Ep 20 – The struggle against anti-Aboriginal racism in 1920s and 1930s Australia
People's History of AustraliaShow Notes
Throughout Australia's history, racism has proven to be a remarkably effective weapon in dividing different groups from each other, despite them sharing the same common enemies and the same interests. Vicious anti-Aboriginal racism was deeply rooted in Australian culture from an early stage, and during the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, there is minimal history of joint struggle between white workers and Aboriginal people. In the 1930s, however, dramatic changes began to take shape. For the first time ever, mass meetings of predominantly white union members began passing motions declaring their solidarity with Aboriginal resistance. White unemployed workers fought alongside unemployed Aboriginal workers. And a huge campaign took shape across the country, with the participation of thousands of white workers, against frontier massacres and violence. At the same time, radical left-wing theory began arguing that Aboriginal people and every other working-class person in Australia had a shared interest in opposing racism and waging united struggles together. To talk about this incredible history and how such a remarkable change took place, we're joined in this episode by Paddy Gibson, an activist, academic and historian, who discusses socialist anti-racist theory in the 19th century, its flaws and how it was modified and challenged by the Communist Part of Australia during 20th century, and the amazing campaigns led by the Communist Party against anti-Aboriginal racism during the 1920s and 1930s. Find full show notes and links for this episode at our website - www.peopleshistory.com.au Support us on Patreon here - www.patreon.com/peopleshistoryofaustralia
More from People's History of Australia
In April 1998, Australia suddenly erupted into industrial war. Security guards with dogs and balaclavas swarmed docks across the country, threw out all 1,400 unionised workers at Patrick Stevedores, and then replaced them with a non-union workforce. Blockades sprang up at major ports, thousands of workers walked off the job to support the sacked wharfies, and the country seemed poised on the brink of a general strike.
The idea that Australia was invaded in 1788 is strangely controversial. A Google search for the phrase ‘Was Australia invaded’ provides an AI-generated answer claiming that ‘Australia has not experienced a full-scale foreign military invasion of its mainland’. The Wikipedia history of Australia makes no mention of invasion or indeed any warfare between between Aboriginal nations and the colonisers at all, and large numbers of articles ask ‘Was Australia invaded in 1788?’ as if the issue is somehow not obvious.
In contemporary Australian mass culture, it’s hard if not impossible to find any representation of life as it’s lived by the majority of the population. Few movies, plays, TV shows or documentaries reflect what it’s like spending most of your waking life working to make a boss rich, struggling to keep up with bills, or dealing with sexism, homophobia, racism, and other oppressions – and practically none depict things like going on strike or opposing fascism. With all major media and cultural production owned either by the government or huge corporations, this situation has prevailed throughout virtually the entire post-invasion history of Australia.
From the 1880s until the 1980s, telephone operators were at the centre of the communications industry in Australia. Before the invention of the internet or mobile phones, virtually all telecommunication across the country and internationally took place through landline telephones. And operators, who connected calls to their intended destination, were completely essential to that process.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, a powerful and radical new movement arose in Australia challenging the widespread oppression that women faced across the country – the women’s liberation movement.