Jim Percy (1948 – 12 October 1992 in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, New South Wales,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

), was a founder of the ''Socialist Workers League'' of Australia, later called the ''Socialist Workers Party'' and the ''Democratic Socialist Party'', and served as national secretary for almost twenty years.

Career

Percy first became active in politics as a high-school student in 1965, helping organize demonstrations against the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. In 1967 he helped to found the

Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

youth organisation ''

Resistance Resistance may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics * Either of two similarly named but otherwise unrelated comic book series, both published by Wildstorm: ** ''Resistance'' (comics), based on the video game of the same title ** ''T ...

'', based on members of the Sydney University Socialist Club and the Vietnam Action Campaign. In 1969, Percy was elected to the initial five-member secretariat of the ''Vietnam Moratorium Campaign'' in

. In 1972, he became a founder of the Socialist Workers League. He became the League's Organisation Secretary in 1972 and its National Secretary in 1973. Due to the influence of the US Socialist Workers Party, the SWL later took the name Socialist Workers Party, and Percy continued as secretary. The SWP later became the Democratic Socialist Party. That group now has two descendants, the ''

Democratic Socialist Perspective The Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP) was an Australian Marxist political group, which operated as the largest component of a broad-left socialist formation, the Socialist Alliance. In 2010, the DSP voted to merge into the Socialist Al ...

'', a tendency within Socialist Alliance, and th
Revolutionary Socialist Party
Percy was central to the DSP becoming an Australia-wide party during the 1970s. In the 1980s, he oversaw a series of attempts by the party to reach out to new forces and to regroup with other far-left organisations. He died of cancer on 12 October 1992, at the age of forty-three.

References

''Jim Percy, 1948–1992''
obituary in ''Green Left Weekly'', issue 76 (21 October 1992) *''Four Features of Our Revolutionary Party'' by Jim Percy in ''Socialist Worker'', December 1982 *''A History of the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance'' by John Percy. Resistance Books, Australia, 2005,
''The Politics of the International Socialist Organisation and the Democratic Socialist Party'' by Chris Gaffney
(accessed 16 July 2007) {{DEFAULTSORT:Percy, Jim 1948 births 1992 deaths Australian Trotskyists Date of birth missing Deaths from cancer in New South Wales