Radical Wollongong
Written by John Rainford
Directed by John Reynolds and Paul Benedek
Produced by Green Left TV
www.radicalwollongong.com
Radical Wollongong, the first documentary produced by Green left TV, met with significant enthusiasm at its premier screening at the Gala Cinema in the Illawarra on May 18.
With standing room only, in one of the region's few remaining theatres, we were shown a treat of a film on the history of Wollongong ― in particular, its most radical and interesting manifestations of class, politics and working life.
Like many in the audience, I have a deep and abiding interest in this region and the film was a welcome release from the banality of the current political malaise.
The film starts by establishing the roots of the region in coal mining politics. Two key events ― explosions at Bulli (1887) and Mt Kembla (1902) mines that caused a dreadful loss of life ― cemented the militancy of workers in the region for better conditions.
These early events built solidarity among the communities who worked and lived around the pits. The Mt Kembla tragedy is commemorated annually, with union and community support.
The film highlights the relationship of the early union movement and the Communist Party of Australia. Building on Labor Party and Industrial Workers of the World influence, this interaction developed out of, and in response to, the perilous working conditions experienced by workers who mined the region’s coal seams.
Indeed, without these relationships, the formation of community as an expression of class solidarity would never have been achieved, nor would it exist today.
The film highlights the difficulties successive leaders of both sides of politics faced with the region’s sense of community and its strong Communist Party presence. The 1938 Dalfram dispute, in which workers refused to load pig iron to Japan, was fervently opposed by then-attorney-general Robert Menzies.
During the 1949 national coal strike, then-Labor prime minister Ben Chifley sent in troops to displace striking miners. Chifley tried to freeze union funds, but miners withdrew their money in time.
As a consequence of this dispute, the Communist Party prepared to go underground. It set up a clandestine and subversive operation to disseminate information to fellow members, while seeking to continue the community work they had done, since at least the 1920s, such as providing food and assistance to unemployed people.
Such activities further reinforced “the red scare” of the Cold War-era with the Menzies’, now prime minister, pushing a failed referendum in 1951 to ban the party.
When Menzies introduced a national service ballot in the 1960s for the Vietnam War, draft resistance became an important point of antagonism in the region. With support from the trade unions, many young men, like locals Lou Christofides and Mac Gudgeon, refused to take part in this US imperialist war.
Aboriginal rights struggles were another important aspect featured in the film. It links community pickets, such as Sandon Point, into the bigger context.
I thoroughly enjoyed the depiction of the Wollongong Out of Workers Union (WOW) (we need something like this today) and the Right to Work for Women campaign that targetted BHP, which took 14 years to achieve economic, legal and social justice for women in the steel industry.
The ongoing campaign against coal seam gas mining brought the film’s narrative to a tight conclusion. Again, the strength of communities, and the people in them, is central in understanding the region’s history.
The film shows that strong and organised communities are central to defending workers’ rights or protecting the region’s natural environment.
[Visit www.radicalwollongong.com for details of screenings around the country. Scott Burrows is completing a PhD in the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong.]
