Kenneth Kenafick

Kenneth Joseph Kenafick (11 April 1904 – 26 January 1982), also known by the pseudonyms James Kennedy and Leo Conon, was an Australian poet, author and anti-conscription campaigner.

Kenafick was born at Norseman in Western Australia, and studied at the University of Western Australia for a Master of Arts (1932). He then became a teacher, studying at Melbourne Teachers' College and teaching at high schools throughout Victoria. Three volumes of his poetry, written under the pseudonym James Kennedy, were published in 1935–39.^[1] He was a member of the Victorian Teachers' Union and the Australian Labor Party, although he broke away from the party in support of Maurice Blackburn in 1942, becoming secretary of the No Conscription Campaign from 1943 to 1946. He was Secretary of its successor, the League for Freedom, for many years. He retired in 1968 and moved to South Australia, and he died at Loxton in 1982.^[2]

Publications[]

• Maurice Blackburn and the No-Conscription Campaign in the Second World War (1948)
• The Australian Labour Movement in Relation to War, Socialism and Internationalism (1958)

References[]