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Title
Date(s)
- 1970 - 1972 (Creation)
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Extent and medium
1 microfilm reel (20 chapters, 230 pages)
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Tom Brislan attended Catholic Schools and was involved in a wide range of occupations and unions, both urban and rural, in Queensland and New South Wales. In the 1940s he was prominent in the Australian Communist Party, from which he withdrew after being dropped from the Central Committee in 1951. Brislan was Secretary of the Balmain Branch of the Federated Ironworkers' Union in 1943. From 1940s-1951 he was on the Central Committee, Communisty Party of Australia. He was working on his autobiography, A Maverick among Marxists, before he died in 1973.
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Scope and content
In this memoir 'A Maverick among Marxists', accounts of phases of Brislan's life are mixed with reflections on issues at the time of writing. Topics include Catholic education, the Irish problem, the world wars, conscription, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the Liberal Government of 1972, the Great Depression, industrial disputes (Queensland shearers c. 1930 and Balmain ironworkers c. 1943), the Australian union movement, the arbitration system, and the Communist Party.
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Researchers must sign an access agreement
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National Library of Australia: Mfm G 23067
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Dates of creation revision deletion
Created by Erin Gallant on 18 August 2011; revised on 8 September 2011