"Communists They May Have Been": Australian Maritime Unionists and the National Shipping Line, c. 1950–90. (May 2019)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- "Communists They May Have Been": Australian Maritime Unionists and the National Shipping Line, c. 1950–90. (May 2019)
- Main Title:
- "Communists They May Have Been": Australian Maritime Unionists and the National Shipping Line, c. 1950–90
- Authors:
- Ostapenko, Dmytro
- Abstract:
- Abstract : Australian maritime unions of the Cold War period are renowned for their militancy and rhetorical commitment to communist ideas. In contrast, concentrating on the policies and actions of the Seamen's Union of Australia (SUA) and the Waterside Workers' Federation (WWF) towards the Australian National Line (ANL), this article reveals their political and industrial pragmatism in advancing a national shipping agenda. It demonstrates that union support of the Line took two main forms. First, maritime unionists sought to protect the state-owned shipping company from unfair international competition by launching protest actions against substandard foreign carriers. Second, they willingly cooperated with Australian shipping industry stakeholders to boost seagoing labour productivity and thus the global competitiveness of the ANL. The article argues that it was the increasing integration of the Australian maritime enterprise into the highly competitive global shipping market that prompted the SUA and the WWF to take an active role in defending national shipping interests.
- Is Part Of:
- Labour history. Volume 116(2019)
- Journal:
- Labour history
- Issue:
- Volume 116(2019)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 116, Issue 2019 (2019)
- Year:
- 2019
- Volume:
- 116
- Issue:
- 2019
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2019-0116-2019-0000
- Page Start:
- 57
- Page End:
- 81
- Publication Date:
- 2019-05
- Subjects:
- Australian National Line -- Privatisation -- Seamen's Union of Australia -- Shipping -- Trade Unions -- Waterside Workers' Federation
Labor -- Australia -- History -- Periodicals
Labor unions -- Australia -- History -- Periodicals
331.0994 - Journal URLs:
- https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journals/id/55/ ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0023-6942
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store
- Ingest File:
- 24999.xml