Alec Campbell: active trade unionist, not pro-war hero

by Janice Hamilton

Over the last couple of weeks the Australian public has become saturated 
with stories of war heroes and dying veterans in the mass media. It started 
with ANZAC Day to be followed by the passing of the last surviving ANZAC 
Alec Campbell.

Midst all the glorification of war and build-up by the media and Howard 
Government of Alec Campbell as an Australian legend, little was said of the 
contribution that he made to the trade union movement.

Yet representatives from the Rail, Tram and Bus Union and the CFMEU 
attended the state funeral, and other trade unionists observed a minute's 
silence to pay tribute to his role as a defender of workers' rights.

Apart from his very short military service when ANZAC troops attempted to 
invade Turkey, Alec Campbell was a union activist — as a rank and file 
union member in rail workshops, a delegate and union official over many 
decades.

His many years of service to the trade union movement included four years 
as President of the Tasmanian Rail Union, and four years as President of 
the Launceston Trades and Labour Council.

He was also a long-term activist with the Workers Educational Association, 
and a member of the Amalgamated Carpenters and Joiners Union.

According to his son Dr Jim Campbell, he would have been overwhelmed by all 
the fuss.

"He didn't talk much about his war service", although he knew once he 
outlived all the others, whether he liked it or not, he would become a 
symbol of the ANZAC legend, Dr Campbell said.

All this for a modest man who never considered himself a hero, but whom 
history and the Howard-Bush reign of terror saw him paraded as a symbol of 
the ANZAC legend.