Thanks for uploading this, archival footage is endlessly important to show later generations just how it difficult it was and what people had to fight for. Does anyone know the song at 51:30 - 53:30 big thieves? thanks
I grew up in Balmain and remember the huge influx of workers to cockatoo.....little did we know that Australian industry would die a slow death....... Cockatoos closure was the beginning in my mind......
I was outside the hall a number of times during this strike. The only thing that kept it going was the Socialist Labour League (Australian Trotskists, today SEP) who had a member in the island. Were it not for them, the occupation would have been sold off a long time before as the union were pushing for at best, a few crumbs like a small percentage of redundancies (the rest of the workers would be outright sacked). The union leadership put posters out ridiculing this worker as a "pizza face trot [Trotskist]", 'warning' the rank and file against him, at one point they organized their thugs to beat him up. In the end, the union called the police to guard the hall as they announced they had made a backdoor deal with management
+IvoMac For me looking back on it. This was the turning point where Australia's rise of the Billionaires was created by the birth of this nation's Working Poor. It was also the start of destruction of our manufacturing industry. Hawke was our Thatcher.
This is inspiring and envigorating. Thanks John. Timelessly relevant
Thanks Campbell
Thanks Campbell
Thanks Campbell
Thanks for uploading this, archival footage is endlessly important to show later generations just how it difficult it was and what people had to fight for. Does anyone know the song at 51:30 - 53:30 big thieves? thanks
Today, nothing is left from an industry that once employed more than 1500 workers!
+amador navidi
So true.
I grew up in Balmain and remember the huge influx of workers to cockatoo.....little did we know that Australian industry would die a slow death....... Cockatoos closure was the beginning in my mind......
I agree with you on that Anthony.
I was outside the hall a number of times during this strike. The only thing that kept it going was the Socialist Labour League (Australian Trotskists, today SEP) who had a member in the island. Were it not for them, the occupation would have been sold off a long time before as the union were pushing for at best, a few crumbs like a small percentage of redundancies (the rest of the workers would be outright sacked). The union leadership put posters out ridiculing this worker as a "pizza face trot [Trotskist]", 'warning' the rank and file against him, at one point they organized their thugs to beat him up.
In the end, the union called the police to guard the hall as they announced they had made a backdoor deal with management
I was there from 79 to 87 , Engineering boys town class of 79.
Surprising & disappointing all this happened under a Fed Labour Govourment
+IvoMac For me looking back on it. This was the turning point where Australia's rise of the Billionaires was created by the birth of this nation's Working Poor. It was also the start of destruction of our manufacturing industry. Hawke was our Thatcher.
Sold out by the Rightwing labour/DLP had taken over and white anted the left wing unions.
maybe someone should have started a workers party?
The hungry mile all over again?
That's so true a comparison Peter. I've never been back to Cockatoo since I was laid off two before my daughter's birth nearly 28 years ago in 1990
*Phase, not faze