The ASCM has had a long history of activism, which led to the movement being monitored by the Commonwealth Investigations Branch (CIB) and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation in the 1940s and 1950s, worried about the ASCM's work with refugees and the pacifism and conscientious objection of some of its members.
Today the ASCM is involved in the struggles for the liberation of women and of gay, lesbian and bisexual people, in the work against racism against both migrant and Aboriginal people and the exploitation of the people and lands of the Asia-Pacific region.