People Australia

Jack Blake, c. 1944

Guardian (Melbourne), 23 June 1944.

John David (Jack) Blake, né Airey (1909-2000) coal miner, trade unionist and Communist

Birth: 25 May 1909 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland, England and named Alfred Airey, eldest of three children of Robert Airey (1888-1948), a carter, later miner, and his wife Mary, née Gibson (1886-1939). Marriage: 13 April 1934 in Melbourne as John David Blake to Audrey Elsie Boyd. They had one daughter. Death: 1 October 2000 in Sydney. 

• Jack arrived in Australia with his parents and siblings in 1922.
• He worked briefly on a farm and at Hoskins' iron and steelworks, Lithgow. From 1926 he was a coalminer at the State Coal Mine, in Lithgow, until 1930, when he was injured in a mine roof fall and left mining. He was a member of the Miners' Federation.
• He joined the Communist Party of Australia in 1924. From 1926 to 1930 he was secretary of Lithgow Communist group.
• In 1931-1932 he studied in Moscow, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. He changed his name to John David Blake after he returned to Australia. In 1937-1938 he was Australian representative on the Comintern.
• In 1942 Blake served in World War II but was discharged as medically unfit after two months.
• A member of the Central Committee CPA from 1933, he was chairman of the Victorian State Committee in 1934 and secretary for many years, retiring in 1949.
• Blake was transferred to Sydney by the CPA in 1949, and led peace activities, education and 'Communist Review' publication. In 1951-1953 he was a member of the CPA’s Central Committee Secretariat. He resigned from Central Committee in 1956, but continued as rank-and-file member. From 1956 to 1967 he was office cleaner, CPA.
• Awarded a Socialist Research Fund Scholarship in 1967 and wrote Revolution from Within, published by Outlook. 

Sources
John Playford Doctrinal and strategic problems of the Communist Party of Australia, 1945-