Comment on Interviews with Australians about segregated swimming pools [1965]

ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

• eureka@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  A couple of months ago (on the anniversary) I listened to one of the Freedom Riders talk about their trip, and they made a point that the eager reception they received was really encouraging, and also allowed them to better understand all the different places segregation and oppression existed in towns and how horrific it could be. Understanding their situation was a big piece that enabled labour organisations (incl. unions) of all stripes to unite and fight segregation and end the “Aboriginal Welfare Board”.

  I can’t find much of it on sites like Wikipedia or ABC news, but I found this interview with Ray Peckham talking about the same events here:

  Ray talked with us about a campaign at Port Kembla in this period to illustrate the crucial role of unions. Residents of the Coomaditchie Aboriginal reserve were demanding new houses, but some of the only remaining land in the area was being taken over by the adjacent University.

  “Bobby Davis [a local Aboriginal leader] was a wharfie at Port Kembla and he worked with Joe Howe, a delegate from the Waterside Workers Federation.

  “They set up a campaign, naturally it was through the Trades and Labour Council and backed by the union. They won that strip of land and had eight houses built on it from that fight.”

  In Sydney and Wollongong too, union power was used to fight segregation. Pubs that refused to serve Aboriginal people would be confronted by crowds of trade unionists. Ray explained, “We would get the Liquor Trades Union to put a ban on the pub. Force them to change that way, with a black ban.”

  …net.au/…/indigenous-activist-ray-peckham-how-uni…

  It’s important to recognise and remember how united worker movements have historically built movements that forced governments into listening to us - both major parties were resistant to removing the White Australia Policy in the early 60s. That’s why Labor’s renewed attacks on militant unions like the MUA and the CFMEU are particularly disturbing. Both these unions have been at the forefront, sticking up for protester’s rights and social justice, and it will be devastating to all of us if they are successfully squashed.

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  • ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    She was young, still a kid, raised in the country, and going to school in one of the most racist towns in Australia. She had only turned up to go to the pool and go swimming with some friends. She wasn’t there for the Freedom Ride or the protest, so it all caught her by surprise. It was stumbling in to the protest, and seeing all of the folk that had turned out for it, pushing back against racism that made her realise that racism doesn’t have to be “just the way it is”.

    Unfortunately, Moree is still a racist, bigoted place, with deeply entrenched inequality. The segregation is still there, it’s just social now, instead of legal.

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