Richard Dixon, born Clifton Reginald Walker (26 May 1905 – 7 March 1976) was an Australian trade unionist who served as national president of the

Communist Party of Australia The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian communist party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membership and influence having been ...

from 1948 to 1972.

Biography

He was born at

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

to miner Henry Kidd Walker and Emily, ''née'' Wilmott, although the family soon moved to Lithgow. Reginald, as he was known, left school at fourteen and worked at a bicycle shop and then at a post office. He joined the New South Wales Government Railways and Tramways in 1925 and briefly joined the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

, although he was quickly drawn to the

(CPA). Moving to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

in 1928 to work at the railway parcels office, he became secretary of the CPA's Sydney branch in 1929, as well as secretary of the local branch of the

Australian Railways Union The Australian Railways Union (ARU) was an Australian trade union in existence from 1920 to 1993. The ARU was an industrial union, representing all types of workers employed in the rail industry, excluding locomotive enginedrivers and tradesm ...

. A supporter of independence from the Labor Party, he was involved in a successful push for leadership change in 1929 led by

Lance Sharkey Lawrence Louis Sharkey (19 August 1898 – 13 May 1967), commonly known as Lance Sharkey or L. L. Sharkey, was an Australian trade unionist and communist leader. From 1948 to 1965, he served as the secretary-general of Communist Party of Austr ...

and

Jack Miles John R. Miles (born July 30, 1942) is an American author. He is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the MacArthur Fellowship. His writings on religion, politics, and culture have appeared in numerous national publication ...

, which brought with it a berth on the party's central executive committee, a position he held until 1974. In January 1931, Walker embarked on a visit to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, attending the

International Lenin School The International Lenin School (ILS) () was an official training school operated in Moscow, Soviet Union, by the Communist International from May 1926 to 1938. It was resumed after the Second World War and run by the Communist Party of the Soviet ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. He returned to Australia in March 1933 and changed his name to Richard Dixon in an attempt to evade the attention of the security service, which had labelled him a "dangerous revolutionary". He became the CPA's general secretary in 1937. On 25 March 1939 he married Dorothy Jean Button at the registry office in

North Sydney North Sydney is a suburb and commercial district on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. And is the administrative centre for the local government area of North Sydney Council. History The Indigenous people on the s ...

. He was elected national president of the CPA in 1948. In 1945 he attacked the White Australia policy as racist and offensive, and he represented the CPA at the Petrov royal commission in 1954. Although loyal to the Soviet Union, he agreed with the CPA's independent stance in the 1960s and disagreed with the 1968 invasion of

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. Dixon retired as national president of the CPA in 1972 and died in 1976 of hypertensive

cardiovascular disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is any disease involving the heart or blood vessels. CVDs constitute a class of diseases that includes: coronary artery diseases (e.g. angina, heart attack), heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, rheumati ...

Bankstown Bankstown is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 19 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is part of the Canterbury-Bankstown region. Bankstown is the administrative centre ...

In popular culture

*''

Hearts of Iron IV ''Hearts of Iron IV'' is a 2016 grand strategy video game developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive. It is the sequel to 2009's ''Hearts of Iron III'' and the fourth main installment in the ''Hearts of Iron'' s ...

'', the 2016 strategy game by

Paradox Interactive Paradox Interactive AB is a video game publisher based in Stockholm, Sweden. The company started out as the video game division of Target Games and then Paradox Entertainment (now Cabinet Entertainment) before being spun out into an independ ...

features Richard Dixon as a political leader of a hypothetical Communist Australia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon, Richard 1905 births 1976 deaths Australian expatriates in the Soviet Union International Lenin School alumni Communist Party of Australia members