Obituaries Australia

It is with great sorrow we report the death of that sterling working class fighter, J. [James Richard] Oliver, of Newcastle. The workers and unemployed whose interests Jimmy had championed in and around the Newcastle district will regard the loss of this popular comrade very feelingly. Our comrade had no enemies, being respected and loved because of his sincerity and devotion in the cause of the oppressed, of the unemployed whose leader he was.

Comrade Oliver unflinchingly gave his whole life to the working class straggle. Imbued with boundless enthusiasm and optimism he inspired all those who he came in contact with, and we can safely say that there are many thousands of people of all ranks of life who will mourn his loss.

Jimmy Oliver first came into prominence as an unemployed leader, working untiringly to organise the unemployed to improve their terrible plight. Wherever the unemployed were being attacked, there our comrade would be. When the unemployed were resisting evictions, Comrade Oliver gave his services, and his participation in the Tighe's Hill eviction case, and his subsequent arrest and court trials, only had the effect of making our comrade more determined to carry on, despite impaired health.

As leader of the Newcastle and coalfields unemployed movement, chief credit must be given to him for the high degree of organisation achieved and the success gained by the unemployed in the struggles to improve their lot.

Our comrade realised the importance organisation and virile leadership in every field of working-class activity. He realised that the capitalist system is responsible for the terrible plight of oppressed humanity today, and the need for building the revolutionary movement which will unify the working ranks and lead them to victory by the establishment of a socialist society.

This is the reason why Comrade Oliver had been a member of the Communist Party for many years, although he was widely known as an unemployed leader.

Comrade Oliver was only in middle life, and until his premature death, through war injuries and self-sacrificing in the movement, had many years of useful work ahead. Many tributes to our comrade will be freely given by his thousands of admirers, all of which are well and truly deserved.