| Samuel Aarons | |
| Birth Date: | 21 October 1895 |
| Birth Place: | Prahran, Victoria, Australia |
| Death Place: | Perth, WA, Australia |
| Death Cause: | Heart Attack |
| Party: | Communist Party of Australia |
| Children: | 3 |
Samuel Aarons (21 October 1895 - 10 January 1971)[1] was an Australian radical activist and communist.
He was born in Prahran, Melbourne on the 21st of October 1895, to Louis and Jane Aarons (nee Hyam),[2] 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. Although his parents were founding members of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in 1920, Sam instead established a chain of shoe repair stores in Sydney, although he did eventually join the CPA in 1930. He led a workers' delegation to the Soviet Union in 1934 and recruited a young unionist, Jim Healy, to the CPA; Healy would be one of the most significant unionists of his time.
Aarons fought in the Spanish Civil War on the republican side,[3] not leaving until the collapse of the Republic began in 1938. Upon his return to Australia, Aarons embarked upon a speaking tour advocating for Spanish democracy.[4] He remained active in communist affairs, but stood as an independent in the 1941 New South Wales state election for the western Sydney seat of Granville, where he only received 4.5%.
Later he became Western Australian State Secretary and a longtime member of the Central Committee.[5] He retired in 1968.[6] Aarons had three sons: two, Laurie and Eric, by his first wife, and a third, Gerald, by his second wife, Annette Moore.