People Australia

Gilbert Roper, n.d.

City of Sydney Archives, 596289

Gilbert Giles (Gil) Roper (1905-1974) linotype operator, Communist, gaoled Trotskyist and alderman

Birth: 17 May 1905, at Mount Gambier, South Australia, son of Edmund Oswald Roper (1870-1907) bank clerk, born at Glebe, Sydney, New South Wales, and Adelaide-born Margaret, née Quirke (b.1874). Marriage: 2 April 1932 at the Registry Office, Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria, to native-born Edna Sirius nee Lorence (1913-1986). They had one son who died in infancy. Death: 5 December 1974 at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, Sydney; usual residence Blenheim Street, Randwick. 

• Descendant of South Australian pioneer family — the McFarlanes.
• Linotype operator on various city and country newspaper and printing offices, first job, aged 14, at the Register.
• In 1921 he joined De Leonist Socialist Labor Party (SLP) in Adelaide, establishing reputation as “brilliant stump orator in the classic mould: good strong voice, actorly gestures, and great forensic skills”.
• Helped establish SLP as chief left-wing organisation in Adelaide during 1920s, though left in protest over group's anti-strike line pursued in 1928-1929, founding the Marx-Engels Club and decided to revive Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in South Australia.
• Organised Young Communist League in Port Adelaide, became CPA district secretary in Adelaide and was at centre of famous strikes and 'Beef Riot' in Adelaide during the early 1930s, for which he was arrested and fired from the printery of The Advertiser.
• After a brief period of farming at Mitcham, with his wife, Edna, he tramped the backblocks of Victoria as a CPA organiser, experiencing some success organising at Mildura, while employed on the Sunraysia Mail.
• Based in Melbourne in 1932, working as a linotype operator, he was a member of the Victorian branch of the Printing and Kindred Industries Union (PKIU) for two years, also organised for the CPA at the rural centres of Castlemaine and Leongatha.
• In 1934 he was called to Sydney to expand and manage the CPA's printery, Forward Press, subsequently serving on PKIU NSW branch board of management for several years. Active in Machine Composing Advisory Committee, supporting equal pay and greater attention to the needs of women workers in printing industry.
• Disillusioned with CPA over Moscow show trials and Sharkey-Miles leadership, in 1937 Roper defected to the Trotskyists and was the Fourth International's “most important defector from the Communist Party”, joining Origlass and Wyner as part of the Trotskyist's Workers' Party leadership triumvirate. Became Workers Party's foremost Domain orator, and focus of right-wing attacks. His anti-war stand led to imprisonment and health breakdown.
• In 1941 he supported the Trotskyists’ “French turn”— policy of entrism into the Australian Labor Party.
• Was a member of the Paddington branch of the ALP, delegate to NSW Labor Council and ALP during World War II, though becoming secretary of committee to oppose Curtin's introduction of conscription.
• In 1944-1948 he played an important part in the achievement of 40-hour week. During 1950s became less involved with Sydney Trotsykism, more involved with civic affairs. Was a Labor alderman on Sydney City Council from 1959 to 1967: member of the city planning and improvements committee 1960-1967, vice-chairman 1961-1962 and 1965-1967, member of the finance committee 1960-1967. Played an important part in establishing co-operative housing schemes, in rejuvenation of Woolloomooloo, and in achieving equal pay for female council workers.
• Threw his energies into finishing his biography, Labor's Titan. The Story of Percy Brookfield, 1878-1921 (1983), published posthumously.
• Cause of death: myocardial infarction (1 day), generalised atherosclerosis (years), myocardial ischaemia (years), left sided cerebro-vascular accident (1 month).

Sources
Printing Trades Journal, May 1942; Tony McGillick, Comrade no more, the autobiography of a former Communist Party leader (West Perth, 1980); Introduction to Labor's Titan by Wendy and Allan Scarfe; Renato Perdon, Sydney’s aldermen: a biographical register of Sydney City aldermen, 1842-1992, (Sydney, 1995); Hall Greenland, Red Hot: The Life & Times of Nick Origlass 1908–1996 (Sydney, 1998).