People Australia

Donald David (Don) Thomson, also known as Donald Thompson (1906-1978) clerk, trade union official and Communist 

Birth: 11 August 1906 at Kerang, Victoria, only child of Robert William Thomson (1870-1943), a shearer, possibly born in Scotland, and Rose Irene, née Flynn (1880-1964), a factory hand, born at Deloraine, Tasmania. Marriage: 6 April 1949 at the office of the Government Statist, Melbourne, Victoria, to Isabella Ann (Ella), née Hale, late Blake (1914-2007), born in Northumberland, England. She was a divorcée with one son. Death: 25 August 1978 in a nursing home at Randwick, Sydney, usual residence Mawson Parade, Chifley, New South Wales. 

• Claiming that he was a widower, born in Adelaide, South Australia, in November 1873, his father enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 2 April 1917, giving his son Donald as his next of kin. Robert was discharged medically unfit in February 1918 suffering chronic bronchitis and rheumatism.
• Don seems to have been brought up by his mother and was educated at state schools in Victoria. During the 1930s Depression he was unemployed and had sporadic casual work, joining various unions including the Australian Workers’ Union and the Storeman and Packers’.
• He joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in 1934 and was an active party member in Victoria. Gained work as painter in 1938. Became a member of the Operative Painters and Decorators’ Union of Australia (OPDUA).
• He was secretary of the Building Trades Federation of Victoria from 1938 to 1952 and was endorsed by left wing members of the Carpenters’ Union and Builders’ Labourers’ Federation.
• With Gordon Lewins, also a member of CPA, advocated for the OPDUA to approach others in the industry to form a nation-wide industrial union for the building industry. Brought together divergent unions, which led to the transformation of sections of Amalgamated Carpenters and Joiners Union into what became known as the Building Workers’ Industrial Union (BWIU) in 1942.
• A charismatic and vocal Communist militant, he also attracted increasing personal attack and criticism from the right-wing of the labour movement from 1941 onwards, including the Groupers.
• OPDUA ambiguously resolved the issue to amalgamate with BWIU in 1948 with the national membership voting in favour but only a minority of members agreed in NSW, SA, WA and the ACT. Thomson was federal secretary of the OPDU/BWIU from 1944-1952.
• Was union delegate to the Australian Council of Trade Unions and ACTU delegate to International Labor Organization conference at Brussells in 1946.
• He was a member of the Melbourne Trades Hall committee for welfare of discharged and demobilized soldiers. In 1952 he resigned and/or was expelled from the CPA.
• Moved to Sydney. His attempt to obtain a hotel licence failed and he joined the Post Office/Commonwealth Public Service in Sydney. Became active in the section committee and later the branch council of the Administrative and Clerical Officers’ Association (ACOA). Secretary of NSW branch of ACOA from 1960 to 1973 (retired). Member ACOA federal executive and member of sub-committees on arbitration, salaries and finance. ACOA Conference delegate.
• After retirement he produced NSW branch’s journal, White Collar. Was made a life member of ACOA in 1971. Valued for his experience, debating skills, determination and drive that he brought to ACOA.
• Active member of the Australian Labor Party, Randwick Golf Club.
• Cause of death: carcinoma of pancreas (10 months).

Sources
John Spierings, A brush with history: history of the Operative Painters' and Decorators' Union (Melbourne, 1993); Malcolm Henry Ellis, The Garden path (Sydney, 1949); John Playford, Doctrinal and strategic problems of the Communist Party of Australia, 1945-1962, PhD thesis, ANU, 1962, p 432; ACOA, May 1969, p 11, September 1978, p 11.