He spent remarkable years with the Communist Party. He became secretary of Australian Peace Council in 1949, the organised anti-war conferences in Australia. Later, the Communist Party gave him "proletarian industrial experience" as a railway cleaner, where he became part of the Australian Railways Union. After finding his expectations "absurdly romantic", the railway sacked him in 1952. During the Soviet Union's suppression of the Hungarian uprising in 1956, he protested against it, particularly the execution of then Hungarian premier Imre Nagy. This opposition led to his expulsion from the Communist Party in 1958.