Fifty years ago, an industrial penal powers dispute provoked the biggest strike wave in Australia's post-war history. Jim McIlroy looks at the 1969 'Free Clarrie O'Shea' campaign and its lessons for unions today.
Clarrie O’Shea
Will the election of former Australian Services Union NSW head Sally McManus as ACTU secretary result in a strategic shift in the trade union movement in this country? Many unionists and activists are hoping so.
The government is tightening the screws on workers and the poor, intent on further attacks on the social wage, privatising health, education and welfare services and attacking refugees. We need to fight back. Strong, fighting unions are essential to building an effective resistance to corporate power and to defending our rights.