Mali Rea is a writer, historian, and teacher from Melbourne.
Unlike some nations, Australia’s origin story wasn’t marked by revolution or a democratic movement. Rather, it was a way for the colonial bourgeoisie to unite against the union movement and close the nation to non-white immigration.
In 1966, Aboriginal stockmen, domestic workers, and their families at Wave Hill cattle station started a nine-year strike against work conditions that amounted to slavery. Frank Hardy, a communist author, helped the strikers tell their story to the world.
To drum up support for World War I, Australia’s ruling class tried to cancel the 1915–17 seasons of the Victorian Football League, labeling fans “truculent shirkers” and “hoodlums.” This did not go over well with the game’s working-class fans.