| George Seelaf was born in 1914 and became interested in the labor movement through years enduring the Great Depression. Already a member of the Communist Pary of Australia by the early stages of the Second World War, Seelaf was employed as a yard-man at Angliss' meat works. In 1944 he was elected an organiser for the Australasian Meat Industry Employees' Union [AMIEU], Victorian Branch. Three years later he had become secretary. Fighting the meat monopolies became a particular focus of Seelaf's in his time as leader of the AMIEU and consequently forged many alliances with fellow city unionists and rural communities in doing so. George Seelaf retired from union participation in 1973 at the age of fifty-nine. Highly respected for having instigated many cultural and social activities for trade unionists, Seelaf was honoured in 1983 by having the new AMIEU, Victorian Branch headquarters in Lygon Street named after him. He died in 1988 at the age of seventy-four. |
