Australia
Invasion of the Australian parliament, 1996
An article produced from eye-witness accounts of the invasion of the Australian Parliament on 19th August, 1996. From Subversion #20 (1996)
On Monday 19th August, a demonstration in Canberra, Australia, turned into an occupation of that country's Parliament building. The demonstartion was called by the ACTU, the official union organisation. Their response was predictable and once again showed how thoroughly union organisations have been incorporated into capitalism's system of social control.
Industrial relations reform in Australia and the campaign against it, 2005
Letter from Australia by their Treason group to Prol-Position about proposed new anti-worker legislation in 2005.
In 1996 The Liberal Party (analogous to the UK Conservatives) led by John Howard in coalition with the National Party (the farmers party) won control of the federal government after 13 years of Labor government. In October 2004 Howard won his fourth term in office and for the first a time since the early 1980s an Australian government has a majority in the upper house of Parliament, the Senate.
Anatomy of an Industrial Struggle: Chrysler Factory at Tonsley Park in Adelaide 1976-1978
An account of two years of struggle at an Australian Chrysler plant by one of the workers, including a detailed look at the role of the union.
Introduction
This article by Garry Hill, a worker at the Tonsley Park Chrysler plant near Adelaide in Australia, describes a series of struggles in which he was actively involved.
Sydney bus drivers defy union and take wildcat action
A six-hour strike by 130 bus drivers in western Sydney on Monday morning, carried out in defiance of their union, has produced furious denunciations in the media and from an industrial court judge. The drivers walked out at the Busways Blacktown depot at 3.30 a.m. against the imposition of new timetables that would impose shorter times for routes.
Drivers said that the timetables, due to commence in October, would be impossible to meet, forcing them to run late, which would not only inconvenience and anger passengers but cut short the drivers’ break periods. The workers said they would be under enormous pressure to drive over the speed limit.
Baggage handlers take wildcat action at Melbourne Airport
Thousands of travellers faced delays at Melbourne Airport yesterday (14th February) after 45 Qantas baggage handlers went on strike mid-morning.
All of the airline's flights into and out of Tullamarine were affected by the six-hour walkout, which began at 10.30am, in a dispute centring on the length of workers' lunch breaks.
However, after a federal sitting of the Industrial Relations Commission, all the staff were ordered back to work about 4.30pm. A Qantas spokesman said the strike was illegal.
Australia: Journalists to strike against job cuts
After the announcement that 550 jobs would be cut by Fairfax Media in Australia and New Zealand on August 26th, journalists at The Age (Melbourne, Australia) and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers have decided to go on strike until Monday.
A Fairfax spokeswoman announced that both papers would come out on Friday, but refused to comment on whether weekend papers would be affected.
Melbourne postal workers in wildcat strike
Postal workers in Melbourne returned to work today after taking unofficial action yesterday (June 12th) against a bonus cut.
Mail into and out of Victoria was also be affected by the snap strike by mail workers at the Dandenong letters processing centre, which normally is staffed by up to 1200 people. The workers walked off the job yesterday afternoon over the loss of special Sunday shifts that took about $160 out of their pay packets.
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.
