Australia

The Industrial Workers of the World in Australia - Ian Bedford

A short critical, but generally sympathetic, assessment of the Australian Wobblies.

From; Labour History no. 13, (Journal of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History), Nov. 1967.

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD IN AUSTRALIA

IAN BEDFORD

Memoirs of the I.W.W. [Australia] - Bill Beattie

Recollections of struggles in the years around the First World War - by a former Australian Wobbly.

From; Labour History no. 13, (Journal of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History), Nov. 1967.

MEMOIRS OF THE I.W.W. [Australia]

Bill Beattie

Mount Isa: the great Queensland strike - Solidarity

Pamphlet by the UK Solidarity group on the 1964-1965 strike and lockout at the Mount Isa copper mine in Queensland, Australia, which placed miners in direct opposition to their union, employer and the Queensland State Government for almost seven months.

New Zealand: International solidarity as miners launch indefinite strike

Australian miners refused to cross a picket line yesterday at the Spring Creek coal mine as indefinite industrial action there entered its fourth day.

About 140 Reefton and Dunollie miners were due to meet in Runanga at 1pm to decide their next step.

In an escalation of previous action, the Spring Creek miners walked off the job on Friday morning.

Strike Across The Empire, 1925 - Baruch Hirson and Lorraine Vivian

British seamen marching to jail in Wellington, New Zealand, September 1925.

A fascinating and detailed account of a little known international seamens' strike in 1925, lasting over 100 days and spreading from Britain to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The strikers confronted the shared hostility of governments, employers and union leaders alike. The text also deals with how the racism prevalent in the labour movement affected the conduct and outcome of the strike.

"THIS IS A STRIKE that has vanished from history. In August 1925, the seamen of Britain, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand walked off their ships in protest against a ten per cent wage cut. It was one of the few genuinely international strikes, directed against a powerful international cartel. One would have expected it to be widely debated. Yet, newspaper coverage apart, history has largely been silent.

The Chinese mining industry - cheaper lives mean cheaper coal; so Australian bosses threaten relocation

Last week the Chinese media reported that on average one mining accident every week is being covered up by management.

Quote:

[i]Those responsible for safety had sabotaged scenes, destroyed evidence and moved bodies, Xinhua News Agency quoted Li Yizhong, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, as saying, adding that most had been brought to justice.
In one 10-day period last month, 72 people were killed in four separate accidents.

Australia: three-day lockout at Bridgestone ends

Union members at the tyre maker, Bridgestone, in Salisbury, South Australia have returned to work after a three-day lockout without pay.

There has been no progress on their pay dispute as the company refused to negotiate in good faith.
“The company is refusing to negotiate with its workers and their union, and is hiding behind Howard’s laws to deny their workers a collectively negotiated agreement.”

Duke, James Herriott, 1939-1992

A short biography of Australian anarchist poet, James Herriott Duke, who also lived in the UK.

Remembering Jim Duke
"I started performing poems as a timid person with a stutter but the spirit of the times soon converted me into a bellowing bull." Jim Duke

“The voice played like a human saxophone.” Nicholas Zurbrugg

Australia: Railway workers walk off over safety

Pacific National railway workers went on unofficial strike on Sunday, reportedly over safety issues.

Alison Ribbon reported that the strike was apparently unplanned and dubbed a "wildcat strike" by the railway union.

Safety issues surrounding Pacific National have been in the headlines recently, with three derailments involving the company's trains in less than a year.

A train carrying paper from Hobart to the Burnie port derailed near Ulverstone a week ago.

1914-2000: The Australian IWW and 'Direct Action'

A history of the once highly-influential Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union and its publication Direct Action in Australia.

Direct Action, later a monthly magazine, was first published by the US-founded Industrial Workers of the World union in Sydney in January 1914. They borrowed some dough from a member and bought themselves an archaic printing press so that all restraints upon expression of ‘clear cut revolutionary principles’ were removed.

1883-today: The radical history of Aussie rules football

A history of Aussie rules football and its intersection with working class politics since the first football strike in 1883.

Scabs, coppers, strikes and footy

1989: Australian pilots strike

An account of the 1989 strike of the highly democratic and self-managed Australian Federation of Air Pilots union, which was the biggest industrial struggle of the period.

1986: Victoria nurses' strike

The history of the second state-wide strike of nurses in Victoria, Australia against cuts and over wages, conditions and staff/patient ratios, which won its demands, with the solidarity of other workers.

Nurses are often seen as the archetypal ‘handmaidens’ of men. Yet if there was ever an experience that demolished this image, it was the Victorian nurses’ strike of 1986, in which a predominantly female workforce took on and defeated the State Labour government.

1985: Victoria nurses' strike

The history of the first state-wide strike of nurses in Victoria, Australia over wages and staff/patient ratios.

It ended in a partial victory, despite the unions' lack of militancy and more importantly layed the groundwork of rank-and-file organisation which was to play a key role in the 1986 nurses' strike.

1981: Kortex sweatshop strike

The history of a victorious strike of 300 mostly female immigrant workers in an ultra-exploitative textile sweatshop in Australia.

Sweatshop rebels
How quickly people can change. The December 1981 Kortex strike illustrates how women’s oppression and their exploitation as workers combine and interact. A struggle in the workplace can spill over into the home and family life, with remarkable consequences.

1972: Broadmeadows Ford workers’ strike

In June 1972 workers at the Broadmeadows Ford factory exploded smashing up their workplace, facing off police and forcing union bosses into endorsing a strike they had attempted to abandon. This is a short history of the events.

The dispute was only one of the hundreds that tore across Australia that year, but was remarkable for the strikers ability to circumvent official control, gain widespread community support and push the needs of migrant workers onto the national agenda.

1971-1974: Green bans by builders in Australia

A history of the massive campaign of industrial action by building workers which protected the environment and local communities by enacting green bans - refusals to work on harmful construction projects.

The bans prevented billions of dollars of development over 4 years, until the campaign was halted by the union leadership.

1971: The Kelly's Bush green ban

A short account of how construction workers saved the Kelly's Bush area of park land in Australia from development by refusing to work, and kick-started a movement of environmentally-minded industrial action.

In 1971 a group of women from the fashionable suburb of Hunter's Hill in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, were trying to save Kelly's Bush, the last remaining open space in that area. Construction firm AV Jennings planned to build luxury houses over the bush land.

1934: Queensland canecutters' strike

Racist cartoon from union newspaper The Worker in 1925 depicting European immigrant workers in the sugar industry

The history of the victorious strike of mostly migrant cane-cutting workers in Australia. To secure the victory the workers had to overcome the bosses' resistance, the police and the racist trade union.

Like many other anti- fascists, Francesco Carmagnola was forced to emigrate from Italy because of fascist violence. From his arrival in 1922, he was increasingly active and prominent in organising anti fascist activities in North Queensland, Sydney and Melbourne.

1890: The Australian maritime strike

A short history of the 1890 strike of seamen in Australia against mass wage cuts amongst other things, which ended in defeat for the workers.

Although the origins of the 1890 maritime strike are disputed, the events that accompanied and followed this strike were a turning point in Australian history. The strike began in Adelaide and rapidly spilled over into all the other colonies. The battle was particularly bitter in Victoria and New South Wales. Both employers and unions were itching for a fight.