The Dismissal : Where Were the Unions?
11th November 1975 saw an unelected representative of the ruling classes dismiss a government that had been elected by a majority of people in Australia.
Most books, even trade union histories of the time, make scant reference to trade union actions before and after our own coup. The most recorded utterances were from Bob Hawke, the President of the ACTU who called for calm rather than a nationwide strike that he says he feared would turn to riots. The mainstream press — surprise surprise — agreed with him. Instead we got a trashing of democracy rather than a challenge to the ruling class.
Phil Griffiths was on the case back in 1997 and gave us a great run down on what was going on.
As he points out, the ALP was very unpopular in much of the electorate. The 25% tariff cuts and rising unemployment and inflation loomed large and the first signs of neo-liberal austerity were in 1974 attacks by the government on “Dole Bludgers”, the 1975 budget under Hayden saw cuts and wage indexation was under attack. The abandonment of full employment policy was telling.
The Liberal Party had seen the rise of Fraser and the right, with a reported “Whitlam boost” in membership. Ayn Rand was Fraser’s touchstone.
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Hawke dowsing the flames of discontent 12 November 1975 outside Parliament House. Whitlam partially obscured by camera on the right.[/caption]
16th October the Senate formally rejected the government supply. Despite their unhappiness with government policy the people and their unions responded to this attack on democracy. Immediately thousands of pubic servants rallied in Canberra.
17th October saw a mass rally in Brisbane and thousands of unionists shouted Fraser down at a Liberal Party rally in Melbourne. AMWU members walked off in 3 states.
20th October Melbourne, 15,000 people In the Westernport industrial area, some 60km from Melbourne, the inter-union area committee organised a 24 hr strike for the day.
24 October, Ten thousand mostly trade unionists stopped work and rallied in Sydney despite pouring rain, to listen to speeches by ACTU President Bob Hawke and Gough Whitlam.
Adelaide saw two major rallies that week. On Monday, 7000 workers from factories, building sites and offices rallied in Victoria Square. Workers from Islington Rail Workshops stopped and rail and metal worker unions encouraged workers to go to the rally. On Saturday 25th, there was also a march of between 6000 and 8000 organised by the ALP.
In Hobart, 2000 rallied on Tuesday 21st.
Wednesday 22nd Pt Kembla unions organised a car cavalcade to Canberra with the Port of Wollongong closing down.
The same day the Fremantle waterfront stopped for 24 hours with wharfies voting for a voluntary $10 a head levy for ALP election funds.
In Perth on Friday 24th, 5000 mostly unionists packed Perth Town Hall and overflowed into the street; police had refused permission for a Forrest Place meeting, the normal site of such rallies. Brewery workers stopped work and marched from the Swan Brewery to the Town Hall while 2000 workers at Midland Railway Workshops stopped for the afternoon.
Townsville’s three meatworks stopped for the day on October 24, while railworkers and other industries stopped for two hours. Over 2000 attended a rally.
When the Liberal Party did decide to organise its own rally, outside Parliament House, Canberra, on Tuesday 21 October, the result was humiliation for the Opposition leader. About 4000 people gathered, but Labor supporters outnumbered Liberals, with many workers travelling up from Wollongong. Fraser was forced to end his “speech” after seven minutes and retreat into Parliament House.
Within nine days, at least 50,000 workers had attended rallies in defence of the Whitlam government and perhaps 100,000, perhaps many more, had taken strike action and lost wages — some walking out twice.
Griffith shows the massive impact these spontaneous actions had. Fraser and the Libs were way ahead in the opinion polls before he announced they would block supply. By 3rd of November the ALP was just ahead in opinion polls, despite the entire mainstream media being anti-ALP.
Griffith says “There was fear of what [Fraser] represented — a rich and arrogant grazier from the traditional elite with no knowledge of, or sympathy for, ordinary workers, born with a silver spoon in his mouth and a silver dagger in his hand, as Bob Hawke put it. There was also a sense of outrage at the Liberals’ apparent belief that workers were simply not allowed to elect a Labor Government
Rage against the coup
When Sir John Kerr sacked the Whitlam Government on 11 November, there was widespread shock and anger. Within hours of the news leaking out there was extensive strike action by well organised workplaces and large and angry demonstrations in Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth.
While ACTU president Bob Hawke appealed to unionists to “cool it”, seamen, waterside workers, railway workers, miners, transport, metal workers, clothing workers, construction workers, meatworkers metal workers office workers all walked off.
Well over 20,000 people rallied in the major capital cities that day, a remarkable number given that the first anyone knew of the sacking was at 2.05pm when Sir John Kerr’s statement was released. Within minutes, hundreds of people had gathered outside Parliament House in Canberra to protest the dismissal; and by 4pm the number was 4000 as workers spontaneously left work. Melbourne’s rally was the largest, estimated by the newspapers at 8–10,000.
At the major capital city rallies that afternoon, there was an atmosphere of intense militancy, anger and bitterness. In Canberra, demonstrators carried improvised banners saying “Sir John Cur”, “For God’s Sake Stop Raping Democracy” and “Suspend Fraser” beside a drawing of a gibbet. It was here that Whitlam made his famous speech, condemning Fraser as “Kerr’s cur” and calling on Labor supporters to “Maintain your rage”.
The Melbourne rally was convened by the Amalgamated Metal Workers Union and marched on Government House. After a standoff with police at the gates, 1500 continued, marching on Liberal Party headquarters where windows were broken and a wild melee broke out between police and 1000 of the demonstrators.
The Furnishing Trades Union was able to sustain a ban on replacing the Liberals’ windows, and they remained boarded up for some time.
In Sydney, the Australian Union of Students and other unions called a rally in Chifley Square and had it advertised on radio 2JJ. Protesters’ carried placards saying “Stop work to stop Fraser”, “Lest we forget — democracy died today”, “Sack Kerr, not Whitlam”, “Who elected Kerr?” and “Sack Fraser, the Kerr-taker PM”.
They marched on Liberal Party headquarters and then Trades Hall, where an impromptu meeting passed a resolution calling on workers to press the ACTU, State Labor Councils and national unions “to call a national day of stoppages against the Kerr-Fraser forces, leading up to a general strike of all workers one week later.”
In Adelaide there were fights outside Liberal Party headquarters.
Tribune was the only publication to record something of the mood and the experience at well-organised workplaces that day. It reported that debates raged on Sydney building sites on the day of Whitlam’s sacking ranging from a call for immediate action to a heeding of Hawke’s “cool it” message.
Parliament House Canberra saw 5000 people cheering Whitlam. Hundreds of people besieged him with money — at one point, his pockets were bulging with five and 10-dollar bills. The new Coalition ministers had to use private cars to get to Government House for their swearing-in because Commonwealth car drivers stopped work while the rally was on.
There were rallies too in Melbourne, Perth, Darwin, Launceston, and other centres. 1500 workers at the Whyalla shipyard walked off. On Thursday, 2500 rallied in Newcastle, while that evening, 4000 gathered in the outer Sydney suburb of Liverpool to hear Whitlam. On Thursday 13th, about 600 demonstrators had marched on Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper office in Sydney, blockaded trucks and prevented distribution of the afternoon paper, the Daily Mirror.
A General Strike ?
One of the first responses to the Kerr “coup” was a widespread call for national strike action in protest.
An emergency meeting of the Commonwealth Labour Advisory Committee was held on the evening of November 11. A statement signed by Whitlam and Hawke noted “the many requests for industrial action”, but declared that “Trade Unions could best support the cause of the elected Labor Government by asking each member of the Union to contribute a day’s pay to the Labor Party’s election fund”, and asked unions to hold job meetings “to express support for the Labor Party in the coming election”.
As Griffith says, workers would not have been striking about constitutional issues. The class issues were clear to Jack Cambourne from NSW FEDFA, who pointed out to Gough when asked not to strike,” we are not going to strike to save you, we are going to strike to save ourselves.” The unions were striking on a class basis, defending workers against ruthless capitalists and their representatives, and the anger at the ALP government before the crisis began reflected that class consciousness.
The ALP was elected in 1972 on the back of a wave of social unrest and action. 3 years later the beneficiaries of that in government tried to hose it down. People’s involvement in struggle was massive and crucial yet was ignored by those who claimed their support.
The mass media focus on the perceived economic failures of Whitlam, and the various scandals like the loan affair saw the opinion polls reverse again. The ALP as failed manager of capitalism was the dominant theme on election day and they were swept away.
