Wednesday, April 7, 1999
Comrade George: a matter of record
By BRAD NORINGTON, Industrial Editor
Official documents reveal that the ACTU president, Ms Jennie George, was an
active member of the Communist Party of Australia, contrary to her repeated
denials.
Ms George was not only a Communist Party member but was also elected to
office-bearing positions in the organisation, according to official party
records which are kept at the Mitchell Library in Sydney on restricted access.
The revelations are contained in a revised paperback edition of a biography
on her life to be released this week.
During research for the first edition, which I wrote for publisher Allen &
Unwin, Ms George persistently denied that she had ever belonged to the
Communist Party.
At the time, she said: "I was never a card-carrying member of the Communist
Party. Obviously I was very close to the party. I went along to meetings
and social things and I was married to a communist, but I was never a
member myself."
However, official Communist Party records confirm that Ms George was a
member. They show she was elected to the party's Sydney District Committee
in 1972.
She was elected a delegate to the Communist Party's National Congress. She
sought but failed to win a place on the party's National Committee.
Only card-carrying members of the Communist Party could nominate for these
positions.
Ms George, 51, has consistently downplayed her communist associations by
admitting publicly that she belonged to the Eureka Youth League - which was
prominent in the anti-Vietnam War movement - but insisting that she never
made the major commitment of joining the Communist Party.
When asked to comment about the new information, Ms George said that her
political associations of 30 years ago were well known and canvassed in
the biography. "I have no comment to make beyond that which has already
been written."
She said that "understandings" of her communist associations were "matters
between me and individuals".
"If you want to put them in the biography, then that's what you want to do.
I can't comment beyond that."
The George biography, first released in November, is not authorised, but Ms
George agreed to co-operate during original research.
The issue of her party membership is central to the book as a historically
accurate record of her life. It was left unresolved for the first edition
in the absence of documentary evidence.
Confirmation of Ms George's membership means that she is the
highest-ranking political figure in Australia to come through the Communist
Party, having reached the top of the mainstream union movement.
Before joining the ACTU, Ms George led the NSW Teachers' Federation.
--
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