Defending Indigenous Rights

In the first week, Mark Fordham toured worksites on the Sydney docks thanks to officials in the Maritime Union of Australia. There, Mark thanked maritime workers in the Maritime Union of Australia for their solidarity with the Guriniji people in Wave Hill in the 1950s.

 

At the time, the maritime unions were the strongest voices for securing the rights of Aboriginal people: ending pay schemes that paid Aboriginal people in rations and leading to the first recognition of Aborginal land rights in Australia.

He spoke to one meeting of 30 people and another of about 80 people. There was an enthusiastic response from workers who were stunned at how bad things were. Mark said he learned everything he knew about unionism from his days on the wharves in Darwin. We also sold quite a few copies of “This is what we said.”