1949 Australian coal strike

1949 Australian coal strike

The 1949 Australian coal strike is the first time that Australian military forces were used during peacetime to break a Trade union strike. The strike by 23,000 coal miners lasted for seven weeks, from 27 June, 1949 to 15 August, 1949, with troops being sent in by the Ben Chifley Federal Labor Government to the open cut coal mines in New South Wales on 28 July, 1949, with the workers returning to work defeated two weeks later.

The miner's federation was heavily influenced at the time by the Communist Party of Australia (CPA), and the strike is widely seen as the CPA applying Cold War Soviet Union Cominform policy in challenging Labor reformism, and promoting a class conflict to promote communist leadership of the working class struggle at the expense of the Labor Party. The strike was seen as a continuation of the industrial confrontation in the 1948 Queensland Railway strike.

Two days after the strike commenced, the Labor government passed legislation that made it illegal to give strikers and their families financial support (including credit from shops). On July 5 union officials were ordered to hand over union funds to the industrial registrar. On the following day union officials were arrested and the union and Communist Party headquarters were subsequently raided. At the end of July seven union officials were sentenced to 12 months' jail and one to six months, with fines being imposed on other officials and three unions. Chifley told the Labor caucus, "The Reds must be taught a lesson", while Arthur Calwell threatened to put communists and their sympathisers into concentration camps. On Monday 1 August, 1949 two and a half thousand soldiers commenced coal mining at the open cut mines of Minmi, Muswellbrook and Ben Bullen, with seven more fields operated later.

The miners demands had been lodged over the preceding two years and had included a 35-hour week, a 30-shilling increase in wages, and the inclusion of long service leave as a normal condition of employment. They were reasonably modest demands given the dangerous working environment and poor working conditions. There is some evidence that Ben Chifley was secretly prepared to concede all demands but the CPA, for its own political reasons, directed that an offer from Chifley be rejected. [http://www.api-network.com/cgi-bin/page?archives/jas55_deery]

At the height of the dispute Labor Senator Donald Grant, a former member of the Industrial Workers of the World imprisoned as part of the Sydney Twelve, told the miners:

:"I come to Cessnock for one reason. In 1917...everyone was behind the workers [in the general strike] , but they got beaten. Why? Because the State was against them. I have come here to tell you you won't beat the State."

There has been much conjecture whether Chifley's decision to use troops to break the strike was influenced by Cold War hysteria as a reluctant last minute solution to a major industrial problem. Archival evidence shows that Chifley received regular reports from the Commonwealth Investigation Service, (the forerunner of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) on the campaigns and policies of the Communist Party of Australia. Early in the strike the legality of using troops was investigated and planning immediately formulated for Operation Excavate during the first week in July. Rumours surfaced on 14 July that the Government would enlist the support of the anti-communist Australian Workers Union to break the strike, with an agreement of the Australian Railways Union to transport the coal. This was almost certainly a bluff and political ploy to distract attention to the military operations being planned. With 1949 being an election year, Chifley wanted to demonstrate his Government's anti-communist resolve, but the tactic proved insufficient and the Menzies Government was elected in December 1949.

The use of troops to break the 1949 coal strike has been used as a precedent by the Robert Menzies Government in Intervention on the Waterfront at Bowen in 1953, and in disputes in 1951, 1952, and 1954 against seamen and waterside workers; Harold Holt used the navy to break an Seamen's Union of Australia boycott in 1967; the Malcolm Fraser Government used the RAAF to transport passengers during a Qantas dispute in 1981, as did Bob Hawke in the 1989 Australian pilots' strike.

References

* "Labour in Conflict, the 1949 Coal Strike", Phillip Deery (ed), (1978)
* "Chifley, the Army and the 1949 Coal Strike", Phillip Deery in "Labour History", no. 68, (1995)
* "Communism, Security and the Cold War", Phillip Deery, (1997) [http://www.api-network.com/cgi-bin/page?archives/jas55_deery]
* "1949 coal strike: Labor's `boots and all' sell-out", Kim Bullimore, Greenleft, (1999) [http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/1999/364/364p13.htm]
* "A brief history of Australian Unionism and the role of the Communist Party", Warren Smith, (2000) [http://agitprop.org.au/lefthistory/2000_smith_brief_history_of_australian_unionism.php]
* "Call Out the Troops: an examination of the legal basis for Australian Defence Force involvement in 'non-defence' matters", Elizabeth Ward, Parliamentary Research Paper 8, (1997) [http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/rp/1997-98/98rp08.htm]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Australian labour movement — Infobox Union by Country country = Australia national = ACTU government = Australian Industrial Relations Commission legislation = Workplace Relations Act 1996 (2005) membership number = union percentage1 title = union percentage1 = union… …   Wikipedia

  • Australischer Kohleminen-Streik von 1949 — Im Australischen Kohleminen Streik von 1949 (Australian coal strike 1949) wurden von einer australischen Regierung erstmals in Friedenszeiten militärische Kräfte eingesetzt, um den von einer Gewerkschaft geführten Streik zu beenden. Der Streik… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • 1949 in Australia — Infobox Australian year monarch = George VI governor general = William McKell pm = Ben Chifley, then Robert Menzies population = 7,908,066 australian = elections =Federal, See also: 1948 in Australia, other events of 1949, 1950 in Australia and… …   Wikipedia

  • Coal — Sedimentary Rock Anthracite coal Composition Primary carbon Secondary hydrogen, sulfur …   Wikipedia

  • List of strikes — The following is a list of deliberate absence from work related to specific working conditions (strikes) or due to general unhappiness with the political order (general strikes). =Chronological list of strikes= eventeenth Century*Strike of polish …   Wikipedia

  • Ben Chifley — The Right Honourable Ben Chifley 16th Prime Minister of Australia Elections: 1946, 1949, 1951 In office 13 July 1945 …   Wikipedia

  • Donald Grant — Senator for New South Wales In office 1 July 1944 – 30 June 1959 Personal details Born 26 February 1888(1888 02 26) Inverness, Scotland Died …   Wikipedia

  • Firemen and Deckhands' Union of New South Wales — Firemen and Deckhands Union Full name Firemen and Deckhands Union of New South Wales Founded 1901 Date dissolved 1993 Merged into Seamen s Union of Australia Members 718 (in 1973) …   Wikipedia

  • William Ashley (Australian politician) — William Patrick Ashley (20 September 1881 – 27 June 1958) was an Australian politician.Ashley was born at Singorambah, near Hay, New South Wales and educated at Hay. He went to South Africa in May 1902, but saw no action in the Second Boer War… …   Wikipedia

  • Lyall Howard — Lyall Falconer Howard (1896 1955) was a World War I veteran, engineer and business owner, and the father of former Australian Prime Minister, John Howard.cite web | url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/a foreign field that still touches… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”