Dear Friends,
George, a special friend of many of us, died on Tuesday.
His funeral will he held at Heiniger Hall, Heiniger St, Dapto NSW on
Saturday April 1 at 11am. The wake will be at 51 Boollwarroo Pde,
Shellharbour.
All welcome.
GEORGE PETERSEN (13/5/1921-28/3/2000)
George Petersen died recently, in Shellharbour Hospital. His wife Mairi
and stepdaughter Natalie were with him. George had been hospitalised for
8 days, with complications arising from his cardiovascular system. During
these days he was in the tender loving care of family, friends, and the
wonderful hospital staff. He faded away without pain, remaining always
the George we will know and remember.
George was born in 1921, the offspring of north European immigrants to QLD
who arrived in 1800s. His grandparents were farmers, but George's parents
had left the land, and he was born into the Australian rural working
class.
George had a good head on his shoulders and was an accomplished school
student, but poverty and the great depression ensured that he left school
at age 15 and got a clerical job in the Bundaberg post office. By then he
was under the influence of the political upheavals of the depression, and
two communist uncles. The world was sinking into the abyss of fascism and
war. George joined the struggle to drag it out. He wanted to go to Spain
and join the fight against General Franco's military coup, but fortunately
he was too young and his enquiries got nowhere.
George was conscripted into the Australian army in 1942, and spent 4
wasted years in QLD and Borneo training in guerilla combat. He was a
member of the Australian Communist Party from 1943 to 1956, leaving soon
after the Party supported Russia's 1956 invasion of Hungary to suppress a
workers revolution.
In 1957 George was transferred to a job in the Department of Social
Security in Wollongong. He joined the ALP, and did much to strengthen the
organisation in the suburbs of Illawarra to the south of Wollongong city.
Together with local steelworkers and coalminers, he set up Unanderra
branch of the ALP. He became for a few years a close political associate
of the major figure of the Illawarra ALP, Rex Connor.
In 1968 George was preselected as the ALP candidate for the State
Parliamentary seat of Kembla, and won comfortably at the election. For
the next 8 years he was, as he often described himself, a left wing
opposition backbencher. He was far removed from the corridors of power,
but used his position to agitate for better public services in the
Illawarra, for American and Australian withdrawal from Vietnam, and for
workers rights everywhere. He agitated against systematic bashings of
prisoners by the administrators of NSW prisons, against anti-abortion
laws, against Apartheid, and against destruction of the natural
environment. One major result of his agitation was the Nagle Royal
Commission Into Prisons, which made recommendations leading to some
lasting reforms in NSW prison system.
As a backbencher in the Labor governments of 1976 to 1988, George
agitated, along with the Gay movement, for repeal the of anti-homosexual
sections of the NSW Crimes Act. This bore fruit in 1982 when laws against
buggery and "indecent act with consent" were repealed. Together with a
handful of close allies he used parliament to expose the frame up of Tim
Anderson, Ross Dunn, and Paul Alister, who were sentenced to 20 years
prison in 1978 on trumped up attempted murder charges in 1978. This
played a major part in their release in 1985. On a larger scale, if it is
possible to fall in love with a people, George fell in love with the
Palestinians. He was for many years a major voice in defence of their
legitimate right to remedy their dispossession and expulsion from
Palestine after 1948.
In 1987 the Labor government capitulated to demands from the insurance
industry that the compensation benefits paid to injured workers must be
cut. George had many times voted for legislation he personally abhorred
because he was bound by Caucus solidarity. This time he drew line. His
loyalty to organised labour in the Illawarra, which was fighting the
compensation cuts, was more important to him than his parliamentary job.
He voted against the new laws, and was expelled from the ALP. At the 1988
election he stood for Illawarra as the candidate of the Illawarra Workers
Party, and achieved a remarkable 17% primary vote while NSW as a whole was
swinging 10% away from Labor.
George's parliamentary career was over, but his political life merely
moved to new areas. He was, for over 15 years, a driving force in a
campaign to prevent Walker Corporation from obliterating Shellharbour
Beach in order to build a marina for the yachts of the rich. In 1991 he
joined with many allies, old and new, who formed the Bring The Frigates
Home Coalition to tell Bush and Hawke to get out of the Gulf.
Throughout all these achievements, and despite a number of heart attacks
starting in 1968 and open heart surgery in 1980 and 1996, George impressed
countless people with his unstinting energy, his infectious humour, and
his passable singing voice in the Illawarra Union Singers. Even his
political enemies could rarely fault his personal honesty, and the clarity
of his words, writing, and deeds.
George often observed that those elected to parliamentary office usually
went right or went cranky. He was an exception. He was too self-effacing
to spend any time wondering why, but part of the reason lies with his
friends and allies in Wollongong. They kept him honest, and sensible. It
was a two way process. The many people who learnt much from George were
also part of his education. He was an impressive individual, but he most
impressed himself when he felt part of a living movement for a world where
no-one had bosses over them or servants under them.
George was privileged to be married to Elaine for 20 years, and Mairi for
30 years. He had a son, two daughters, and three grandsons.
Rick Petersen
--
Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html
Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop
Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink
Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
