Australia

Australia: Journalists to strike against job cuts

After the announcement that 550 jobs would be cut by Fairfax Media in Australia and New Zealand on August 26th, journalists at The Age (Melbourne, Australia) and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers have decided to go on strike until Monday.

A Fairfax spokeswoman announced that both papers would come out on Friday, but refused to comment on whether weekend papers would be affected.

Melbourne postal workers in wildcat strike

Postal workers in Melbourne returned to work today after taking unofficial action yesterday (June 12th) against a bonus cut.

Mail into and out of Victoria was also be affected by the snap strike by mail workers at the Dandenong letters processing centre, which normally is staffed by up to 1200 people. The workers walked off the job yesterday afternoon over the loss of special Sunday shifts that took about $160 out of their pay packets.

The Industrial Workers of the World in Australia - Ian Bedford

A short critical, but generally sympathetic, assessment of the Australian Wobblies.

From; Labour History no. 13, (Journal of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History), Nov. 1967.

THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD IN AUSTRALIA
IAN BEDFORD

Memoirs of the I.W.W. [Australia] - Bill Beattie

Recollections of struggles in the years around the First World War - by a former Australian Wobbly.

From; Labour History no. 13, (Journal of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History), Nov. 1967.

MEMOIRS OF THE I.W.W. [Australia]
Bill Beattie

Mount Isa: the great Queensland strike - Solidarity

Mount Isa: the great Queensland strike

Pamphlet by the UK Solidarity group on the 1964-1965 strike and lockout at the Mount Isa copper mine in Queensland, Australia, which placed miners in direct opposition to their union, employer and the Queensland State Government for almost seven months.

New Zealand: International solidarity as miners launch indefinite strike

Solid Energy mine workers

Australian miners refused to cross a picket line yesterday at the Spring Creek coal mine as indefinite industrial action there entered its fourth day.

About 140 Reefton and Dunollie miners were due to meet in Runanga at 1pm to decide their next step.

In an escalation of previous action, the Spring Creek miners walked off the job on Friday morning.

Strike Across The Empire, 1925 - Baruch Hirson and Lorraine Vivian

British seamen marching to jail in Wellington, New Zealand, September 1925.

A fascinating and detailed account of a little known international seamens' strike in 1925, lasting over 100 days and spreading from Britain to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The strikers confronted the shared hostility of governments, employers and union leaders alike. The text also deals with how the racism prevalent in the labour movement affected the conduct and outcome of the strike.

"THIS IS A STRIKE that has vanished from history. In August 1925, the seamen of Britain, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand walked off their ships in protest against a ten per cent wage cut. It was one of the few genuinely international strikes, directed against a powerful international cartel. One would have expected it to be widely debated. Yet, newspaper coverage apart, history has largely been silent.

The Chinese mining industry - cheaper lives mean cheaper coal; so Australian bosses threaten relocation

Chinese miner

Last week the Chinese media reported that on average one mining accident every week is being covered up by management.

Quote:
[i]Those responsible for safety had sabotaged scenes, destroyed evidence and moved bodies, Xinhua News Agency quoted Li Yizhong, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, as saying, adding that most had been brought to justice.
In one 10-day period last month, 72 people were killed in four separate accidents.

Australia: three-day lockout at Bridgestone ends

Bridgestone logo

Union members at the tyre maker, Bridgestone, in Salisbury, South Australia have returned to work after a three-day lockout without pay.

There has been no progress on their pay dispute as the company refused to negotiate in good faith.
“The company is refusing to negotiate with its workers and their union, and is hiding behind Howard’s laws to deny their workers a collectively negotiated agreement.”

Duke, James Herriott, 1939-1992

James Herriott Duke

A short biography of Australian anarchist poet, James Herriott Duke, who also lived in the UK.

Remembering Jim Duke
"I started performing poems as a timid person with a stutter but the spirit of the times soon converted me into a bellowing bull." Jim Duke

“The voice played like a human saxophone.” Nicholas Zurbrugg

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