November 23, 2017 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — Historian and Honorary Research Fellow in the School of History at the University of Western Australia, Dr Chris Owen has produced a monumental history of the “killing times” in the Kimberley region in the decades leading up to Federation.
It is estimated that 10,000 to 30,000 Aboriginal people lived in the area before police entered the region. It is impossible to calculate how many were killed in the decades of the land war.
NSW Builders Labourers Federation Union secretary Jack Mundey is arrested during the ‘green bans’ at The Rocks in 1973 which saved the historic buildings of Sydney's birthplace
By John Tully
Fifty years ago, a group of dedicated left-wing activists wrested control of the NSW Builders Labourers’ Federation (BLF) from the corrupt gangster types who had used it to feather their own nests. The militants, who included Jack Mundey, Joe Owens and Bob Pringle, rebuilt the union into a radically democratic, socially progressive and environmentally-aware organisation the likes of which Australia—and the world—had never seen. Today, we live in dark times for trade unionism. Only around 7% of workers in private industry are organised and unionists face ruthless attacks by the bosses and the state. The achievements of the NSW BLF, however, give us a glimpse of the liberating potential of the working class and are a beacon for the future.
