Evening star., 1949-08-13
Australia Meets the Challenge

The Australian coal strike Is over. The
men 60 back to work Monday under a
directive from their leaders. This decision
was inevitable when the union membership
voted decisively to end the strike, despite
the recommendation of the leaders to hold
out. Thus ends what was probably the
gravest challenge to constituted authority
which the Commonwealth has ever faced.
This was no ordinary strike. Illegal
from the start, 1t developed into test OF
strength between the government and a
Communicated labor organization occupy
ing key position in the nations economy
Furthermore, the miners we're backed by
other radical unions such as the long
shoremen's and seamens organizations,
who staged sympathetic strikes and added
to the economic confusion which the
miners had precipitated. The political
nature of this contest became doubly obvi-
GUS when the government raided the head
quarters Of the Australian Communist
Party and obtained evidence that the
whole business had been ir1stigated from
Moscow. The party leaders are about to
be indicted by the Commonwealth on sedi-
tion and conspiracy charges.
The government acted vigorously to
combat this quasi-revolutionary challenge.
When the miners union officials def1ed q
court order enjoining them from using
union funds for strike benefits, they we're
promptly jailed for contempt together with
officials of other unions who had illegally
donated funds for the same purpose. These
arrests further sharpened the issue, the
strikers vowing they would not return to
work until their leaders were freed and
all fines remitted. Meanwhile, the strike
itself, timed at the depth of the Australian
winter when coal stocks we're abnormally
low, was literally disrupting the nations
economic life. Industry was half paralyzed,
essential public services slowed down, and
city dwellers were subjected to severe hard
ship from unheated homes and lack of
cooking facilities. To meet that crisis the
government sent troops into the coal fields
to mine coal and insure its distribution.
ALI this took political courage and in
volved definite risks. 1t should be renem-
bered that the present government Is
Labor administration and that Australia
is strongly unionized. The radical unions
did their best to infame labor senti-
ment generally against the governments
strike breaking" measures, hoping to pre-
cipitate something like q general strike
and what Communists term a "prerev-
olutionary situation" But the group OF
Communicated unions found themselves
isolated. The bulk Of organized labor either
tacitly or openly approved the govern
ment's actions. Hence, the rapid cave-in
Of resistance, when the union rank and
file could not be held in line and the
leadership had to capitulate.
From this outcome several consequences
can be deduced. The setback to the
ultraradical section of organized labor is
obvious, and there is q fair chance that
Communist leadership may be ousted from
control by the disillusioned members OF
those unions. The government is propor-
tionately strengthened, not only from en-
HANGED prestige with the general public but
by proof that the majority of organized
labor Ii sane and sound. The showdown
thus served useful purposes and was worth
while from an overall viewpoint.
Yet the cost has been as heavy as 1t was
economically needless. The strike losses
probably run well over 5000, 900, more
than 100000 workers were made idle and
the industrial disorgsriization has been so
great that 1t will be some time before full
production can be resumed. This has
been q costly business. It is to be hoped
that the lesson has been well learned.