Communist Alliance

{{Short description|Australian political party}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}}

{{Use Australian English|date=August 2016}}

{{Australian socialism}}

The Communist Alliance was registered on 16 March 2009 with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) as an Australian political party.{{cite web |url=http://aec.gov.au/Parties_and_Representatives/party_registration/Registered_parties/comm.htm |title=Register of Political Parties: Communist Alliance |publisher=Australian Electoral Commission |date=2009-03-20 |access-date=2009-03-20}} It was an alliance of a number of Communist groups, individuals and ethnic-based communist parties. The Alliance was formed to allow communists to run in elections under the Communist banner, while allowing the Communist Party of Australia, a member of the Alliance, to retain a separate, independent membership.

The Alliance endorsed a candidate for the House of Representatives seat of Sydney in the 2010 federal election. The candidate received 0.83% or 656 of the 79,377 votes cast.[http://results.aec.gov.au/15508/Website/HouseDivisionFirstPrefs-15508-149.htm Virtual Tally Room - Division of Sydney] It also endorsed two candidates for the Senate in New South Wales, receiving 0.17% or 6,999 of the 4,333,267 votes cast.[http://results.aec.gov.au/15508/Website/SenateStateFirstPrefsByGroup-15508-NSW.htm Virtual Tally Room - FIRST PREFERENCES BY GROUP - NSW]

Communist Alliance changed its AEC registered name to "The Communists" on 24 August 2011,{{cite web|url=http://www.aec.gov.au/Parties_and_Representatives/Party_Registration/Deregistered_parties/ca.htm|title=Communist Alliance|publisher=Australian Electoral Commission|date=24 August 2011}} but the AEC deregistered The Communists as a political party on 22 May 2012 because it "failed to prove it still had 500 members eligible for enrolment."{{cite web|url=http://www.aec.gov.au/Parties_and_Representatives/Party_Registration/Deregistered_parties/the-communists.htm|title=The Communists|publisher=Australian Electoral Commission|date=30 May 2012}}