150 YEARS
Main Events Union celebrations have begun and will roll out throughout the year. Some are yet to be announced. So, stay tuned!
of struggle It all began in Melbourne in I872 with the first seamen’s union which two years later became the Federated Seamen’s Union of Australia. The same year the first two local waterside workers’ unions formed; in Sydney, the Wharf Labourers Union; and in Adelaide, the Port Adelaide Working Men’s Association. Within a year of Federation in 1902 the Waterside Workers’ Federation brought all local port unions together under national leadership and in 1906 the FSUA was renamed the Seamen’s Union of Australia. Then in 1993 both unions joined to become the mighty Maritime Union of Australia. Since 2018 the MUA has become a division of Australia’s most militant union, the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union. A lot happened in between. Throughout 2022 the MUA will be celebrating, commemorating, and honouring the milestones of 150 years of struggle that have made us what we are, a unique fighting union. We kick off with a preview of some of the many events to come throughout the year and a new book documenting a century of union international solidarity Maritime Men of the South Pacific: True Blue Internationals Navigating Labour Rights, 1906-2006. A special edition of MWJ in Summer will look back over a year of commemoration and forward to the struggles to come. •
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XH Bombing of Darwin
Stokes Hill Wharf, February 19: Commemorative Service. Just before 10am on this day, 1941, around 240 Japanese aircraft attacked Darwin. It was the first and largest single enemy attack on Australian soil. More than 200 people died, including 23 waterside workers. Each year maritime workers gather to honour their dead.
May Day
Gala Dinner
Sydney, October 13: International labour leaders join national councillors, veterans, delegates and guests for the 150th Anniversary main event, the official unveiling of the Sydney Wharfie’s Mural permanent exhibition at the National Maritime Museum and a museum plaque commemorating union bans against Dutch arms shipments in solidarity with Indonesian seafarers and Indonesia’s national independence struggle.
May 1, nationwide: Veterans march proudly holding the painted banners of old.
Banners, badges and books
MUA Training Centre, ground floor, 365 Sussex Street, Sydney, March 24, 6pm: The MUA historical exhibition of banners, badges and other memorabilia spanning over a century goes on show. The exhibition is open 9-11am and 1-3pm with guided tours by MUA veterans. Hosted by MUA National Office and MUA Sydney Branch, the exhibition runs until April 8.
Big Bands
Melbourne Picnic Day, The Big Shed, Seaworks Maritime Precinct, Williamstown, October 29: Melbourne branch celebrations include The Noisy Johnnies, the Vincent Emanuel rock and blues band, food, drink and entertainment for MUA workers, families and comrades.
www.mua.org.au
