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John Stanislaus (Jack) Spongberg (1920–2012)

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John Stanislaus (Jack) Spongberg, also known as Sponberg (1920-2012) boilermaker and trade union official 

Birth: 16 June 1920 at Canterbury, Sydney, New South Wales, son of native-born parents Albert Lawrence Spongberg (1880-1942), painter with NSW Railways and Labor man, and Ellen Louise Eugenie, née Melmon (1885-1967). Marriage: 1944 at Canterbury, Sydney, to native-born Dorothy Jean (Dot) Heggie (1919-2011). They had two daughters and two sons. Death: 30 August 2012 in Sydney; late of Dulwich Hill. Religion: Catholic. 

  • One of eleven children of a Catholic working-class family.
  • Apprenticed as boilermaker, at Eveleigh workshops, NSW Railways, in 1936 and used Railway Library to educate himself.
  • Voluntarily enlisted in the Australian Militia on 16 January 1939. Serving in the Australian Ordnance Corps, and worked as boiler-maker at Garden Island, earning reputation of militant socialist. Posted to Mort's Dock where Nick Origlass was his assistant.
  • Became member of Trotskyist faction and part of legendary 1940s and 1950s struggles within Balmain workplaces contested first between Communist Party of Australia and Trotskyist elements, later with 'Groupers'.
  • Active within Balmain branch of the Australian Labor Party and prominent in encouraging industrial groups to form within ALP as a way of making party 'a trustworthy weapon of workers' advancement'.
  • In late 1960s he became an elected official of the Boilermakers' Society. In 1973 Tribune described him as NSW organiser for the newly formed AMWU (Australian Manufacturing Workers Union). Tribune also reported that he was not a member of the Communist Party of Australia, but was “prominent as an independent thinker”. He retired from union office in 1990.
  • Still active within ALP in 1998.

Sources
Hall Greenland, Red Hot: The Life & Times of Nick Origlass 1908–1996 (Sydney, 1998).

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Citation details

'Spongberg, John Stanislaus (Jack) (1920–2012)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/spongberg-john-stanislaus-jack-34835/text43880, accessed 6 November 2024.

© Copyright People Australia, 2012

Life Summary [details]

Alternative Names
  • Sponberg, John Stanislaus
Birth

16 June, 1920
Canterbury, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Death

30 August, 2012 (aged 92)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Cause of Death

unknown

Religious Influence

Includes the religion in which subjects were raised, have chosen themselves, attendance at religious schools and/or religious funeral rites; Atheism and Agnosticism have been included.

Occupation
Military Service
Key Organisations
Political Activism
Workplaces