The
1949 Australian coal strike is the first time that
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n military forces were used during peacetime to break a
Trade unionA trade union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas, such as working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labor contracts with employers...
strikeStrike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines...
. 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 ChifleyJoseph Benedict Chifley , Australian politician and 16th Prime Minister of Australia, was one of Australia's most influential Prime Ministers...
Federal
LaborThe Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party.Known as the ALP for short, the party is the current governing party of Australia, since the 2007 federal election...
Government to the
open cutOpen-pit mining, also known as open-cast mining, open-cut mining, and strip mining, refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....
coal minesCoal mining is the extraction or removal of coal from the earth by mining. When coal is used for fuel in power generation it is referred to as steaming or thermal coal. Coal that is used to create coke for steel manufacturing is referred to as coking or metallurgical coal...
in
New South WalesNew South Wales is Australia's most populous state, located in the south-east of the country, north of Victoria, south of Queensland and east of South Australia...
on 28 July, 1949, with the workers returning to work defeated two weeks later.
The miner's federation was heavily influenced at the time by the
Communist Party of AustraliaThe Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991. It achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted banning in 1951...
(CPA), and the strike is widely seen as the CPA applying
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
Soviet Union
CominformCominform 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
1949 Australian coal strike is the first time that
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n military forces were used during peacetime to break a
Trade unionA trade union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas, such as working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labor contracts with employers...
strikeStrike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines...
. 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 ChifleyJoseph Benedict Chifley , Australian politician and 16th Prime Minister of Australia, was one of Australia's most influential Prime Ministers...
Federal
LaborThe Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party.Known as the ALP for short, the party is the current governing party of Australia, since the 2007 federal election...
Government to the
open cutOpen-pit mining, also known as open-cast mining, open-cut mining, and strip mining, refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....
coal minesCoal mining is the extraction or removal of coal from the earth by mining. When coal is used for fuel in power generation it is referred to as steaming or thermal coal. Coal that is used to create coke for steel manufacturing is referred to as coking or metallurgical coal...
in
New South WalesNew South Wales is Australia's most populous state, located in the south-east of the country, north of Victoria, south of Queensland and east of South Australia...
on 28 July, 1949, with the workers returning to work defeated two weeks later.
The miner's federation was heavily influenced at the time by the
Communist Party of AustraliaThe Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991. It achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted banning in 1951...
(CPA), and the strike is widely seen as the CPA applying
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
Soviet Union
CominformCominform 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 strikeThe 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 Queensland.-References:...
.
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 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
NewcastleThe 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.
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 leaveLong Service Leave is an additional employee vacation payable after long periods of service with an employer in Australia and New Zealand.-Rates of Accrual for 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.
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At the height of the dispute Labor Senator
Donald GrantDonald 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 WorldThe Industrial Workers of the World is an international union currently headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. 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...
imprisoned as part of the
Sydney TwelveThe Sydney Twelve were members of the Industrial Workers of the World arrested on September 23, 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 OrganisationThe Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is the domestic counter-intelligence and security agency of Australia which is responsible for the protection of the country and its citizens from espionage, sabotage, politically-motivated violence, attacks on the Australian defence system,...
) 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 MenziesSir Robert Gordon Menzies, KT, AK, CH, FRS, QC , Australian politician, was the twelfth Prime Minister of Australia. His second term saw him become Australia's longest serving Prime Minister. He had a rapid rise to power as Prime Minister at the 1940 election which his party narrowly won...
Government in Intervention on the Waterfront at
BowenBowen 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 HoltHarold Edward Holt, CH was an Australian politician who became the 17th Prime Minister of Australia in 1966. His term as Prime Minister was brought to an early and dramatic end in December of the following year when he disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach near Portsea, Victoria, and was...
used the navy to break an
Seamen's Union of AustraliaThe Maritime Union of Australia covers waterside workers, seamen, port workers, professional divers, and office workers associated with Australian ports. As of 2005 the union has about 10,000 members...
boycott in 1967; the
Malcolm FraserJohn Malcolm Fraser, AC, CH is an 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
QantasQantas Airways Limited is the national airline of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an acronym for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport. It is Australia's largest...
dispute in 1981, as did
Bob HawkeRobert James Lee Hawke, AC was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia and longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
in the
1989 Australian pilots' strikeThe 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...
.