BY ROBYN MARSHALL
Ernie Gare died on August 17 at the age of 86. He was a member of the Communist Party of Australia from 1941 until the party dissolved itself in 1992, and a sympathiser of the Democratic Socialist Party thereafter.
Ernie's father was a bit of an anarchist, but gave him great advice: "Whatever you do son, don't ever join the Labor Party." His mother was a pacifist, a Quaker. As a teenager, Ernie left home to find work. He got a job in a sawmill, cutting timber. That was where he lost a thumb, a big toe and sliced a bit off the top of another finger.
Through his job in the timber industry, Ernie got active in the Australian Workers Union and joined the Communist Party when he was 25. For the rest of his life he believed that a workers' party, in solidarity with other workers, is the only solution to the problems workers face.
During the second world war, Ernie moved to Brisbane. The only job he could find was selling make-up, door to door in West End. Later he worked as a boiler maker and, finally, a refrigeration engineer at the Princess Alexandra Hospital from 1950 to 1980, when he retired.
Ernie was very active as a union delegate in the Federated Engineers, Draftsmen and Fireman's Association, involved in many battles over wages and conditions. He never failed to go to May Day, peace rallies, International Women's Day, Hiroshima Day and Aboriginal protest activities. Aboriginal activist Sam Watson said at his funeral, "I would look around the crowd and always, Ernie was there."
It wasn't all hard work. Ernie loved dancing and his daughter, Sitare (Jean), recalls that every month during the 1970s and '80s they attended a huge barn dance on a Saturday night at the family property of the Boxhall-Doors, sympathisers of the Communist Party. The music was typically that of the Bushwackers with the old broom stick with bottle tops, and banging the old tea chests.
After the Communist Party dissolved itself, Ernie identified politically with the Democratic Socialist Party. He came to every Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly fundraising dinner held in the Brisbane Resistance Centre during the 1990s.
He was always ready with a joke and could see the humour in all situations. He refused further treatment for his kidney failure and decided it was time as he was close to 87 years old.
DSP Brisbane branch secretary Jim McIlroy described Ernie as "the salt of the earth. It's extremely hard to replace a working-class fighter like Ernie." He will be sadly missed by all of his many friends and comrades in the struggle.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, September 24, 2003.
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