Don Jarret
Ron Gray, treasurer of the Australian Peace Committee, died in Adelaide on August 13 at the age of 79. The following is an abridged version of the speech given by Don Jarret, the APC South Australian branch president, at Ron's funeral.
I first became aware of Ron back in the heady days when the metal unions amalgamated in the early 1970s at meetings held in the union offices in Halifax Street. Some years later, in the late '80s, when Ron was on the international committee of the United Trades and Labour Council, he organised my trip, as a delegate of the UTLC, to participate in a peace cruise on the Dnieper River, in Ukraine. This was mainly a meeting of peace activists from the US and the Soviet Union with delegates from other European countries and Australia included.
On my return, I decided to involve myself in the peace movement here in Adelaide. It was from that moment that I witnessed the extraordinary energy of Ron Gray in his efforts to build a broad peace movement, not only in Adelaide but nationally. Of course, he was not alone in this endeavour.
I think it interesting to spend a moment thinking about where the Ron Grays of this world come from and what turned them on. Living like other working-class people of his age through the traumas of the Great Depression, the Spanish Civil War, the horrors of World War II, and then the birth of the nuclear age and the consequent threat of nuclear holocaust, it is not surprising that Ron became involved in the struggles of the people for a better life — of security for families in a peaceful world.
Born in Britain, Ron worked as a fitter and was a member of the Amalgamated Engineering Union. He was more a listener than an orator, quietly absorbing the political debates of the time and quietly forming his opinions about life. However, when the conservative government of the time banned the British Communist paper, The Daily Worker, Ron and his mates smuggled the paper onto the job. Freedom of information and honesty in government were important principles to protect.
Soon after arriving in Australia, Ron found work with the Electricity Trust of South Australia at the beautiful location of Leigh Creek where he maintained the machinery at the open-cut mine. After three years there, he returned to Adelaide in 1966 to work at the ETSA power house at Torrens Island. He became very much involved in union activity and was elected to the shop committee. Of particular note was the strike Ron successfully led against the use of asbestos.
He seemed to be on every committee known to a union member. President of the rank-and-file committee, the first rank-and-file vice-president of the AEU, elected to the district committee and a delegate to state conference. He was also a delegate to the UTLC and on its international committee. His last paid position was involved with the health and safety unit at ETSA.
In 1972, Ron joined the newly formed Socialist Party of Australia, later to be renamed the Communist Party.
On his retirement from work in industry, Ron took up voluntary work in the peace movement and since that day dedicated much of his time and energy to developing the work of the peace movement. He believed that to change the world it is absolutely necessary to broaden the movement, taking up issues that had wide appeal without lessening the impact.
He worked to get the message out to people that wars were the product of greed and a lust for military and economic power, in which our taxes were being expended on the machinery of war instead of converting that machinery for peaceful purposes.
Ron's dedication to the welfare of his fellow workers and to the aim of a world of equal opportunity and peace will not be forgotten. Remembering, though, is not enough; we must in some way help to fill the gap.
From Green Left Weekly, September 15, 2004.
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