Fighting Australia’s complicity in genocide — we’ve been here before

When governments refuse to move, Davey Heller writes, he wrote to workers and communities at all times to stop Australia’s blood trade.

The images of the almost unimaginable Zionist savage in Gaza shocked people globally.

However, long before the Internet, the Japanese encountered the world with newspaper articles and news streams that revealed the horror of another genocide when the Japanese invaded China. Nanjing massacre300,000 people were massacred in only six weeks.

Just like today, international organs Nations unity He was impotent. The Australian government refused to stop trade with Japan, the second largest trade partner. Industrial Power Center BHP He made a profit from sending “peak iron”(A coarse iron form used in steel construction) to Japan for use in the war machine.

Unions answer

The only social power that constantly opposed the violence of fascist Japan was the working class. Australian Unions Council (Aktius) Initially, he took the same stance with Gaza today. ACTU supported the consumer boycott and urged the government to build Japan.

ACTU was nervous that direct working bans would provoke the use of laws of fighting strikes. At the end of 1938, rank and file dock workers were not until they underwent movements to place business bans on peak iron and other goods, where ACTU changed its position to support them.

The first effective action on November 15, 1938 SS DALFRAM Port in NSW was placed in Kembla and TED ROACHLocal Waterside Workers Federation Communist Party Leader (WWF) The branch heard that a ship to be loaded into a peak iron for Kobe in Japan. 180 Quay immediately voted for the loading of the iron.

Labor remembered:

“I just walked on the deck and I said, ‘Righto, the children, going to Kobe’.

The employer’s response was ruthless. BHP asked Dalfram to be emptied in front of other ships, made the ban on a locking, and left men without income.

A 24 -hour stake was installed on the quay and most importantly, Iron Workers Association with Federation, Skin Association, Federation Motor Drivers and Firefighters Association, Australian workers’ union And Railways Association All of them stopped shifting the cargo to another harbor and promised not to manage the peak.

If the solidarity campaign of Port Kembla dock workers had not received a wide support, the dispute would end in days. Local small enterprises donated goods and allowed credit purchase. Men’s wives worked to support without getting tired. Dance nights, radio ads and collections on racing tracks and bars were organized.

Not only the unions, but also lawyers and academics sent money to the strike fund. Thousands of local steel workers sent some of their weekly wages at a time when the money was tight.

Many members of the Australian Chinese community working in Sydney Market Gardens organized truck loads to feed the workers.

Attempts to sail on the ship were blocked by the Dalfram crew, including men from Yemen, Myanmar, India and England. One day after the scaffolding, the crew began strike. His wages were hidden, locked on the ship, and the head sailor, Mohamed Ghoulah, was briefly sent asylum. The crew fled at the end of the crew and was protected by the local community.

Union Leadership and Alpine response

Just like ACTU, WWF’s national leadership was nervous that it would cause prohibitions to be called. Transportation Workers LawIn previous strikes, he almost destroyed the Dock Workers’ Union. Initially, they put pressure on men to return to work, but they supported the strike when the South Coast branch was not bud.

While the members and branches of the local workers’ party support, the opposition leader, John CurtinEven if Alp is in power, they would still have to load a peak iron.

Police pressure, struggling laws and company retaliation

Dalfram’s crew was hunted by the police. After the two Indian crew members failed in the dictation test given to them for six months, they were imprisoned as “illegal immigrants .. German.

The police harassed the unemployed and beat some selections. The Local Workers’ Transactions Council was full of documents related to the stolen dispute. The state pressure reached up to try to crush solidarity in Sydney. Police censorship cable 2KY Radio Station NSW Working Council.

It is called a game War to WaterfrontThe strike funds were closed by the police in front of 200 people in the field of Sydney.

And then – as feared – the Minister of Federal ( Robert Menzies) Transportation Workers Law.

Just three days before Christmas, BHP dismissed all 3,500 workers in Port Kembla Steel Mills and referred to the ongoing closure in the quays. This not only increased the number of unemployed people, but also removed financial support for the strike. Banks began to foreclosure in workers’ homes, but still the solution of the striking men did not break.

The dispute ends – and so is the exports of iron

The government was increasingly crazy. The workers successfully transformed the ongoing peak iron trade into a national issue.

Menzies went to Wollongong at the beginning of January to convince workers to return to work, but was greeted with a major protest. Meanwhile, Menzies won the nickname “Bidm Iron Bob ..

So far, Menzies has been preparing to review and lift iron trade with Japan. Transportation Workers Law. Roach took this offer to the South Coast branch, which still rejected the upload of Dalfram. The angry Menzies gave workers a 24 -hour ultimatum: Accept the agreement or the government uses force to bring scabies. Under the protest ”scaffolds finally agreed to install Dalfram.

Despite the disappointment of men to load the ship, the dispute resulted in a great victory – existing contracts and Transportation Workers Law It was removed national.

Lessons for today

Some claim that Japanese, China or Apartheid, cannot be repeated due to harsh anti -stroke laws. Today, anti-secondary boycotts and political strike laws are absolutely ruthless, and both trade unions and individual workers face harsh penalties.

However, Dalfram dispute shows that such actions are always facing harsh pressure and that they can actually overthrow the laws of fighting non -democratic strikes. Is there any sure that a significant portion of the working class, such as the dock workers, will act against the genocide in Gaza today and will not be widely supported?

Of course, today’s trade union leadership, which was closely ally with the Federal Workers’ government, would weaken such a struggle, but in 1938, as we have seen in Port Kembla, discipline and daring, this opposition could be overcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb2mfvpyznc

Davey Heller is a writer and campaignist. You can follow him on Twitter @socialist_davey.

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