The conference room at the North Melbourne offices of the Electrical Trades Union was packed for a memorial for long-time socialist activist Doug Jordan who died on May 19.
About 130 people attended the moving June 14 function. This showed the high regard in which Doug was held by a wide range of people and his consistent commitment to the struggle on various fronts.
The Trade Union choir sang “Red Flag”, “Joe Hill” and the “Internationale” and friends and comrades remembered Doug’s contribution to their lives and his enduring participation in the fight for a decent future for ordinary people.
The photograph above shows Doug being arrested during the 1990 tram strike. Doug was a tramways worker for many years; he was passionate about his job and was an active member of the Tramways Union until forced out by former premier Jeff Kennett’s privatisation in the late 1990s.
He returned to study, producing the thesis-come-book Conflict in the Unions, a pioneering study of the Communist Party’s post-war industrial work.