The absence of a visible campaign against mass unemployment has had a profound impact on Australian politics. Union and left-wing engagement with unemployment has become an increasingly top-down largely technocratic affair devoid of grassroots participation. As a result, unemployment policy is increasingly understood as something that happens to workers.

While other important labour protests around that time, such as the 1917 New South Wales Strike, were set both inside and outside of Australia’s largest cities, the Victorian police strike offered Australian newspapers the opportunity to capture disruption unfolding in an urban setting, where the vast majority of protests take place today.

This comic was commissioned by the Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1969 General Strike and Clarrie O’Shea’s release from prison.

This podcast documents important moments from the 2018 Art & Industry Festival that relate to the history and significance of the West Gate Bridge. It will take you to symposiums; intimate accounts from workers who survived the collapse; scenes from the recent production of The Bridge, a play written by the late Vicki Reynolds in 1990; and, finally, to a special performance of ‘Throw your arms around me’ by Mark Seymour, James Henry and local community singers (led by Jennifer Lund), largely sung in the Yuwaalaraay language.