Des Donley 1914 - 2011 Aboriginal Unionist

SMH 11 February 2011

Des Donley

Des Donley, a mixed-race Aboriginal taken from his mother in infancy and sent to foster families and "homes" in Queensland in the time of the disastrous "stolen generation" policy, spent much of his life hitting back. At 18, after enduring punishing working conditions - 16 hours a day, seven days a week for four years - he told an Ipswich dairy farmer what he could do with his job.

The moment was pivotal because the four years of wages kept in trust for him proved extraordinarily difficult to get. His fight for withheld wages was taken up on behalf of many and eventually the governments involved were obliged to pay out, however mean the payouts were.

...After breaking away at 18, he went to Brisbane and moved from job to job, scraping a living during the Depression. He was sacked a few times for asking for a pay rise or standing up for fellow workers. When he met a man who was both a trade unionist and a communist, he responded quickly. Never having had a family, he saw the Building Workers Industrial Union as one. Now a communist, he became a union delegate. "I was a battler and I became a battler for the battlers," he said. "If it wasn't for the unions, I would have finished up on the scrap heap, with no hope and no future. You could say, the trade union movement and the Communist Party helped me slip through the net."

... Last year, the Queensland government did give Donley a gratuity but bound him to a clause of confidentiality. Aboriginal activist Dennis O'Brien said Donley got $52,000.

Des Donley is survived by his sons Roger, Peter, Archie, Phillip and John, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.