Don’t mourn, organise – Joe Hill
I first met Pam Jones on the second floor of the University of Queensland student Union in 1977, nearly 50 years ago. I was immediately struck by her warm and friendly manner and how practical she was. At that time, Pam was the Student Union representative of the mature age students at the university. Through the advocacy of a French lecturer and later Dean of Arts, Raymond Seckold (sp?), the university introduced a “special entry scheme for unmatriculated mature age students” in 1977. Pam became their representative.
Pam understood that this was a democratic rights struggle, not a fight for individual rights of citizens. One outstanding characteristic was her ability to work with people whose political ideas differed from hers.
Under the ban on street marches being ‘a member’ of the Concerned Christians meant Pam and her fellow Christians were guilty of a crime and it was their onus to show chanting Joh Must Go or singing hymns were lawful.
Only one magistrate (state or commonwealth) was prepared to acquit them of charges under these laws. They had to wait nearly 10 years for such an acquittal.
The Concerned Christians — singing and picketing outside an electricity depot in support of sacked workers — were charged under the Electricity Continuity Supply Act which targeted 1,001 members of the Electrical Trades Union protesting against government introduction of contract labour.
The Concerned Christians who were charged under this legislation and were subsequently acquitted by a Brisbane magistrate.
The Crown appealed, but the appeal failed, with the court accepting the Concerned Christians’ defence, led by counsel Tony Fitzgerald (later the Barrister/judge that headed up the Fitzgerald Inquiry).
The technical legal issues were different from the current attacks on democratic rights, plus the Concerned Christians had the backing of sections of the union movement that also supported the sacked workers.
Even though this was one small legal victory, the sacked workers were nonetheless defeated, and the union has never fully recovered from that defeat under Labor’s Accord.
Pam Jones was the librarian, a key organiser, and knowledge-holder of the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action FAIRA. Pam worked with well-known First Nations activists, Les Malezer, Bob Weatherall, and Steve Mam, and, importantly, was a link to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders’ supporters.
Pam would help organise FAIRA’s activities (such as helping compile lists of people who assisted protesters, organised bail, prepare food for camps, etc.) during significant protest movements like the Commonwealth Games in 1982 and during Expo ’88/Bicentenary. Creating harmony and unity was never an easy job in this context. But Pam always took up this often thankless challenge.
Pam was a key activist in the anti uranium movement. She was arrested in the largest single mass defiance of a government at the 22nd of October 1977 anti-uranium rally organised by CANP and the anti-uranium mobilization committee. Concerned Christians were an important part of the anti-nuclear struggle.
I have told you about my first meeting with Pam, so I will tell you our last. It was at the funeral of a mutual friend and working class poet, Jim Sharp, held in 2017 at JC Slaughter Falls on Mount Cootha, in Brisbane. Pam was not feeling well and came up to me to say goodbye. She was quite unsteady on her feet but, as always, clear-headed and warm. As Pam walked away, another friend, Sue Monk, began singing a farewell to Jim Sharp. Sue sang that old song of African-American gospel and labour movements, We Shall Overcome popularised by Pete Seeger.
Even though many of Pam’s associates were labelled in the Queensland Parliament as a violent Marxists who associated with Arab terrorists, Pam never once flinched in campaigning alongside us in struggles she believed in.
Vale Pam, my condolences to family friends and comrades.
Ian Curr
21 February 2026