People Australia

Cecil George Connors  ('Lit') (1911-2000) shearer, Communist activist 

Birth: 5 March 1911 at Jindabyne, New South Wales, son of native-born parents William Thomas Connors (1870-1958), labourer, and Emily Isabel, née Weston (1881-1968). Marriage: details unknown to South-Australian born June Mary O’Leary (1924-1980), typist. They had one daughter and two sons. Death: 23 January 2000 in the Australian Capital Territory. 

• Shearer and activist within the Pastoral Workers’ Industrial Union of Australia in the 1930s.
• Member of New South Wales branch executive of Australian Workers’ Union in the early 1940s. Vilified by Tom Dougherty for connections with Communist Party of Australia. Dismissed by AWU central executive for claiming that inquiry was ‘farce’.
• While living at Cobar, contested elections as CPA candidate for the Federal electorate of Darling in December 1949 and for the Senate in May 1953.
• Agitated during 1956 shearers’ strike at Dubbo. From 1958 to 1969 was secretary of Orange Trades and Labor Council and district agent for Sheet Metal Workers’ Union.
• In the 1970s worked for Tooheys brewery in Sydney. Late in life lived in Earlwood, Sydney.

Sources
Mark Hearn and Harry Knowles, A history of the Australian Workers Union 1886-1994 (Melbourne, 1996); information from Frank Bollins; Sheet Metal Worker, October 1969.