Almost two years of street protests have barely moved the Australian government from its uncritical support for ‘our good friend’ Israel. Hundreds of thousands have marched across Australia in what have been proportionally among the biggest Palestine rallies in the world. But there would be few of us who haven’t secretly questioned their effectiveness by now.

The images of almost unimaginable Zionist brutality in Gaza have shocked people around the globe. However, long before the internet, the world’s working class were confronted by newspaper articles and newsreels revealing the horror of the Japanese invasion of China, particularly the Nanjing Massacre during which the Japanese slaughtered 300,000 people in just six weeks.

Gaza and Nanjing: Historical Parallels

So what other strategies are there? Unions seem unable to take action that would put real pressure on the government, citing the strength of industrial laws preventing industrial action. But there is precedent for union action against genocide, even where anti-strike laws have existed. In 1938 Port Kembla dock workers refused to load pig-iron onto a ship bound for Japan, defying the Transport Workers Act and facing severe retaliation from the bosses and anti-union laws wielded by the government.  This article looks at what can be learned from their campaign.

Just as today international bodies have failed Gaza, the League of Nations failed to act beyond words of condemnation. Back home, the Australian government refused to halt trade with Japan, its second biggest trading partner, and continued to send wool, wheat, iron ore and scrap iron unimpeded. The industrial powerhouse BHP, who had a monopoly on steel production in Australia, was profiting from sending “pig-iron” (a crude form of iron used in making steel) to Japan to be used in its war machine.

The Union’s Response

The only social force which consistently opposed fascist Japan’s violence was pressure from the working class. The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) initially took the same stance as it has today on Gaza. Rather than organise for unions themselves to put work bans on Japanese exports, the ACTU supported a consumer boycott and made statements calling on the government to sanction Japan.

Just as today, the ACTU was nervous about work bans provoking the use of anti-strike laws. The then Transport Workers Act had been used repeatedly to break strikes on the waterfront. When invoked, workers who took industrial action or refused a directive to work could be banned from the docks for six months. It was not until rank and file waterside workers independently began passing motions to place work bans on pig-iron and other goods bound for Japan that late in 1938 the ACTU shifted its position to support work bans. The first effective action came on 15th November 1938 when the SS Dalfram docked at Port Kembla..

Ted Roach, the Communist Party leader of the local Waterside Workers union branch, describes the morning he heard that a ship to be loaded with pig-iron was destined for Kobe in Japan.

I called the boys together in the lane (opposite the Wollongong Town Hall) and that morning I jumped a stump and said to the boys there was a ship coming in, and there was pig-iron for Japan, and our policy is clear, ‘What do you think we should do about it?’

The wharfies immediately voted against loading the iron if the ship was indeed headed for Japan, sending Roach to confirm the rumour while they began the shift. By 11.15am Roach was sure:

So I just walked up on deck and I said “Righto, boys, it’s going to Kobe”. To a man, everyone stopped, and they marched straight off the bloody ship. Hey, we had no idea we were making history.

Of course, the action didn’t come completely out of nowhere. The South Coast Waterside Workers Branch at Port Kembla had earlier that year come under the leadership of Ted Roach, who was not intimidated by the threat of the Transport Workers Act, telling the union men that “penal legislation is only as dangerous as the resistance to it is weak’”.

The men trusted Roach. Earlier that year, despite being the least unionised port in the country, the union branch under Roach’s leadership had beaten back a hated rostering system, which allowed bosses to pick and choose which workers got shifts – of course, older workers, young inexperienced workers, Aboriginals or other non-white workers, those with disabilities, and the militants were mostly picked last. Roach fought for and won a strict union-controlled roster that distributed work evenly to all – a great example of how weeding out discrimination is often a necessary component of building union strength. To win, the union also had to persuade casual workers to support the campaign, which they did by welcoming non-union casuals to union meetings and advocating for them as well. The new union-controlled roster was a first in Australia and became a model that spread to other ports.

When the 180 wharfies walked off the job of loading the Dalfram, the employer’s response was immediate and ruthless. BHP demanded that the Dalfram be unloaded before any other ships at the port, effectively turning the work ban into a lock out and leaving the men without any income.

If the solidarity campaign of the Port Kembla dock workers had not immediately received broad support, the dispute would have been over within days. While a 24 hour picket was maintained at the docks, other unions supported the ban on the SS Dalfram preventing any attempt to shift it to another berth or port for loading—the Federated Ironworkers Association, the Shunters’ Union, the Federated Engine Drivers and Firemen’s Association, the Australian Workers’ Union and the Railways Union all pledged not to handle the pig-iron.

A massive campaign to feed and support the locked out workers was organised by the union. The local community pitched in with local small businesses donating goods and allowing purchasing on credit. As was so often in union disputes, the wives of the men worked tirelessly in the efforts to support the action. There were dance nights, radio ads, collections at the racetracks and in pubs.

Money flowed into the strike fund from middle class layers such as lawyers and academics, while other unions sent money and support. Thousands of local steelworkers sent part of their weekly wages at a time where workers still had little money to spare.

Grateful members of the Australian Chinese community, many who worked in the market gardens of Sydney, organised truckloads of produce to be sent to feed the workers and their families.

Similarly, attempts to sail the ship off were foiled by the solidarity shown by and towards the multicultural crew of the Dalfram which included men from Yemen, Myanmar, India and Britain. The day after the wharfies walked off, the crew went on strike, reaching out to the Seamen’sSeamans Union of Australia for support. Their wages were withheld, they were locked on the ship and the head seaman, Mohamed Ghoulah, was even arrested and briefly sent to an asylum as the authorities tried to prove he was insane! The crew eventually escaped and were sheltered by the local community.

The Trade Union Leadership Response

The ACTU had initially been reluctant to support work bans by waterside workers, instead preferring to lobby the Federal Government to sanction trade with Japan. The national leadership of the Waterside Workers Federation under Communist Party member Jim Healy was likewise nervous that bans would invoke the Transport Workers Act. In 1928 the use of the Act had almost destroyed the dockworkers union. At the start of the dispute, Healy encouraged the men to return to work, sending the union’s management from Melbourne to Wollongong to try and persuade the South Coast branch to lift the bans. Not only did members refuse to do so, they managed to convince the union management to give one thousand pounds to the fighting fund! After this Healy accepted the decision of the branch and started to work with Roach on fighting the struggle.

While local Labor party members and branches supported the struggle, the federal ALP under the then opposition leader John Curtin were hostile. When Healy and Roach travelled to Canberra to appeal to Curtin, they were dismissed and told that even if the ALP was in power they would still have to load the pig-iron.

Police Repression, Anti-Strike Laws and Company Retaliation

Unsurprisingly the government and employers responded with fury to a group of workers standing on principle against BHP’s profitable contract.  The Dalfram’s crew were hounded by police. Two of the crew from India were arrested first for desertion and eventually imprisoned for six months as “illegal immigrants” after failing the dictation test in German set for them by Customs! Police harassed those out of work, arresting some for vagrancy. On January 6th, after coming off picket line duty, two undercover Special Branch agents and two police set up upon Matt Roach who they mistook for his elder brother Ted and severely beat him and his invalid son. The local office of the Labor Trades council was burgled andwith documents relating to the dispute stolen.

The state repression extended to trying to crush support for the struggle in Sydney. Police censors cut the cable to 2KY radio station owned by the NSW Labor Council. A play called  “War on the Waterfront” which was raising funds for the strikes was shut down by police in front of 200 people in Sydney Domain.

And then – as had been feared – the federal Trade Minister (none other than Robert Menzies!) invoked the Transport Workers Act. BHP compounded the pressure by laying off all 3500 workers at the Port Kembla Steel mills just three days before Christmas, citing the ongoing shut down on the docks. This not only exponentially increased the number of people out of work but also removed a key plank of financial support for the strike fund. As the dispute dragged on, the hardship increased, with banks foreclosing on the houses of workers. But still the resolve of the striking men was unbroken.

The Dispute Ends – and so do Iron Exports

Menzies and the government were increasingly frantic to stop the dispute. The workers had successfully turned the issue of the continued pig- iron trade into a national issue and pressure was growing on all parties. Menzies travelled to Wollongong in early January in a misjudged attempt to convince the workers to go back to work. He was met by a massive community protest of workers and their families and had to be escorted back to his car – with the police forced to request assistance from Roach over a loud hailer to ensure Menzies’Roach’s safe exit. (As Roach said “the irony of this! Menzies, that number one Red-baiter, had to be protected by communists”). It was at this time that the Menzies earned the nickname “Pig-Iron Bob” that would dog him for the rest of his career.

By now, Menzies had reached the point of giving verbal undertakings that if the strike was ended, not only would the iron trade with Japan be reviewed but that the Transport Workers Act would be abolished! Roach took this offer back to the members of the South Coast branch. The commitment of the rank and file to the struggle against Japanese militarism was still so strong that against Roach’s expectations the majority rejected the deal. Enraged, Menzies gave the workers a 24 hour ultimatum—accept the deal or the government would use force to bring in scabs from other ports. At this point, the wharfies angrily and “under protest” finally agreed to end the dispute and load the Dalfram.

Despite the men’s disappointment at having to load the ship, the dispute resulted in a greater victory than could have been foreseen. No more pig- iron went to Japan other than completely existing contracts and the Transport Workers Act was abolished nationally and never used again.

Lessons for Today

There has been understandable frustration within the Palestinian solidarity movement at the lack of any union bans being placed on Israeli trade. The ACTU has issued statements calling on the government to end military trade with Israel. The Maritime Union Australia (MUA), the successor union to the Waterside Workers Federation, has made similar calls on the Government. Individual officials from the MUA have supported community protests at the docks, some even getting arrested as individuals in Sydney. However neither the MUA or any other union whose workers are directly involved with trade with Israel have instituted work bans.

Some argue that though we may be inspired by Australian workers who put on work bans against the Japanese invasion of China or Apartheid South Africa such actions could not be repeated today due to today’s harsh anti-strike laws. There is no doubt that the legal framework against secondary boycotts and political strikes have been strengthened over recent decades and now not only unions but individual workers can face harsh penalties. However, the experience of the Dalfram Dispute shows that such actions have always faced harsh repression from the capitalist state and there was no “golden period” of Australian unionism when such actions could be taken without great risk or personal consequences.

The experience of the Dalfram Dispute also shows us how such action can be the catalyst and means to actually overthrow undemocratic anti-strike laws. The enormous support in the working class that arose for the workers at Port Kembla and their principled stance fuelled a struggle that overturned the feared Transport Workers Act. Does anyone seriously think that if a similar stance was taken today by a crucial section of the working class like dock workers that such support would not arise again? There are millions of Australians that are sickened to their core by the genocide in Gaza and Israel’s rampage through out West Asia. Of course, today’s union leadership, enmeshed within the Labor Party, would do all in their power to undermine such a struggle. But again, as we saw in Port Kembla in 1938, with discipline and audacity opposition of this kind can be overcome.The Dalfram dispute also demonstrates that, without an incredible mobilisation of support from other unions and the broader working class, any stand taken by a small group of workers to place bans on Israeli trade would be doomed to be crushed under the jackboot of state repression.

History in this case gives us both a guide and inspiration to action. Like much workers’ history, the Dalfram Dispute has been largely buried by the bosses. We need to dust off the lessons of the Dalfram Dispute and hold them up as a shining example for us as the world again witnesses a genocide which only workers have the power to stop.

References on the Dalfram Dispute

Rebels – Ted Roach ‘The university of adversity taught me to be a revolutionary’

Against Fascism and War: Pig Iron Bob and the Dalfram Dispute, Port Kembla 1938

The Dalfram Dispute 1938: Pig Iron Bob (Full documentary available on Docuplay)