Helen Ayres, a long-time member and supporter of the Communist League in New Zealand, died in Auckland Dec. 25 at 86.
Ayres was drawn into political activity as a trade unionist and campaigner for women’s rights in the mid-1970s after she returned to work after 15 years at home raising five children. Many knew her as Helen Dee when in December 1976 she joined the Socialist Action League, the forerunner of the Communist League.
Ayres participated in many union fights and other working- class struggles. She was a stalwart at the historic 1977-78 Maori land occupation at Bastion Point in the heart of Auckland. She was a leader of the Working Women’s Council in Auckland and its representative on the Auckland Trades Council, the citywide labor federation. Their campaign led to the national union movement adopting the Working Women’s Charter in 1980.
Ayres worked in meat plants and factories in several cities, helping to strengthen trade unions, build solidarity and recruit to the communist movement.
In her later years, she was one of the hundreds of volunteers organized in the Print Project worldwide. These supporters of the Socialist Workers Party in the U.S. and Communist Leagues in a number of countries collaborate to produce, print and distribute Pathfinder Press books written by SWP leaders and other revolutionaries.
More than 50 family members, friends and Communist League supporters celebrated Ayres’ life at a gathering at a daughter’s home in Auckland Dec. 28.
Mike Tucker
Sydney, Australia