Wharfies' Gallipoli

Rex Munn re-enacts the pick up under the bull system

Port Adelaide remembers our fallen comrades

It was our darkest hour. A major defeat. But the heroism displayed by the men and women of the nation's waterfront in 1928 was the stuff of legends.

It was war - class war. Waterside workers were defending their jobs and their families. Mounted police and armed vigilantes pounded the streets, trampling men under hoof, beating skulls with their batons and brandishing rifles with bayonets. Some workers were shot, many injured, one killed.

Up to 2000 unionists confronted scabs at Princes' Pier in Melbourne. Blows were exchanged. Police opened fire. Alan Whittaker, wharfie and war veteran, was killed. Two others injured.

Whittaker survived the Turkish onslaught on the foreign shores of Gallipoli only to be gunned down by his own countrymen on the Melbourne waterfront.

It was the eve of the Great Depression. The Hungry Mile. Wharfies still lumped 95 kilo sacks of wheat, cement, asbestos and potatoes on their backs and shoved sulphur by hand in the rotting holds of converted sailing ships for shifts of between 24 and 48 hours.

The union imposed an overtime ban. But the Beeby Award of June 19, 1928 not only lifted all restrictions on working hours, it cancelled the pick up. Spontaneous strikes broke out around the country.

Wharfies: A History of the Waterside Workers' Federation by Margo Beasley records how the shipowners brought in scab labour and refused to negotiate. Prime Minister Bruce threatened to take action against the union under the Crimes Act and fined the Federation 1000 pounds - a small fortune in those days.

The ACTU advised everyone to return to work alongside the scabs. But Melbourne, Adelaide, Fremantle, Newcastle and Queensland branches refused.

In an all night parliamentary sitting on September 25 the government brought in what became known as the dog collar act. You had to have a license to obtain work -- pink for unionists and brown for non unionists -- and it could be cancelled for any reason. The employers recruited thousands of non union workers who took most of the jobs of Federation men and bitterness in small ports like Adelaide was passed on for generations.

When some 4,000 Adelaide members stormed the Labour Bureau they were bashed by a private army, the Citizen's Defence Brigade and police. But they cleared the ships of scab labour.

Strike, a book published in 1994 for school students, brings the past alive. Writer Christine Harris describes the melee:

With one purpose, the men swept along the wharves, determined to accomplish by force what they couldn't accomplish with words. Fists were flying as wharfies met volunteers, and the volunteers fought back They tried to persuade each other with shouts, blows and lumps of wood. Some held baling hooks: useful things when you had bales to shift, but menacing when waved by mad eyed protesters...

The wharfies meant business. Tired of being hungry and pushed from pillar to post, they were taking on everybody: the owners, the scabs and the police...

The mob was rushing toward the steamer, Hanau. A terrified man on board took one look and leapt off the bow into the water, arms and legs jiggling wildly ..."

But one by one the ports fell into the hands of the police and the scabs. One by one the men were forced to retreat.

In Melbourne the red flag declaring 'No Surrender' above the union rooms was reportedly replaced by a tattered white one. It marked the ruin of the Port Phillip branch.

But all was not lost. The wharfies of 1928 fought so that future generations of workers could enjoy decent pay and conditions.

Lest we forget, the South Australia branch of the union got together with writers and actors and the local community to celebrate the strike's 75th anniversary in August.

Adelaide was one of the strongest ports - one of the last to hold out and the town still commemorates this.

"In life as we move forward not often enough do we pause to look back and appreciate some of the things we have done in the past that makes it a better place to live in now," special guest speaker Deputy National Secretary Jim Tannock told a full hall.

In an impassioned speech he compared the 1928 strike with the 1998 lockout and union victory.

The crowd first gathered at the museum where retired wharfie Rex Munn enacted the pick up on Poverty Corner. They then marched through historic town of Port Adelaide behind a brass band to the magnificent old art deco union hall, still grand despite its peeling paint.

Maritime workers then joined actors on stage for a performance of Strike on the Waterfront, a play by Steven Sewell.

Between scenes wharfies and actors joined the choir in the custom of the working class and the Roaring Twenties to renditions of 'Solidarity Forever', 'Sunnyside of the Street' and 'Side by Side'.

Linden:"It's good to hear people having a sing song. You must have what you wanted out of the strike."

Bill: "What makes you say that?"

Linden: Well 'Side by Side'

Elsie: We're side by side cause we gotta be.

Dinny: Yeah, cause we lost.

Peg: No, we didn't

Dinny: We were forced back for no more pay and there's scabs all over the port. Call that winning?

Peg: Yes, we stood up and we'll do it again.

Elsie: And I hope our kids'll do the same

Lindon: But I thought you would want something better for them?

Bill: We do but if they want it they'll have to fight for it.

Peg: But maybe we've made the fight easier....

August 28 is a time to remember our fallen, their bravery and what they have helped us achieve.

Actors Val Levkowicz, Dennis Moore, Jacqy Phillips and Andrew Martin donated their talents and labour to perform readings from the play.

The day was the collective effort of these actors, retired wharfies Arthur Shertock and Rex Munn and former branch secretary Keith Ridgeway.

It was sponsored by the ALP, local council, Department of Premier and Cabinet, ITF, the Credit Union, MUA, Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Port Adelaide Historical Society, South Australian Maritime Museum, Labour Council and Vitalstatistix Theatre Company.

So successful was the media and community support for the event that the branch is considering staging further performances in 2004.

A DVD/VHS film of the event is being circulated to local schools, the Maritime Museum and MUA branches.