People Australia

Stan Moran, n.d.

ANU Archives, Z432-86-19-28

Stanley James (Stan) Moran (1899-1998) postal clerk, wharf labourer, gaoled trade union leader and Communist activist

Birth: 1 May 1899 in Melbourne, Victoria, only child of Edward Moran (1867-1910), a labourer of Irish ancestry born at Invercargill, New Zealand, and his first wife Nellie [or Ellen], née McCarthy (1873-c.1906), born in Cork, Ireland. Marriages: (1) 11 April 1940 at the registrar’s office, Auckland, NZ, to Gwenda Steel Taylor (1922-?), born at Patumahoe, NZ. They had one son, The marriage ended in divorce in 1943. (2) 4 December 1954 at the Registry Office, Sydney, to a fellow Communist, Catherine Dick (Ina) Ainslie (1916-1992), a widow born at Glasgow, Scotland. Death: 13 July 1998 in his usual residence, Doonside Nursing Home, Doonside, Sydney. 

• Both parents had died in Melbourne by the time he was eleven years old. Stan moved to Invercargill, New Zealand, to live with his Irish-born grandmother. Worked in a bike shop at 13 and was dismissed for asking for a pay increase, then worked in a bookshop and was dismissed for spending too much time reading the books. Sold newspapers in the streets. Became a telegraphist and joined the New Zealand Post and Telegraphists’ Union which was then illegal. Transferred to a Maori settlement because of his union activities.
• Returned to Australia about 1922. Joined the Fourth Division Telegraphists’ Union, of which he was an executive member for seven years. Organised May Day marches during the Depression years. Secretary of Unemployed Workers’ Movement in 1930.
• Was at the forefront of the Glebe dole riots, which lasted five days, where unemployed people dissented against the NSW Lang government policies. The unemployed disliked a government questionnaire which asked personal financial details which they viewed as irrelevant as many had no means of support at all and they also detested raids by dole inspectors who would count beds to check on numbers of people living in a particular house. The riots were marked by injuries to protesters and police who were deployed to break up demonstrations at Glebe Town Hall where some questionnaires were burnt. The questionnaire was later withdrawn. He refused to sign court bonds not to demonstrate and was arrested with others for inciting a riot and was sentenced to two months imprisonment.
• Played an important role in building the Waterside Workers’ Federation (WWF). Treasurer, Sydney branch of WWF from about 1942. Delegate to New South Wales Labor Council from the 1940s for 35 years representing the WWF. Expelled from the ALP in 1930 and joined the Australian Communist Party in 1931.
• Described by Laurie Aarons as ‘one of the best stump orators Australia has ever seen’, Moran often spoke in the Domain from 1935. Through his life he was arrested about 50 times for union and political activities, including speeches given in the Domain, and often came under arrest because of his refusal to pay the allocated fines.
• In 1931 he led a demonstration to the Japanese consulate against the Manchurian invasion, also to the German consulate against Hitlerism. He was associated with the boycott of Japan and in campaigns to aid Spanish republican cause.
• Studied at the Lenin School in Moscow in 1933, met with Lenin’s wife, Krupskaya, and saw Joseph Stalin. Communist Party candidate for Glebe in 1932, Balmain in 1944 and West Sydney in 1949. Remained with the Communist Party during splits over Russia’s invasion of Hungary in 1956 and of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Testimonial dinner held in his honour by the WWF in 1965.
• Wrote memoir: Reminiscences of a Rebel (1979).
• Cause of death myocardial infarction (minutes), vascular disease (20 years), dementia (years), paranoid schizophrenia (years). 

Sources
John Playford, Doctrinal and strategic problems of the Communist Party of Australia, 1945-1962, PhD thesis, ANU, 1962; Workers Weekly (Sydney), 23 August 1933 No. 516, Tribune,(Sydney), 18 May 1944 p 3, 27 September 1946 p 3, 8 July 1947 p 1, 8 August 1947, p 6; 18 June 1949, p 6, 17 Feb. 1965, p 5; Common Cause, 19 May 1962 p.6; Sydney Morning Herald, 1 May 1993 p.1, 7 May 1993, 15 July 1998.