The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) in Australia will be holding an online public meeting to commemorate the life of Barry Jobson, a longstanding comrade, who passed away on December 11 at the age of 78. The meeting will start at 2 p.m. on January 17, 2021 and will be livestreamed.

His life holds crucial political lessons for workers and young people coming into revolutionary struggle today and we encourage you to attend.

Comrade Barry joined the Socialist Labour League (SLL), the precursor to the SEP, in 1974. From that time, he played an indispensable role in the bringing the program of the Fourth International into the working class in key strategic areas. In particular, he worked for many years in the Elcar railway workshops in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Chullora.

In close collaboration with Comrade Terry Cook, he defended the interest of railway workers against the betrayals of the Labor Party, the Communist Party Stalinists and the trade union bureaucracies, all the time seeking to educate them in the program and principles of the Trotskyist movement.

Barry Jobson understood the critical importance of studying and assimilating the writing of the Marxist movement and grasping the strategical historical lessons of the 20th century. He undertook a detailed study of this history to ground himself on these essential lessons and bring them to bear on his political work.

Later in life he brought this knowledge and experience to youth and students, regularly campaigning on the University of Newcastle campus where he patiently explained the key political issues of the day. His grasp on complex political and historical knowledge was so impressive that students many times asked him which faculty he taught at.

His obituary, published on the WSWS in December, concluded with the following:

“Barry Jobson wrote an imperishable page in the history of the struggle for the program of Trotskyism in the working class. He has gone but his legacy lives on.

Above all, his life underscores for youth and students now coming into the Trotskyist movement the crucial importance of winning workers in key sections of industry, of the necessity for their training and education as Marxists and the decisive role that these worker-Marxists can and will play in shaping the course of the revolutionary struggles now unfolding.”

The SEP invites WSWS readers, supporters, workers and youth to attend our commemoration on Sunday, 17 January 2021, at 2 p.m. AEDT. Register in advance for this meeting.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the event.