Obituaries Australia

Veteran Communist Party activist Jim Slater died on Boxing Day at the age of 81. Jim maintained his revolutionary work over 46 years despite long periods of ill health, selling Tribune at Fremantle, WA, until his last illness.

Born at West Bromwich in the English Black country, Jim left school when 12 and was apprenticed as a moulder. After fighting in World War I, he returned to unemployment in the "land fit for heroes to live in".

Migrating to Australia in 1922, he became a delegate of the Australian Workers Union in the struggles of Queensland cane cutters in the early '30s. He joined the Communist Party in 1932 and came into conflict with the Fallon bureaucracy of the AWU.

The CPA pamphlet AWU Leaders Exposed, which played a big part in the rank and file struggle, was based on Jim's speech rebutting Fallon's charges against AWU militants.

He is still remembered for his part in the North Queensland unemployed struggles, including the Parramatta Park riots in Cairns and the struggle for shelter.

Jim helped pioneer the activity that gave the CPA a mass base in North Queensland, travelling the Atherton Tablelands on a pushbike.

He polled over 7,000 votes for the Kennedy electorate in 1934, 11 per cent of the primary votes. His campaigns in that and the next federal election helped build CPA organisation.

Jim settled in Brisbane in 1940, becoming the first editor of the Queensland Guardian and later director of the party's education centre Marx School. He was a member of the CPA Central Committee from 1938 to 1948.

Following a serious illness in 1950, Jim worked as a week-end watchman on the Brisbane River dredges for many years. He sold Tribune there and became a life member of the Seamen's Union. Many seamen and their wives remember him with affection, as will many others throughout Australia.

Jim and Joyce Slater went to West Australia in 1976 to be with their family and he shared Joyce's work for Tribune by regular selling and donations.

In her funeral oration Annette Aarons paid tribute to Jim Slater's indomitable spirit.

"His spirit of willingness and generosity in helping people were well known ... ", she said. "He worked along for the things he believed in without seeking recognition and at the same time he'd never back away from a scrap on ideas or anything else."

Tribune mourns the passing of a veteran activist and extends deep sympathy to his wife Joyce, son Victor, the family and his many comrades and friends.