
Issue No 70		07 September 2000

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

History

Pickets and Police

By Neale Towart

S11 protestors would do well to be wary. Fred Paterson, CPA member of the Qld Parliament, was bashed by the Queensland police on St Patrick's Day 1948, when a Labor Government was in power in that state.

It remains an example of the way the police and the State act against those seen as outside the political fold. The story is well told by Ross Fitzgerald in his biography, The People's Champion, Fred Paterson: Australia's only Communist Party Member of Parliament (Uni. Of Qld Press, 1997).

The constant complaints about violent protesters also seem to signal the intentions of the police towards the S11. The Seattle protests are called violent in the Australian press, with the violence all blamed on the protesters, never mind that police are prepared with riot gear. Paterson's bashing showed who were the violent ones.

The Qld government was pursuing a low wage policy at the time in an attempt to attract investment to Queensland. As usual in this period, the rail and coal industries were to the forefront of action against the government policy in attempts to gain wage justice. Skill margins were a key issue, and the dispute was the first successful post war campaign.

Premier Hanlon had "turned the clock back 36 years in dealing with strikers and peaceful citizens" according to ARU activist Vic Daddow. Picketing was initially legal in the disputes of the time, and Paterson, as a lawyer, was mainly involved in advising picketers on their rights and seeing that the police did not use illegal methods in dealing with picketers.

This was under a State of Emergency declared by the ALP in February 1948 (the ALP beat Bjelke-Petersen to this tactic). Fred did this job so successfully despite the provocation the government and police subjected picketers to that the Parliament then introduced legislation aimed at curbing his law maintaining behaviour!

Hanlon said, in a moment of rare candour, that the Industrial Law Amendment Bill "might have been called the Paterson Bill."

To turn the public against the strikers, who soon included waterside workers amongst their number, the red bogey was invoked by the politicians, with Hanlon claiming Australians were "sick to death of commos. The people have 'had' them and their work".

ALP Prime Minister Chifley backed the Qld government action, refusing unemployment benefits to the strikers.

Fred defended picketers who had been arrested under the new laws. Police attempted on several occasions to violently break up pickets. One of the railway unions voted to return to work at this stage but the more militant unions stayed firm. The St Patrick's Day protest brought things to a head.

The peaceful march was quickly turned into a violent melee by the police. Some of the plain clothes detectives had been drinking before the attack, even though it was before 9.00 am.

Fred Paterson and Max Julius, a solicitor who represented many unionists, were acting as observers on the footpath when the police attacked. Fred' s report on the event stated:

"I saw a plain clothes detective bashing into one of the members of the procession, with a baton. So I went over and called out to him to stop. He took no notice of me so I decided that I would take notes to refresh my memory. I had just lifted my pen to write on my legal brief which I had in my hand, when I was struck down by a policeman's baton, and taken unconscious to the ambulance".

Premier Hanlon's justification of the police violence included reference to the fact of Paterson and Julius carrying legal pads and pens which somehow proved that the march was intended to be one ending in violence.

Paterson, in Brisbane in 1976, admitted that he knew the policeman (Jack Mahony) he approached to be a violent man, and said that he was lacking in prudence in approaching him "You don't stop violent coppers by appealing to them not to hit."

The Brisbane Telegraph that day reported the violence in detail, and published photos. However the next day the Courier Mail had shrunk the clash down to a 45 second incident with the police breaking up a procession of 145 strikers.

Premier Hanlon claimed that "I have reports from all quarters of their [police] tolerance , patience and care in handling people during this difficult period."

15,000 people demonstrated against the St Patrick's Day bashings two days later.

No charges were laid against the policeman who was clearly identified by Julius and Paterson. Police reports claimed the communists were behind the whole organisation of the affair. This in the context of the cold war atmosphere that was fast developing worldwide.

Can S11 protestors expect the same treatment?

Footnote: Bill Hayden, joined the Qld Police Force in 1953, and in the mid 50s was stationed with Jack Mahony. In his autobiography Hayden describes how his Senior Sargeant (Mahony) was "explaining to some detectives, with evident gusto, smacking the billet resoundingly against the palm of his hand, how he had used the deadly implement on the "Commie" Fred Patterson (sic)".

Hayden never reported this matter at the time, or later when he had left the police force and was a Federal Parliamentarian.

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Issue 70 contents

Interview: New Internationalism
In its battle with Rio Tinto the CFMEU has pioneered global campaigning. National Secretary John Maitland talks to Workers Online about globalisation, a union response and using new technologies to organise .

History: Pickets and Police
S11 protestors would do well to be wary. Fred Paterson, CPA member of the Qld Parliament, was bashed by the Queensland police on St Patrick's Day 1948, when a Labor Government was in power in that state.

Education: The WEF -Why Should We Care?
An event like the World Economic Forum attracts all the spin doctors for every interest, often obscuring real issues. For educators the issues may seem remote but a closer look shows that services like public education could be dramatically affected by the unfolding agenda of global trade liberalisation says Rob Durbridge.

Economics: A Vandalised Economy
Since New Zealand was opened up to the forces of globalisation, it has performed dismally, both economically and socially. NZCTU Economist Peter Conway reports.

Unions: Our Vital Role in Society
Eight months into his new role as ACTU Secretary Greg Combet reflects on the challenges facing Australian unions.

International: Turning Up The Heat
John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO says the union movement can and will reform the global economy, for as Dr Martin Luther King taught us, the moral arc of history is long but it bends towards justice.

Satire: Threat to withhold pocket money derails S11 protest
MELBOURNE, Tuesday: Members of the activist collective S11 announced today that they had decided to cancel their protest at the upcoming World Economic Forum meeting at Crown Casino.

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