People Australia

Robert Francis (Bobby) Walker (1928-2010) fitter and turner, trade union militant and libertarian socialist

Birth: 11 October 1928 at Hopetoun, Victoria, son of native-born parents Edward Francis (Frank) Walker (1884-1963), railway pay clerk, and Lilian Emily, née Piesing (1887-1969), clerk. Marriage: 1950 at Melbourne, to Betty Phyllis Campbell, typist. They had one daughter and two sons. Death: 19 August 2010 at Hawthorne, Queensland. Religion: None: was an Atheist. 

• Educated at Blackburn South State School and Swinburne Technical College. Gained fitter/turner apprenticeship at Johnsons Tyne Foundry, Melbourne via fitter/turner uncle Nick Walker.
• Amalgamated Engineering Union member (AEU), activist and delegate from 1956, sacked from many engineering works in Melbourne due to workplace activism. Treasurer, Ringwood branch AEU in mid 1960s, alternative delegate to district committee. Influenced by Laurie Carmichael during left wing takeover of AEU. Became Communist Party of Australia (CPA) fellow-traveller.
• Moved to Brisbane in 1967 and became intensely involved in local AEU; secretary of the Woolongabba branch in 1967-1969 and still close to CPA.
• Drawn through involvement in left-wing coalitions to libertarian communist Self-Management Group (influenced by Solidarity Group, UK.) His belief in workers’ self-management grew from his experience on Evans Deakin shipyard shop committee in 1971.
• Continually sacked from jobs until he was blacklisted as a fitter/turner in the mid 1970s. Casual worker at meatworks, as a painter and docker and sprinkler fitter until he retired with workers’ compensation for a bad back in 1977.
• Active subsequently in libertarian socialist movement, Brisbane.

Sources
Interviews with Bobby Walker and Brian Laver, Brisbane, 24 April 1993;