Lawrence Louis Sharkey (19 August 1898 – 13 May 1967), commonly known as Lance Sharkey or L. L. Sharkey, was an Australian trade unionist and communist leader. From 1948 to 1965 he served as the secretary-general of Communist Party of Australia (CPA). Sharkey was an orthodox Communist throughout his political career, closely following the prevailing Soviet line in each major turn of policy. Biography Early years Lawrence Sharkey was born on 18 August 1898 at Warree Creek, near Cargo, via Orange, New South Wales. His farming parents, Michael and Mary, were Irish and raised him as a Roman Catholic: a religious background he would share with numerous other Australian communist officials. He left school when only 14 years old, and commenced an apprenticeship as a coachmaker in Orange. Later he worked as a farmhand, claiming that itinerant bushworkers drew him into the anti-conscription struggle during World War I and into support of the Industrial Workers of the World. After World War I Sharkey moved to Sydney and obtained a job as a lift attendant, also becoming a militant activist in the Sydney Federated Miscellaneous Workers Union. In 1922 Sharkey became a member of the Sydney labor union council. Sharkey was elected to the executive of the Miscellaneous Workers' Union, but lost that post in another election in 1925. In 1928 he became a union delegate to the Labor Council of New South Wales. Political career By this stage Sharkey had already been a member of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) for four years. Elected to the executive of the CPA in 1926, he was dismissed from it the following year, when he resisted the turn from a 'united front' with the Australian Labor Party (ALP). In 1928, he re-emerged as a strong advocate of the Comintern's new 'Third Period' line of opposition to all forms of reform. Sharkey was elected to the CPA's governing Central Committee and rose to prominence in the party alongside his factional allies Bert Moxon and J.B. Miles. After they won control of the party in 1929, Sharkey was appointed editor of the party's newspaper Workers' Weekly. He continued to edit that paper and another party publication, The Tribune, throughout the 1930s. Sharkey was named chairman of the CPA in 1930. He remained in this post without interruption until 1948, despite the twists and turns of party policy during that time. In the summer of