Jim Crawford (playwright)
Crawford also wrote numerous newspaper articles in relation to political and social problems at the time which led him to be well respected in the community.
[5] Crawford was an important member of the Roving Reds Revue Company, New Theatre Club and Realist Writers Group.
Whilst attending a school in Manchester, Crawford began to develop an interest in Shakespeare which he was taught to perform instead of reading it out aloud.
Working in the Gulf Country alongside the Indigenous Australian people and seeing the brutal way in which they were treated spurred Crawford's passion for equal rights.
[17] His intention was to travel to South America and then head back to England, but when boarding a ship that was supposedly going to Valparaíso, it landed in Australia.
[28] While travelling, he had various jobs such as working on cotton farms in Callide Valley (Queensland), cutting wood for bakers' ovens in New South Wales, milking cows and packing tomatoes.
[31] Due to his participation in the 'No Scrap Iron for Imperialist Japan' demonstrations in Melbourne, Crawford spent two days in the jail cell that Ned Kelly was incarcerated in just before he was hung.
At one rally he spoke on a platform with future Australian Prime Minister, Harold Holt, who shouted Crawford to a double whisky after his speech.
They stood firm and gained the Union rates they were after, however, Crawford was transferred to New Guinea to the Naval Depot HMS Ladava.
The Adjudicator then goes on to compare the intentions of the play to that of 'the spirit of the Chartist Riots Chartism and continued, 'Just as looms came to take their rightful place in modern advancement, so will all future inventions and developments in science, and no puny, pinchbeck efforts, having their roots bugged in the swamps of sentimental ignorance will be able to item their advance toward the betterment of mankind.
[57] Crawford wrote another three-act play called Governor's Stables which was entered into the Theatre Council of West Australia's playwriting competition in 1951.
[61] At the end of 1953, Crawford went to Townsville for several months to assist in reporting for the Guardian newspaper on the very successful North QLD Rank and File Worker's convention.
Jim wrote several radio features about this time, The Avenging Ghost of Campbell Town and The Celebrated Mr Barrington with various successes.
In 1963, he wrote three plays, Shakespeare at Cedar Creek and A Little Bird Told Me for the Junior Youth League and Under the Bunya for the Wattle Dance Group.
He also drew inspiration from contemporary socio-political issues such as nuclear testing at Woomera ('Rocket Range') and the 1912 Tramway Strike in Brisbane (Billets and Badges).
His articles which appeared in Queensland Guardian and The Tribune shows Crawford to have had historical and textual knowledge of the work of these two artists.
'It is simply a mild satire on true-blue Conservatives who, throughout all recorded history, at least, have always attacked innovations, but finished up by making use of them after they had previously failed to suppress them.'
(Introduction, Box 1 Folder 2) The play takes place between 10,000 BC and 6,000 BC in a cave in France (not unlike Le TroisFreres in France) and explores these themes as two young ice age rebels, Big Ears and Bentneck revolt against the constant, stereotypical dancing of the highly respectable Buffalo Fertility Dance.
They were also committed to developing the highest possible theatrical standards as well as to introduce it to the Australian people by infusing theatre into cultural groups in all industries, organisations and districts.
Crawford was a homeless bagman, interested in theatre and experience at writing and producing plays through his work for the Roving Reds (AKA The Proletarian Players).
[citation needed] As well as being an active playwright, Jim Crawford was very interested in social and political movements that affected the wellbeing and rights of others.
Many of Crawford's stage and radio plays included themes of the battler fighting against the establishment; people trying to gain rights, as well as issues within society which he thought may need attention from a larger audience.
With a strong belief in supporting the needs of the working class, Crawford was actively involved in the Communist Party of Australia (CPA).
[84] Crawford also wrote a short sketch titled "The Remedy" in 1961, which was to be performed by New Theatre Club at their rallies, as a part of their election campaign.
The main goals of the Union of Australian Women included "improving the status of women and children, disarmament and a halt to nuclear testing and mining, equal distribution of wealth, increased welfare services, equal pay for Indigenous Australians, abortion law reform, and opposition to the White Australia policy.
The Realist Writers intentions were defined by their constitution as 'literary organizations of the working class movement... to carry forward the revolutionary and democratic traditions of Australian literature'.
The first published journal came from the Melbourne branch titled Realist Writer and appeared quarterly from March 1952 to April 1954 when it was incorporated into Overland.
[89] Crawford was also chosen as one of the Queensland representations on the editorial board and the list was published in the Realist Writers magazine, issues 8 - March 1962.
[90] Crawford experienced first hand the working conditions of the Aboriginal people during the time he lived in Western Queensland, the gulf country and the Northern Territory.
He described to the interviewer how the cattle industry is built upon the torment and cruelty towards millions of animals, and of the exploitation of Aboriginal labour.
