Ralph was born on the West Coast, and worked in many jobs during his life in Canterbury. He finished up at the (since closed and demolished) Addington Railway Workshops, and painted Railway Welfare Society holiday homes after his retirement. He served in a medical corps for several years in WW11, seeing action in North Africa, the Middle East and Italy. He was married for decades to Ida, and had several children and grandchildren.

When I first got involved in politics, in 1969, Ralph was a leading figure in the local CPNZ. He and Jack were, literally, cloth cap communists. In the 30 years I knew him, he was involved in every campaign and struggle, on all manner of issues, always representing the Party and always ensuring that the Party’s line was put. He travelled in the Second World (remember that?). He survived all the tortuous ins and outs, splits and changes of allegiance – the CPNZ went from being pro-Soviet to pro-Chinese to pro-Albanian to pro-nobody, then ceased to exist as a Communist Party and re-emerged in its present form as the Socialist Workers Organisation (SWO). Unlike Jack, Ralph was never a member of CAFCA. That didn’t stop us working together in all manner of battles eg Ralph was actively involved in our 1996 campaign against the sale of TrustBank to Westpac.

It’s only fair to report that CAFCA and the SWO (nee CPNZ) have political differences. This is not the place to detail or debate them, but, summarised, the SWO holds that the problem is capitalism per se, not simply foreign capitalism. Indeed, at our 25th birthday celebration, held just days after Ralph’s funeral, Don Archer, CPNZ/SWO veteran and CAFCA founder, took advantage of the open mike to reiterate the party line. We beg to differ but only from a tactical perspective. These differences have never seriously affected our working relationship with Jack, Don or other SWO activists.

Ralph’s funeral was a fascinating mixture of the various strands in his life. Much was said about his role in the CPNZ/SWO and his political activism in general. Some of it was very funny. The eulogy by Roy Foley, a fellow CPNZ/SWO veteran, described Ralph as a dreadful snorer and "the world’s worst driver", who once put a car load of startled political activists over a bank in Lewis Pass. He was so short that he could only see through the steering wheel as he drove, not over it. He was a Communist, but the reactionary old warhorses of the Returned Services Association (RSA) played a leading role at the funeral, because he was a member and a WW11 veteran. There was a flag on his coffin, The Last Post, the Lord’s Prayer (for an atheist), salutes, medals, and fellow veterans placing red poppies on his coffin. He had become a devotee of 18th century Scottish poet and national hero, Robbie Burns, in his later years. So the funeral featured a reading of a typically incomprehensible piece of Burns poetry, in archaic dialect, by a fellow with a heavy Scottish accent. The mourners were politely mystified.

I didn’t know Ralph anywhere near as well as I knew Jack and his family (CAFCA and the Anti-Bases Campaign are currently working closely with two of Jack’s children, Maire and Keith). But the Left in Christchurch, and further afield, owes a great deal to the little old bloke with the cloth cap and walking stick. He was a fixture in it for decades. Ralph, you’ll be missed.

Christine Clarke

Christine Clarke was a total stranger to us, as she was to the vast majority of New Zealanders. She did not seek attention – but posthumously gained it, in perpetuity, because of the nature of her tragic death. Deaths in New Zealand industrial disputes are mercifully rare – Frederick Evans was killed during the 1912 Waihi goldminers’ struggle; Ernie Abbott was killed by the anonymous coward who bombed the Wellington Trades Hall in the mid 1980s. Christine Clarke joined them, literally at the very end of the 20th Century – she died on December 31, 1999, from injuries sustained when she was run over on the Lyttelton waterfront workers’ picketline two days earlier. She was only 45. At the time of writing, the court case against the driver has not been heard. He was charged with dangerous driving causing death.

Her death shocked the parties to the dispute into temporarily settling it; it shocked the country profoundly. After all, not even in the pitched battles of the 1981 Springbok Tour protests had anyone been killed. A huge crowd, including CAFCA representatives, attended her January 2000 funeral at Christchurch’s Catholic Cathedral. Messages came from all over New Zealand and from around the world. We were all there to show solidarity with an ordinary woman, an ordinary, decent New Zealander, who had been killed doing nothing more than standing up for a fair go for workers, a fair go for those at the bottom of the heap. Her death marked a fitting end to the long dark tunnel of the 1990s; things can only get better from here on.

Foreign Control Watchdog, P O Box 2258, Christchurch, New Zealand/Aotearoa. December 1999.