People Australia

James Brough (Jim) Scott (1886-1970) painter and docker, trade union official and Communist

Birth: 9 March 1886 at Perth, Scotland, son of Donald Scott (1853-1943), time keeper and accountant, and Mary Ann (Annie), née Brough (1855-1943). Marriage: 19 December 1914 by the Rev Frederick Sinclaire, in a civil ceremony, at Melbourne, Victoria, to a fellow Socialist Party member Bertha Mary Tall (1890-1969), born at Melbourne. They had one daughter and two sons. Death: 6 September 1970 at Hope Street, Rosebud, Victoria. 

• His father was employed at P. P. Campbells dye works and was an ardent Liberal.
• Jim finished schooling at 14 years of age. He was a prolific reader having read through his father’s library by the time he left school and had read through the Waverley Novels by 17 years of age.
• Upon leaving school he gained an apprenticeship as a building trade artisan, following the occupation of his maternal grandfather who was a painter, decorator and signwriter. Joined the Independent Labor Party at 16, attended meetings regularly and took up a collection at street meetings. As an apprentice he was involved in a strike for increased pay of journeymen which was the first time apprentices had gone on strike at his workplace.
• Travelled to Montreal, Canada, when 21 years old in 1907 and found work hard to find in a period of depression. Moved west to Winnepeg, Calgary, Vancouver (British Columbia), Seattle (United States of America) and Spokane (Washington County) and Montana. Gained longer-term work in Montana with ‘Boston & Montana Copper Smelters’.
• Joined Union Local No. 260 of the ‘Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers of America’. After a year in the union he was elected secretary (at a small honorarium) and delegate to the Cascade Country Trades and Labor Assembly. In his second year he was promoted to secretary of the Council and delegate to the Montana Federation Annual Conference and in his third year was elected to the executive board of the Montana Federation of Labour. In the third year he held all the previous jobs simultaneously.
• Joined the American Socialist Party in Montana. Elected to represent Montana at the National Socialist Convention at Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1911. Found himself blacklisted. Gained work in Chicago where boot-blacks and newsboys were unionised.
• Arrived in Melbourne, Victoria, from London aboard the RMS Orsova on 1 December 1913, having secured work as a painter. Joined Operative Painters and Decorators Union of Australia (OPDUA), Victorian branch, and became president in 1917. Member of Committee of Management, 1915-1919.
• Joined Australian Socialist Party about 1914. Joined Workers’ International Industrial Union in 1917. Involved in anti-conscription campaign. Pungent wit as a platform and soap box speaker at regular public meetings on the Yarra River bank.
• Was a regular contributor to the One Big Union Herald and International Socialist where his ‘Slams & Jobs’ were topical.
• OPDUA delegate to the Trades Hall Council and spoke against war and conscription. Fought with Victorian branch leadership of the OPDUA over attitudes to the idea of One Big Union and for flying the Red Flag over Trades Hall to celebrate the anniversary of the Russian Revolution.
• Found only occasional work by 1917 which continued to at least 1920 as he had been blacklisted.
• Became downcast when his brother died at the front during World War I in 1918. Reflected on his life, and questioned his union and political activities which led to long periods of unemployment but he nevertheless continued with them.
• Organised workers at Eildon Dam, Warburton, Beenak and Three Bridges Timber Mills and Wonthaggi.
• In Western Australia he organised workers at the Kurrawang Wood Line dispute and at Kalgoorlie. Joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in 1924.
• In the split in the CPA in the 1960s he appeared to have sided with the Marxist-Leninist group, called Peking Group. Visited China.
• Lived in various suburbs in Melbourne after his marriage and in Rosebud in later life. Played bowls in local community.
• Cause of death: myocardial infarction (seconds), coronary atherosclerosis (5 years) and emphysema (2 years).
• His son Donald Edgerton Scott (1915-1979) was a painter and docker, trade union official and Communist.

Sources
Recorder, February 1971 No. 50 pp 3-7; Recorder Supplement, October 1970 No. 48; Correspondence, including letters from America; John Spierings, A brush with history: history of the Operative Painters' and Decorators' Union (Melbourne, 1993), pp 80 & 105.