Kevin Cook

Kevin Cook (1939-2015) was a Wandandian Man, born in 1939 and grew up in Wollongong.

Left unionist

Kevin Cook was one of the leaders of the NSW BLF, along with Joe Owens, Jack Mundey and Bobby Pringle, at a time when it was at the cutting edge of innovation in trade union organising and led many of the great social struggles of the 1970s and 80s that have shaped Australian society and the left since that time - the urban environmental movement, trade union democracy and workers control, support for the culture of the working class, the peace movement, the anti-uranium mining movement, woman in non-traditional work and a host of other progressive and radical initiatives.

Kevin Cook had a long association with the MUA and its leaders in the WWF and the SUA, particularly through the Reverend Alf Clint going back to Elliot V. Elliot, Pat Geraghty and Jim Healy. A number of MUA leaders have served as Directors on the Tranby College Board, including Taffy Sweetenson, [[Laurie Steen, Paddy Crumlin and Robert Coombes.

Cookie had a close personal relationship with many MUA officials, officers and members, and he loved the MUA, just as we loved him.

Cookies life story and his relationship with all the people, movements and causes he was associated with is contained in the book that Cookie and Heather Goodall wrote called “Making Change Happen ”, published in 2013. The book contains interviews with MUA leaders and its production and launch was supported by the union. The book is essentially a manual for organising and networking for which there was no better participant and advocate than Cookie.

It is not possible to speak about Cookie without mention of his Soul Mate and life's partner, Judy Chester and their Children, they complemented each other in every way, Judy, like Cookie, was a tireless worker around issues of Social Justice. Cookie was a lifelong member and friend of the Unions, his basic tenant was working class from which he never strayed, he lived his life in accordance with this tenancy, he was always accessible to everyone, possibly to a fault from an outsiders view, but at the end of each day he gave clarity to the chaos.

Paddy Crumlin from the Maritime Union of Australia, when notified of Cookie's passing responded, 'Oh no! Beautiful man and lifelong Comrade', Kevin Tory, Cookies forever Comrade, called up to make sure we had received the sad news said, 'I have to hang up now I am shattered'. And so it was with Dr. Paul Torzillo, Geoff Clark, Jack AhKit, Pat O'Shane, Mike O'Shane and from all of those who knew him and with whom we have spoken, diverse responses, every one endorsing the character of and love for our Comrade, Kevin Cook.

From his small office in Tranby, Cookie worked with the organizing committee under the National Coalition of Aboriginal Organisations to organize the 1988 march, the biggest gathering of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander People at any time in Australian history, then marching from Redfern Park to Hyde Park we were met by thousands of supporters at Belmore Park, Trade Unionists, Political Activists, Migrant Groups, Conservationists and all manner of supporters who joined in and finished off in Hyde park, a day we will remember for the rest of our lives.

Cookie organized representation from us to attend 10 years of the United Nations Working Group in Geneva developing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He organized our participation at the World Council of Indigenous Peoples while ever it remained relevant. Our inclusion in the ACTU delegation in attendance at the International Labor Organisations two-year revision process of Convention 107. Ensured Indigenous People welcomed Nelson Mandela to Australia, linked ourselves into the Kanaky struggle, developed relationships across the Pacific Rim, welcomed and hosted South African Trade Union Delegations before the barriers of 'apartheid' were pulled down.

Sent delegations from the World Council of Churches to visit some of the most impoverished communities in Australia to bring attention to the plight of Aboriginal people in Australia back in the -70s, there is a whole lot more that Cookie done which I am sure will be mentioned by other commentators in the coming days. Tranby was the cross roads for all the political activists traveling to Canberra or Sydney for street marches, demonstrations, overseas delegations or all manner of things during the -70s, -80s and -90s.

Visiting Tranby you would never know who you were likely to meet there, Bruce McGinness, Gary Foley, Helen Corbett, Jacki Katona, Chris Kristofferson, Patrick Dodson, John AhKit, Geoff Clarke, David Ross, Josie Crawshaw, Mick Miller, Clarrie Grogan, Michael Mansell, Rob Riley, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Joe McGinniss, Warren Mundine, the list just goes on and on, everyone from everywhere would drop into Tranby to see Cookie, this was the meeting place, this was where the struggle was given focus, where the peripheral material was stripped away and the focus was on the nuts and bolts, this was the measure of the man, small in statue a giant in the struggle.

Bush Camp

Two splits in the Communist Party of Australia, in 1963 and again in 1971, saw it become a leaner organisation with a more accommodating attitude to other groups among the new left. Minto Bush Camp was important to this opening of the party, hosting seminars on gay rights, feminism, radical lesbian separatism, the anti-war movement and the campaign for Aboriginal autonomy. Indeed, members of the Communist Party of Australia were already seasoned campaigners for Aboriginal equality. Key events like the planning of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy took place, in part, at Minto. Kevin Cook was frequently at Minto, as a communist and Builders Labourers Federation member, and more and more often as an Aboriginal activist. As the 1970s eased into place the camp hosted barbeques and wine bottlings, usually as an incentive for the inevitable working bees that had built the place and kept it running.

The Broad Left Conference

The Communist Party of Australia, Association for Communist Unity and others organized The Broad Left Conference, which was held 1986 28th-31st March, at the NEW SOUTH WALES INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Broadway, Sydney.

Kevin Cook was among the list of sponsors.