Vale Bruce MacFarlane

 Written by: Central Committee, CPA (M-L) on 24 December 2022

Australian Marxist economist Bruce Macfarlane (born 1936) passed away on Sunday December 11 in Christchurch, NZ, aged 86. 

Bruce was an outstanding example of an academic who used Marxist political economy to critique contemporary capitalist society.  

In his youth he was given his first Marxist text, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by his father, a member of the Communist Party of Australia.  

Bruce opposed the US War of Aggression Against Vietnam and had his first arrest at a demonstration in Canberra against the visit by pro-Hitler dictator of South Vietnam Air Vice-Marshall Ky in January 1967. Protests against US imperialism saw Bruce arrested on several other occasions. He was an early supporter in Australia of the South Vietnamese National Liberation Front, arguing its case in the University of NSW student paper Tharunka in August 1965. He became organising secretary of the Vietnam Moratorium Committee in the ACT. 

Bruce graduated from the University of Sydney, and worked at Cambridge University with Joan Robinson and Maurice Dobb. He held a number of posts at various Australian universities. 

Despite his grounding in Marxist theory, MacFarlane turned his energies to advocacy of reform, rather than of revolution. In 1968, he published Economic Policy in Australia, The Case for Reform, directed against control of the economy by US corporations. It used Marxist economic theories, but not Marxist or Leninist political and ideological teachings.  Yet he targeted the main enemy of the working class and its allies, arming them with knowledge of its crimes here and overseas. His extraordinarily prolific writings on contemporary imperialism were always concise, useful and insightful.  

In 1970, he co-authored The Chinese Road to Socialism with colleague Ted Wheelwright, a sympathetic account of the developing struggle against the capitalist roaders at the start of the Great Proletarian Socialist Revolution. 

Bruce contributed to a number of progressive journals including that of the Society for the Study of Labour History, the Journal of Contemporary Asia, and the Journal of Australian Political Economy. 

We have said that Bruce did not embrace our understanding of Marxism-Leninism. But neither was he disdainful of the work done by Communist activists.  He did not stand in their way, was never sectarian in his dealings with others and continued to explain and oppose capitalism, giving ammunition to the revolutionary movement until his final days. As a socialist, he supported Australian anti-imperialist independence and sovereignty. 

There are intellectuals who have a pretend commitment to the cause of the working class, and intellectuals who remain attached to it throughout their lifetime. Bruce belonged to the latter category.

Bruce MacFarlane hated capitalism and opposed US imperialism all his life. In doing so he always served the working class and its allies.

Martin O'Malley: Australian Communist Party condolence message

Written by: Australian Communist Party on 20 May 2022

 The CPA (M-L) has received a message of condolences on the death of our comrade, Martin O’Malley, from the Australian Communist Party. We thank them for their generous and sincere evaluation of Martin’s qualities as a working class leader.

Dear comrades, 

My apologies for not writing earlier on behalf of the Central Committee of the ACP regarding the recent passing of comrade Martin O’Malley. Please accept the condolences of our Party for this major loss to the movement and pass it on the members of the CPA-ML. 

I have nothing but fond memories of the decades-long contribution of comrade Martin. His leadership of workers in building and construction is still well-known and sadly missed. I noticed from my first encounter with Martin at public events in support of many struggles that he was a forceful advocate for workers’ rights and various other causes in solidarity with the oppressed in general. 

But he had that important additional element in what he would communicate to workers. He would explain in very simple and earthy terms what the immediate challenge was. He would then identify the relationship between the current issue and the class interests at stake, pointing out the overall strategy of the ruling class to further oppress working people. He would advise workers to recognise their own independent agenda and pursue their own strategy to secure their rightful place in society, that is as its ruling class ushering in an era of progress and justice. 

Comrade Martin was a committed Marxist-Leninist with a gift for uniting people from a variety of backgrounds and outlooks behind just struggles. He was a motivator of people. I recall on the May Day Collective that, if we felt the crowd needed extra attention to get it revved up and receptive, we would put comrade Martin early on the speakers’ list. He never disappointed. 

We might wonder where the next batch of leaders like comrade Martin will come from but I know that his example and the lessons he imparted will reap rewards as capitalism and imperialism draw new combatants into the massive struggles ahead of us. Again, please pass on our condolences to your members at the passing of comrade Martin. 

In socialism, 

Bob Briton 
General Secretary, Australian Communist Party

 

Martin O’Malley – Comrade and Friend

 Written by: Michael Williss on 12 May 2022

Martin O’Malley, former State secretary of the CFMEU and President of SA Unions, died on April 29, 2022.  Speakers at his funeral, held today in Adelaide, included his daughter Lisa’s fiancé Ben; former CFMEU organiser, now working for the United Workers Union, Darren Roberts; Kuku Yalangi man John Hartley; and friend and comrade from Chrysler Rank and File days, as well as the BLF and CFMEU, Allen Harris.

The following eulogy was read on behalf of the CPA (M-L) by Michael Williss.

 

Martin O’Malley, Comrade and Friend

I’d like to something about the politics of this man whose life we are celebrating today. 

They are politics which Martin lived by, and which guided him in his union work and in his personal life.

I am speaking on behalf of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) about our member, a leading state and national comrade.

Some of you will have known, and others will have suspected or guessed, that Martin was a Communist.

That he became a Communist probably surprised no-one more than Martin himself.  Educated at a Catholic school at a time when that Church was obsessively anti-Communist, Martin was definitely influenced by those views.

However, he was also conscious of the division of society into classes, and that he was of the working class. 

As a worker at Chryslers, his class consciousness led him to a group of like-minded workers who hated the pressures they were under to produce cars, and resented the failure of their sell-out union, the Vehicle Builders Union, to support them.

One day, it was suggested to him that he ought to have a word with a leading militant, Will Heidt, about setting up a rank and file group to fight the bosses.

“Nah,” he said, “I’m not talking to him- they say he’s a Communist”.

Well, talk they did, and friends they became, and both of them outstanding leaders of the Chrysler Rank and File, the influence of which soon challenged that of the VBU. As the intensity of the struggle grew, so did Martin’s eventual embrace of the politics he had initially distanced himself from. He saw that militancy by itself was not enough, and that workers needed a party to the left of the ALP, a party unequivocally for the working class, not one that would be compromised by the object of trying to reform capitalism through parliamentary means. He joined our Party.

On October 17, 1975 police were called to Chrysler after 2000 angry workers demanded the reinstatement of Will Heidt, who had been sacked. Workers closed in around Will and prevented the police from taking him off the grounds. Later that day, as Will and Martin entered a local pub, they were both set on by police and arrested.  Martin regarded that as probably as valuable a lesson in the nature of the state under capitalism as anything he later read by Marx or Lenin.

In July 1977, Chrysler, aided and abetted by the VBU and using a name list of workers supplied by them, sacked 700 workers and effectively smashed the Rank and File organisation.

However, stamping out the flames of struggle at Chrysler ony served to spread the sparks to other areas.

In Martin’s case, he went into construction and eventually became an organiser with the Builders Labourers’ Federation which was led at that time by another great comrade, Ron Owens. Like Ron, who spent time in jail for his union work, Martin was unafraid of where militancy might lead, and epitomized the BLF slogan, “Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win”.  

Martin thought deeply about social issues. Workers are often resistant to reading (and writing): schools that have failed to develop them as readers leave them feeling inadequate and ashamed; one of the legacies of schooling is that reading never seemed relevant - it was tedious and a waste of time.  Martin knew that workers’ leaders need to develop theoretical understanding of the way capitalism works and of the way socialism can be achieved. So, he read. A lot. One day I said he was in danger of becoming an intellectual.  Martin paused, then said, quietly and seriously,  “There’s no worker who can’t become an intellectual. You’ve just got to be disciplined in your approach to thinking about things. And you’ve got to read. I think I became intellectual when I first understood Marx’s theory of surplus value. You can never go back to just fighting for a ‘fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work’ once you understand the nature of exploitation.” 

Martin was a warm, compassionate and welcoming person, who never put airs on himself or stooped to lecturing people about his beliefs. If you were disrupting working class organisation and unity, he’d let you know about it straight away. Apart from that, he genuinely welcomed talking with and learning from others, regardless of whether they belonged to some other organisation or not. 

The proof of that pudding was the relationship he developed with Benny Carslake when it became apparent that the BLF would have to amalgamate with its arch-rival in the building industry, the BWIU. The CFMEU owes its origins in this state to that relationship and to them placing the desire for unity above the recriminations of the past. 

Martin himself sometimes wrote for our Party, often under a pseudonym, because we try not to identify too many of our people to surveillance by the authorities. 

Martin wrote about his great passion for First Peoples and the justice of their demands. Martin and John Hartley, a Kuku Yalanji man, were both arrested and jailed when the union supported the Ngarrindjeri women at the Hindmarsh Bridge dispute. Later they both organised for SA union leaders to visit the APY lands, and the CFMEU assisted in the construction of a community building at the NT community of Ampilawatja. In an article he wrote for us on May 7, 2020 about the colonial invasion of Country, Martin said:

Laws were drawn up, the country carved up, the First Peoples sliced up, their languages, traditions and cultures ripped up and their basic way of life, stuffed up, all based on the original lie, Terra Nullius. The lies continued developing, expanding from generation to generation. All-encompassing, all powerful, promoted at every opportunity, undermining the basic values encompassing the First Peoples culture, traditions and life.

He called on us to “show respect to the First Peoples, accept without equivocation their original ownership of this land,” and said we should “celebrate the world’s oldest continuous culture of tens of thousands of years instead of celebrating their subjugation”.

Martin had worked in an industry where workers can be, and are being, killed and maimed in the relentless search for profits. He had worked with BLF organiser and SA Unions representative Jack Watkins on asbestosis, and saw in silicosis yet another insidious workplace disease that was killing workers. On March 4, 2019, he posed the question:

Why are workers still dying? 

Governments and their agencies, combined with employers’ responsible for workers safety, have once again failed to protect workers from the oldest industrial disease known to humans. In the most technologically advanced era ever, why are workers still placed in this danger? The drive for greater profit, unfettered competition, survival at all and any cost, greed, lack of appropriate government oversight, reduction of “red tape”, corruption, deliberately dumbing down of workers’ safety knowledge, interwoven with unfettered technological advances owned and controlled by the few, all equate to the one cause, Capitalism.

Martin’s adult life was spent in the fight against capitalism, and its exploitation of, and harm done to, the people.  

He didn’t do it blindly, but thoughtfully, guided in his practical activities by the theoretical teachings of Marxism-Leninism.

The young worker who wanted nothing to do with Communism, embraced it and became the courageous, generous, open-hearted, laughing and engaging person that we all knew and loved. 

To his family, and particularly Sandra, the love of his life, and to Lisa, his carer, protector and guardian angel, we offer our sincerest condolences. 

To his friends and comrades – let’s keep his light shining and his inspiration enriching us.

Vale - Stephen Darley

 Written by: Michael Williss on 11 May 2022

(The following eulogy was read at the funeral of Stephen Darley by Michael Williss)

It is a great privilege for me to talk today to the family and close friends of our comrade, Stephen Darley.

I make these remarks formally on behalf of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) of which Stephen was a member.

Stephen worked tirelessly for the great cause of anti-imperialist independence and socialism. His Northern Irish background made his anti-imperialism doubly significant, and his family who were deeply involved in the Northern Irish struggle, reinforced each other’s political and ideological awakening. His working class background made his fight against exploitation and oppression second nature.

Stephen was well-known to environmental and anti-war activists in South Australia and nationally. During the giant “No War” protest movement of 2003, when hundreds of thousands came out onto the streets to condemn US plans to invade Iraq, Stephen made an immense contribution as a speaker and main organiser.

For many years, he presented “A Peace of the Action”, a radio program with strong anti-imperialist content on 5UV (later Radio Adelaide). He was also a co-presenter of “The Environment Show” on Adelaide’s Three D Radio.

Stephen had been a university lecturer and tutor in environmental studies for 20 years at the three Adelaide universities until 2010.

His current political involvement was in the national coordinating committee of the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN), and the National Anti-AUKUS Coalition. He was a founding member in SA of Spirit of Eureka, a democratic and anti-imperialist mass movement. He had also been involved in the Living Incomes for Everyone (LIFE) coalition of union and welfare grassroots groups, and the Anti-Poverty Network.  

Stephen was a main organiser, and often main speaker, in Adelaide of rallies on topics such as opposition to AUKUS, opposition to the nuclear submarine program, support for Venezuela against US imperialism and other causes.  

The numerous tributes to Stephen that have been posted on his sister Eileen’s Facebook page, are testimony to his influence and the respect in which he was held.

Stephen embraced Marxism-Leninism out of a belief that capitalism could never be reformed and that exploitation and oppression could only be ended when the working class held state power and brought to an end the system of private ownership of the means of production.

The day before he died, he was discussing anti-AUKUS and IPAN related matters with comrades interstate who said that he seemed in good spirits and was doing terrific work.

But there were demons that accompanied Stephen in his life.

Stephen was afflicted with the disease of depression, an involuntary illness that affects the mental health of too many Australians. He shared the onset of depressive episodes with his comrades, often saying that he would not be able to attend meetings or deal with things for a couple of weeks. When the illness passed, he would pick up where he left off and throw himself back into the struggle.

We thought, as comrades, that we were supportive of Stephen’s situation, but his loss of life, at his own hands, is a tragic reminder that this illness is still too poorly understood. 

There was a song of my childhood that went:

Catch a falling star
And put it in your pocket,
Never let it fade away.

I have Stephen in my pocket. He’s in my breast pocket, above my heart. 

I will not, we will not, let him fade away.

Our comrade has passed. We will miss him enormously. We will always honour his memory and hold him in the highest respect. To his family and friends – love and strength.

Commemorating 80th Anniversary of Japan’s Bombing of Darwin

Written by: Nick G. on 19 February 2022

February 19, 2022 marks the 80th anniversary of Japan's attack on the Australian city of Darwin. Hundreds were killed (see Darwin Maritime Union memorial, below), and ships in the harbour sunk. A second raid the same day targeted the nearby Air Force airfield.

The Japanese had resorted to war to seize from the major European powers – England, France and Holland – Asian and South-east Asian sources of raw materials, colonial labour-power, and markets. They challenged US imperialism for control of the Pacific as a major sphere of influence.

At the time, Japanese imperialism was still engaged in an attempted war of conquest against China where resistance forces led by the Communist Party were tying down millions of Japanese troops who would otherwise have been freed to fight Australians on Australian soil.

Following the initial bombing of Darwin, raids increased and the Japanese sought other targets. Two weeks later, Japanese planes attacked Broome, killing more than 70 people among whom were Dutch refugees who had just been evacuated by flying boat from the Dutch East Indies (later Indonesia). 

On 31 May 1942, three Japanese midget submarines entered Sydney Harbour. Twenty-one sailors died when the Japanese torpedoed the HMAS Kuttabul. In June 1942 a submarine shelled the eastern suburbs in Sydney and then Newcastle. 

By the end of September 1943, Japanese pilots had flown 97 air raids against towns and bases in northern Australia, including a further 63 attacks on Darwin and three on Townsville. 

Eighty years later, the drums of war are again beating, as Home Affairs Department Secretary Mike Pezzullo said on April 27 last year.

The drums of war theme has been beaten ever since by then Home Affairs, and now Defence, Minister, Peter Dutton. Echoes of Dutton’s championing of the US military presence in Australia and the larger region are heard across the bourgeois political spectrum, from Albanese to Bolt.

Now, it is all directed at our former WW2 ally China.  China, now clearly a capitalist economy, having abandoned socialism through Deng’s “reforms”, is also trying to secure access to raw materials, cheap labour-power, and markets. The difference is that at this point in time, it is doing so by financial, economic and diplomatic offensives and not by military means. However, it is not ignorant of the need for the gun to follow the dollar – or the yuan.  According to its 2015 White Paper on Chinese military strategy, the Peoples Liberation Army now looks outside country and its mission and strategic tasks now include:  “To safeguard China's security and interests in new domains; To safeguard the security of China's overseas interests”.

US imperialism’s response to Chinese economic expansion is to gird its military loins and prepare for aggressive war to secure its continued domination of our region and the globe. 

Japan, its enemy in WW2, has a vital role to play in this. 

Defeated in WW2, Japan had a “pacifist” Constitution imposed on it by US imperialism so that any revival of its militarist ambitions could never again challenge the US.  The US then established military bases all over Japan directed at the liberation movements that were sweeping Asia. The Japanese island of Okinawa was subjected to full-scale US military occupation. The US still operates 13 military bases on Okinawa . They cover 25% of the island.

The post-war “pacifist” Constitution now restricts the plans that US imperialism has for containing China by threat of war.  The last three Japanese governments have all tried to amend or replace the Constitution to free the Japanese militarists for full “interoperability” within the imperialist bloc led by the US and including India and Australia - the so-called Quad.

An artillery weapon is mounted on a balcony on the first floor of the RSL in Darwin.  It points directly to the North, originally as a reminder of Japan’s attacks on Australia, but now pointing to China as the enemy selected for us by US imperialism.

All imperialism is evil. We reject the rival imperialisms of Beijing and Washington. We reject the subservience of the Government and the “Opposition” to one of those imperialisms.

On the 80th anniversary of Japan’s bombing of Darwin, we resolve to intensify the fight for anti-imperialist independence and socialism. 

...........................

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the two Japanese bombing raids on Darwin, the Maritime Union erected this commemorative monument. The words inside the circle of the wheel read: "Annually the families of the deceased, as well as wharfies and seafarers, meet here to pay their respects and to remember the workers who were killed when the wharf was bombed on 19 February 1942. We will never forget the sacrifice waterside workers and their families have made for Australia. We will never forget the hundreds of merchant seamen who lost their lives working on the ships destroyed by mines, torpedoes, shelling and bombing while carrying cargo and troops for our country."

In the plaque at the bottom are listed the names of the 23 known Waterside Workers who lost their lives as a consequence of the two bombing raids.  

Annie Newmarch – A Life of Service To The People Through Art

Written by: Ned K. on 5 February 2022

On 13 January, 2022, Adelaide based artist Annie Newmarch passed away peacefully aged 76. Annie graduated with a teaching diploma at Western Teacher’s College in 1966 and then taught art at public schools before becoming a lecturer at the South Australian School of Art in 1969. 

She held her first art exhibition in that year and raised eyebrows when she criticised commercial art galleries for being dominated by male artists and for being driven by free market economics!

This was the first public message from Annie that she saw art as a form of political expression against the oppression of women under capitalism and that art should not be based on what the artist could gain on the free market, but on its contribution to communities and a better society for the people.

In the early 1970s Annie combined her art work with study in politics and Marxist philosophy at Flinders University which resulted in her throwing herself in to the people’s struggles of the time.

In the early 1970s she became active in the movement for Australian independence from imperialism, US imperialism in particular. She contributed art work to the people’s struggle against the presence of US bases in Australia, particularly Pine Gap near Alice Springs. She produced an inspiring colour poster of people protesting against Pine Gap with Eureka Flags towering over the smaller US flags symbolising their unwanted presence in Australia. This magnificent work by Annie was produced in 1975, the year of the semi-coup against the Whitlam Government which was backed by US interests. She also realised the power of the collective for art to reach its social potential. She was a founding member of the Progressive Art Movement which united writers, artists, film makers and poets so they could contribute to the progressive social movement that prevailed at the time. 

In 1978 she produced a stunning image “Women Hold Up Half The Sky”, a colour screen print showing a photo of a women she knew, Peggy carrying a man in her arms. Peggy was a single mother with eight children!

Annie also produced artistic work in support of First Nations Peoples. One of her works about the impact of the British nuclear tests at Maralinga in the north of SA is a stand out exhibit at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Annie’s commitment to progressive causes saw her throw herself and her art work in to support for working class struggles. She provided design for BLF posters and shirts with the now famous “Dare To Struggle Date To Win” logo at a time when the BLF was under relentless attack from multinational developers and their local political party stooges.

Her commitment to working class struggle did not stop there. She was a strong supporter of the Rank and File Committee of car workers at Chrysler and a strong advocate for nationalisation of the car industry in Australia.

She also produced posters and joined street demonstrations in support of gaoled Chrysler workers shop steward Will Heidt in 1977.

Will was gaoled for refusing to leave the car plant when he was sacked over a staffing level dispute.

Annie’s “rock” during these turbulent years and subsequent years was always her local northern suburb community of Prospect in Adelaide where she lived for about 50 years. She was the first person to be appointed artist in residence with the City of Prospect Council and the Council Art Gallery is named Newmarch Gallery in her honour. 

Annie has left her mark in the streets of Prospect where she initiated stobie pole art which is now practiced in many suburbs in Adelaide and other towns and cities.

Annie combined the raising of her three children with working as an artist and in later life she confronted the invisibility of ageing women in a series of works called Risking 50.

Annie was an artist who worked for the people and had no hesitation in raising her artistic gift on the side of the people.

Even people in the US recognised her legacy with an Obituary in ART news, a US visual arts magazine in New York saying she had “reshaped the Australian art scene as an educator and activist”

Rest In Peace Annie .  Never forgotten by many.

 

Vale Ben Carslake

 Written by: Shane S on 3 May 2021

On April 30, the day before he was to be honoured with the SA May Day Collective’s Spanner award for services to the ideals of May Day, SPA/CPA member Ben Carslake passed away.

We immediately communicated our condolences to the CPA’s SA branch and its National President, Vinnie Molina:

Dear Comrades

It is with great sadness that I have just learned of the passing of Comrade Bennie Carslake.

I know that this was not unexpected and that arrangements had been made to recognise Bennie’s service to the working class at May Day tomorrow, but that does not diminish the sadness we feel.

At a critical moment in the history of construction industry unionism, Bennie saw what was required and put the interests of construction workers before anything else. He had an exemplary relationship with a number of our comrades as people with different party allegiances.

Please pass our condolences on to his family, friends and comrades.

Nick G.
Chairperson, CPA (M-L)
30 April 2021

Both responded with thanks.

CPA President Vinnie Molina's message read:

Dear comrade Nick,

I thank you on behalf of the Communist Party of Australia for your solidarity message on the loss of a great comrade and trade unionist Benny Carslake.

Benny will live forever in the minds and actions of those he mentored with his working class politics.

I take this opportunity to wish you and all members of the CPA ML a militant May Day 2021.

United we shall win!

In socialism,

Vinnie Molina
CPA President

Putting to one side political and ideological differences, a great working relationship developed on the ground, allowing us to say in our recent history of the CPA (M-L) in South Australia that “…a remarkably respectful and mutually supportive relationship between our comrade Martin O’Malley (BLF) and the SPA/CPA’s Bennie Carslake (BWIU) saw the CFMEU take its rightful place as the union for all construction workers.”

Below, one of our comrades has recorded his impressions of Bennie. 

Ben Carslake 

By Shane S

Ben was a product of Port Lincoln where he excelled at sport, representing the region in Athletic Carnivals throughout the state. With quick legs, running was his speciality. 

Ben took up bricklaying as his trade but it was his mind that would define him. Benny had a passion for lifting the working class and lowering the ruling class. He took great pleasure in removing the portraits of the queen that hung in the social clubs that were soon to be regular gathering spots of the working class so that political education could be held, as well as a creating social networks for the time honoured “Drink and a Think”. He taught young comrades how good the new polymer currency was, because you could remove the queen’s face off it with a couple of quick and forceful rubs on a rough surface. 

It was the capitalists that would feel Ben’s commitment to the working class like no other. He would be involved in too many struggles to name here. A few do, however, deserve a mention and as always it was the bigger picture outcome as well as the education that took place that always left an impression on members, and at times non-members, of the various occupations and unions that he represented. 

There were struggles for grain handlers and fertilizer workers around the wharves of Port Adelaide, and one struggle in particular that would be spoken about many years after was when Ben was representing grain handlers in a struggle for better conditions. With the harvest season in full swing Ben rallied the rank and file to pull up and the gate was blocked. This led to a major backlog of trucks bringing in the harvest, many of which were the Cockies driving their own grain to the bulk handling facility. Ben knew that to win the struggle he would need to educate all involved, so he set about walking the length of the backed-up trucks reminding and educating the cockies/drivers about being in a co-op themselves. When several cockies also joined the picket, Ben knew the struggle would be won. 

Ben also took on the Adelaide City Council when the redevelopment of the Myer building was about to take place. He attempted to gather the like-minded comrades for the protection of the although not listed historical façade. In this struggle, the eventual demolition occurred, but the struggle had educated a large cross section of the city and historical facades have since be protected. 

Ben also led a struggle in relation to a local crane yard in which the solidarity that was created was so strong that the employer, relying on advice from the Employers Chambers leadership, closed the yard, only for the lure of the tremendous profit being sought, led the same employer to reopen the yard. With Ben knocking on his door seeking an increase in terms and conditions that were finally agreed to by the employer, the yard reopened, with in some cases employees reinstated to their previous roles. 

Ben also had a tilt at running at local politics (Port Adelaide Council) but it was the union movement and class politics that had his heart and soul. Ben’s vision and understanding led to the respectful amalgamation of the BWIU and the BLF, among other unions, to create the CFMEU, and increased the position of its members at every opportunity. 

Ben attended the August 1982 BWIU National Executive in Sydney as a visitor from the SA BWIU Branch. At that time, the South Australian Branch Secretary was Frank Gosden. Ben was elected as the SA Branch Secretary in the 1983 elections and Frank Gosden retired on 4th July 1984. Prior to the Amalgamation with the BLF Ben held the following positions: SA State Secretary of the CFMEU, and Member of the National Executive of the CFMEU. 

The Builders Labourers Federation from SA, Tas, Qld and WA amalgamated with the CFMEU on March 31, 1994. So, it would be safe to say that Ben held the position of SA Branch Secretary of the BWIU and then the CFMEU from 1984 until the amalgamation with the BLF in 1994. Ben remained President of the CFMEU until the 2004 election where he became Senior Vice President again for the good of the branch as a Rank-and-File President was transitioned in, Ben remained Senior Vice President until his retirement in 2007.

In the latter years of Ben’s standing as President and Senior Vice President he would pass on his enormous amount of knowledge onto younger organisers within the CFMEU and lead many a struggle with his strategic mind always being squeezed for its knowledge, as it was one memorable night when the troops were gathered to remind a builder of the solidarity that could be created, and that it is extremely hard to move 10,000 cubic meters of concrete without a concrete pump. 

Ben would always speak about where we stood in the world in relation to class struggle and one of his proudest photos that sat amongst the many memories in his office was from the US base protests. What you could note from the photo was that you could only see the backs of other protesters heads, except for a smiling Ben, or it could have been a grimace from being frogmarched backwards with the assistance of the SA Police. A gate made its way back from that protest and now sits proudly, pride of place at the Semaphore Workers Club as a reminder to all, not to accept what a government serves up to you. 

Ben’s love for the working class would often be spoken about at the various watering holes that he found himself in, whether it be Fridays at “the Birk” Tavern, with an armful of Guardians to spread the word, or at the famed Semaphore Workers “Commo club” at closing, where all would see Ben on the stump holding the crowd with his words of the latest struggle, be it local national or global, and as always finishing with his famous and often said quote of “THEY HAVE IT, WE WANT IT, WHEN WE GET IT COMRADES, WE WILL SHARE IT”. 

Another quote that will always sit with those that shared, respected, and absorbed Benny’s time was “C’mon Comrade it’s time for a drink and a think”. 

Surely on this May Day, as with all that have gone before, we will have a drink and a long think about a great Comrade Ben Carslake. 

 

Queensland Working Class Warrior’s death sorely felt. Vale Peter Simpson

 

The late Electrical Trades Union Queensland and Northern Territory Branch state secretary Peter Simpson. Credit:Michelle Smith

John G

Peter Simpson, former state Secretary of the Queensland NT ETU [Electrical Trades Union] died in late September after a 4-year battle with Melanoma. His death came after 40 years of growing stature within the working-class movement in the north of Australia. He also had a national reputation for courage, integrity, decency, reliability and his staunch working class character and action.

Simmo’s death reverberated across the country.

He was particularly renowned for his stand against privatisation of public assets in Queensland by Premiers Anna Bligh (ALP), Bjelke-Petersen and Campbell Newman (LNP). His persistent leadership gained support of many in those and many other campaigns for the working class and other people.

An indication of the legacy he left is reflected in parts of a tribute released by his union, the Qld NT ETU:

 “During his eight years as ETU Secretary from 2009-2016, Simmo campaigned fiercely for decent wages and better conditions for all ETU members, their families and their communities.

“To many he will be remembered for his enormous leadership and strategic brilliance spearheading the Not4Sale campaigns, described by many as some of Australia’s most successful union-led community campaigns. The campaigns galvanized support from Darwin to Coolangatta to protect public ownership of revenue-generating state assets, in doing so he and the ETU took on politicians from all sides. The campaign played a huge role in three elections between 2012 and 2016.

"He was a fighter for working people into his final days, campaigning for fair cancer funding and the right for people to die with dignity, his heartfelt campaign for Voluntary Assisted Dying included an emotional video.”

Peter Simpson was also an internationalist. He joined the Auckland picket lines when NZ Maritime workers were locked out. He took solidarity tours to Cuba and Venezuela with vigour.

Tributes expressing the sorrow felt flowed in from across Queensland. The acknowledgments were prominent in progressive community media, like Workers Bush Telegraph [Qld], local papers including the Cairns Post, South Burnett News, Brisbane Times, from local and national unions, the ACTU, MUA, and others. Even the capitalist Murdoch and other media recognised his standing and integrity in obituaries.

Simmo is survived by his mother, his wife Penny, their children, and grand-children, and his many comrades from the ETU and other unions and working-class organisations.

The following notes inadequately outline aspects of his life and try to give some insight into his leadership and the ETU anti-privatisation Not4Sale campaign for those unfamiliar with it. Both illuminate something of the foundations of Queensland working class attitudes to working class leadership and scepticism of Queensland Labor leaders that have resulted from hard experience over decades. 

The Queensland Not 4 Sale Campaign

The “Not 4 Sale” Campaign galvanised support across the Queensland for the last decade and more, influencing the outcomes of 3 Queensland elections.

In 2010, the working class in Queensland faced a multibillion grab for public assets set up under three Labor administrations. The Goss Labor Government of the 1990s, with Peter Beattie as the key government strategic advisor, “corporatized” government enterprises including ports Electricity Generation and Queensland Rail. It established the corporate structure facilitating their handover to multinational financial interests.

The Beatie Labor Government consolidated the Goss initiatives and set up Beattie’s chosen successor Anna Bligh to complete the process by privatising the corporatized government industries.

After succeeding Beattie, “Socialist Left” Labor Premier Anna Bligh had broken Qld Rail [QR] into two arms, passenger transport and Freight rail carting coal.

Having not mentioned privatisation once during the 2009 election campaign, Anna Bligh became the first woman elected to lead an Australian state. Subsequently Bligh announced the privatisation  through sale or lease of five government owned corporations in all: Queensland Motorways Limited, The Port of Brisbane Authority, Forestry Plantations Queensland, Abbot Point Coal Terminal, Coal-carrying rail lines owned by Queensland Rail.

In a familiar ordeal, more than 3,000 workers were subsequently pressed to take “voluntary” redundancies, just three months after the privatisation of QR National.

Peter Simpson and the ETU Qld NT took the Bligh Labor Government on. They declared Queensland was not for sale and established a campaign, trained shop stewards, joined with community campaigners and other unionists. The campaign was named “Not4Sale” with billboards backed by leafletting and local meetings soon garnering over 85% opposition to the government’s privatisation agenda.

Bligh persisted touting $15 billion income from privatisation was going to balance Queensland's state budget and relieve the debt burden. The reality proved to be the complete opposite as Simmo loudly predicted.

Qld Treasury’s State Finances Reports of 2008-9 [before the sales], 2012-13 and 2018-19 reveal that net debt much more than doubled over the 2009-2012 period from $11,708 million to $27,662 million, while the state government’s net worth dropped from $184 billion to $162 billion, a 22 billion drop..

Just as Simmo expected, Bligh flogged assets and more than doubled the debts, the complete opposite of the predictions of this “Socialist Left” Labor leader.  It wasn’t until 2018-19 that net state worth recovered to the 2008-9 level but debt had blown out further to $31,973 million.

For the Not 4 Sale campaign in 2009-10 aimed at the Bligh Labor Government, Peter was hounded by the ALP leadership, and Anna Bligh in particular. Charged with ALP rule breaches despite none being broken, and with the state executive expected to expel him from the ALP, in 2010 Simmo resigned from the ALP and the ETU disaffiliated.

None-the-less the standing of Peter Simpson continued to grow immensely throughout Queensland and interstate. His status as a union leader in Central and North Queensland as well as in the South-east reflected his unyeilding principles, determination and tireless activity until his health let him down. His growth in stature accompanied and in some regards happened because of persistent attacks upon him.

Anna Blight set out to drive Simmo out of the ALP and wider public activity. By that time she had established herself within the ALP as one of Labor’s shining lights and pathbreakers. She served as National ALP President in 2010-2011. It is ironic she was preceded in that position by the notorious Health Services Union NSW Boss, Michael Williamson, recently released from 5 years gaol for pilfering union funds to the tune of $5 million and more.

At the same time she was being credited with good leadership of the response to massive floods Brisbane experienced in 2010-11. At the 2012 election she faced facing an opposition leader not even in parliament, but Anna Bligh led the Queensland ALP to a landslide defeat by the conservative LNP led by reactionary pit-bull Campbell Newman. The loss of all but 7 seats, after going into the election holding 51, was the worst ever election result for a sitting Queensland government. All but 3 Brisbane seats, previously a Labor bastion, were lost.

The Labor government’s privatisation campaign was blamed for the loss of public support.  Anna Bligh resigned from parliament after the 2012 election and found private sector employment with the YMCA as the organisation’s boss. It seems fitting that her credentials and experience were so highly valued in financial circles that in 2017 she was appointed CEO of the Australian Bankers Association. There is no doubt which of Peter Simpson and Anna Bligh will be remembered by the working class with affection and respect and who will be remembered with contempt.

After the 2012 election, the Campbell Newman government picked up where Bligh Labor had been cut off, launching a $37bn privatisation plan including targeting the state’s electricity system and sacked 14,000 public servants.

Campbell Newman undoubtedly made the miscalculation that the ETU and other unions were isolated from the Labor Party and would be easy meat, completely underestimating the strategic nouse and standing of Peter Simpson and the ETU.

Simmo took on Newman and again gained enormous public support. Not4Sale also garnered support from many other unions in this period including the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, Transport Workers Union and Maritime Union of Australia.

In 2016 the LNP lost government in another landslide as Labor’s Anastacia Palaszczuk gained office. Again the assaults on the public sector workforce and assets were at the centre of a sitting government’s landslide defeat.

The history of the Not 4 Sale Campaign provides some insight into Queensland’s working-class scepticism of Labor’s leadership. It also charted the folly of turning to reactionaries for solutions. The anti-working class nature of the political-corporate elite, including the Labor leaders in Queensland, not only threatens the working class but undermines working class leadership among other sections like small business and independent tradespeople.

The Palaszczuk government now faces an election in which the experience of Queensland Labor leaders actions sits uncomfortably with Queenslanders to say the least.

 Peter Simpson’s life of struggle. 1963 – 2020

Simmo learnt his trade as an apprentice trainee linesman in Young in NSW, as a teenager, moving a few times before getting a linesman job with SEQEB at Stafford Qld in 1991, moving to Beenleigh Depot the next year.

He learnt his politics from his experience on the job. With much ETU experience in NSW, the ACT, and Queensland in that time being focussed on both job issues and constant threats of privatisation. It was also a period of successive union leaders in NSW, Qld and at the ACTU often conniving to sell out on privatisation and wages.

After arriving in Queensland, he learnt from stalwarts who survived the infamous SEQEB dispute when the leaders of the ETU sold out 1,007 members in the workforce of the South East Queensland Electricity Board. The dispute over contracting out in 1985 threatened to derail the Hawke-Keating government’s “Prices and Incomes Accord” and free up workers and their unions to take up the cudgels to save jobs, and break out of the shackles on struggle, imposed by the Accord.

The Late Peter Simpson. Credit Qld NT ETU

Simmo never forgot how the union’s and Labor Party leaders exposed the membership to the full fury of the Bjelke-Petersen government. The 1,007 were sacked and blacklisted despite support of workers all over Queensland and the country.

Simmo saw the washup of treachery with fellow sparkies and their families driven into penury, forced to pursue sustenance by whatever means they could. Many left Queensland. Others went bush, onto building sites, and into other industries with the support of local workers. Some started their own small-scale businesses in the trade, running cafes and shops. Whatever means to get some income to keep themselves and their families going. Some families grew stronger. Others broke down.

After 17 years on the tools including 5 years as a Qld shop steward helping to rebuild the union after the SEQEB dispute, Simmo became an organiser in 1997. Over time his strength of character, his commitment to serving the working class, and leadership in working class politics led to him being elected to the position of Assistant Secretary in 2004 and then Secretary of the union in 2009, just as then Labor Premier Anna Bligh was setting out privatise Qld Rail.  He held the position until he resigned in 2016 as his health cut into his ability to continue his strenuous service to the union members and the working class in that position.

Simmo’s service was not restricted to narrow conceptions of trade union business. He campaigned hard against the nuclear industry, he was a champion for Indigenous rights, despised discrimination on the basis of race, sex or sexual orientation, supported workers internationally, and warned against the rise of white supremacy.