Today friends, unionists and activists gathered at the Town Hall to celebrate the extraordinary life of Jack Mundey. Jack had been a rugby league player, labourer, unionist and left intellectual. The Green Ban era was ground breaking. But he packed in so much more. His dedication to building mass movements was inspirational. I was fortunate … Continue reading My speech at State Memorial for Jack Mundey
Jack Mundey: why the inspiration lives on
In the early 1970s Jack Mundey led a union of builders labourers that took strike action and imposed bans on developments that were then worth around $5 billion. At the time, Jack and his union, the Builders Labourers Federation, were intensely vilified. Death threats were common. The BLF were challenging the power of developers, a … Continue reading Jack Mundey: why the inspiration lives on
How labour built neoliberalism: Australia’s Accord, the labour movement and the neoliberal project
At the 2019 Marxism Conference held in Melbourne I joined a panel with Liz Humphrys and Tom Bramble on “How labour built neoliberalism: Australia's Accord, the labour movement and the neoliberal project”. Below is my speech. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and I pay tribute to their history, … Continue reading How labour built neoliberalism: Australia’s Accord, the labour movement and the neoliberal project
Lee Rhiannon 