Two vignettes

Thursday 15 May 1969, Industrial Court, Melbourne

Thousands of workers take to the streets. Discarded and ineffectual police barricades trace their march route. The atmosphere is saturated with defiance and anticipation. A figure emerges from the Industrial Court: ‘Clarrie's been sent down!’ and the crowd erupts.

Over the next six days, Victoria will experience the largest general strike in its history. Power and gas supplies will be disrupted, television broadcasts will cease and public transport will stop running in protest at the jailing of Tramways Union leader Clarrie O'Shea. Workers from as far afield as Townsville, Hobart and Sydney will walk off the job in solidarity. Decades of massive fines and jailing of union leaders will be brought to an abrupt end. An era of working-class militancy will be unleashed.

For the union leaders, turmoil ensues. Confronted with the very actions that they have attempted to avoid for years, they now face a choice – lead from the front or be swept to the back. Leaders of the left-wing metal trades unions, who previously accepted and attempted to pay the crippling fines, are now prepared to take action.

The right-wing leaders who have supported the penal powers – seeing them as a useful tool by which to contain industrial action and to discipline militants – are dismayed by the explosion of working-class activity. Yet they are powerless to contain it.