Pursuing Trade Union Internationalism: Australia's Waterside Workers and the International Transport Workers Federation, c. 1950–70

Pursuing Trade Union Internationalism: Australia's Waterside Workers and the International Transport Workers Federation, c. 1950–70

When the Australian Waterside Workers Federation (WWF) decided in 1971 to join the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) it overturned decades of antipathy to the ITF. We ask why union officials held this view and why the union now changed its mind at this particular moment. We argue that...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Labour history (Canberra) 2016-05 (110), p.57-75
Main Authors: Diane Kirkby, Dmytro Ostapenko
Format: Article
Language:eng
Subjects:
Autobiographies
Cold wars
Communism
Communist Party of Australia
Educational television
Industrial unions
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
International cooperation
International labor activities
International Transport Workers' Federation
Labor unions
Mariners
Organized labor
Solidarity
Stevedores
Waterfronts
Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia
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Summary:When the Australian Waterside Workers Federation (WWF) decided in 1971 to join the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) it overturned decades of antipathy to the ITF. We ask why union officials held this view and why the union now changed its mind at this particular moment. We argue that while union power was strong in the immediate postwar decades, the WWF was able to pursue its economic goals locally and join international actions for reasons of solidarity. In the following decade, however, union archives reveal that a confluence of technological change and diminishing union strength under a conservative government made international organising a logical and necessary strategy. Under the guidance of General Secretary Charlie Fitzgibbon, the WWF overcame its opposition to the ITF, by then an organisation representing millions of workers worldwide. We concentrate on Fitzgibbon's leadership as a crucial factor in the timing of this historic change.
ISSN:0023-6942
0023-6942