Tom Uren Memorial Fund and Review of Straight Left-Tom Uren's autobiography

STRAIGHT LEFT-TOM UREN Random House Australia (1994)

Having lived here in Australia only since 2008 I am still playing catch up with Australian politics and the history of the left in particular. One man seems to stand out-with few enemies-but undoubtably a warrior of the left. Tom Uren in his autobiography gives an entertaining crash course in Labor politics since the Second World War up till the 1990s. An Australian member of parliament for 32 years. Minister in the Whitlam and later Hawke governments but he is so much more than that. Mr Uren is a character in his own write! His chronicling of his growing up, his war service and internment, his attempt to forge a career out of boxing and then his slow growth into political animal is fascinating. I chuckled over his judging of character vis a vis what would the bloke be like to share a bag of rice with (from internment). But mostly I warm to his now old fashioned socialist politics when the left had a vision, a constituency which it wanted to represent and a belief in the basic decency of society and our responsibility to uphold and nurture this. There is sections where my eyes met in the middle (as with most autobiographies-which fascinate the writer more than the reader) but these passages are rare. Mostly I felt informed and came away from this book feeling both educated and reminded of how much socialism has been an integral part of my life. And that today, it makes me a dinosaur to so many and how much the political oxygen we now breathe is driven by free market and centrist ideology. Mr Uren you have balls and the world is a better place for you having done the work you have and forged the vision into something practical and tangible. I hope your book, will inspire some young mind to think things can and should be different from today and the reader can and will want to make a difference as you have.