People Australia

George Seelaf, 1960

University of Melbourne Archives, 75664

George Seelaf (1914-1988) meat worker, trade union official and community activist 

Birth: 4 April 1914 at Albert Park, Victoria, son of George Seelaf (1884-1984), a wharf labourer born in Estonia, then in the Russian empire, and native-born Janet Rachel, née Anderson (1891-1940). Marriage: 4 April 1938 to Edna Mary McMillan (1911-2008). They had one son (Anthony, 1943-1976). Death: 9 August 1988 at Melbourne. 

"When a dog stops to fight, he does not catch the hare" (Seelaf, George, The Age, 27 January 1976, p.2). 

• Moved to Footscray with his parents at the age of three. Educated at Hyde Street Primary School, Footscray, and Williamstown High School.
• Left school at thirteen, had a short stint in a canister-making firm, South Melbourne; employed on yard-gang at Angliss Meatworks, Footscray, from 1936 to 1945. Became union activist early in his working life, and led a vigorous Communist workers' group at Angliss's.
• Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union (AMIEU) Shop Delegate, 1938; secretary of Angliss Inter-Union Shop Committee, 1939; AMIEU walking delegate at Angliss, 1940. Organiser and member of committee of management, AMIEU, Victorian branch, 1942-1948; secretary, AMIEU, Victorian branch, 1947-1973; executive member, AMIEU federal council, 1949-1973.
• As secretary of the AMIEU during a militant period of its existence, he led significant campaigns on wages, including equal pay, conditions, particularly in regard to health and safety, hours of work, and annual leave, and meat monopolies, amongst other issues. Union representative on Butchering Trade Committee of Apprenticeship Commission, 1955.
• Became representative of Food Trade Unions on the Australian Council of Trade Unions executive, in 1957, and was ousted at the 1959 Congress by the anti-Communist faction by one vote, but continued his representation as AMIEU secretary at the ACTU. Was, at various times, member, ACTU equal pay, youth, and arts committees; president, Food Trades Federation, 1961; advocate, ACTU equal pay case before the Arbitration Commission, 1968.
• In 1969 he helped engineer Bob Hawke's election to the ACTU presidency, and maintained a life-long friendship with him.
• Seelaf vigorously and successfully pursued industrial health and safety issues, and one of his proudest achievements was to co-found the Trade Union Clinic and Research Centre, Footscray, 1964; he remained chairman of its board of directors for over a decade. Co-founder and president, Western Region Health Centre; life governor, Footscray Hospital; member, Western Region Committee on the Ageing, 1976.
• Politically militant, he was a member of the Australian Labor Party in 1939-1940 and of the Communist Party of Australia from 1942 to 1973. Campaign director for Cecil Sharpley, Communist candidate for Footscray (Legislative Assembly), in 1943.
• Passionate about working-class art and art in the lives of working people, he became inaugural Victorian Trades Hall Council Arts Officer (part-time), 1976-1981; inaugural ACTU Arts Officer (part-time), 1978-1980.
• Also known for his egregious nature and sense of fun, he was compere of the Butchers' Picnic for 40 years, and sometime secretary and president, May Day Committee to 1973. Initiated and campaigned for numerous working-class causes and for the dissemination of knowledge to working people. Issues he pursued included health, education, the aged, the arts, Aboriginal rights, and employment.
• Is particularly remembered for his role in assisting with the first edition of Frank Hardy's Power Without Glory, and for jointly publishing the second, third, and fourth editions in politically volatile circumstances; also led the Defend Frank Hardy Committee upon Hardy's arrest for seditious libel in 1950, and remained Hardy's close friend. Hardy coined him "Fella Slave", a term of introduction used often by Seelaf.
• Founding member/director, Australasian Book Society, 1957; chairman, Mary Gilmour Awards, 1965; founder, John Shaw Nielson Society; trustee, Victorian Arts Centre Trust, 1983; chairperson, Sidney Myer Music Bowl; director, ARTS Limited; compere, Festival of the Aged for ten years; life and executive member, Library Promotion Foundation of Victoria; trustee, Gurindji Aboriginal Land Rights Struggle; honorary member; Aboriginal Rights Council, Darwin; president, Right to Work Committee, 1970s; jointly established the Tolpuddle Martyrs 150th Anniversary Publication Committee, 1983-1984.
• Seellaf was fervent about his beloved Footscray and its inhabitants, and became known informally as both the "King" and the "Mayor" of the city. Co-founder and life member, Footscray Community Arts Centre, 1973; chair, Footscray Community Activity Committee; chairman, Footscray Community Music Co-ordinating Committee; originator, Footscray Symphony Orchestra; co-ordinator, Footscray Citizens' 125th (1983) and Victorian 150th anniversary committees (1984); foundation member, Melbourne's Living Museum of the West; patron, Footscray Technical College; founding Member, Western Region Education Centre; president, Footscray CYSS Scheme; president, Footscray and Yarraville Youth and Education Committee; president and secretary, Footscray Historical Society; editor, Pictorial Record of Footscray; founder and organiser, Salt Water River Festival, 1982-1988; founder, Footscray mayor's charity concert.
• An enthusiastic sports fan, he was patron, Victorian Wrestlers' Association; member, Footscray Institute of Technology Amateur Wrestling Association and an ardent supporter of Footscray Football Club; Was a historical consultant for The Sullivans television drama; and in what little time he had left for leisure, he loved gardening. Seelaf was involved in more than 130 organisations in his lifetime.
• In his later years, he had many operations for cancer, from which he eventually died, but right to the end he maintained an extraordinary energy to strive for a better quality of life for working people. Seelaf was recognised for some of his outstanding efforts, including Officer of the Order of Australia, 1976, Footscray Citizen of the Year, 1983, inaugural Honorary Bachelor of Arts degree from the Footscray Institute of Technology, 1984; Lions Award for Services to the Community and Melbourne Community Award.
• Several portraits of Seelaf have been produced, including those by Noel Counihan (1972) and Rick Amor (1978). John Hughes produced a film about Seelaf in 1985, and a radio program about his life was produced by Melbourne's Living Museum of the West in 1992. 

Sources
Age (Melbourne), 27 January 1976, p 2, 14 January 1984, p 2, 7 June 1984, p. 1, 20 May 1988, p 11, 11 August 1988, p 25; Sam Merrifield Collection, State Library of Victoria; The Weekend Australian, Literary Quarterly, 3-4 October 1987, p 3; Australian Library News, September 1984, p 3; Alastair Davidson, The Communist Party of Australia, A Short History, (Stanford, California, 196); A. E. (Bert) Davies, The Meat Workers Unite, (Melbourne, 1974); Footscray Mail, 1 June 1988, p 3; The George Seelaf Memorial Trust, Information Leaflet, 1991; Locomotive Journal, November-December 1985, p 16; The Meatworker, Queensland Branch, September 1988; Melbourne's Living Museum of the West, The Lifeblood of Footscray, Melbourne, 1985, pp 89-101; Recorder, No. 153, October 1988, pp 4-6; The Sun Living Supplement, 20 August 1985, p 2; John Playford, Doctrinal and strategic problems of the Communist Party of Australia, 1945-1962, PhD thesis, ANU, 1962, p 431; Tribune, (Sydney), 15 June 1988, p 11, 11 August 1988, p 11, 11 July 1990, p 9.