Bill Morrow

William Morrow (22 October 1888 – 12 July 1980) was an Australian trade unionist, politician and peace activist. He was a Senator for Tasmania from 1947 to 1953, representing the Australian Labor Party (ALP) until his resignation in 1953 and unsuccessful bid for re-election as an independent.

Morrow was born in Rockhampton, Queensland. He left school at the age of 10 and joined his father on Queensland Railways, working as a train driver in Far North Queensland. He was active in the labour movement from a young age and was a long-serving officeholder in the Australian Railways Union (ARU). Morrow moved to Tasmania in 1936 as ARU state secretary, where he oversaw a revitalisation of the union. He was expelled from the ALP in 1938 following conflict with the state government, but was readmitted in 1942.

Morrow was elected to the Senate at the 1946 federal election. An outspoken socialist and pacifist, his opposition to attempts to ban the Communist Party and Australian involvement in the Korean War caused difficulties for the ALP as it sought to counter Red Scare tactics. He was disendorsed by the ALP prior to the 1953 Senate election and subsequently resigned to sit as an independent, unsuccessfully seeking election at the head of a Tasmanian Labour Group ticket. After leaving parliament Morrow was prominent in the peace movement, serving on the bureau of the Soviet-backed World Peace Council and on Australian affiliates. He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union in 1961.

Early life Morrow was born on 22 October 1888 in Rockhampton, Queensland. He was the fourth of eleven children born to Amelia (née Greenhalgh) and William Morrow. His mother was born in Lancashire, England, while his father was born in County Armagh, Ireland.

Morrow spent his early years in central Queensland where his father worked for Queensland Railways. He developed a power base at the Launceston Railway Workshops and "gave a militant bite to the union's Railways Gazette". Morrow's left-wing views brought him into conflict with the ALP state government of Albert Ogilvie on several occasions.

After moving to Tasmania, Morrow stood unsuccessfully for the Launceston City Council in 1941 and for the Tasmanian Legislative Council in 1942.

In his maiden speech to the Senate, Morrow "declared his socialist faith" and stated "I do not pretend to represent the whole of the people of Tasmania. I shall be quite honest about that. I represent only those individuals who make up the great working class in this country". His disendorsement prompted "widespread anger in the labour movement" and led the party's federal leader H. V. Evatt to offer him a position on his staff in an attempt at conciliation, which Morrow rejected.

Morrow and the two other candidates on the Tasmanian Labour Group ticket campaigned on the basis of restoring the ALP's "socialist principles" and defeating "bureaucratic influences" that had made the ALP undemocratic. They initially planned to run a full slate of candidates at the 1955 Tasmanian state election. The group polled less than six percent of the vote at the Senate election and soon disbanded, with Morrow making no attempts to resume his parliamentary career.

In 1959, the WPC awarded Morrow its Joliot-Curie Medal. The gold medal he received is held by the National Museum of Australia.

Morrow was also active in the Australia–China Society, which sought the establishment of diplomatic relations between Australia and the People's Republic of China. He served on the national executive of the society and as Queensland state president, visiting China three times at the invitation of the Chinese government.

Personal life In 1910, Morrow married Katherine Victoria "Kate" Scateni, the daughter of an Italian miner. The couple had two daughters and a son together. His wife suffered a severe stroke in 1955 and was paralysed; she died in 1963.