People Australia

Lloyd Robert Maxwell Ross (1901-1987) trade union official, Communist and author

Birth: 28 February 1901 at Brisbane, Queensland, son of Sydney-born Robert Samuel (Bob) Ross (1873-1931), socialist journalist and union organiser, and Brisbane-born Ethel nee Slaughter (1876-1963). Marriage: 2 February 1926 at Christ Church (Anglican), South Yarra, to Elvira Christina Boronia Adelskold (1901-1981), born in Melbourne. They had one son and one daughter. Death: 7 September 1987 at Penrose Lodge nursing home, Lane Cove; usual residence D’Aram Street, Hunters Hill, Sydney, New South Wales. Religion: Rationalist father but Christian marriage and funeral. 

• Educated at the University High School, Melbourne (1916-1919) and the University of Melbourne in 1920-1925 (BA (Hons), MA, LLB). In 1924-1925 he was a tutor in the History Department and the Victorian Labor College. In 1925 he was a founding member and first president of the Melbourne University Labor Club.
• Lloyd contributed to and assisted his father in editing Socialist, Ross's Monthly & Union Voice. In 1926 he was Workers’ Educational Association tutor-organiser at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand and in 1929 lecturer in economic history, Dunedin. In 1928 he denounced the Australian Labor Party as non-socialist in the Socialist Review (United Kingdom). From 1929 to 1930, on a Rockefeller Fellowship, he studied and travelled in the UK, Europe and USA. On his return to New Zealand he completed a thesis on the Australian labour movement (D. Litt, 1935).
• From 1933 to 1934 he was a WEA district tutor at Newcastle, NSW, conducting lunchtime classes and directing 'working class chronicles' ('Labour's Cavalcade', 'May May through the Ages', etc.) 1934 he was acting assistant director of tutorial classes at Sydney University (confirmed 1935).
• September 1935 he was appointed secretary of the NSW Branch of the Australian Railways Union (ARU), joining the Communist Party of Australia shortly afterwards. He organised industrial and political campaigns amongst railway workers, publicising ARU grievances in Railroad and numerous pamphlets and leaflets. In 1935 he was ARU delegate to the Labor Council of NSW; he was a prominent critic of Jack Lang.
• Elected on anti-Lang ticket to 2KY radio committee; 1938-39 supported successful ALP revolt against Lang; January 1936 national president of anti-war movement; championed anti-fascist position on Abyssinia, Spain & China; secured ACTU endorsement of collective security (July 1937).
• Accepted pro-Soviet position at outbreak of World War II; March 1940 member ALP committee which drafted 'Hands Off Russia' resolution; August-September 1940 renounced Hughes-Evans (ALP anti-war) faction and was expelled from the CPA; retained ARU position supported by Lang faction.
• In 1941-1942 he was a member of the pro-Curtin inner group in NSW Official ALP. October 1942 he was a member of the Universities Commission. 1942-43 he toured USA and UK. September 1943 he was appointed Director of Public Relations, Dept. Post-War Reconstruction. He championed social democratic ideas in the ALP; presented Chifley government's case during referenda and election campaigns and 1949 miners' strike.
• In 1950-52 he was a special industrial writer for the Herald (Melbourne). In August 1952 he was acting secretary NSW ARU; aligned with Industrial Groups in ARU and ALP until 1956; member of anti-Evatt NSW delegation to 1955 ALP conference, Hobart. His ARU appointment was successfully challenged in Commonwealth Arbitration Court (1954) and voided by Federal ARU intervention (1955) but confirmed in rank and file ballot (October 1955) and he was re-elected as secretary until his retirement in 1969. Developed ARU response to dieselisation and campaigned for industry allowance, service increment, additional annual leave and work value increase. As a result of his militancy, he adopted a 'left of centre' position in the ALP.
• From 1961 to 1968 he was president of the Australian Association for Cultural Freedom. Appointed OBE in June 1972. Honorary life member of the Industrial Relations Society of Australia, NSW Branch.
• In retirement he published a biography of John Curtin (commenced 1945); his biography of his father was unfinished at the time of his death. Author of William Lane and the Australian Labor Movement (1937); John Curtin. A biography (1977).
• Brother of E. A. Ross.
• Cause of death: acute myocardial infarction (4 minutes), chronic renal failure (5 years) and hypertension (5 years). 

Sources
Lloyd Ross Papers, National Library of Australia, MS 3939; S. Holt: 'The Metamorphosis of Lloyd Ross', Quadrant September 1987; Stephen Holt, A Veritable Dynamo: Lloyd Ross and Australian Labour, 1901-1987 (St Lucia, 1996); Mark Hearn, Working lives, a history of the Australian Railways Union (Sydney, 1990.)