Michael Power
Michael Charles (Mick) Power , died 2012, was a member of the Communist Party of Australia.[1]
Background
Michael Charles Power was born in April 1938, to parents William and Mary at Preston, Melbourne.
Mick came to Sydney in 1960-61 and lived in Harris Street, Ultimo.[2]
Militant
Power joined the Sydney waterfront in 1960 and worked a bodgie brief, but got his own in 1963.
It was here that working class politics come to the fore. He had joined the waterfront when many changes were taking place and many more were to come in later years.
It was this period where he cemented many endearing friendships, and many of those friends and comrades are here today.
In 1964 Mick was in a [wharfie] gang of notable fighters and the gang was called “The Fighting Gang”, Jack Hassen (Australian title holder); Bruce Farthing (another holder); Graham Moffett, John Hawthorne (non-title holders); Athol Dixon (who went on to become a great Aboriginal rights fighter); and Owen Porter was the gang leader.
They were a very militant gang; would stop work on any issue. It was in the period Mick took out a delegate’s brief and around 1965-66 he joined the Communist Party of Australia and became a member of the Street Branch with Harry Black, Ina Heidtman, Johnny Healy, Bob Bolger, Matt Munro, Tom Nelson and Jim Donovan.
This is where he met his great mentor Jack McPhillips, whose friendship was to last for many years and of course his other mentors being Harry Black and Ina Heidtman.
It was a great learning period for Mick with the final outcome being the formation of the Socialist Party of Australia of which Mick gave total support and commitment.[3]
At the CPA's 2009 conference Mick Power from the Maritime Branch said he has attended all 11 Congresses of the Party. He spoke very positively of The Guardian, saying he found the paper quite invigorating, especially the articles on the environment. He, like a number of other delegates, expressed concern that we were not growing as fast as you would expect in the present economic conditions.[4]
Lenin's Institute
His love of the Marxist Leninist teachings led Mick Power to the Soviet Union and Moscow in 1975 and in 1980 to the Lenin Institute to study their teachings. Again this was a turning point in his life for his studies of the classics brought Mick to a better understanding of the class nature of society – and the reasons for the class struggles.[5]
Comrades
With Harry, Ina, Joy Barlow, Jack McPhillips, Stan Moran, Anne Duffy-Lindsay and Jim Robertson, hundreds of weekends were taken up on the streets of Sydney’s Balmain talking and gathering signatures for peace.
Some of Mick’s close comrades,included – Ray Ferguson, Jake Haub, Andrew Irving, George Gotsis, Donna, Denis and Hannah, Anna Pha, Warren Smith, John Graham and Joe Deakin.[6]
Cuba
His love of Cuba and the Cuban people took him to Cuba on many, many occasions. He was the first to volunteer for the Cuban Work Brigades working holidays and of course this is where he met his future wife to be, Jacqueline, in the early 1990s.[7]
CPA veteran
Around 150 people joined communist veteran Harry Black and his family to celebrate his 90th birthday at the Balmain Leagues Club in Sydney on August 17 2009. Warren Smith, chair of the Communist Party of Australia and secretary of the Sydney Branch of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), was the MC.
“I was the girl who signed him into the union in 1951 and signed him out in July 1981,” said Ina Heidtman, office manager of the Waterside Workers’ Federation, Ina worked for the union for 46 years. Harry and Ina both joined the Communist Party of Australia in 1953 and their long association has continued until today in the Party and through the Retired Members’ Association of the MUA where Harry still plays a leading role. (The MUA was formed when the WWF and Seamen’s Union of Australia amalgamated in 1993.)
“Harry is a true friend, a man of great integrity, wisdom and compassion. He looks for the best in people, is a complete optimist,” Ina said. He was always involved in all the struggles that advanced the interests of waterside workers, and workers in general.
Rus Gow, president of the Retired MUA Members Association paid tribute to Harry’s enormous contribution to that organisation. Mick Doleman MUA assistant national secretary brought greetings from the national office and recounted the years that he had known Harry.
Former MUA Sydney Branch secretary Jim Donovan and long-time comrade in the Maritime Branch of the CPA had many personal tales to tell of Harry’s exploits and battles over 45 years of struggle and comradeship together in the Party and union.
In the union Harry held a number of positions including job delegate and vice-president. After “retiring” he took up full time work for the Party for some years. He served as secretary of the Sydney District Committee, secretary of the Maritime Branch, and was an executive member of the Central Committee.
Madelene Evans spoke on behalf of the family; three sisters and two nieces were present. Madelene gave another insight into her uncle’s personality and his love and closeness to his family.
Harry’s life reads like a history lesson: military service in the Middle East, New Guinea and Borneo in WW2; national strikes; the Petrov frame-up; solidarity with New Zealand wharfies during a 151-day dispute; raids on the union office by security forces; right through to the Patrick dispute in 1998.
Harry described the 1950s as a “real golden era of working class development”. There were cultural activities including the painting of a magnificent mural, concerts, art exhibitions, the Wharfies Film Group, book displays, lectures, theatre, the visit of Paul Robeson and the union’s Jazz Band.
Harry also paid tribute to dear friends and comrades with whom he has had many years of association in the union and CPA – Jim Donovan, Mick Power, Ina Heidtman and Anne Duffy-Lindsay and thanked the Sydney Branch and those who had organised such a special day.[8]