 | This article includes alist of references,related reading, orexternal links,but its sources remain unclear because it lacksinline citations. Please helpimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(September 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Part ofa series on |
| Socialism in Australia |
|---|
Organisations(Defunct) |
Literature Newspapers/Journals/Magazines Active Historical |
Jim Percy (1948 – 12 October 1992 inSydney, New South Wales,Australia), was a founder of theSocialist Workers League of Australia, later called theSocialist Workers Party and theDemocratic Socialist Party, and served as national secretary for almost twenty years.
Percy first became active in politics as a high-school student in 1965, helping organize demonstrations against theVietnam War.
In 1967 he helped to found theSocialist youth organisationResistance, based on members of theSydney University Socialist Club and the Vietnam Action Campaign.
In 1969, Percy was elected to the initial five-member secretariat of theVietnam Moratorium Campaign inSydney.
In 1972, he became a founder of the Socialist Workers League. He became the League's Organisation Secretary in 1972 and its National Secretary in 1973. Due to the influence of the USSocialist Workers Party, the SWL later took the name Socialist Workers Party, and Percy continued as secretary. The SWP later became the Democratic Socialist Party. That group now has two descendants, theDemocratic Socialist Perspective, a tendency within Socialist Alliance, and theRevolutionary Socialist Party.
Percy was central to the DSP becoming an Australia-wide party during the 1970s. In the 1980s, he oversaw a series of attempts by the party to reach out to new forces and to regroup with other far-left organisations.
He died of cancer on 12 October 1992, at the age of forty-three.
| International | |
|---|---|
| People | |
