A Few Rough Reds

Stories of Rank & File Organising

The rough reds of this book are not the bottled variety - they are Australian activists who tell the stories of their involvement in struggles for social change. All were members of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) Three of them were members of the MUA. They included a communist alderman on Sydney City Council in the 1950s, a union organiser in the Northern Territory after the bombing of Darwin in the 1940s and a wharfie subversive running an underground radio station in the Top End maintaining crucial contact with East Timor after Indonesia invaded in 1975. The stories are enlivened by humour and a bit of larrikinism, and this helps the reader gain a sense of how things worked "on the ground" - against the odds, with scarce resources, but with a strong commitment to social justice and a belief in the power of organised action.