Greetings from the Sydney Opera House: completed under workers’ control


Sam Wallman

Sam Wallman is a unionist and cartoonist based on unceded Wurundjeri country. He is a member of the Workers Art Collective and the Maritime Union of Australia. His new book 12 Rules for Strife was produced in collaboration with Jeff Sparrow and will be published by Scribe Publications on May Day 2024. You can follow his work here.

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  1. True & there’s always an economic bottom line …

    ‘The workers agreed to end their work-in when management agreed to give them a 25% wage increase, the right to elect their foremen, four weeks annual leave and a large payment for their troubles.’ (Wikipedia)

    First walked past the site in the late 50s on my way to school, and used to walk past the latter site daily on my way to an even crummier job. To complete the cycle, see all opera there I can these days when visiting Sydney.

  2. Guessing too the rapid industrialisation and desecration of a never ceded large area of land up to Bennelong Point (Tubowghule) would have shocked traditional dispossessed Gadigal people of the Eora nation the most … just as same would have pleased white settlers, making themselves feel somewhat at home …

    Cahill Expressway

    … a Celtic mother’s maiden tongue

    carving through Tarpeian Way

    languages taut primeval

    syntax pulling cargo tight

    … limeburning day starts its rumble

    wagon wheel fenced-in kangaroo

    escapees from figment history

    faltering falling to Tubowghule

    … adjunct subjunct interchange

    all impact / no preposition

    verbs flat to the tack: “fcknc’moooon”

    compartmentalising material processes

    … Governors’ cogs slammed

    into overdrive standing Bennelong’s

    ancient oyster shells

    Up ……. {a3 = T2 k} ……. Right

    in the mist

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