Obituaries Australia

The Australian Labor Movement suffered a tragic loss last Sunday morning when Arthur ("Nugget") Olive died suddenly of a heart ailment in Sydney at the age of 54 years.

A valiant fighter for peace and socialism, Arthur virtually "died in harness," working for advancement of his fellow men.

He was secretary of the North Australian Workers' Union up until his death, and was on his way to Melbourne to fight for the £1 basic wage rise for his members in the Arbitration Court when he had to enter hospital.

NAWU members showed their great respect and love for their former secretary by stopping work on Tuesday in tribute to their comrade.

Arthur was cremated at Northern Suburbs cemetery and was given a Red funeral with Edgar Ross reading the oration.

Representatives from the AEU, Miners, Seamen, BWIU, Hotel Club, and Restaurant Workers, Boilermakers, Clerks and Ironworkers, the Trade Union Club and the Tribune were among the many mourners at the funeral.

Mourners also included many of Mr. Olive's political comrades.

Arthur served in the AIF in World War I, was wounded twice and won the Military Medal for gallantry in action at Lone Pine, Gallipoli.

Returning to Australia, he worked as a cane cutter and a sugar farmer in Queensland, where he became known from one end of the State to the other as a fighter for the rights of the worker and the small sugar farmer.

He joined the Australian Communist Party in 1934, seeing the Party's socialist policy as the path forward to a better life for the people.

He led the battle of the Burdekin small farmers for fair deal in the sugar industry and with barrister Fred Paterson drew up what is now recognised in Queensland as Sugar Program.

He came to Sydney in 1937 and worked as an ironworker. He was an official of the Ironworkers' Union in the turbulent Balmain breakaway days.

During World War II, Arthur was a strenuous soldiers' welfare worker and was responsible for collecting thousands of pounds to aid the diggers.

For a period in 1947-48 he was an official of the Communist Party in Lithgow and then went to Darwin in 1948, where he won the secretaryship of the North Australian Workers' Union, the post he held when he died.

Your comrades salute you, Arthur Olive, a fighting son of the militant Australian Labor movement.

Your memory will be honored by those who fight on in the cause to which you devoted your life—"Peace, socialism and the liberation of all mankind."