from Australian Worker
One by one the old stalwarts who built the A.W.U. up into the mighty industrial and political force that it is to-day are passing away. The latest of these is Jim Mooney, Secretary of the Tasmanian Branch, who answered the Great Roll Call on Sunday night. The news came as a great shock to his numerous friends, who had no reason to anticipate such a sudden end; as a matter of fact, his last official report dealing with Branch matters was received from him on Tuesday, and appears in this week's A.W.U. section. The first intimation known at A.W.U. headquarters in Sydney that anything was wrong was on Sunday night, when the General Secretary, Mr. E. Grayndler, received a wire stating that his old friend and co-worker for many years had been taken seriously ill, and this was followed by another telegram twenty minutes later stating that he had died. His life had been one long battle for his fellow-men, and he passed away just as he would have wished had the choice rested with him— in harness right to the last.
Of our late comrade it can be truthfully said that few men were so highly endowed as he with those high personal qualities which irresistibly attract all men to the possessor of them. Honest, unselfish, clean-minded and clean-handed in all his dealings, whether in his official or private capacity, he earned the respect and esteem of all who were privileged to have any dealings with him, business or otherwise. A fighter for his fellow-workers all his life, he was a member of the Union from its inception in 1886, when it was known as the Amalgamated Shearers' Union, and took an active part in its early struggles in 1886, 1888, and 1890. He was one of the Union's earliest organisers in Riverina and on the Darling, and was a prominent figure in the great maritime strike of 1890.
When the New Australia Movement was started, Mooney threw in his lot with the projectors of it, and was one of those who went to Paraguay with Billy Lane to found the settlement. He returned in 1894, and travelled the back country organising for the Union, and spreading the gospel of the Labor Movement. He continued as travelling organiser for some time, and later settled at White Cliffs opal field, and managed the Workmen's Club there. At the latter end of 1910 Jim Mooney was selected as organising secretary of the Tasmanian Branch, and ever since then has been the Branch Secretary. He has been associated with all the Union's activities, its adversities, and its successes, and played no small part in building it up. He saw it grow from the small Union of a few bushmen in a few shearing sheds to the powerful organisation it is to-day. A Laborite all his life, he was ever in the thick of the fray when a political campaign was on, and was always out assisting those who were carrying Labor's flag. Undoubtedly his ability and enthusiasm had much to do with the forward march Labor has made in Tasmania, the northern part of it particularly, of recent years. He early recognised the great handicap imposed on Labor by the want of a press of its own, and was never tired of urging the claims of the Labor daily or dailies. Despite his militancy and enthusiasm for Labor in the many campaigns he fought, his innate gentleness and open-mindedness remained unsubmerged, and rancour or personal feeling never manifested themselves in any of his actions either in the industrial or political spheres. His loss will be as great to those who knew him as a friend as it will be to the Union he loved so well.
'Mooney, James (Jim) (1860–1918)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/mooney-james-jim-34508/text43359, accessed 4 November 2024.
31 May,
1860
North Melbourne, Melbourne,
Victoria,
Australia
27 October,
1918
(aged 58)
Launceston,
Tasmania,
Australia
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