A few rough reds Stories of rank and file organising Edited by Hal Alexander and Phil Griffiths Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Canberra Region Branch, Canberra 2003 ISBN 0-909944-08-3 © Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Canberra Region Branch, and authors Published 2003 by Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Canberra Region Branch LPO Box A43, ANU, ACT 2601 Printed by Aussieprint Contents Bob Boughton 6 Introducing the ‘rough reds’: Invisible, international, and inter-generational Brian Manning 13 Charlie India Echo Tango calling Timor Leste Chris Elenor 27 Calling Fretilin Kevin Cook 43 From building sites to Aboriginal education Hal Alexander 56 Red belt days Murray Norris 63 Rebuilding the North Australian Workers Union, 1942-1951 Beverley Symons 110 Red councillors during the Cold War: Communists on the Sydney City Council, 1953-59 Ben Bartlett 124 Origins of the Workers Health Centre Drew Cottle 135 Forgotten foreign militants: The Chinese Seamen’s Union in Australia, 1942- 1946 Preface This small book had its genesis in the Seventh National Labour History Conference, held in Canberra in April 2001. The organising committee were approached by Hal Alexander and Bob Boughton with the idea of running a series of talks on the history of communists organising in Australia. Brian Manning, Chris Elenor, Hal himself, Drew Cottle, Ben Bartlett and Beverley Symons all contributed their wonderful stories and research about rank and file organising and defiance of official authority. But there was something more: Bernie Brian, another Communist Party activist, had found a copy of the memoirs of Murray Norris and his work rebuilding the North Australian Workers Union in the 1940s. It was in the Northern Territory Archives. Then came the obvious question: would we publish Murray Norris’ story? The answer was easy: Of course we would. We thank the NT Archives Service for permission to do so. There were omissions and lost words in the copy we received from the NT Archives Service, and we have been able to correct these using an earlier draft of Murray’s memoirs from the Connie Healy papers in the Fryer library collection at the University of Queensland. We thank the Fryer and their staff for their assistance. We have made unobtrusive grammatical changes and occasionally spelled out acronyms or full names in Murray’s text. Drew Cottle’s chapter previously appeared in the volume of papers published out of the 2001 conference, Work, organisation, struggle, edited by Phil Griffiths and Rosemary Webb (Canberra 2001). All the other chapters are previously unpublished. We would like to thank Connie Healy and Chris Sheil for information about Murray Norris, and Sigrid McCausland and Rosemary Webb for the significant work they did proof-reading, checking facts, and digging in archives to ensure the successful production of A few rough reds. The footnotes are the work of Phil Griffiths and Sigrid McCausland; the endnote references are of course the work of the authors. While the format of this volume is modest, the stories are inspiring accounts of working class activism guided by a serious commitment to socialist politics. In fact, one of the great sub-texts of this volume is the way that strong rank and file trade union organisation provided a space for the most oppressed—Aboriginal people, people with leprosy, Chinese seafarers—to stand up and fight for their rights. It also provided space and resources to support those fighting their national oppression in East Timor. This is not to say that strong, political trade unionism meant an end to racism and sexism; they are ideological weapons too powerful for the ruling class to easily give up. But in these stories you can see the potential for really challenging them. This small book represents but a tiny proportion of the stories that could be told about rough reds organising. This organising work represents the best traditions of Australian communism. These are stories to educate all who want to change the world. Phil Griffiths Convenor, work, organisation, struggle: the Seventh National Labour History Conference, held in Canberra, April 2001 Page 6 A few rough reds Bob Boughton Introducing the ‘rough reds’: Invisible, international, and inter-generational If the union’s history for these few years seems to Bob Boughton teaches revolve around individuals, I have no excuse. adult education at the Individuals create history, and when they are University of New organised they create better history. England. He has written — Murray Norris papers for recent Labour History conferences on the CPA’s role in the SINCE the Communist Party of Aboriginal rights struggle, Australia (CPA) officially wound up its and on the ‘Advanced affairs in 1991, a steady stream of memoirs Chinese Methods’ of and reflection have emanated from some adult education taught to of its leading officials, which put Australian communists in considerable critical distance between the Beijing in the 1950s. A writers and the experiences they recall. member of the CPA from 1975-1991, Bob helped This collection is not like that. It organise the communists unashamedly celebrates a tradition of rank stream at the 2001 and file activism by Australian communists Conference, from which and those who, while affiliated to other this monograph arose. parties and organisations, associated closely Bob Boughton: Introducing the ‘rough reds’ page 7 with the CPA. These stories are extremely important, not just for labour historians, but for labour and social movement activists who today are trying to maintain and build a militant opposition to globalising capitalism in Australia and the region. What these stories tell us, among many things, is that often it is the ‘invisible’ people who do most to ‘make history’; and they do it, above all, by being organised. When all the objective conditions have been described, when the influences of tradition and culture have been duly acknowledged, when all the social forces have been lined up on history’s stage, their class and social character dissected, you still find, standing behind this good and valuable analysis, the organised militants. Unless labour history points a spotlight on these people and the work they do, it perpetuates a myth—that history somehow just happens, without the conscious intervention of organised and disciplined groups, the people who ‘push the envelope’ and help move society towards its future. This is also as true of the writing of history as it is of its making. This collection arose from a lot of hard organising work, among ex-CPA members and their ‘fellow-travelling’ friends, prodded on in particular by one of the editors, Hal Alexander. Hal is a communist militant trained in the railway workshops, the CPA’s Marx School in Sydney in the 1940s, and in China in the 1950s, and a mentor to many communists of later generations, myself included. Hal it was who convinced Brian Manning, Chris Elenor, Ben Bartlett, Drew Cottle and myself to make the Canberra conference of the Labor History society in 2001 an occasion for celebrating some vintage ‘rough reds’. It was Hal who convinced his old mate and comrade in arms Kevin Baker (‘The Oracle’) to drive him to Canberra, and to chair the session. Kevin has his own history in the labour movement and was for a long time an organiser of the Missos Union. Kevin Cook would have come too, because Hal had asked him. But he was sick, so he agreed to be interviewed by Hal and Russ Hermann, and his story is now included. It was Hal who negotiated with Phil Griffiths, Rosemary Webb and others from the ASSLH Canberra, to Page 8 A few rough reds get this publication out. When I agreed to write the introduction, he even sent me a few suggestions for its themes! One of the great things about Labour History conferences is the dialogue that occurs between working historians and the unionists and other activists about whom they are writing. This monograph takes this into print, setting up a conversation between the verbatim memoirs of activists and some detailed historical analysis. Drew Cottle’s and Beverley Symons’ papers fall more into the latter category, though both are also experienced activists, while the rest of the papers belong more in the former. One of the points of this introduction is to try to weave some of the connections between them all. If the role of hard-working organisers is one theme that runs through this collection, then another is internationalism. As you read these stories, you will see that militant working class activism in Australia knew a lot more about ‘difference’, and for a lot longer time, than some of its contemporary postmodernist critics like to acknowledge. All but one of the authors is male, and only one is Aboriginal, but the actions they describe and the people who fill these stories are testaments to the solidarity that militants built across ethnic and international borders. Drew Cottle tells the extraordinary story of three Sydney-based Chinese radicals, suspected by the intelligence services of being communists, who, assisted by the Seamen’s Union of Australia (SUA) and CPA officials, helped Chinese seamen, stranded by war in Australian ports in the 1940s, to form an Australian branch of the Chinese Seamen’s Union (CSU). Like Rupert Lockwood’s tale of Indonesian-Australian solidarity in the 1940s, The Black Armada, Cottle’s detailed research shows how the waterfront activities of communist unionists played a crucial role in breaking down racial and national divisions within the international working class, helping build a unity which delivered the goods. Brian Manning’s story of the illegal radio operation he helped to mount in Darwin in the 1970s is another variation on this theme.