Background
He was born in Melbourne to Louis and Jane Aarons, who passed on their radical politics to their son.
He was born in Melbourne to Louis and Jane Aarons, who passed on their radical politics to their son.
Sam joined the Australian Labor Party at the age of sixteen and was an anti-war campaigner during World War I. This activism led to his sacking from his job at the Customs Department, and he was injured during a 1916 march to the Victorian Parliament. He led a workers" delegation to the Soviet Union in 1934 and recruited a young unionist, Jim Healy, to the Certified Public Accountants. Healy would be one of the most significant unionists of his time.
Aarons fought in the Spanish Civil War on the republican side, not leaving until the collapse of the Republic began in 1938.
Returning to Australia, he remained active in communist affairs, becoming Western Australian State Secretary and a longtime member of the Central Committee.