Socialists, unionists, community activists and his many comrades were saddened to learn of the passing of Doug Jordan in Melbourne on 19 May.

Doug learned late last year that cancer in his leg had spread. The diagnosis was not good. He took the news stoically and with much courage – characteristics that marked his long life in the revolutionary and labour movements. In typical fashion, he organised his own wake last month with friends and comrades.

Doug was already a committed socialist before he migrated to Australia from Britain and joined the Socialist Youth Alliance at the height of the anti-Vietnam War movement. He was a member of the Socialist Workers Party/Democratic Socialist Party for many years. He proved himself a leader, serving on its national committee in the 1970s and ’80s.

He later became involved in community campaigns including Defending Public Housing and was well known as a presenter on Radio 3CR’s City Limits, which he co-hosted with Kevin Healey for many years.

Doug was a union activist on the Melbourne and Adelaide tramways until he was made redundant when the Liberal Kennett government axed tram conductors in a bitter dispute in the late 1990s. His commitment as a union activist had already gotten him arrested in the 1990 tram dispute, when he helped organise the blockade of Melbourne’s CBD with dozens of trams.

His role as a rank and file activist in the Rail Tram and Bus Union served him well when he wrote a doctoral thesis on the influence of Communist Party activists in the union movement. It was published earlier this year, titled Conflict in the unions: the Communist Party of Australia, politics and the trade union movement 1945-1960. At the time of his passing, he was writing another book on the history of the tramway unions in Victoria.

Conflict in the unions highlights the legacy of committed rank and file Communist activists who, despite the Stalinist character of the CPA, were able to cement very strong bonds of working class militancy on the shop floor. Doug outlined the role of the CPA in building the peace movement, strengthening ties with Indigenous communities and fighting anti-migrant racism.

Doug wanted to pass these examples on to younger generations. One of his last formal activities was to attend Marxism 2014 despite his failing health.

He will always be remembered for his principled commitment to socialism and his eagerness to impart his formidable knowledge as an activist within the union movement and progressive causes. He will be remembered for his non-sectarian approach, a delightful sense of humour in dishing out as good as he got and his courage in the face of adversity.

Doug was a friend and comrade of mine for more than 40 years – it is difficult to be reminded of our own mortality. But we will remember his lifelong commitment and unstinting loyalty to the working class and those oppressed by a rapacious system of profit gougers. Douglas Arthur James Jordan fought until his dying breath.

Vale Doug!