Campbell, Beatrix (13 November 2017). "November 2017". Beatrix Campbell. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  12. ^ "FORUM: CORBYN, SANDERS AND THE NEXT LEFT (BHASKAR SUNKARA OF JACOBIN)". Green Left. 19 March 2018. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  13. ^ "A few weeks ago I met a Singaporean...: 13 Nov 2018: Senate debates (OpenAustralia.org)". openaustralia.org.au. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  14. ^ SEARCH Foundation (17 December 2018), Clive Lewis MP interview with the SEARCH Foundation, retrieved 4 January 2019
  15. ^ "Schedule – ALP Fringe 2018". laborfringe.org. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  16. ^ "Sally McManus's links to Communist Party's successor". The Australian. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  17. ^ Middleton, Karen (25 March 2017). "New ACTU secretary Sally McManus on the new IR battlegrounds". The Saturday Paper. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  18. ^ admin. "Vale Jack Mundey. Legendary Australian Icon of Labor Environmentalism Remembered — TUED Bulletin 99". Trade Unions for Energy Democracy. Archived from the original on 29 November 2020. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  19. ^ "Twelve questions for Rhiannon". Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  20. ^ O'Malley, Nick (15 February 2019). "Enemies within as Greens caught in civil war". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  21. ^ "Biography - Eric John Aarons - Labour Australia". labouraustralia.anu.edu.au. Retrieved 16 February 2019.