Jack Mundey, an inspirational giant and legend of the Australian trade union, environmental, communist and socialist movements, died last night at the age of 90.
Jack was one of Australia’s most famous and well-known people, a trail-blazer who leaves a legacy of achievements that will be forever remembered.
Jack was a member of the SEARCH Foundation and before that a longstanding member of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA). He strongly supported and promoted the CPA’s new direction and policies of the late 1960s and early 1970s for a democratic vision of socialism and support for the newly emerging social movements around women’s liberation, preservation and care for the natural and built environments, workers control, Indigenous rights, and gay liberation, among others.
Jack Mundey will be especially remembered as the architect of the Green Bans that preserved for posterity some of Sydney’s landmark historical buildings and spaces, among them The Rocks area on the Harbour foreshore opposite the Opera House.
The Green Bans started with a ‘black ban’ by the union that Jack led, the NSW branch of the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF), on a proposed development at Kelly’s Bush, a small area of bushland in the upper middle class suburb of Hunter’s Hill. The union imposed the ban in 1971, after requests from a group of local women who had been campaigning to stop the development.
Jack told them that the union would impose the ban if the local people supported it, and a meeting of 600 residents did so. Shortly after imposing the ban, Jack decided that it should be called a “Green” Ban. The rest is history. At the time, others on the left and in the trade union movement saw environmental issues as marginal or even a middle-class indulgence.
Jack, as the leader of a traditional industrial union, saw that the environment, both natural and built, was a central issue of the times, and moreover one that workers and their unions should be interested in and active around. He developed and promoted the idea that workers should not only be interested in their immediate wages and conditions but also in the social value and outcome of their labour.
Jack had the great ability to explain these issues to his own members and to win their support time and again for Green Bans to preserve historical buildings and sites. He was also a brilliant orator and media communicator in explaining the Green Bans to all Australians, and became an inspirational figure across many sections of society.
Nobel-Prize-winning author Patrick White, upon accepting the award as 1974 Australian of the Year, named Jack as one of three ‘mavericks’ who should share the award with him. Jack Mundey’s achievements, legacies and influences on Australian life and politics are way too many to list.
For that matter, the Green Bans in particular were recognised world-wide as an example for others to follow. It is said that the name Green Bans was a key influence that led the German activist Petra Kelly to call her new party The Greens (Die Grunen), after she visited Australia in the mid 1970s to speak at rallies against uranium mining and met Jack Mundey. SEARCH expresses its deep condolences to Judy Mundey, Jack’s partner in life and politics for over 55 years, and to Jack’s many comrades and friends. Details of memorial events for Jack will be circulated when they become available.
Brian Aarons
Jack was a member of the SEARCH Foundation and before that a longstanding member of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA). He strongly supported and promoted the CPA’s new direction and policies of the late 1960s and early 1970s for a democratic vision of socialism and support for the newly emerging social movements around women’s liberation, preservation and care for the natural and built environments, workers control, Indigenous rights, and gay liberation, among others.
Jack Mundey will be especially remembered as the architect of the Green Bans that preserved for posterity some of Sydney’s landmark historical buildings and spaces, among them The Rocks area on the Harbour foreshore opposite the Opera House.
The Green Bans started with a ‘black ban’ by the union that Jack led, the NSW branch of the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF), on a proposed development at Kelly’s Bush, a small area of bushland in the upper middle class suburb of Hunter’s Hill. The union imposed the ban in 1971, after requests from a group of local women who had been campaigning to stop the development.
Jack told them that the union would impose the ban if the local people supported it, and a meeting of 600 residents did so. Shortly after imposing the ban, Jack decided that it should be called a “Green” Ban. The rest is history. At the time, others on the left and in the trade union movement saw environmental issues as marginal or even a middle-class indulgence.
Jack, as the leader of a traditional industrial union, saw that the environment, both natural and built, was a central issue of the times, and moreover one that workers and their unions should be interested in and active around. He developed and promoted the idea that workers should not only be interested in their immediate wages and conditions but also in the social value and outcome of their labour.
Jack had the great ability to explain these issues to his own members and to win their support time and again for Green Bans to preserve historical buildings and sites. He was also a brilliant orator and media communicator in explaining the Green Bans to all Australians, and became an inspirational figure across many sections of society.
Nobel-Prize-winning author Patrick White, upon accepting the award as 1974 Australian of the Year, named Jack as one of three ‘mavericks’ who should share the award with him. Jack Mundey’s achievements, legacies and influences on Australian life and politics are way too many to list.
For that matter, the Green Bans in particular were recognised world-wide as an example for others to follow. It is said that the name Green Bans was a key influence that led the German activist Petra Kelly to call her new party The Greens (Die Grunen), after she visited Australia in the mid 1970s to speak at rallies against uranium mining and met Jack Mundey. SEARCH expresses its deep condolences to Judy Mundey, Jack’s partner in life and politics for over 55 years, and to Jack’s many comrades and friends. Details of memorial events for Jack will be circulated when they become available.
Brian Aarons
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