Joyce (Joy) Barrington (c. 1902–?)
This article was published:
- in the Biographical Register of the Australian Labour Movement, 1788-1975
- online in 2024
Joyce (Joy) Barrington (c.1902- ?) waitress, factory worker and gaoled Communist activist
Birth: about 1902, details unknown. Marriage: no information. Death: details unknown.
- Communist Party of Australia (CPA) activist in Sydney in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Prominent in 1929 timberworkers' strike, and later in the Unemployed Workers' Movement.
- From a least September 1926 she ran the CPA’s Young Comrades Club in Sydney.
- In June 1928 she created a scene in court, slapped a police inspector in the face several times and kicked him in the shins, and was promptly charged with assault and fined. The following year Comrade Joy Barrington travelled to Melbourne, Victoria, in February with the Militant Women’s Group to support the Timber Workers’ Union, and in May was a “capapable if fiery, speaker” in the May Day celebrations at Lithgow NSW.
- Described in the press as a “prominent city sports girl” when she was fined for language used in a “Red” procession and “elected to take it out in gaol”. Reports in February 1930 stated that she was a factory worker, aged 22, and appeared in “strange court dress . . . stockingless and dressed in a blue linen frock and dark blue blazer, trimmed with red”.
- According to a later account of her taking part in an unauthorised procession, and assaulting police officers she was “Communism’s blue-eyed Amazon . . Blonde hair close cropped . . . blue floral dress . . . sleeves rolled back”; “I will go to gaol” she said, “It is all a frame up”. “It is your job” she told the magistrate, “to see that we do not overthrow capitalism tomorrow”.
- In April 1930 she was expelled from CPA after the Sharkey-Miles takeover. The press reported that her crime was branding the central committee members as “Mussolinis” but that she was reinstated after apologising.
- Press reports seem to cease after October 1936, when she was described as “a domestic”, aged 32 and fined £5 for supplying a drink to an Aboriginal man in a Kogarah steam tram.
- Was a member of an associated club of the City Girls Amateur Sports Association.
Sources
Information from Audrey Johnson, 1990
Additional Resources and Scholarship
- assaults a police officer, Sun (Sydney), 22 June 1928, p 12
- supports timberworkers strike, Workers' Weekly (Sydney), 15 February 1929, p 4
- is charged with threatening behaviour and assault arising from a disturbance near a timberyard, Labor Daily (Sydney), 28 August 1929, p 5
- chooses gaol over a fine after being charged with behaving in a rioutous manner and using indecent language, National Advocate (Bathurst, NSW), 15 March 1930, p 2
- is reinstated to Communist Party after being briefly expelled, Workers' Weekly (Sydney), 6 June 1930, p 2
- chooses gaol over a fine after being found guilty of taking part in unauthorised processions, Daily Pictorial (Sydney), 29 November 1930, p 8
- is fined 5 pounds for supplying drink to an Aboriginal man on a tram, Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 7 October 1936, p 7
Related Entries in NCB Sites
- Peebles, Grace (colleague)
- Miles, John Bramwell (colleague)
- Devanny, Jane (colleague)
- Higgins, Esmonde Macdonald (colleague)
- Sharkey, Lance (colleague)
- Swain, Edith Muriel Maitland (acquaintance)
Citation details
'Barrington, Joyce (Joy) (c. 1902–?)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/barrington-joyce-joy-34796/text43804, accessed 25 April 2025.