1949 Australian coal strike
Encyclopedia
The 1949 Australian coal strike is the first time that Australia
n 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.
(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
.
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
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 (near Newcastle
), Muswellbrook and Ben Bullen, with seven more fields operated later.
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:
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
.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n military forces were used during peacetime to break a Trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
. 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
Ben Chifley
Joseph Benedict Chifley , Australian politician, was the 16th Prime Minister of Australia. He took over the Australian Labor Party leadership and Prime Ministership after the death of John Curtin in 1945, and went on to retain government at the 1946 election, before being defeated at the 1949...
Federal Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
Government to the open cut
Open-pit mining
Open-pit mining or opencast mining refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....
coal mines
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
on 28 July 1949, with the workers returning to work defeated two weeks later.
Causes
The miner's federation was heavily influenced at the time by the Communist Party of AustraliaCommunist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991; it was succeeded by the Socialist Party of Australia, which then renamed itself, becoming the current Communist Party of Australia. The CPA achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted...
(CPA), and the strike is widely seen as the CPA applying Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
Soviet Union Cominform
Cominform
Founded in 1947, Cominform is the common name for what was officially referred to as the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties...
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
1948 Queensland Railway strike
right|thumb|225px|Confrontation with police during demonstration in support of the strike, Brisbane, 17 March 1948The 1948 Queensland Railway strike was a strike which lasted nine weeks, from February to April, 1948, over issues of the wages of the Railway Workshops and locomotive depots workers in...
.
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
Long service leave
Long service leave is an additional employee vacation payable after long periods of service with an employer in Australia and New Zealand.In Australia, unlike many other countries, employees are generally entitled to additional leave, known as long service leave, over and above their annual 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
Government Response
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 5 July 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 CalwellArthur Calwell
Arthur Augustus Calwell Australian politician, was a member of the Australian House of Representatives for 32 years from 1940 to 1972, Immigration Minister in the government of Ben Chifley from 1945 to 1949 and Leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1960 to 1967.-Early life:Calwell was born in...
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 (near Newcastle
Newcastle, New South Wales
The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
), Muswellbrook and Ben Bullen, with seven more fields operated later.
At the height of the dispute Labor Senator Donald Grant
Donald Grant
Donald Grant was a leader of the Industrial Workers of the World in Sydney, Australia, a member of the Sydney Twelve charged with conspiracy in 1916, and later a member of the Australian Labor Party who was elected to Sydney City Council, appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council, and...
, a former member of the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
imprisoned as part of the Sydney Twelve
Sydney Twelve
The Sydney Twelve were members of the Industrial Workers of the World arrested on 23 September 1916 in Sydney, Australia, and charged with treason under the Treason Felony Act , arson, sedition and forgery....
, 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
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is Australia's national security service, which is responsible for the protection of the country and its citizens from espionage, sabotage, acts of foreign interference, politically-motivated violence, attacks on the Australian defence system, and...
) 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
Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
Government in Intervention on the Waterfront at Bowen
Bowen, Queensland
Bowen is a town on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 census, Bowen had a population of 7,484.-Geography:Bowen is located on the north-east coast of Australia, at exactly twenty degrees south of the equator. In fact, the twentieth parallel crosses the main street...
in 1953, and in disputes in 1951, 1952, and 1954 against seamen and waterside workers; Harold Holt
Harold Holt
Harold Edward Holt, CH was an Australian politician and the 17th Prime Minister of Australia.His term as Prime Minister was brought to an early and dramatic end in December 1967 when he disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach near Portsea, Victoria, and was presumed drowned.Holt spent 32 years...
used the navy to break an Seamen's Union of Australia
Maritime Union of Australia
The Maritime Union of Australia covers waterside workers, seafarers, port workers, professional divers, and office workers associated with Australian ports. As of 2011 the union has about 13,000 members. It is an affiliate of the International Transport Workers' Federation and represents the...
boycott in 1967; the Malcolm Fraser
Malcolm Fraser
John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, GCL, PC is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in the 1975 election following the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, in which he played a key role...
Government used the RAAF to transport passengers during a Qantas
Qantas
Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...
dispute in 1981, as did Bob Hawke
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
in the 1989 Australian pilots' strike
1989 Australian pilots' strike
The 1989 Australian pilots' dispute was one of the most expensive and dramatic industrial disputes in Australia's history. It was co-ordinated by the Australian Federation of Air Pilots after a prolonged period of wage suppression, to support its campaign for a large pay increase The 1989...
.