Deposit Z458 - Ken Miller papers

Ken Miller joined the Communist Party at the age of 20 attending his first Young Communist League branch meeting in 1934. Miller became secretary of the Young Communist League and secretary of the League of Young Democrats, and was a full-time organiser. He campaigned against fascism and was twice prosecuted by the Menzies government for his political activities. During World War II he served in the 14th Infantry Battalion reaching the rank of corporal. In 1943 and again in 1945 he stood as a Communist candidate for the Melbourne seat of Clifton Hill at the Victorian state elections, but was unsuccessful. After the war, Miller moved to Richmond where he was district organiser, and first stood for the election to Richmond Council in 1946 but was never elected. Miller stood as the Communist Party candidate for the federal seat of Yarra in 1951, 1954, 1955, 1958 and 1961. By the late 1940s Miller was a member of the State Committee of the Party and in 1949 he was appointed editor of the Communist Party newsletter, The Guardian. He later became a member of the Central Committee of the Party. Miller was editor of The Guardian until 1962 when he was purged from the Central Committee of the Party during the 'revisionism' debates. He then went to work for barrister Ted Hill as an articled clerk. Ken Miller died in 1963, aged 50.