People Australia

Joseph Shelley, 1934

Joseph Weiman (Joe) Shelley, also known as Schelley or Shellinski (1888-1980) goldminer, IWW activist, gaoled Communist and fitter and turner. 

Birth: 1888, Berlin, Prussia (Germany) son of Joseph Schellinski or Johann Weiman Schelley, soldier, and socialist, and Anna née Koshintzky. Marriage: 1934 at Sydney, New South Wales, to Lily Edith Octavia, née Wells, previously Clark and then Worsley (1900-1985), born at Brighton, Sussex, England. They had a daughter and a son. Death: 16 April 1980 at St George Hospital, Kogarah, Sydney; usual residence Laggan Avenue, Balmain, Sydney. 

• Trained in Germany as an engineering fitter, receiving instruction in Socialist principles from a fellow worker.
• Went to Canada about 1900, later joined the Industrial Workers of the World.
• Arrived at Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1908 reputedly as a stowaway aboard the Scharnhorst. Worked for German safe-maker, then on Port Hedland-Marble Bar railway, the overland telegraph line from Meekatharra to Marble Bar, and on the WA goldfields handling firewood.
• Active in the Industrial Workers of the World. Interned during World War I because of his German origins.
• Adopted name of Shelley in admiration of Cecilia Shelley. Became goldminer at Kalgoorlie. Prominent in 1919 goldfields strike. Was a vigorous opponent of the strike-breaking actions of the Kalgoorlie Returned Services League. Was blacklisted following the strike. Also active in Kalgoorlie beer strike, 19?.
• Joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in 1921. Sold CPA literature on the Perth Esplanade, 1923.
• Went to Melbourne about 1923 (and possibly earlier). Was a prime mover in the revival of the CPA in Melbourne. Represented the Unemployed Union at the Melbourne Trades Hall Council in 1923-1924. Member of the Labor Propaganda Group; president of Melbourne CPA, in 1925, acting as full-time CPA organiser and addressing meetings at Yarra Bank.
• Operated taxi provided by Ralph Gibson's father-in-law. Member of the Seamen's Union. Member of the strike committee during 1925 seamen's strike.
• By about 1928 he was a member of the CPA Central Committee but replaced as Melbourne organiser after adverse report from Herbert Moxon.
• To Queensland as CPA organiser in 1928-1929. Gaoled for three months in Townsville in 1929 for defying police ban on political meetings.
• Following the Rothbury incident, Shelley went to Kurri Kurri, New South Wales, at the invitation of the Militant Minority Movement. In January 1930 he was charged in Maitland Court with 'incitement to murder' after publicly urging miners to take up arms. Sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment (reduced to five months on appeal).
• Resumed political activity immediately on his release; participated in 'Hunger March' from Cessnock to Sydney in July 1930 and was arrested.
• CPA candidate for State seat of Cessnock in November 1930. Charged with incitement to murder after speech at Kurri Kurri during which he said, ‘I am a communist…I hold that force, violence and energy are the essence of progress and as such are necessary’. Sentenced to two months hard labour and further three months for refusing to enter into good behaviour bond. Held up by CPA as model of ‘communist defiance’.
• Found job on coastal ship but was sacked and threatened with deportation when identified. Went to Katoomba, NSW, in late 1931. Assaulted by local New Guard members during a street address. Arrested for 'disturbing the peace' and was sentenced to two months hard labour. CPA organiser at Lithgow.
• Expelled from CPA in 1932 for criticising the party leadership, readmitted on appeal soon afterwards but was stripped of party posts.
• Courageous, outspoken and “bullheaded”, ‘tough as Stalin’s nails’. He remained a life-long left-winger. Security service believed him to be a courier in channelling military information to Moscow.
• In 1950s he was shop steward for Boilermakers' Society at Steward & Lloyd's factory, Sydney. Attended CPA's 40th anniversary dinner in 1960. Reportedly still active in 1974.
• Cause of death: right lobar pneumonia, fracture right femur, myocardial ischaemia and severe atherosclerosis (coroner’s report).
• His occupation was given as fitter and turner on his death certificate, and he was survived by his wife and two children.

Sources
Berth Walker, Solidarity Forever: the life and times of Percy Laidler (Melbourne, 1972; Recorder (Melbourne), February 1974; Justina Williams, The First Furrow (Perth, 1976); R. Milliss, 1984; Ross Edmonds, In Storm and Struggle. A History of the Communist Party in Newcastle 1920-1940 (1991); Stuart Macintyre, The Reds: The Communist Party of Australia from origins to illegality (Sydney, 1998); information from B. James, 1992.