The squatters had cut wages. This was bad enough, but when they were going to fill white men’s places with Chinese, and further insisted on “freedom of contract,” shearers and shed hands had no alternative but to go on strike. Even Sir S. Griffith admitted to a deputation that the request of the Union for open conference was reasonable. He did nothing to help, however; but on the contrary put his great ability at the disposal of the employers. He was one of the Cabinet at the time. Every effort at conciliation was made by the workers without avail. It has become clear since that the ruling authorities had never intended to give fair play. They laid their plans to crush the men, and it stands to the credit of the workers that in spite of all the powers of State, of suffering and imprisonment, they stood true to the cause they fought for, and proved themselves worthy sons of the great white race. [W. G. Spence, ‘Australia’s Awakening’ ch. 13, p. 145]
On the 1st of October 2018 we should take a moment to step back and admire the great history of the Australian workingman’s movement. We should embrace Labor day as a celebration of our Nationalist-Socialist history in Australia. Right from the Eureka Stockade, to Clunes, Lambing Flat, Buckland River; our forefathers were full of vigour and courage; standing up to the authorities of the day in favour of what we know as the ‘White workingman’s paradise.’
It has been the great tradition of the Australian Labor Party and Australian Unions to preserve a racially homogeneous Australian continent. Mr H. V. Johnson; the general president of the Australian Workers Union wrote: “In the early days of this great organisation our industrial and political pioneers fought strenuously against the introduction of coloured labor, and in their: opposition to slavery and oppression they emblazoned the principle of White Australia on Labor’s standard.
After a long and bitter fight the Chinese coolies were’ eliminated from the shearing sheds, and with the unanimous approval of the people kanakas were excluded from the sugar fields of North Queensland. Labor alone in those early days fought for the principle of a White Australia, and for humanity’s sake it was a glorious Labor triumph that it became the law of the land.”
“Not for the Melting Pot! So far as the Australian Workers’ Union and the Labor Movement are concerned, I know that the organisations which gave it birth and which have fostered and nurtured it down through the years, will not under any consideration tolerate for a moment, the suggestion that the policy of ‘White Australia’ should be thrown into the international melting pot.”
Australia’s Prime Minister Alfred Deakin said in 1903: “A White Australia means a civilisation whose foundations are built upon healthy lives, lived in honest toil, under circumstances which imply no degradation. Fiscally a white Australia means protection. We protect ourselves against armed aggression, why not against aggression by commercial means. We protect ourselves against undesirable colored aliens, why not against the products of the undesirable alien labor?
A white Australia is not a surface, but it is a reasoned policy which goes down to the roots of national life, and by which the whole of our social, industrial, and political organisations is governed.”
We should be thankful for all our unionist ancestors who held off the tide of Asian scab-labourers; who fought proudly for the cause of a White, Socialistic national community; despite all the pleas of the financial and business elite at the time and through all time. Take some time aside today and read some Australian historical literature, we recommend highly W. G. Spence’s autobiography: “Australia’s Awakening” – We also recommend Labor Premier Jack Lang’s “White Australia Saved Australia”
