People Australia

Tom Nelson, 1961

Tribune (Sydney), 4 October 1961, p 6

Thomas (Tom) Nelson, né Charles Andrew Smith (1908-1995) waterfront worker, trade union official and Communist 

Birth: 29 July 1908 at Wilcannia, New South Wales, son of native-born parents Charles Norton Smith (1874-1934), station manager, and Elizabeth Bridget, née Dugan (1883-1918). Marriage: as Charles Andrew Smith on 23 March 1934 at St David’s Anglican Church, Surry Hills, Sydney, to Hazel Josephine Buckley (1914-2006), born at Napier, New Zealand. They had two daughters and two sons. Death: 20 February 1995 in a nursing home at Arncliffe, Sydney; usual residence Rosa Street, Oatley. 

• His mother having died in his youth, young Charles was brought up by Catholic nuns in White Cliff. He left school at an early age and followed his father, who worked for (Sir) Sidney Kidman.
• He was a shearer in his teen years. Later he worked on the waterfront, and joined the Waterside Workers Federation (WWF) in 1927. He also adopted the name Thomas (Tom) Nelson. He joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in 1930 and became involved in struggles with police in Newtown and Bankstown over the eviction of unemployed tenants in 1931. In 1932 he supported the Workers' Defence Corp's speech struggles with the New Guard in Bondi by helping to defend CPA Friday night street meetings.
• Nelson was active in the dispute boycotting the shipment of pig-iron from Port Kembla to Japan in 1938-1939 and in the 1937 'Melbourne Maru' dispute in Sydney where wharfies refused to load scrap iron headed for Japan because of its invasion of China. 
• Work on waterfront was physically hard and the hours were long and Thomas helped to organise union action against 24-hour-shifts including a dispute in 1940 when he was dismissed for a period of time and fined for breach of award in refusing to work a 24-hour-shift. However, the industrial action led to the abolition of 24-hour shifts.
• He was president of the Sydney Branch of the WWF in 1942, president in 1942-1943, 1945-1946, 1947-1948 and secretary from 1948 until he retired in 1973. He was federal councillor of the WWF from 1941, twice acting general-secretary and contested the position when Jim Healy died in 1961 but was defeated by Charlie Fitzgibbon; he was federal senior vice-president until 1973. 
• Nelson fought for the abolition of the 'bull' system of recruitment and utilisation of labour on the wharves in 1942-1943, breaking of two 12-hour shifts into three shorter shifts and the introduction of a central pay system in 1946 and a first-aid scheme in 1948.
• From 1947 to 1973 he was editor of Branch News, which published 1318 editions during his time and was a prime-mover in the formation of the WWF film unit. With the support of wharfies, together with building workers, he helped Aboriginal people in the 1950s who were affected by floods in Dubbo.
• In 1946 and 1954 he supported liberation movements in Asia and in particular Indonesian independence struggles, including industrial action in support of Indonesian and Indian seamen working on Dutch ships. He opposed the French war against Vietnam and later the Vietnam war and supported South African black struggles.
• He promoted sporting activity in the Sydney branch of the WWF and the all-ports national competition.
• In 1979 he joined the break-away Socialist Party of Australia (SPA), because of the CPA's condemnation of Stalinism and the intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968. Later he expressed different views on these issues towards the end of his life.
• The maritime branch of the SPA held a retirement function in his honour in August 1973. He was the author of two books: The Hungry Mile (1957) and Century of a Union (1972).
• Cause of death: cerebral thrombosis (3 years) and cardiac failure (2 weeks). His death was registered in the name of Charles Andrew Nelson. 

Sources
John Playford, Doctrinal and strategic problems of the Communist Party of Australia, 1945-1962, PhD thesis, ANU, p 428; SPA, August 1973 p 6; Tribune, (Sydney), 20 July 1944, p 6, 20 September 1961, p 9, 4 October 1961, p 6; Maritime Worker, 3 April 1973; Australian, 9 March 1995, p 10.