by Daniel Rashid, August 2021
“ Yes, we want to build. however, we prefer to build urgently required hospitals, schools, other populace utilities, high-quality flats, units and houses, provided they are designed with adequate refer for the environment, than to build ugly stereotyped architecturally bankrupt blocks of concrete and looking glass offices … Though we want all our members employed, we will not just become robots directed by developer-builders who value the dollar at the expense of the environment. More and more, we are going to determine which buildings we will build. ”
Jack Mundey
I, like a few other australian anarchists, was pleased to discover a small report on the green bans, published on the web site of the Union Communiste Libertaire. The movement around the green bans is arguably the most significant original contribution the working class in Australia has made to the ball-shaped workers ’ movement, and it is antic to see people in other countries take an sake in it. however, the UCL ’ s article was only quite brief, and it naturally leaves out a few important details. It is for this reason that I ’ ve written this article, in the hope that it will increase awareness of the struggles of the New South Wales branch of the Builders Labourers Federation ( NSW BLF ). These were not plainly “ ecological ” or “ environmentalist ” struggles, but a very substantial expression of the libertarian, competitive inclination that exists within all workers ’ struggles .
diachronic background
After the second World War, the class landscape in Australia went through a period of significant change. Hundreds of thousands of workers from countries like England, Ireland, Greece, Italy and Eastern Europe were encouraged to migrate and settle in Australia, gaining jobs in the boom manufacture and construction industries .
previously, migration to Australia was restricted by the White Australia policy, which prevented the migration of any person not of western european descent. One of the first policies introduced after Australia became an independent country in 1901, it had the overwhelm confirm of the labor drift at the prison term. however, by WWII the policy was beginning to break down, and support for it within the union campaign and within the Labor Party had begun to diminish, though it would not be formally removed until the early 1970s .
a well as this, autochthonal peoples in Australia were asserting themselves on the political and economic playing field more than always before. The 1946 Pilbara hit of Indigenous agricultural workers proved that with the solidarity of the wide labor movement, autochthonal people could use their position as exploited proletarians to not alone secure better pay, but to besides fight against barbarous state racism .
technical changes in the construction industry had led to a crisis among construction workers. Innovations like increased manipulation of concrete and cranes had led to a relative decline in importance of “ skilled ” tradesmen like carpenters, stonemasons and bricklayers, and the lift of “ incompetent ” builders labourers like concreters, destruction men, scaffolders, riggers and dogmen – the brave souls who would stand atop grus loads and guide them across the flip, hundreds of metres in the air. As one upset architect remarked at the time, “ the crane driver and the dogmen [ … ] can tie up the whole web site ”. The new methods of constructing the massive high rises relied on these newly crucial workers .
By the recently 60s, these changes had resulted in the creation of a sector of the working course that had not alone gained increase powers as a solution of technical foul changes, but was besides more diverse, and often had some know of clamber outside the arena of the workplace. Many of the workers were young, without a bang-up manage of experience on construction sites ; they were not assimilated to the traditional means of dealing with industrial disputes, and were frankincense more will to employ bluff, root means to secure better give and conditions. The increase work that came from “ boom ” conditions gave workers assurance to demand more, and if work on one site was badly, they had the possibility of easily finding better oeuvre elsewhere .
political changes : setting the view for the BLF
The rise of the belligerent NSW BLF and the egress of the k bans was facilitated by political changes in the Australian union landscape. Since the turn of the century, the Australian union motion has traditionally been dominated by forces adhering to the Australian Labor Party ( ALP ). The leadership of the unions tend to align themselves with one or another cabal of the party. broadly speaking, these factions coalesced in the post-war earned run average as a broadly social-democratic leftist faction, and a anti-communist and Catholic-dominated rightist cabal .
The position to the leave of the Labor Party was dominated by the Communist Party of Australia ( CPA ), which emerged in the 1920s out of the ashes of the Industrial Workers of the World ( IWW ). In the 1930s, the CPA began to win official positions in a number of unions, including the dockworkers union and the miners union. The CPA ’ s industrial power peaked in the 1940s, though it would decline in the aftermath of a government-broken char miners strike in 1949. however, they maintained a significant influence in the decades to come. The CPA and all its splits, which never had any electoral successes like those of the french or italian communist parties, placed huge strategic importance on the coupling movement .
In the aftermath of the 1956 soviet invasion of Hungary, the party entered a drawn-out period of internal variety. In 1961 a pro-China faction around the barrister Ted Hill broke away to form the Communist Party of Australia ( Marxist-Leninist ) ( CPA ML ), a Maoist party. The 1960s had seen the raise of a CPA faction desiring more independence from the USSR. The dominance of this tendency under the leadership of home secretary Laurie Aarons had resulted in the USSR severing ties from the group, and in 1968 the CPA openly condemned the invasion of Czechoslovakia. As a result, a USSR-loyal cabal broke away in 1971 to form the Socialist Party of Australia ( SPA ). These political differences should be kept in beware when understanding the trajectory of the NSW BLF and the green ban bowel movement broadly .
Fighting for command
In the 1940s and 50s, conditions for labourers in the construction industry were bad : workers were underpay, employment was impermanent, work was dangerous, and the facilities on-site like bathrooms and break rooms were bad at best, non-existent at worst. To quote celebrated BLF organiser Jack Mundey :
“ Conditions, as they were understood in the majority of work places, did not exist. You would come on the job and you were lucky if you found a nail to hang your clothes on. There would be one tap outside the dress shed, practically no soap, and the first fight was to get hot water system. There were no tables and chairs to sit on in the breaks. The toilets would be old pans, often in a cruddy condition. The sheds were filled with cement. cipher was detailed to look after hygiene or early amenities. If workers raised their voices on behalf of these basic decencies, they would frequently be sacked that same day. ”
Despite much will to fight, the NSW BLF in the 1940s and 50s was neither a belligerent nor peculiarly collectivist union. It was run by a clique around the crimson and corrupt Fred Thomas, who had assumed control in the early 1940s. Thomas ’ anti-communism led him into intense dispute with the CPA-led Building Workers Industrial Union ( BWIU ), which represented skilled tradesmen like carpenters and bricklayers. He played on tensions between the tradesmen and the labourers in order to undermine the BWIU ’ second combativeness and to keep BLF members from being swept along by its relative assertiveness. He continually undercut his own members by negotiating back-room deals with certain employers ; he would even go out of his way to mock the accents of migrant BLF members in the BLF ’ s daybook .
The CPA organised opposition to the leadership by creating a rank-and-file group. The group was led by party members like Joe Ferguson, but it besides included supporters of the ALP leftist and politically unaligned workers. They published and distributed a monthly newsletter called “ The Hoist ”, discussing the bad give and bad conditions, encouraging more competitive actions, and supporting roast actions between BWIU tradesmen and BLF labourers. Distributing the newsletter besides gave them an opportunity to come into contact with labourers and tradesmen across the city .
The rank-and-file opposition incensed Thomas, who would frequently use violence against militants. As one rank-and-file member reported ,
“ then then when [ the rank-and-file ] got to a certain stage Thomas had to go to Newtown [ a suburb of Sydney ] and get these blokes that had the flannel farseeing dustcoats and the hats on them. And come in and say, ‘ Fucking say anything and we ’ ll fixate you. ’ And they used to open up their coats and show you the butt of their revolvers at the meetings. ”
After a number of years of patient exercise, the rank-and-file was able to get into a military position where they could seriously challenge the leadership. In 1958, a rank-and-file ticket for the branch elections was organised with the erstwhile Thomas-aligned figure “ Banjo ” Patterson. It won, and the NSW BLF now had the quad to publicly begin a number of militant campaigns. They were able to link together with members of the BWIU and other trades unions to carry out joint struggle. After a bribe election in 1958 that saw the correct wing re-elected for three years, the CPA men were able to decisively win the 1961 election on a joint slate with leftist ALP members, taking advantage of splits among the rightist .
They assumed manipulate of a marriage drown in debt, with little experience of what to do ; newly elected secretary Mick McNamara was only twenty-one. Within a short period they were able to increase participation in the monthly ramify meetings and launch a issue of militant actions. Around the same time, the federal leadership of the coupling was taken over by Norm Gallagher, a CPA member. The federal agency was based in Melbourne, Victoria, where the state BLF branch there was led by another CPA man, Paddy Malone .
Despite a formidable challenge to the NSW BLF leadership from the rightist in 1964, the rank-and-file group was able to win again, even more decisively this clock time. In 1968, CPA penis Jack Mundey was elected repository. He formed a team around himself with other CPA members like Joe Owens, and Labor members like Bob Pringle and Mick McNamara. It would be under the determine of these men that the builders labourers of NSW would enter their most critical period in the 1960s and 70s .
A dynamic work force
The struggles for better pay and conditions launched by builders labourers in the 60s and early 70s resulted in a extremist transformation of this section of the ferment class. no longer were labourers at the bottom of the scrapheap. They were now being paid wages that were occasionally in excess of the wages of tradesmen. Whereas once builders labourers felt ashamed of their job, they now walked around with their heads held senior high school : they were nobelium longer “ equitable a laborer ”, they were nowadays “ a bloody BL ” !
This transformation affected the confidence of both migrant members and autochthonal members beyond their immediate identities as builders labourers. One Portuguese-born BLF member reported at a meet that he felt he was no longer “ good a wog ” as a result of his interest in the BLF. The union had begun to facilitate migrant interest in struggles by employing translators at all arm meetings and hiring multilingual union organisers. For some migrant workers, this was one of the first experiences of inclusion in australian society .
A phone number of outstanding autochthonal activists of the era worked day jobs as builders labourers, supported at every turn by the union. The union helped fund the creation of a autochthonal workers ’ newspaper, The Aboriginal Worker. They besides employed an Indigenous organizer named Kevin “ Cookie ” Cook. He helped organise coupling resistor to the eviction of autochthonal squatters in Redfern, an area of inner-city Sydney that was and remains one of the centres of autochthonal life in the area .
The nature of labouring work entail that it much attracted “ improper ” personality types. workplace was dangerous, temp and heavily, normally taking stead outdoors, with labourers braving the intense Sydney sun year-round. Workers went from job-to-job, employer-to-employer, enduring regular periods of unemployment when no exploit was to be found. A government question in 1975 found that of a sample of 46 labourers, lone seven were married, and only four owned or were buying a house. In the words of a complaining build industry employer, the full employment situation meant that bosses were forced to use workers that were “ neither interested in, nor desirable for, permanent employment ” .
Builders labourers in this earned run average were youthful, and embodied the pigeonhole of a “ larrikin ” : a amiable but barbarian world, with no respect for authority but farthermost regard for his boyfriend “ battlers ” – propertyless underdogs. In the words of early laborer Mick McEvoy, “ if you ’ re the lowest of the low, then who gives a fuck ? ”. The comedian Paul Hogan was a rigger on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in this time period, and would use the workers he met as material to create the Crocodile Dundee character. The spirit of these young workers would lead the BLF into every kind of struggle conceivable – the NSW BLF even helped protest a rugby league cabaret that denied entrance to some BLF members, whose long hair broke club rules .
Militant methods
The combativeness of builders labourers in this period was facilitated by the basically federalist social organization of the union at the prison term. leadership positions were rotated regularly, paid staff received the equivalent of an average builders labourers ’ engage, all bans were to be decided on by mass meetings of union members, and control of strikes was given to member-run come to committees .
The builders labourers employed boldface strategies to achieve their aims and endanger employers into submission. For example, if a concrete decant is interrupted, left bare or set improperly, then it has to be ripped up and it all has to start again. If bosses did not give in to their demands, builders labourers would simply walk off the web site mid-pour. The bare threat of a interrupt concrete decant would force employers to the dicker table before construction began .
early means of sabotage employed by the labourers include the organize of vigilante squads to destroy work carried out by scabs, and the casual bankrupt of a time-keeper ’ south clock. Though these methods would scare many unionists, like the tradesmen in the BWIU, they were undoubtedly successful. In the late 60s, the NSW BLF had around 4000 members. By 1973, that count had skyrocketed to 11 000, influenced by the build boom, but besides as a solution of the NSW BLF ’ s effectiveness and down-to-earth social organization. The practice of sabotage itself led to the development of the labourers ’ fighting skills : in order to coordinate their activities, the vigilantes learned to use switchboards, typewriters and maps .
The officials had high gear standards of their organisers, who were appointed at outgrowth meetings. In 1970 it became policy for organisers to be appointed temporarily ; after they finished their condition, they went back to their tools and resumed tug work. All officials, after a maximum of six years, were to step down and return to work. In a decision controversial flush among other NSW BLF activists, secretary Jack Mundey himself declined to seek re-election in 1973, returning to work as a laborer on the site of St. Vincent ’ s Hospital whilst besides pursuing speaking arrangements .
The NSW BLF displayed consistent solidarity with other workers in other unions, even those unions with whom they had ideological differences. They had few limit disputes with the BWIU, even though fights over coverage were everyday in the construction industry in other states, and in other countries. NSW BLF members gave hardheaded solidarity to striking plumbers, tram drivers, nurses, painters, dockers and many others. When they were expelled from the NSW Labor Council in 1971 after being unfairly blamed for bully behavior in the Council ’ s hall, they refused to use the courts to demand re-entry, since they were in principle opposed to using a state soundbox against a worker constitution .
The NSW BLF was inclined to take tear action in reply to grievances, rather than engage in a drawn out procedure of negotiation and reflection. Labourers would much take legal action without even consulting the union first, knowing they would be flatly backed up. The defiance of the labourers was fostered by the structure and the practices of their union. The officials even explicitly advocated the abolition of Australia ’ s mandate arbitration system, preferring proper corporate dicker led by the unions ; they regularly expressed their willingness to break contracts that restricted their ability to strike .
Their belligerent strikes were the most boldface in the state at the time. By 1971, NSW BLF members had secured incredible pay rises : on many sites, skilled labourers like dogmen were earning 99 % of a shopkeeper ’ second engage, and “ unskilled ” labourers like jack-hammerers were earning 88.5 %. By comparison, labourers in the UK in the same period were earning around 77 % of a shopkeeper ’ south wage. The NSW BLF daybook never hesitated to publicise the enormous emergence of their employers profits ; they were always demanding more .
Unionists felt emboldened to take more competitive action in the consequence of the 1969 general strickle, when over a million workers successfully struck to free the tramways union drawing card Clarrie O ’ Shea. O ’ Shea had been imprisoned for refusing to pay fines imposed on the union by the industrial arbitration court. The success of the fall meant that both the state and federal governments were more hesitant than normal to use the jurisprudence against unionists. anterior to this, unionists fell prey to “ arbitration-mindedness ”, an excessive refer with the judgements of the industrial arbitration courts. The strickle to free O ’ Shea proved that workers could break the law, strike outside of the confines of the woo and succeed. According to Jack Mundey, the general affect was “ decisive in cracking the feel of frustration which was becoming universal among workers ” .
The CPA in the late 60s/early 70s was in a state of blend : cut off from the mothership of the USSR and evenly adrift from China, it was forced to pursue a range of strategies in order to survive. One should not mistake the bottom-to-top structure of the NSW BLF as representing a undifferentiated CPA approach to union organising ; in other unions, and in other time periods, CPA unionists could rule as viciously and arsenic bureaucratically as any early trade unionist political faction .
however, the receptiveness of the CPA to raw ideas in the 60s led to members becoming interested in the ball-shaped New Left, and some of the topics associated with it : workers ’ self-management, womens ’ liberation, anti-war activism, environmentalism, and so on. This included membership and charge democratic unionism, frankincense providing a outer space for the CPA BLF activists around Mundey who had been practicing grassroots combativeness for years, and who had explicitly identified the french scholar and worker struggles of the late 60s as an inspiration. The abandon of hard-and-fast democratic centralism meant that different tendencies could co-exist within the party .
fleeceable bans by a bolshevik marriage
contemporary historians of the green bans tend to look second and wonder how this group of construction workers became stylish environmentalists. many imply that the workers were in some room commanded by New Left communists like Jack Mundey, but such a perspective does not explain the fact that all bans placed by the BLF were endorsed by general meetings of members, and never imposed by officials. They were incredibly popular and were systematically supported by majorities of union members. What explains this ?
The truth is that concerns about capitalist over-development among workers were not raw. One of the first recorded actions of builders labourers was in 1957, when the NSW BLF journal ran a little composition on a group of labourers and other nonionized construction workers who were contacted by a nonmigratory. She complained that the block of flats she lived in was being demolished to make manner for an unnecessary car parking lot. The union men arrived and chased the non-unionised demolition workers off the locate, preventing its destruction .
In the construction boom of the late 60s and early on 70s, enormous amounts of money was poured into the renovation of Sydney, peculiarly suburb of the inner-city. Old buildings with significant inheritance value – including some of the first buildings always built in Australia – were being knocked down and substitute with high-rise position buildings. The builders labourers themselves could see clearly that these valuable previous buildings, that were often still inhabited, were being replaced with commercial properties that would frequently sit empty .
They were besides sharply aware of the other social problems that affected the working class of Sydney, like the gentrification of suburbs finale to the city and the miss of low-cost, good quality house. Throughout the 60s, the NSW BLF ’ s journal was filled with criticism of the way construction was “ for profit, not for use ” ; tens of thousands of workers were in indigence of good house, but the bulk of construction was dedicated to the building of offices. Workers were risking their lives building “ concrete jungles ” that were miserable to live in – if they could live in them at all. It ’ sulfur common for workers to feel a smell of emotionlessness or even disdain for the products of their work ; build workers are no exception .
The first formal environmental ban by the NSW BLF came in 1962 when a committee of residents in North Sydney requested the BLF stop the demolition of houses in order to build an expressway. The first of the celebrated green bans, however, was the banish on the development of Kelly ’ s Bush. Kelly ’ s Bush was a 5-hectare nibble of populace, native park located by the water, near to the city in the middle class suburb of Hunters Hill. It was taken over by the property developer A.V. Jennings, who wished to build medium and high concentration apartments on the down.
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This was strenuously opposed by a committee of local housewives, who formed together in 1970 as the “ Battlers for Kelly ’ s Bush ”. They began a letter-writing campaign, publicising the native flora and fauna in the park, and identifying a issue of native Indigenous carvings. Their activism was largely ineffective in the face of the country government ’ s determined subscribe of A.V. Jennings. Out of despair the Battlers approached the BLF, who gave their support after mass meetings of local residents demonstrated that the lawsuit was locally popular. In June 1971, a “ black bachelor of arts in nursing ” ( which would later be renamed as a green banish ) was placed on Kelly ’ s Bush, promising that no work would be done there .
It was an odd alliance : center course cautious inheritance enthusiasts banding together with harsh, working class communists, but it was an undoubted success. When A.V. Jennings threatened to proceed with the development of Kelly ’ s Bush by hiring scab labor, BLF members working on an A.V. Jennings office development in North Sydney stopped workplace. This forced the developer to back down, and Kelly ’ s Bush remains uninfluenced to this day .
Inspired by the Kelly ’ s Bush Battlers, dozens of residents ’ committees would spring up in the coming years, aiming to protect inheritance buildings and stop unwanted high-rise developments in their local anesthetic areas. A total of these successfully approached the NSW BLF to place bans on sealed local developments. It became a regular occurrence : concerned residents would approach the BLF regarding an unwanted development in their area, or a heritage build up at gamble. BLF officials like Jack Mundey would invite local residents to attend a meeting of labourers, who would then vote themselves about whether to place a bachelor of arts in nursing or not. Bans were never imposed on the labourers ; they had to freely agree to it .
Examples of NSW BLF actions
The bans were never just about the environment, or about old buildings. The NSW BLF facilitated the affair of builders labourers in a large number of causes. They include :
Opposing the construction of a new utmost security wing at Long Bay Gaol ; they refused to pour the concrete for the roof of the building complex and demanded better discussion of prisoners. They maintained the ban on work even after other unions abandoned it. ultimately, the ban failed, but the union was vindicated in 1978 when the maximum security wing was closed, after a royal Commission into New South Wales prisons found it was excessively inhumane.
Placing a “ pink ban ” on all construction workplace at Macquarie University in 1973 after a gay scholar was expelled from his residency on account of his sex. The union forced the university administration to offer the scholar his seat back, but by that point the scholar decided he nobelium longer wanted to study there. This was one of the more controversial bans among the membership, but it was still endorsed by both a general branch meet and by all the labourers working at Macquarie. According to participants, the pink ban was driven as much by hate of the authoritarian Macquarie College Master than it was concern for cheery rights.
besides in 1973, they supported strippers in the nightlife zone Kings Cross, who had struck for better pay and conditions, even as significant sectors of the Catholic-influenced labor movement opposed them. The union banned construction work at one strip club until owners gave in to the strippers ’ demands. The state union besides passed a motion demanding that patrol end “ the persecution of prostitutes by the law and their exploitation by court fines ”.
Demanding adequate rights for women working in the construction diligence, going therefore far as to strike to demand bosses hire female labourers. “ Work-ins ” of women were carried out ; men would bring a womanhood BLF penis to a work web site, have her start work and then force the bosses to pay her. Though I can not find a hard reservoir for it, I have been told that the union even once submitted a need that women workers receive one day off a calendar month as “ menstruation leave ”.
Putting a black ban on all sites owned by Leighton Industries, after a number of BLF members were arrested and fined in the run of an industrial action at a Leighton Industries web site in the suburb of Baulkham Hills. The ban worked and all the charges against the men were dropped.
Introducing address struggles for workers ’ control, such as when BLF workers held a work-in at one job in 1972 – after fifty labourers were dismissed, they all gathered on the web site the following good morning and gained entry. They locked out the party managers and foremen, elected foremen and safety officers from among themselves, and continued to work under their own control. A workers ’ control work-in tied took place during the construction of the celebrated Sydney Opera House.
Waging a non-stop campaign for health and safety, demanding the lease of safety officers from the union, the abolition of dangerous “ hook-riding ” practices expected of dogmen, the fitting of noise and dust control devices on machinery and office tools, the provision of full accident pay by the employers, vitamin a well as the provision of proper amenities like bathrooms and showers on-site.
Backing up members who resisted conscription and supporting campaigns against Australia ’ s joint war with the United States against Vietnam.
Supporting immunity to the Apartheid regimen in South Africa. This include engagement in the protests against tours to Australia by the south african Springbok rugby union. Bob Pringle was even arrested for disrupting a match during one tour by sneaking into the Sydney Cricket Ground with an ironworker comrade and attempting to saw the finish posts down.
The counter-offensive
The global surge in course fight that occurred in the 60s and 70s was met with intense counter-attacks from the capitalist class ; attacks that continue to keep the working class under its finger nowadays. however, the end of the NSW BLF is unalike to the bourgeois counter-offensive that was carried out in other industries. Whereas capitalists in manufacture and similar industries fought their war with newfangled technologies ( like automation ) and a restructure of production ( like offshoring ), the capitalists in the structure diligence chiefly fought the builders labourers through politics and beast wedge. disgracefully, they were aided in this task by other forces on the leftover .
By 1973, thirty-six black bans in Sydney were holding up an incredible AUD $ 3bn worth of property developments. Adjusted for inflation, that figure amounts to approximately €17bn. A receding was afoot that ended the construction boom. It was becoming hard and unvoiced for builders labourers to fight, and the employers knew it. Employers took the opportunity to attack workers, sacking thousands. A concerted offensive by the regnant course was afoot to smash the NSW BLF : patrol harassed unionists and allied residents ; goons in the pay of place developers assaulted workers and activists, resulting in the still-unsolved kill of environmentalist Juanita Nielsen ; the media ran non-stop fire pieces smearing the BLF ; the crooked Askin state politics went on the offensive and claimed that the BLF needed to be brought to heel, or else chaos would reign in the streets .
In addition, the NSW BLF – which once had a becoming relationship with the tradesmen of the BWIU – was now isolated within the union movement. The leadership of the BWIU under Pat Clancy had left the CPA to join the USSR-loyal SPA, and positioned themselves in enemy to the green bachelor of arts in nursing apparent motion broadly. They were besides powerfully opposed to the NSW BLF ’ s federalist organizational practices : whereas the NSW BLF held meetings constantly, the centralize BWIU once went fourteen years without a single mass merging .
The only other union to show consistent solidarity with the NSW BLF and the park bans was the Federated Engine Drivers ’ and Firemen ’ s Association of Australasia ( FEDFA ), which was not entirely besides led by similarly-militant CPA members, but besides represented crane drivers. Crane drivers worked close with BLF riggers and dogmen in daily study and engaged in constant unite struggle with them .
exponent flows from the barrel of a gun
The NSW BLF was isolated even within their own union federation. The BLF on the federal level was controlled by Norm Gallagher, who had split from the CPA together with Paddy Malone to join the breakaway Maoist CPA ML. The Maoists besides controlled the victorian branch, which was the early firm BLF union. They were opposed to the green prohibition motion. Though the priggish BLF implemented bans of their own, they were a lot tamer than the bans of the NSW BLF, and they never cohered into a fully-fledged bowel movement like the green bans. Gallagher and the other Maoists regarded the NSW BLF as being strung along by “ residents, sheilas and poofters ” .
In 1973, Jack Mundey adhered to the term-limit custom and stepped down as secretary of the NSW branch. The election held to decide his substitute proved the Maoists ’ relative unpopularity in Sydney : the Maoist campaigner lost to the Mundey ally Joe Owens by a margin of two-to-one. The employers managed to use the courts to have the BLF deregistered on the federal level in response to the NSW BLF ’ s frequently illegal industrial actions. This was the last straw for Gallagher. not alone had the actions of the NSW branch led to repercussions for the entire BLF, but deregistration besides threatened his campaign to gain a seat on the executive of the australian Council of Trades Unions ( ACTU ), the national Australian union point body .
In 1974, with backing from employers groups, Gallagher launched his federal intervention into the NSW arm. All elected NSW officials were replaced with his unelected loyalists. From then on, there were two BLFs in NSW : the actual NSW BLF, and the Gallagher-aligned branch of the union BLF. NSW BLF loyalists were intimidated into submission by Gallagher ’ s gunman thugs, flown in from interstate and put up in five-star hotels. It is a widespread belief among veterans of that era that some loyalists were tied murdered, their deaths arranged to appear like workplace accidents .
At one point, FEDFA grus drivers struck rather than work with those loyal to the imposed Gallagher officials. Gallagher broke their rap by flying in scab from Melbourne. FEDFA took the most competitive action in subscribe of the NSW BLF, but the telecommunications coupling and the teachers union both issued statements of solidarity. however, this support was nowhere approach enough. even other CPA union leaders, like Laurie Carmichael in the metalworkers union, refused to provide actual support. In 1975, the resisting NSW branch office was burgled, and its records stolen. The larceny of these records benefited no-one but Gallagher .
The deregistration of the BLF had incensed Gallagher, but it besides gave him a perfect opportunity. Since the BLF was no longer a legally registered union, it was no longer bound by the courts to follow its own rules. It was no longer legally obligated to hold meetings or behavior bonny elections. In any other context, the victims of the federal intervention would have been able to win a case in court for reinstatement, but here, their options were limited. In the cases where they did win legal victories against Gallagher, he just ignored the decisions .
Resistance continued, but was becoming hard and hard. Gallagher was unpopular ; the legalize NSW BLF had the support of around seven thousand labourers, whereas Gallagher ’ s branch had the subscribe of only around one thousand. however, the NSW BLF had only express means to resist. Whilst they were supported faithfully by residents ’ groups, conservationists, feminists, gays, students, activists, autochthonal people and much the membership of other unions, they had barely any support from other union leaderships. NSW BLF loyalists were being blacklisted from the diligence and employers were forcing labourers to switch to Gallagher ’ s union or else they would be denied employment .
A workweek after the burglary of the NSW BLF office, the officials called a final touch in Sydney Town Hall. With tears in their eyes, they told the thousand workers assembled there that they should sign up to the federal BLF ticket and continue the fight from within, as a double union situation “ merely benefits the employers ”. The officials Jack Mundey, Bob Pringle and Joe Owens all resigned, carried aside on the shoulders of the crowd with a ten minute long round of applause .
consequence
With Gallagher immediately at the head of the BLF in NSW, employers found themselves in a much more comfortable situation. The green bans were gradually removed by Gallagher over the heads of the members, despite his own rhetorical commitment to them. Within a few years, the union was re-registered. early officials were expelled, and it took years of court cases for them to win readmission. The majority were blacklisted and could never find even construction work again. The small number of women BLF members found themselves locked out of the industry with the collusion of the Maoists, who had constantly opposed the engagement of women in the industry .
No ramify or general meet was held in Sydney for two years after the intervention ; the inaugural in 1977 saw two-thirds of those present vote in confrontation to the leadership. The leadership walked out of the meet and declared it invalidate after the membership voted through a apparent motion of no confidence in them. The Builders Labourers for Democratic Control, the crying and file group that had been formed to carry on the fight of the erstwhile NSW BLF, maintained the support of many labourers but it was never able to regain control of the union or restore federalist practices. The social organization had completely changed. Organisers and officials never picked up the drill of heading back to work after a restrict condition, not least of all because many of them were plucked out of the Maoist university scene and had never actually worked in structure !
The union movement was shifting substantially, and shifting quickly. In the 1970s, the view that strategy should be built around industrial action gave way to the notion that unions needed to restrain themselves and cooperate with employers and the government in change for social benefits. This point of view had been pioneered in function by intellectuals and union leaders from the CPA, which had settled into a bureaucratic position, similar to that of the Eurocommunist course in Europe. The BLF was left unsteady by a series of corruptness scandals, such as when Gallagher was imprisoned for accepting gifts of money and materials from employers to be used on the construction of his beachside holiday home .
When the Labor leader Bob Hawke came to baron in 1983, the foremost Prices and Incomes Accord was agreed upon between the ACTU and the federal government. The unions promised to restrict industrial action and accept a limit in wage rises, in exchange for promised increase government spend on health and education. Of naturally, such spend never sincerely happen. consecutive australian governments – both leave and rightist – slashed spend on wellbeing, privatising big swathes of government-run services. The Accord accomplished peacefully what Thatcher accomplished with beast storm against the miners .
There was merely limited underground from the union campaign to the Accords. only one delegate to the ACTU voted against the first Accord : Jenny Haines, from the New South Wales Nurses Association. Norm Gallagher was at this point on the executive of the ACTU. He was opposed to the Accords, but only meekly at first, possibly not understanding the implications of what was going to happen .
Gallagher and the BLF found themselves under the malleus when they pushed for engage rises outside the bounds of the Accord. Despite his squash of the competitive NSW BLF, the Gallagher-run BLF was hush one of the most competitive unions in the country, peculiarly in his dwelling department of state of Victoria. They supported the bantam Federal Confectioners ’ Association when they struck for a decrease in work hours beyond those set by the Accord. The BLF themselves would engage in a number of industrial actions securing improvements beyond the Accord. This cense Prime Minister Hawke, who was determined to crush the union .
ultimately, in 1986, it was deregistered. BLF supporters in Victoria waged a conflict to continue that would last until 1993, but by that steer the bulk of its membership had been raided by FEDFA and the BWIU. In a number of cases, police literally force workers into abandoning their BLF cards and signing up with the BWIU .
finally, the buttocks BLF joined with the BWIU and other unions to form the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, which has since merged with the Maritime Union of Australia and the Textiles Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia to create the CFMMEU “ super-union ”. The CFMMEU is the most leftist, competitive union in the country, though it should be made clear that it does not even begin to approach the combativeness of the BLF of the 80s, let alone the NSW BLF in the 70s. It is besides riveted with home rivalries, and the prospect of the union breaking up into freestanding organisations is real .
bequest
In a way, history has been kind to the green bans. They are taught to children in schools, spoken about in proud tones to tourists by City of Sydney enlistment guides, and commemorated by local rightist politicians. By a barbarous flex of destine, the buildings and green spaces saved by the union are no long inhabited by workers, who were largely priced out of the inner-city long ago. The inheritance buildings that remain are probably worth more to capitalists now as tourist and inheritance attractions than they would have been if they were razed and turned into office blocks, as primitively planned .
however, the gentle history of nice, altruistic construction workers who decided to act as muscle for middle-class conservationists out of the good of their own heart is a by-product of the NSW BLF ’ randomness ultimate frustration. This is the font even if some green bachelor of arts in nursing participants like Jack Mundey pandered to this vantage point. The struggle of the builders labourers of NSW in the 60s and 70s was not like this. They were rebellious workers, who had managed to get themselves in the position of the de-facto vanguard of the working class of Australia .
These proletarians, a grab-bag of young men, misfits, adventurers and migrants, fought some of the most advance struggles ever seen in the state – taking on capital frontal. They broke out of the narrow confines of arbitration courts, going beyond simple wage rises in line with ostentation, undermining the part of tug that put tradesmen at the top and the labourers at the bottom. They went beyond dim-witted strikes, engaging in sabotage, sit-ins and work-ins .
The union bureaucrat of today, who would happily crush any group of workers that wanted to behave like the members of the NSW BLF, now refer to the k bans as a model of “ socially engaged unionism ”. The union motion, which has been in a continuous decay ever since the marriage bureaucrats signed their organisations ’ death certificates via the Accords, now makes an feat to mobilise “ the community ” ( students, the unemployed, middle-class citizens, left activists, etc ) to back the few strikes that are carried out. Unions will pride themselves on “ social responsibility ”, like giving money to the successful campaign for gay marriage ; good recently, the CFMMEU announced a green ban of a kind on a historical build threatened by development .
however, this is not a strategy of offense, but in large part a scheme of despair. The union bowel movement is nobelium longer able to muster the potency it once could. Constrained by both draconian labor legislation and their own unwillingness to break the jurisprudence, some unions look to early forces to do what they can not or will not do. In many instances, it ’ randomness good another manner for the Labor Party bureaucrats that control unions to drag workers into their asinine party-politics .
It ’ sulfur nitwitted to just oppose the strategy outright – it surely has its respect, and unions should be creative enough to use other forces to help circumvent the law and mobilize angstrom much back as possible – but it can ’ t be forgotten that there is nothing more mighty than direct action by workers. As the NSW BLF themselves knew, a single crane driver refusing to leave the cabin of his crane in protest is more impactful in an industrial quarrel than a solidarity tease of a thousand students .
The NSW BLF was not plainly crushed by an employer dysphemistic, or by the violent sectarianism of other forces on the left ; it was besides crushed by the overall failure of the working classify to defeat capitalist forces in the 1960s and 70s – both within Australia and oversea. Isolated as they were within the union movement, the tactics and ethos of labourers never fully spread to the wide working course. It maintained an influence on workers in the construction industry, but workers in industries like manufacture remained largely separated, even though these workers themselves engaged in many strikes .
One anarchist ’ second reflections
The struggles of the BLF proved practically how wrong the Leninists are when they suggest that workers in unions can only always develop “ trade wind union awareness ”, never advanced socialist consciousness. The “ trade union awareness ” of these workers went far and beyond the established socialistic and communist groups. The labourers linked their demands for better pay and conditions with refer for the effects of capitalism on the working classify as a whole. The methods they used to achieve their goals, like industrial sabotage, were perfect embodiments of the spirit of direct action, though I ’ m surely none of them had always heard of the name Pouget. Their organizational practices embodied federalism though, again, I doubt any would have been companion with Proudhon .
One may well notice the absence of anarchists in this report so far, despite the presence of a union that embodies anarchist principles in a significant direction. The unfortunate truth is that anarchists in Australia have historically been a fringy pull. Anarchists had some influence in the Industrial Workers of the World of the early twentieth hundred, but this charm had largely faded away by the time the second gear World War rolled about. The surviving anarchist scene in Australia consisted largely of middle-class bohemians from the intellectual “ Sydney Push ”, and a number of migrant wage-earning revolutionaries isolated from early workers on account of their beliefs and speech .
Some anarchists were able to participate in the green bachelor of arts in nursing struggles. The 1973 pro-green ban ticket in the BLF elections included one anarchist, aboard CPA, ALP and unaligned members. Some women associated with the union, like Pat Fiske, the director of the Rocking the Foundations objective, had anarchist sympathies, and it was known that men like Mundey and Owens had been exposed to anarchist and IWW ideas. however, libertarians remained on the margins : the process of cohering together as a greater power was slow in Australia. even today, there is no Australia-wide anarchist federation – only the bantam anarcho-syndicalist ASF-IWA, which has no presence in Sydney. There was an attack to set up such a federation in the 70s, but it splintered into nothing as a result of personal and ideological disputes .
I don ’ thyroxine care much for “ what ifs ”, but my strongest feel after writing this article is that things may have been different had there been greater total of organized anarchists active in the workers ’ campaign of the clock. The latent libertarianism that had been brought to the surface in the naturally of these struggles could have been identified explicitly ; there could have been a greater push for radicalisation outside the command of the Marxist parties ; there could have been different tactics pursued when the union was fighting its defensive actions against the employers and union bureaucrats. possibly the double union idea that unnerved the CPA men could have been pursued. possibly the union itself could made explicit what was already implicit in their practice, and endorsed a socialistic aim. Could the anarchists have helped the coupling secure the mugwump position it needed, off from the political sects, as people like Pelloutier, Broutchoux and Pouget did in the french motion so many years ago ?
Regardless of “ what ifs ”, I am confident that there is no excuse for a lack of anarchist engagement in the british labour party drift. It is an opportunity that can not be wasted. The BLF only became the competitive entity that it was as the result of long, patient work by give militants, who – thanks to solidarity from mate communists – were able to brave ferocity, intimidation and humiliation to facilitate some of the most impressive struggles always seen in this country. It is precisely this kind of knead that we should be doing. We should be forming organisations in workplaces. We should be writing workers ’ newsletters. We should be trying to bridge the divides between workplaces, places of residence, trades, industries and places of origin. We should be conducting workers ’ inquiries, gathering our cognition and feeding it back to our boyfriend workers. We should be doing all this and more .
This is not to say that combativeness is merely an issue of willpower. It would be unintelligent to think that the park Bans and the NSW BLF could have survived if all the CPA men were replaced by anarchists. Mundey, Owens and Pringle all made mistakes ; we would ’ ve besides. That ’ s not it either : the builders labourers were the victim of the lapp global counter-attack that occurred in answer to the hot time period of the 60s and 70s ; there ’ randomness no cause to believe that we possess some unique property as anarchists that would have allowed us to stop that tide .
preferably, our natural process is about identifying struggle as it occurs already within the working class, and trying to push it forward : trying to let the struggles develop a in full as possible, without being diverted or snuffed out by bureaucrats, Leninists, bosses, conservatives, and all the other people that joke when they think about a rotation. intervention in workplace struggles isn ’ t a question of gaining a fad following, winning elections or capturing official positions, but about facilitating the working class ’ self-organization, their own process of attaining self-knowledge .
The unions that existed in the 1950s, 60s and 70s are not the unions that exist immediately. I can not speak for France, but in Australia, whatever existed of union federalism back then has since been thoroughly destroyed. even when the BLF was under the leadership of a crooked rightist hood like Fred Thomas, it calm had even elections every three years and elected its organisers. This is strikingly different from nowadays ’ randomness unions. Meetings occur rarely. Strikes are managed by officials, who refuse to endorse any wildcat actions. Organisers are appointed by the officers, who frequently select them based on political allegiance, not ability. Many of them have never worked in the industries they intend to organise. The organisers and officers themselves treat their union activity as a stepping-stone to a career in the Labor Party.
Read more: What is the Maritime Industry?
organizational structure is not “ inert ”. To bastardise Marx, we can not merely lay clasp of the centralised union machinery and wield it for our own purposes. If the aim of our activity is to secure official positions and run the administration for our own purposes, as countless leftist factions aim to do, then we will inescapably become the like sorts of bureaucrats we decry. Our interest in the unions puts transfer in structure and increased engagement from union members front and centre .
precisely how we conduct ourselves to achieve our goals is an open question, depending on the many alone circumstances we find ourselves in. Whether we can even achieve these goals without forming new, offprint unions is another question raw. Whether we even need unions at all is another ! My point is not to outline some one-size-fits-all scheme ; it ’ randomness that we must get ourselves into the placement where we need to ask these questions out of hardheaded necessity. They can not remain hypothetical. We owe it to every maverick worker that has come before us, and to every rebel proletarian that will come in the future .
Thanks to Tommy Lawson and Mya Walmsley for editing advice .
