Ian MacLeod was born in Innisfail North Qld in 1932 and passed away on 15th May 2025. As a young man, Ian trained as an apprentice Metal Moulder and became an active member of the Australian Miscellaneous Workers Union at the South Johnstone Sugar Mills. Ian rose through the union ranks to become the state secretary of the amalgamated metalworkers union (AMWU) in 1981. Even though I knew of Ian MacLeod as a communist and AMWU official, I did not get to know Ian personally until he was active in the Queensland Pensioners League at Kurilpa Hall in West End, being at one time, its president.
I remember Ian fondly as a quiet individual with strong working class principles. Ian was a survivor of many political and union stoushes. Marcial Parada and other migrant workers knew Ian as a supporter of refugees from the Chilean dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. We post Marcial’s account (in Spanish and English) of Ian MacLeod’s participation in Chile Solidarity in Brisbane. – Ian Curr, 5 Jul 2025.
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A brief account by Marcial Parada of Ian MacLeod’s participation in the Chile Solidarity campaign in Brisbane.
I met comrade Ian MacLeôd when my friend Dan O’Neill invited me to the Trade Hall, which was the headquarters for Queensland trade union meetings. There I was introduced to the AMWU union executive, and the secretary authorised my presence in the union by asking me to sign the membership application, which was an important condition for working in the metal industry in Australia.
After this visit, comrade Ian took me to the headquarters of the Communist Party, of which he was a member, where he introduced me to the treasurer and the general secretary of the organisation, who asked me to give them an overview of the situation facing workers in the metal industry in Chile.
We arrived in Brisbane in November 1976 and there was nothing organised to support the resistance in Chile. In April 1977, Labor Party activists and defectors from the Communist Party organised a Committee of Solidarity with Chile. Although Comrade Ian did not sympathise with the defectors, he attended the meetings to support solidarity with Chile.
In December 1976, a delegation of left-wing leaders from the Socialist, Communist and Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) parties visited Brisbane. They came with the task of explaining how Chileans who had arrived in Australia for political reasons, victims of the military dictatorship in Chile, were organised in Australia.
Thus, the BRISBANE CHILEAN SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE was born. Ian MacLeod was elected president of this organisation. Although he did not speak Spanish, he participated with the help of interpreters. His presence in the Chile Solidarity Committee gave the committee strong representation from the Queensland trade unions.
On several occasions, comrade Ian represented the Chile Solidarity Committee at public events. I would like to mention something that was not public knowledge about the life of comrade Ian MacLeod: his trade as a metalworker was as a foundry man, and it was here that Ian MacLeod began his career as a metal sculptor. He set up a small workshop in his home, where he placed a small lathe, a metal drilling machine, and finally a small metal smelting machine.
I visited the small workshop several times, and Ian taught me the basics. He gave me a book so I could continue learning. But the most cherished gifts are a bust of Lenin and another of Salvador Allende; the photographs are included.
In Spanish
Reference
Vale Ian MacLeod 1932-2025 by Ray Ferguson in the Guardian.