Garry Walters
On December 1, 2003, I was treated by former Australian Railways Union shunters' committee fellow activist Des Crichton to a trip from Echuca to North Melbourne, for the longstanding annual reunion of shunters.
The shunters, other grades and a few union officials (formerly ARU and Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen, now amalgamated in the Rail, Tram and Bus Union), were glad to see me, so long after my mid-1994 "rationalisation", redundancy and related nervous breakdown.
Many memories from my time of mass movement and union rank-and-file organising flooded back to me while enjoying time back with the shunters.
The strongest catalyst to my memory-lane trip was the shock of hearing of the recent death of Steve Gibson.
I had last seen Steve in 2003, in a chance encounter while I was visiting Melbourne. Steve was at Spencer Street country passenger terminal, headed off from work with briefcase, no doubt packed with socialist literature.
A unionist since the 1940s, Steve was a life-long Marxist-Leninist who, while we were fellow revolutionaries and collaborating rank-and-file-oriented rail unionists, was devoted to the (previously "Moscow line") Socialist Party of Australia, which split with the original Communist Party of Australia (probably during Steve's hey-day).
Steve was always committed to international anti-imperialist solidarity, naturally translating working-class principles to the global arena. This was evidenced in the long-term vital role Steve played in the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society.
Another feature of Steve's mature elder-statesman outlook, was his strong belief in the need to strengthen the socialist pole of attraction by striving for greater unity in action and eventual organic unity among competing Marxist parties.
In the 1980s, there were serious moves by the leaderships of the then-Socialist Workers Party (now the Democratic Socialist Perspective) and the SPA and the Communist Party of Australia for fusion, with strong agitation and pressure from many active members (including Steve, as an SPA member, and I, as an SWP member).
This 1980s push for socialist unity paved the way for the past few years' systematic effort for greater left collaboration.
Steve's personal qualities, including a wry sense of humour, amiable manner, ability to talk politics with diverse people, wisdom gained from his wealth of experience and readiness to relate to workers and youth, made him an irreplaceable asset to the cause.
Steve's unwavering stance against the ACTU-ALP Prices and Incomes Accord illustrated his class-struggle emphasis.
Now that Labor governs all states and might govern federally, with much the same (if not worse) reactionary policies, the movement for a better future urgently needs to consummate left unity through the Socialist Alliance process, so as to offer a stronger, clearly red-green alternative.
Such a positive outcome would really warm the hearts of all those like Steve, whom the march of time steals from us.
Steve was the kind of patient, hard-working bloke who could encourage, inspire and guide others in need of a lead.
After writing these words, I have resolve to steadily reactivate myself — if only at the minimum level of remaining a GLW subscriber and the obvious next step to begin 2004 as a formal Friend of GLW.
During our return drive to Echuca from the shunters' reunion, we reminisced about the pub sessions often indulged in by shunters, loco drivers and other grades at the North Melbourne Railway Hotel (aka the "Big House"), talking shop about work, union affairs and sometimes politics.
Des recalled a mid-1990s function put on by the Rail Train and Bus Union in the old ARU's renowned Unity Hall at 636 Bourke St, when this historic building was being sold. Steve, Des and a few other activists shared beers and yarns, until the cleaners grew impatient. It took a plea by the cleaners to get the drinkers to leave, and Steve remarked that this qualified them all as the very last in a long line of union officials "kicked out" from Unity Hall by workers.
Steve Gibson is sadly missed by many socialists, who all treasure and respect his memory. The struggle continues — Steve Gibson, presente!
From Green Left Weekly, January 21, 2004.
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