People Australia

Marcia Munn, n.d.

Marcia Pearl Munn, née Parfit, late Mitchell (1928-2022) trade unionist, women’s activist and Communist

Birth: 17 April 1928 at Wayville, South Australia, daughter of Vivian Eustice Trevorrow Parfit (1887-1953), a miner, born at Picton, New Zealand, and Pearl Alberta, née Ingham (1897-1956), a retoucher, born at Adelaide, SA. Marriages: (1) 1953 to James (Jim) Mitchell (1913-2003), a Communist activist. (2) 1977 to Rex Albert Munn (1928-2012), wharf labourer and sometime Communist. Death: 19 October 2022 at Wesley House Age Care, Adelaide, SA. 

• Educated at Glenelg Primary School, Blackwood Primary School, Goodwood Primary School and Unley Girls High School.
• Joined Eureka Youth League of Australia –attended camps and played sports in 1944. Joined Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in 1947. Active in campaigns for peace, youth wages, apprentice wages, NO campaign and all working-class issues.
• In 1949 campaigned for coalminers strike and went on speaking tours and leafleting in country towns — miners were locked out and the ALP put the army in the mines.
• Campaigned to defeat the Menzies anti-Communist Bill by attending many public meetings and distributing leaflets. Organised meetings at the Trades Hall for Dean of Canterbury tour.
• She and her whole family got involved through Jim Mitchell whom she later married — she credits him with her political education.
• Very active in the Waterside Workers Women’s Committee, daily strikes and struggling for survival, especially in the strikes of 1954 and 1956. The 1956 strike went for 3 weeks on wages and conditions. The committee was started by the CPA workers at the wharf and they educated the women to understand what the strikes were about and the politics. She spoke at factories, provided food to workers — the strike committee approached the shops in the Port for credit as the strike affected the whole economy of the Port, provided entertainment.
• In 1950 the CPA and ten unions (including Waterside Workers) went to court over the Communist Dissolution Bill — their lawyer was H. V. Evatt.
• Member of the women’s committee [CPA] for 30 years. Affiliated to the Union of Australian Women (UAW) and Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF); in 1969 went to Moscow for May Day and later was WIDF delegate to World Congress of Women in Helsinki, Finland.
• Women’s committee supported the men in all union activities, catered for delegates meetings, arranged speakers and luncheons, got Freda Brown to speak at the Wharfies Hall. There were thirty women on the committee and they held weekly meetings. At various times she was secretary and president, organised and managed six basketball teams, dance groups and did fund raising.
• Founding member of UAW in the 1950s; protested for Ban the Bomb, Vietnam War, Korean War and campaigned for the 1967 Aboriginal Referendum. During the Cold War she went door to door to stop the bombing in Korea. Wore SOS (Save Our Sons) aprons during Vietnam War.
• Long term member of the management committee; responsible for the Wharf Branch; delegate to National conference.
• Lived in Moscow 1974-1977 when husband Jim Mitchell worked there. She had a study program of politics and language.