Obituaries Australia

Mick Healy passed away aged 84 on November 28 in Brisbane. Mick was born in Belfast. He came to Australia in 1931, only to join the millions unemployed. He was first associated with Lang Labor, then the Communist Party and was active in the Unemployed Workers Union. In 1935, he had opened the Anvil Bookshop in South Brisbane for little or no pay and sold left literature in what was the first successful left bookshop in the city. The bookshop also gave birth to the Left Book Club in Brisbane. The bookshop closed when the CPA was banned in 1940 and Mick joined the Waterside Workers Federation. He was elected as a WWF delegate to the Trades and Labor Council and in March 1943 was unanimously elected the TLC secretary. In 1946, Mick had major responsibility for organising the boycott of Dutch ships in support of the struggle of the Indonesian people for independence.

In 1948, Mick was among those jailed for not paying fines for participating in an illegal march during the big railway workers strike. The fines were finally paid anonymously after widespread protests. In 1952, Mick resigned as TLC secretary, making way for the late Alex Macdonald. Mick returned to work on the wharves, becoming a job delegate and a member of the WWF branch executive. He retired in 1970. Mick was a kindly, helpful and friendly man of high integrity; a grand unionist who abhorred war. He made his contribution to defending civil rights. We extend out condolences to his companion Connie and his daughter Marie and son John and others of his family.