Career
In 1932, Origlass joined the Communist Party of Australia (Certified Public Accountants), which was then aligned with Stalin"s Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. Expelled soon after, he became involved in the Trotskyist movement. He joined the Workers Party in 1934 and by 1937 was its leading figure. The Workers Party merged into the Communist League of Australia in 1938.
In 1940, Origlass started working at Mort"s Dock in Sydney"s Balmain shipyards.
He was elected as a shop steward with the Federated Ironworkers Association of Australia. Together with fellow Trotskyists Laurie Short and Jim McClelland, he battled with the Certified Public Accountants-dominated leadership of the union.
After Hitler"s invasion of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics in 1941, the Certified Public Accountants supported the Australian war effort, but the Trotskyists did not. In 1941, the Communist League was banned by the Australian government because of its anti-war stance.
The struggle in the union culminated in 1945 when the leadership removed Origlass from his position as a shop steward.
The Balmain waterfront responded by going on strike against the union, and Origlass was re-instated. Short and McClelland left the Trotskyist movement soon afterwards, becoming prominent figures in the Australian Labor Party (ALP). Short became national secretary of the union in 1951, defeating the Certified Public Accountants"s Ernie Thornton after a bitter legal battle.
Meanwhile, Origlass formed the Labor Socialist Group to pursue an entrist strategy inside the ALP. In 1958 he was elected to Leichhardt Council for the ALP. A decade later he was expelled from the ALP but re-elected to the council on an "Independent Labor" ticket.
