About BETTER RED THAN DEAD by Mark Edmonds
Better Red than Dead was a phrase used during the cold war by some people opposed to nuclear weapons meaning that it would be better being controlled by a Communist government than to be killed in a nuclear war. It was one side of a competing slogans battle. The other side’s slogan, the anti-Communist side, used the phrase: Better Dead than Red.
Born into a communist family which he describes as a cult. Mark Edmonds grew from newspaper delivery boy and model aero plane-tragic to become a student at the International Communist School in Moscow
It was true. They were a communist family. Mark’s father Lloyd had fought against the army of the Spanish fascist General Franco who had launched a civil war in Spain against the popularly elected Republican government. He had gone to England to study at the London School of Economics where he learned about the creation of the International Brigade which comprised volunteers from around the world. They were preparing to go to fight against the Spanish fascists. Lloyd was a pacifist and knew nothing about fighting or the military, but he was anti-fascist. He joined the International Brigade. But Mark chose to not live as a red rebel on the fringes of our society. He decided to get out into the real world and mix it with the best and the worst. But he retained some of his inherited rebelliousness.
He worked as a taxi driver in Melbourne and a Rookie Journalist on a Communist party newspaper. He was a photographer, bookshop owner and community radio program presenter. He ultimately achieved his dream career as a mechanical design engineer He became a high-flying engineering project manager and family man.
He was called a “Hit Man” when he was tasked to protect his employer’s financial interests against the manipulations of a bullying construction site manager.
This is the story of the peaks and troughs Mark Edmonds experienced during his lifetime journey. He speaks of the people he met and loved and the people he crossed swords with along the way. Mark quotes the saying “You can never run away from your past, but it doesn’t hurt to get a good start.”
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Mark Edmonds was born during tough times in Melbourne Australia during the second world war. His father, Lloyd was a veteran of the International Brigade who fought against fascism in Spain. While fighting in Spain Lloyd became a Communist. He continued as a Communist back in Australia. Mark thought that living in a Communist family was like living in a cult. He yearned to live a normal boy’s life. He spent his youth doing ordinary things, but rebelliousness was his mantra.
Mark became a member of the Eureka Youth League for several years. He started moving in Communist circles. He wanted to get to the theoretical basis of the Communist movement which he had been born into. He attended political lectures, discussions and classes on political theory and took part in numerous political demonstrations and marches. He accepted an offer to study at the International Communist Party School in Moscow. He then worked as a junior journalist on the Communist newspaper in Melbourne, the Guardian.
But he desperately wanted a more normal life. His ASIO file was sometimes an obstacle to living a normal life.
He dreamed of becoming a mechanical engineer. He achieved his dream.
The engineering projects he worked on often ran into billions of dollars in value. He travelled widely to design offices in most Australian states and overseas and to mine sites and design offices in remote parts of Australia. He loved the challenges and the responsibility of the mining boom which ran in Australia for about 15 years from the late 1990’s. High hourly payment rates were available for Mark as a specialist engineer. These engineers were in short supply. Mark was often contacted several times on any given week with enticing job offers on mining projects in various parts of Australia.
Although Mark had some enticing job offers at places he was already working at, he was never interested in climbing the ladder at any of those companies. He says that those management jobs were cut-throat and highly stressful. He knew that the best thing for him was to continue with his specialization in the design and construction project management of heavy mining and materials handling equipment.