BY JOHN TULLY
John Jocka Burns died on October 11 at the age of 93. Although he avoided the limelight, Jocka was an indefatigable working-class agitator all of his adult life. He participated in many of the political struggles of the turbulent 20th century and for those who cared to listen, Jocka's story was a revelation.
During the 1930s, Jocka was unemployed and on the track. In 1929, while locked up for the night in a country cell, he met his first communist. Jocka remained a communist to the end of his 93 years, and opposed the dissolution of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in 1991.
The Communist Party was the only party that cared about us, Jocka said. He was scathing about the ALP and recalled that a policeman's baton hurts just the same whether there's a Labor or a Liberal government in power. He knew this from bitter experience from his participation in anti-eviction struggles including the Battle of Newtown in Sydney and countless picket lines and demonstrations.
In World War II, Jocka saw active service as a sapper on landing craft, often under fire. After the war, Jocka went back to live in Yarraville and worked as a builders' labourer until his retirement. His services to the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) were recognised when he was made a life member of the union.
Jocka was also secretary of the Footscray branch of the CPA. Legend has it that his Tribune sales patter was so loud that it once shattered a window of the old Coles store in Footscray.
In 1963, the CPA split and most of the BLF's Victorian branch officials joined the Maoist breakaway. Jocka refused to follow. He later stood unsuccessfully as a Reform Group candidate against Norm Gallagher. Alas, his life membership ticket was torn up. However, in recent years, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union's Victorian construction branch granted Jocka life membership in recognition of his service to the workers' movement.
Jocka was no zealot. He had a dry sense of humour, a sharp tongue, but a generous and open nature. He was also a good friend to many young militants who came to left-wing politics during the Vietnam War. Never a one-eyed Stalinist, it didn't faze him when a number of them became Trotskyists. We're all on the same side, he said. In fact, the only thing Jocka was one-eyed about was his beloved Carlton football club. Despite John Elliott, he declared.
Jocka is survived by his nephew, Stephen and family. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him.
From Green Left Weekly, October 23, 2002.
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