BY MARG PERROTT
WOLLONGONG — Mike Dwyer, past-president of the South Coast Labor Council and respected community activist in the Illawarra region, lost his 15-year battle with cancer on February 25. All those who knew him will be greatly saddened. More than 300 people from the local community and the trade union, environment, peace and socialist movements attended a farewell on February 28.
His legacy is the example he set in putting the struggle for a better world for all above all else.
Friend and colleague Peter Wilson, local NSW Teachers' Federation (NSWTF) organiser and recently elected SCLC president, paid tribute to Dwyer at his funeral. Dwyer was "caring, committed, positive, compassionate, inclusive, dedicated, broad-minded, upright, honest, democratic, intelligent, loyal, strong, determined, a comrade. Every one of these words describe Mike".
Wilson told mourners that "on the left, Mike was non-partisan. He responded to every issue on its merits ... Mike has the respect of all levels of the labour movement. He has the respect of people in the environment, peace and Aboriginal movements and in the movement to get more accountable local government in Wollongong.
"Mike worked without self-interest and was not motivated by ambition or ego. He worked with people to better the lives of the majority. He fought to defend the majority from the exploitation of the privileged, the wealthy, the stupid and the corrupt."
Wilson described how Dwyer first became active in the NSWTF in 1970s and was soon a leading member of the federation's state council and state executive. During the 1980s, Mike was elected as NSWTF regional organiser based in Wollongong.
Dwyer was also active in the peace movement through People For Nuclear Disarmament. Wilson noted that Dwyer "put a huge amount of energy into the failed attempt to create the New Left Party".
Dwyer became president of the SCLC in 1995. "Mike's work and leadership in the SCLC was phenomenal", Wilson said. "Mike was critical in the Labor Council's success in establishing the South Coast Workers' Childcare Centre ... Mike played a huge role in the Save Bulli Hospital campaign, the Save Coledale Hospital campaign and the Wombarra Tunnel dispute, as well as in community campaigns to defend the escarpment and ocean foreshores. Mike strongly advocated the trade union movement building strong ties with, and drawing support from, community and environmental campaigns."