Summary
Funeral and tribute video for Pat Clancy, a bricklayer and communist who became a leading Australian trade unionist in the Building Workers Industrial Union (BWIU). He was elected to the Labour Council of New South Wales, served as secretary and federal secretary of the BWIU as well an ACTU construction executive in later life.
The video shows people arriving and paying their respects followed by a speech by Tom McDonald, National Secretary of the BWIU, in which he outlines Clancy’s career and contribution to the working class movement. McDonald mentions his contribution to the peace movement, his participation in the first Australian delegation to the Peoples Republic of China in 1952, his gold medal of friendship awarded by the USSR in 1979, his outstanding integrity, values and personal qualities, his cultural and sporting interests, his family, his blindness later in life that did not deter him from his work. And his sad passing in Bombay on his way back from an international conference. Bill Anderson from the New Zealand Federation of Labour also talks about his contribution to the working class movement, while Bill Brown calls Clancy a true internationalist and working class champion. A large funeral procession of workers and unionists takes place through the city.
Special Notes/Achievements
Funeral held on July 31, 1987.
Author: J Bird, 2023