Liz Ross


Liz Ross is a long-term socialist activist and author based in Melbourne, Australia. She has campaigned for Women's Rights and Gay Liberation since 1972 and was a union delegate in the Department of Social Security for ten years during the Hawke era. Notably, she has contributed detailed accounts of industrial struggle in Australia, with militant workers in the both defunct Builders Labourers Federation and the Royal Australian Nurses’ Federation. She is also a member of the Trotskyist organisation Socialist Alternative, as well as its electoral alliance party Victorian Socialists and a founding and life member of the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives.

Writing

In 2013, Ross wrote Revolution is for us: The Left and Gay Liberation in Australia, published by Interventions, which refutes claims that Marxism has no tradition of dealing with sexual oppression. Victorian Equal Love Convenor and fellow member of Socialist Alternative, Ali Hogg said of the book: "Ross's provocative book challenges conventional views about the origins of modern Lesbian and Gay movements. Her insights are sure to spark debate among fighters for equal rights and liberation."
In 2004, Ross wrote Dare to struggle, dare to win! Builders Labourers fight deregistration, 1981-94, published by Vulgar Press, which outlined the history of the militant Builders Labourers Federation. David Renton of Labour History called the book "a wonderfully partisan account that takes seriously the challenge of understanding the past through the eyes of the people who realised that strong trade unions of unskilled workers are a rare and precious thing, the men and women who fought against the bosses and the courts."

Selected books