Bob Gould, 1937-2011
By Ed Lewis
Bob Gould’s funeral, like his life, promised to be interesting, and it didn’t disappoint. About 500 people crowded into the Palm Chapel at Macquarie Park, North Ryde, to hear nine speakers, with Mairi Petersen, Bob’s former wife, making some introductory remarks and running the ceremony.
A summary history
Shane Hopkinson
Introduction
The following are summary notes to a longer piece I was planning to write some time ago about the early days of the Trotskyist movement in Australia, based on Susanna Short’s book on her father, Laurie, and Hall Greenland’s book on Nick Origlass, to tell the story of the early days of the movement in Australia.
As time has got the better of me I decided to simply post my summary of the relevant part of Susanna Short’s book, which is all I have been able to complete. I have tried to aviod editorialising over her comments but I will say a few words here that might clarify the story.
By Bob Gould
My old friend and sometime political ally, and on other occasions sharp sparring partner, Hall Greenland has just turned 60, which is a bit alarming to me because I still remember him as the confident youth he was in the 1960s.
Bob Gould
Michael or Dennis Berrell, or whoever he is today (just so the rest of us aren’t terminally confused he should consider using one or another name consistently) has put up a post about the Left Opposition that is almost entirely inaccurate and false.
[The following is a rough stenographic draft — uncorrected by the participants — of discussions on the Stalinists in the US, between Trotsky and leading members of the Cannon faction of the US Socialist Workers Party, held on June 12-15, 1940]
Bob Gould
Red Hot, by Hall Greenland, 1998, Wellington Lane Press
My mate and old political sparring partner, Hall Greenland, has finally completed and published his biography of Nick Origlass, one of the most significant left figures in the political life of Sydney’s inner-west for about 60 years, although from the point of view of pompous official history — the history of prime ministers, governors, company directors and movie stars — he was but a bit player.
From The Militant, organ of the Workers Party (Australia), March 1940
Old communist indicts Comintern, declares Fourth International upholder of Marxism-Leninism
Jack Kavanagh, the author of the statement which follows, has been associated with the working-class movement in Canada and Australia for the last 32 years.
Notes from a talk with Ted Tripp (1976)
Peter Beilharz
At the 1991 Labour History Conference in Melbourne, Barbara Curthoys was talking on the Comintern and the Communist Party of Australia. At one stage Barbara mentioned the name of Ted Tripp, saying that he had attended the Lenin School in Moscow in the 1930s. Dick Curlewis then asked from the floor, was this the same Tripp who had been active in the Victorian Labor College. It was indeed, as others present indicated.
Daphne Gollan
Part 1. The factions emerge
Part 2. The strike against the union
Daphne Gollan, Nick Origlass and the history of the ironworkers’ union, an introduction by Bob Gould
These two articles on the Balmain ironworkers’ struggle were published in Labour History in May and November 1972. Another article by Daphne Gollan, The Memoirs of Cleopatra Sweatfigure, written in 1980, is a mature autobiographical piece that had great influence, particularly among feminists, in the 1980s. Daphne Gollan, who died a few years ago, was the former wife of Robin Gollan (the labour historian), lover of the late Nick Origlass (the long-lived and stubborn pioneer Australian Trotskyist) and herself a very capable labour historian.
From The Militant, Sydney, November 29, 1937 (Vol 4, No 14 — new series)
Bob Gould
Gil and Edna Roper were active in the left of the labour movement from the 1920s until the 1960s. As a brash young rebel in the 1950s, I got to know them both, and they were very kind to me.
How the Comintern was Stalinised
Ted Tripp
It was in 1917 that I first became a socialist, largely under the impact of the mighty Russian Revolution. The revolution was to change the course of my life. They were great days, and I take pride in saying that I became a communist at the age of 17 and remain so to this day.
