In yet another stressful attempt to put this blog's files, photos , books , ephemera and assorted oddities into some kind of order -even culled to a tiny extent ( it is so hard to part with anything , even if gnawed by bookworms)- numerous forgotten items are being uncovered.
One is the publication (left) written by Communist Paul Mortier , mentioned previously in this blog, who during WW ll was associated with Communist author Frank Hardy who ran the Troppo Tribune publication in the Northern Territory Mataranka military Camp . A key figure in early post-war Darwin, Mortier, in the New Theatre movement and secretary of the local Community party , outlined grand plans for the Workers' Club in the town to become a community cultural centre .
He used the North Australian Workers' Union newspaper the Northern Standard to spread his views and aspirations for the club .
Strongly pushing the party line , Mortier in his 1955 work said capitalism isolated working class people from art and that art should be used to fight imperialism and build socialism. He also told young people to turn their backs on jazz and embrace folk music.
In following up the latest on Mortier via Google , it was interesting to read that in a l949 revue Pot of Message he wrote a spoof about Sydney Morning Herald proprietor ,Warwick Fairfax, a collector of art and ballet enthusiast.
I am Sir Warfare the lord of them all / Making hay with the press and the ballet
I’ve two houses, one wife – and a couch in the hall / And a sofa up in the chalet.
Though I spend lots of time on the Communist Plot / I’m familiar in circles of art
When I peer at the paintings and see a Red spot / It always gives me a start.
Closely watched by ASIO , Mortier ,a staunch supporter of Stalin,was devastated when Khrushev revealed the massive abuses of the Stalinist regime . He overdosed in l965. His death had a big affect on Frank Hardy, who later based a character on him in But the Dead Are Many, A Novel in Fugue Form , published in l975.
