Kath Williams

Background

She was born at Lara to law clerk Edward Crombie Chambers and Jane Miriam, née Harding.

Education

She was educated at Melbourne University High School before graduating as a teacher from the Melbourne College of Domestic Economy in 1915.

Career

She nominated for the seat of Caulfield at the 1935 election, but withdrew prior to the election. Later in 1936, she joined the Communist Party of Australia, and in December she and Clarey were divorced. She resumed her teaching activities in 1938, first at Portland and then Wonthaggi.

Following the Australian Council of Trade Unions" 1953 decision to establish equal pay committees in each state, Williams was elected secretary of the Victorian committee.

Williams resigned from the Communist Party in 1963 to join the new Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist).

Achievements

• Williams won a position on the state committee of the Communist Party in 1948, which she used primarily to promote equal pay for women. She also advanced this cause as union delegate to the Melbourne Trades Hall Council. She attended the World Conference of Working Women in Budapest in 1956 as an observer, and wrote a booklet, Equality Will Be Won, about the struggle.

Politics

She was expelled from the Labor Party in December 1935 together with Maurice Blackburn, having spoken at a rally organised by the Victorian Council Against War and Fascism. Although she was reinstated in the Labor Party in 1936, her increasing radicalism led to the end of both her ALP membership and her marriage to Clarey.