People's History of Australia

In the early 1960s, the situation for women in Australia was grim. Abortion was illegal, divorces were almost impossible to obtain, married women were banned from being employed in the public service, women were blocked from employment in a huge range of occupations and industries, openly unequal wages were enshrined in law, sexual violence was legal within marriages, paid parental

Throughout Australian history, Chinese workers in Australia have been demonised for their alleged enthusiasm for undercutting white workers and happily embracing terrible working conditions from the 19th century until the present day. Fortunately, these racist myths are precisely that - myths. From the arrival of the first Chinese migrants in the 1840s, Chinese workers in Australia

Throughout Australia's history, racism has proven to be a remarkably effective weapon in dividing different groups from each other, despite them sharing the same common enemies and the same interests. Vicious anti-Aboriginal racism was deeply rooted in Australian culture from an early stage, and during the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, there is minimal history of joint strug

Since it was founded in the 1920s, BHP's Port Kembla steelworks has completely dominated the town of Wollongong, employing over 25,000 workers at its peak and physically towering over the city. For much of its existence, the steelworks also systematically discriminated against women, deliberately confining women to only the lowest-paying jobs, refusing to employ women as steelworke

In mid-2016, the University of Sydney abruptly announced that it would be closing down its Sydney College of the Arts campus. Within the space of a few months, the internationally-renowned arts school, which had produced scores of famous graduates and offered an almost unique education in visual and fine arts, would be gone, and its students shunted off to another university. Fortu

In November 1975, the elected Labor Party government of Australia was sacked without notice by Sir John Kerr, the governor-general. Having single-handedly gotten rid of the elected government, Sir John then personally appointed a new government of his own choosing led by Malcolm Fraser and the Liberal Party. The dismissal – or the Kerr Coup as many referred to it – was one of t

When the British Empire invaded and colonised Australia in 1788, the new ruling class had a problem - there was no pre-existing working class in Australia waiting around to work for them. Their solution was to bring tens of thousands of convict prisoners here against their will as a labour force. Despite often horrendous working conditions and a brutal regime of punishment, convict

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In 1996, newly elected politician Pauline Hanson swept to national prominence after making an extraordinarily racist and inflammatory maiden speech in federal parliament. Capitalising on her notoriety, Hanson announced plans to form a new political party, One Nation, with local branches and a mass membership, and polls indicated she would win widespread support. Anti-racists, howev

In the 1940s, with an influx of thousands of new members, the Communist Party of Australia established the Marx Schools - one of the most remarkable experiments in Australian educational history. The schools ran from 10am until 10pm every day of the week, and offered extensive courses in socialist theory, the practicalities of union organising, how to chair meetings and give public