Pictured: former Labor resources and energy minister Martin Ferguson, Laurie Carmichael, centre, and former ACTU secretary Bill Kelty.

This is a comprehensive and heartfelt memoir of Laurie Carmichael driven by about 25 years of close quarters union leadership and friendship.

This pamphlet is the first item relevant to the 1960 wages and conditions struggles the use of “penal powers” against workers to help the employers win those disputes.

Arguably, it marks the first appearance of Laurie Carmichael on the national stage.

The notorious “penal powers” were a mechanism in the then “Conciliation and Arbitration Act” used by the commissioners to force workers not to continue with industrial action they were using to strengthen their hand in bargaining overt wages and conditions, and sometimes other matters. During a dispute the commissioner(s) could order the workers to return to work. If they did not, the commissioner could threaten or fine their union to force their return, with no gain.

IN about 1960 Laurie Carmichael started discussions among the left Victorian unions to develop what would become a national policy and strategy to defeat these penal powers.

In a lecture to Organising Works Trainees at the Clyde Cameron College in the mid to late 1990’s, Carmichael described the dispute from his point of view, citing it as an example of applied union strategy and the role of union leadership in developing the strategy over about ten years.

This pamphlet – “Abolish the Penal Powers – Freedoms Fight of ‘69” – provides rich detail about the curse of this struggle, conducted in the context of a hostile LNP government under Menzies.

There are quotes from Carmichael (Page 3 and 34) and a dramatic photo of him speaking without microphone to a mass rally of workers in front of the Industrial Court.

Carmichael was at the centre of the leadership coordinating the action and Clarrie O’Shea was the union leader who courageously agreed to bring the whole dispute to culmination by going to jail instead of authorising his union to pay the fines.

“Abolish the Penal Powers – Freedoms Fight of ‘69”, John Arrowsamith

Pamplet to be uploaded

Extra commentary and links

In 1969, Australian Workers Launched a General Strike to Free Jailed Union Leader Clarrie O’Shea, by Grace Brooks

Tom McDonald on the 1969 Penal Powers strike, by Tom McDonald

From the Archives, 1969: Victoria crippled by 24-hour mass strike, The Age Staff Writers, May 19, 2021.

Clarrie O’Shea & the 1969 General Strike, Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RBTU), recent.

Essential Reading

Laurie Carmichael was a voracious reader, and he encouraged other officials, organisers, and delegates to lift their reading to improve their contribution.

Often, he provided recommended reading in casual conversations and in more formal meetings and training courses.

This example is from Doug Cameron, a power industry delegate who later became a renowned National Secretary of the Union, that shows what Carmichael recommended to him after he was elected to an official role in the AMWSU.

Cameron says Carmichael gave him this list during their first discussion after he had been elected around 1983 by the members to his first full-time organiser's role.

Global Reach, click here

In the late 1970’s the AMWSU sponsored a national speaking tour for Richard Barnet, one of the authors of this important book.

Australia and World Capitalism, click here

Carmichael and the AMWSU were active supporters of Ted Wheelwright, an activist political economist who founded the first Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney. Graduates from the Department could take seriously the possibility of working in the Research Department at the AMWSU.

Penal Colony to Penal Powers, click here and click here

Jack Hutson, the author of this book, produced three outstanding books for AMWU members and this is one of them. The others were “Six Wage Concepts”, in effect a history of wage setting in Australia up to the early 80’s, and “Inflation, the Silent Robber”, a primer written for union members on economics in theory and in practice during the high inflation period.

These books were first published in serial form direct to AMWSU members in the pages of the union’s monthly journal.

Political Economy of Capitalism, Paul Sweezy

Probably, the book is this one: The Theory of Capitalist Development. Click here.

Strategy for Socialism, Stuart Holland. Click here.