Vale Comrade

Jim Comerford, Mick Rangiari, Wendy Lowenstein, James Harvey, Neil Coyle, Leslie Hamilton, Dave McCullough, Cornelis Van Eyk

Jim Comerford: labour legend

Jim Comerford stands as a giant in the history of the Miners' Federation and the CFMEU.

His death last November, aged 93, brought down the curtain on the life of a remarkable man.

Jim joined the union as a 14 year old in 1927 and has been involved in all our struggles right up to the present day.

He was not only a union leader; he was a working class intellectual, an historian, a writer of great distinction and an educator.

He served the miners at every level from lodge president at Richmond to Northern District president and general secretary of the union.

A prolific writer, Jim's work has been published in Australia, the US, the UK and New Zealand.

Lockout, his most outstanding work, was launched by Kim Beazley in Sydney only last year.

Jim was at Rothbury in 1929 in what are now the Hunter vineyards, when police opened fire on coal miners protesting against the use of scab labour at the pit.

One miner, Norman Brown was shot dead. Another, Tim Flannery, collapsed and died when mounted police baton charged the miners. Dozens more were wounded.

In 1988 Jim was granted an honorary masters degree by the University of Newcastle and in 1989 he was awarded the Order of Australia.

Tributes to Jim came from ACTU leaders Greg Combet and Sharan Burrow, MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin, and former prime ministers Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and Kim Beazley.

In the words of Paul Keating: "Jim Comerford is quite simply a labour legend, the embodiment of labour's greatest ideals of solidarity and the pursuit of justice for working men and women."

Tom Ryan: Proud Comrade

My father Tom Ryan passed away last year aged 81. He was diagnosed with leukaemia early in May, but never really recovered, despite his strong will and the best hospital treatment.

Tom missed last year's May Day march for perhaps the first time. He was a proud comrade of the working class and might always be remembered for his motto: Touch one, touch all.

Tom will be missed but never ever forgotten.

Ray Ryan

Union No: 14948

Mick Rangiari: Gurindji hero

Mick Rangiari or Hoppy Mick as he was affectionately known was one of the few remaining Gurindji strikers who walked off Wave Hill Station in August 1966.

The strike by Wave Hill's indigenous pastoral workers led to the famous ceremonial handing-back of land to the Gurindji by then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, and is regarded as the beginning of the land rights movement in Australia.

Whereas Vincent Lingiari was the quiet leader of the strike, Mick was the outspoken one.

Vincent relied on Mick's readiness to speak up. It was Mick who was sent to represent the Gurindji in the first Consultative Council and Mick who served on the Central Land Council when it was eventually formed. He was also active on the Daguragu Community Council until shortly before his death.

I took the first load of supplies to the strikers who were camped in the dry bed of the Victoria River (both the waterside workers' and seamen's unions were staunch supporters of the strike). I spent the following day talking to Mick when Vincent and Dexter went over to Pigeon Hole and Mt Samford (outstations of Victoria River Downs) to pick up Gurindjis there.

Mick had been working for the police and suffered a broken pelvis when thrown from a horse on his way over to Wave Hill Station to collect the mail. He lay by a gate for three days before an Aboriginal man walking that way found him.

Mick was taken to Wave Hill Station and lay on the verandah of the homestead for two weeks before the flying doctor, Clive Fenton, noticed his injury and flew him to Katherine. It was too late to treat his fracture which had set crooked.

As he grew older his deformity became more noticeable. He never received compensation as Aborigines were at that time specifically excluded from the Compensation Act - and from award wages. The rationale was that their welfare was the responsibility of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.

Mick is a sad loss to the Gurindji and we all will miss his presence at the annual celebration of the walk-off, which he helped to inaugurate.

I was privileged to have been a friend.

NT chief minister Clare Martin also paid tribute to his life describing the Wave Hill strike as one of the seminal events in modern Australian history.__ "Mr Rangiari was very much part of that story," she said. "We pay tribute to his contribution then - and in the 40 years since that time."__

The photos show Mick speaking at Freedom Day 1986 and another of him introducing me to speak on Freedom Day 2000.)

Vale Mick Rangiari

Brian Manning

Life member

Darwin

Wendy Lowenstein: Under the Hook

Wendy Lowenstein, author and oral historian, died in November. A tribute to her life was held at Victorian Trades Hall.

Wendy was the author of Under the Hook on Melbourne wharfies' oral histories and a great friend of the MUA.

She was the powerhouse behind Australian Tradition magazine that ran for 10 years (1964 - 74) and published hundreds of Australian songs including many by songwriters like Clem Parkinson, Glen Tomasetti, Merv Lilley, Bill Berry, Don Henderson, Gary Shearston, Mike Leyden, Phyl Lobl, Ken Mansell, Bernie Besesparis, Harry Robertson, Chris Kempster, Dorothy Hewett, Denis Kevans, Mona Brand and Lyell Sayer.

The magazine has proved an amazing resource.

Likewise her books: Weevils in the Flour has been in print for over 20 years and Under the Hook got extra chapters added during the 1998 Patrick dispute in a section called "MUA here to stay!" Wendy published a poem she wrote about the dispute called The Telephone Tree, which I put on the MUA centenary CD With These Arms in 2003.

You can see it online (and hear it!) at http://unionsong.com/u073.html

Wendy was a pioneer in many fields, including children's rhymes and songs (Cinderella dressed in Yella), oral history (Weevils in the Flour 1979, Under the Hook 1982, Weevils at Work). She got so annoyed with the publishing industry that she pioneered self-publishing, writing a book Self-Publishing Without Pain in 1999!

A most remarkable woman and part of the generation of activists that ensured the folk revival got such a vigorous start.

Wendy died in Melbourne in October and is survived by her husband, Werner, and their three children, Peter, Martie and Richard.

Mark Gregory

Sydney

James Harvey: Stalwart

It is with a sad heart that I inform members of the passing of one of the stalwarts of the sea-going industry. Like many young Balmain bucko's I first met Jimmy in 1950 when he ran a small grocery shop in Rozelle. How he got there is a story in itself.

Born in Lowestoft a small fishing village on the east coast of the UK in 1919, Jimmy was indentured at an early age to a wheelwright and coachbuilder but was stood down at age 16 through lack of work.

He joined a fishing smack as a deck boy/coiler/cook and general rouseabout. The work proved very arduous, so Jim looked for a new horizon and in 1938 embarked upon his seagoing career, joining the Arandora Star a Blue Star boat out of London as O/S.

During the 2nd World War Jim sailed on North Atlantic convoys and at war's end took a ship to Wallaroo in South Australia and skinned out. After six weeks at His Majesty's pleasure Jim was granted permanent resident status.

Jim decided to complete his apprenticeship as a coachbuilder and wheelwright and worked at George Holdings in Sydney until 1950. He then joined the SUA in 1951 and sailed his last 15 years as bosun on the Empress of Australia before he and the ship finished in 1985.

Blokes like Chummy Hammond, Kevin Plummer, Archie Scott, John and Ken Halloran, Bob, George and Ron Perry, Bill Pratt, Bronco Bob White, Willie Martin, Len and Ray Porrett, Brian Bissett, Terrence Clarence Byrnes AKA "The Oyster" - just to name a few - before starting their seagoing careers knew him as the bloke who ran a little grocery shop with the "anti-theft screw top lolly jars".

Jim was the most methodical and determined of men and displayed these traits all of his life. Take the time he and his wife Dorothy bought a block of land at North Ryde while he was on the RW Millers coal carrier William Macarthur (affectionately known as the Willie Mac).

When he started to build the family home at North Ryde, Jim would finish on a Friday afternoon and catch a bus to Top Ryde. He would carry his tools and a couple of K's to his block, build a shed to stow his tools and return by bus to join the Willie Mac to sail at 0001 Monday morning.

Old timers will note the significance of sailing board time. The ship would return to port Friday week in week out, and Jim worked on the house until it was finished. I never knew of Jim driving a car, which added to the enormity of the task.

He and his wife Dorothy then proceeded to raise five children and countless grand children whom Jimmy and Dot loved with abiding affection.

Jim's time in the Seamen's Union, 1951-1985, was spent mostly passing on his knowledge and wisdom to younger members.

He also taught many a member to build a house, lay slabs of concrete and lay bricks - there was practically nothing Jim could not turn his hand to.

When it came to planning or trying to work something out Jim had the ability to step back out of the square and get another perspective.

Where other people mostly saw black and white, Jim could easily see the shaded areas.

Jimmy was a great seaman with very few peers, an aficionado of knotting "Turks heads" and a most determined man who thrived on quotes like "it can't be done."

His best project after he retired was to write a book - A Comprehensive Text of Turks Head Knots - which he completed and published with the aid of the MUA and members in the early 2000s.

Jimmy gained the respect of all who knew him. He was generous of his time and knowledge to whoever asked and nothing was ever a burden.

A true and loyal friend and a fiercely proud life member of the SUA/MUA, Jimmy incorporated and upheld union policy till the day he died.

He was a fine, decent human being. It seemed only fitting that long-time mate and peer comrade Bill Langlois delivered the eulogy, and a mighty fine send off it was. As tradition dictates there were no doubts it was Bill's privilege to "make the bells" for Jim's last watch.

Farewell Comrade.

If your heart is heavy now

Because I've gone away

Dwell not long upon it friend

For none of us can stay

Deepest condolences to Marilyn, Lorraine, James, Louise, Dorothy, grandchildren and Jim's brothers and sisters and other relatives in the UK.

Tasmanian Vets

Bob Johnson

Life Member

Neil Coyle: Call of the Sea

Through the pages of the Journal I wish to inform members of the death of one of the finest persons I have ever met, Neil Coyle, who passed away in December 2006.

Neil was born on Falls Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1938 and at the age of 15 decided that life at sea was for him. After many years on "Home Boats" when married his lovely wife Maureen and started a family, he decided to migrate to Australia in 1972 to protect his family from problems in Northern Ireland.

After arriving in Melbourne Neil worked at different jobs ashore but the call of the sea was always there so he shipped out again out of Melbourne.

After joining various ships he joined the Straightsman where he stayed for 16 years till the ship finished. His last ship was the tanker Manson and in the mid nineties he had to retire from the job he loved due to health problems.

To those who knew him Neil was a loyal and sincere friend and family man. He is survived by his wife Maureen, sons Kirean, Brian, Neil and Martin, daughter Maureen and four grandchildren.

From all the MUA members at the Melbourne branch our sincerest sympathies.

Rest in peace Neil - a good mate and a good trade unionist.

Sean Breen

Union No 58

Leslie Hamilton: Staunch Shipmate

Leslie Hamilton, known as "Mouse" in his seafaring and wharfie days, passed away in November in Brisbane.

I knew Mouse for 62 years, having sailed on three ships with him. He left sea and became a wharfie, then returned to the sea.

The Mouse was a very sincere, dedicated unionist and a staunch shipmate, one who never failed to attend May Day rallies.

Several times the Mouse was locked up for daring to demonstrate against the Joh Bjelke Petersen regime.

I first met the Mouse when I walked up the gangway of the Norwegian oil tanker Strix in Baltimore USA in 1944. He was a 15-year-old deck boy.

We met on a tanker and both retired on a tanker MV Ampol Sarel in 1988.

Aboard the Strix the Norwegians called him "Liten Drit", which translated means "little shit".

Mouse could be a real pain in the arse at times always getting us both into trouble. But even though he was called liten drit, he was the Norwegians' favourite aboard Strix.

When we worked together on deck he could do no wrong. Like on the winter's day in the North Atlantic when he picked up a handful of snow and shoved it down the back of my shirt. Oh, how the Norwegians thought that was hilarious. But when I rubbed snow in the Mouse's face, they gave me a playful kick in the backside saying, "You leave Liten Drit alone".

Yes, Mouse was always getting me into trouble. He led my wife Fay down the altar and I have been a "POW" married for 50 years.

In the latter part of WWII we both had the distinction of a short stay in a British army camp at Constantine in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa. Having missed our ship MV Heimvard in Algiers we were sent on out to Tunis to rejoin it.

And so my little mate Mouse, we who knew you best wish you a fair wind and calm seas to "Fiddlers Green", the sailor's paradise, where public houses, dance halls and other similar amusements are plentiful.

Frank B. Finch

Retired Member SUA

Dave McCullough: Final shift

Dave's number has come up on the roster

And it's time for him to join his mates

He's assured of a very warm welcome,

When he clocks on at the pearly gates

His old gang will be there in attendance,

He'll be welcomed without a doubt

And just maybe to mark the occasion

As an old panno may wish to shout

Now that could create a disturbance

And a delegate will have to attend

There'll be a show of union tickets

But all should be right in the end.

So many of us will certainly miss him,

But all must answer their call

And to know he's now resting peacefully,

Should be a comfort to us all

Neil Pitt

Retired member

Cornelis Van Eyk: Eloquent

Cornelis van Eyk, or just Van to those who sailed with him, has paid off his last ship.

A heart attack mercifully gave him his first and only instant dismissal.

Van started on the coast in ketches in the early fifties and quite enjoyed recounting his time on the Leederry. Among the many ships that followed were the Princess, Howard Smith, the Port Philip Pilot Service and finally the BP Achiever among others.

Van was an eloquent speaker of some persuasive power and if you were a Melbourne home porter you would recognise his voice when he got up to say his piece at a stop work meeting.

Those of us who knew him will think of him with respect and with sadness at his passing.

Goede Reis Van and Bon Voyage.

F Frese

Retired seafarer

Life member: 1143