People Australia

Nick Origlass, by Johanna Trainor, 1991

Nicholas (Nick) Origlass (1908-1996) builder’s labourer, trade union official and mayor 

Birth: 18 January 1908 at Woodstock, Queensland, son of Nicolas Origlasso, sugar cane and railway worker who had migrated from Piedmont, Italy, and Ellen, néee O'Driscoll, born in County Cork, Ireland. Marriages: (1) 9 December 1938 at the registrar’s office, Paddington, Sydney, New South Wales, to Mary Elizabeth Nolan, née Bartley, a dressmaker. The marriage ended in divorce. (2) 30 June 1952 at the Registrar General’s Office, Sydney, to Patricia Joan Hart, née Oaten. They had two sons. (3) from 1964 he was in a relationship with Daphne Gollan, née Morris. Death: Sydney 17 May 1996 in Balmain hospital; usual residence Nicholson Street, Balmain East. Religion: None. 

• “A big, lumpy-featured man” who was “arguably the most original political figure Sydney has seen this century”.
• Educated by the Christian Brothers. First job was in the Taxation Department, Brisbane. Bagman in Queensland during early part of Depression, working at Mt Isa mine, travelling to Sydney in 1931.
• Joined Unemployed Workers’ Movement and the Communist Party of Australia (CPA). In November 1931 he was suspended from the CPA on suspicion he was a police spy. Returned to Brisbane in 1934, working as a builders' labourer and was active in the Builders’ Labourers' Federation, emerging as a Trotskyist in 1936. He was also active within the Federated Ironworkers’ Association (FIA).
• Returned to Sydney in 1937 for Workers Party (Trotskyist) conference. With Issy Wyner he became the heart and soul of Australian Trotskyism and a champion of participatory democracy. At the start of World War II he dropped 'O' from his surname to avoid provoking anti-Italian prejudice.
• Worked as an ironworker at Mort's Dock, becoming a union delegate and shop floor activist within the FIA and Balmain work places. He was at the centre of landmark disputes in Balmain in 1945-1946, pertaining tothe  battle for control with CPA union leaders, and subsequent, complicated union politics of Cold War. Expelled from FIA by both CPA and later Grouper elements.
• Following the Trotskyist policy of “entrism”, he held numerous positions in the Balmain ALP, State and federal electorate councils, following admission to the party in 1954. He was suspended in 1955 and expelled from the ALP in 1968 for dissenting with the ALP's decision to support chemical tank farm in residential area. Started separate Leichhardt-Balmain Labor Party. Perhaps “the most expelled man in Australian politics”.
• Active in community affairs, especially on Balmain peninsula. Except for one three year term, he served as an alderman on Leichhardt Municipal Council from 1958 to 1995. He was mayor of Leichhardt in 1971-1972, 1972-1973 and 1987-1988, initiating a tradition of open government and local government as a force for social change. Adhered to strong environmental and conservationist principles. In the late 1960s he was the central figure in defeating plans for radial expressways to demolish much of Sydney's inner-west. Forged an alliance with new middle class professionals.
• The author of numerous leaflets, editor of The Socialist, Labor Forward, About Labor's Problems.
• Cause of death: small cell lung cancer, pneumonia (1 month), chronic airways limitation (years) congestive cardiac failure (years), hypertension, stroke (years) and non-insulin dependent diabetes (years). 

Sources
Hall Greenland, Red Hot: The Life & Times of Nick Origlass 1908–1996 (1998); Sydney Morning Herald, 20 May 1996; information from I. Wyner, 13 July 1990.