People Australia

Les, Mullin, 1946

Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong, NSW), 2 August 1946, p 4

Leslie William Vincent (Les) Mullin (1906-1990) taxi driver, trade union leader and Communist

Birth: 30 August 1906 at Sydney, New South Wales, son of native-born parents Bernard Joseph Mullin (1874-1931), a bus driver, and Bridget Louisa (Rosanah), née Gates (1871-1952). Marriages: (1) 1928 at Randwick, Sydney, to Jessie Ellen Hannah (1901-1960). (2) 1977 at Tweed Heads, NSW, to Jean Mary McMaster. Death: 14 April 1990 in hospital at Tweed Heads; usual residence Charles Street, Tweed Heads. 

• Worked as a bus conductor, bus driver, and taxi driver in Sydney from about 1929 and became organiser for the NSW Taxi Drivers' Association. Assisted campaign for Abe Landa in gaining the seat of Bondi for Labor. Joined Communist Party of Australia in 1934.
• Active in the unemployed movement during Depression years and was in forefront on struggle against the New Guard.
• Full-time worker in CPA from 1942, first in East Sydney and then on the South Coast, where he became district secretary.
• CPA candidate for the Council of the shire of Central Illawarra, A Riding, in December CPA candidate for Federal seat of Werriwa in 1946.
• Active member of the Trolley and Draymen's and Road Transport Workers' Union. Secretary of the Hotel Club and Restaurant Employees Union, South Coast branch, in 1946 at least. Worked with tenants in Fair Rents Court in mid-1940s at least.
• Weekly session as radio announcer on station 2WL, 1946 at least. Full-time secretary of the Illawarra Trades and Labor Council from 1948 to 1954 when ill health forced his resignation.
• Lived from about 1977 on NSW north coast.
• Cause of death: disseminated carcinoma (4 months), carcinoma of the prostate (2 years) and carcinoma of the colon (5 years).

Sources
John Playford, Doctrinal and strategic problems of the Communist Party of Australia, 1945-1962, PhD thesis, ANU, 1962, p 427; Tribune (Sydney), 19 February 1946, p 8 No. 190, 27 September 1946; Common Cause, 21 September, 1946 p 5.