The Wops pulled into the Yarra on Ville de Nice. And the young groaned for the unemployment they were bringing. Even the 40% fed crews waiting to board and break bulk groaned. The wogs didn't look any happier as it pulled up. Kids, too many kids, with those starved out faces from the second great war's newspaper photos. French probably. Maybe some of "our" Czechs. All of them too dark for British.
The hatches were to be off for only a few hours as it she was dropping this load on Sydney's or Brisbane's slums. The dagos were already blueing as the wharfies boarded. They wanted to march up to Melbourne and see it. Probably flee into it. As ignorant of distance as of language.
We broke bulk.
Charlie up on the hatch started muttering something over the whine and the hook. "Bloody Ice Cream man's turned up."
500 hundred weight later, "You won't believe this, Miser Johns just bought a dago kid an ice cream. Bloody Johns of all men."
Halfway through the next hookload we knew what we were doing but Charlie preempted us, "the other gangs beat you to it. You're already in the collection… hang on, get up here."
We pushed through the women and children lining the side. Maybe a tenth of them with sticky faces. One young woman grumped, saw I was Aussie, then gave way. The ice cream man had run out. The Fed delegate was busy yelling at the port captain that he was getting more ices and we wouldn't hold up the load, slackers would run the icecreams up and the hooks would keep moving.
But this port captain was an obstinate bastard. He'd done the last war in Bengal. We yelled our delegate up that no ice cream no work. Even the sixty scab bastards on other holds came in. And then we sat down.
The last thing I remember as Monash specials came up the gangway was that dago bint I'd jostled crying "The same, the same. Ah you Australis. You Australis."
———
Tribune. [illegal]. —/—/47
100 wharfies to Pilbara conc'nt'n camp for ice creams.
Age. —/—/47
Communist dock riot against Our British Allies: protective relocation leniency unacceptable
Jargon
White Australia was a historic immigration policy dismantled in the late 60s and early 70s
Very White Australia is a conjecture about British and Australian anti labour radical racial popularism triumphing quietly in the 1920s
40%: historically the union to scab ratio was the other way around after the 28 strike
Fed: Waterside Workers Federation. Hot bed of labourism. Rumoured in White Australia to be infiltrated by Reds.
P&Cs: permanents and casuals, the scabs union, 1928
Blue: argument
Wharfies: dock workers
Monash: famous first Great War general. Historically organised a fascist underground army and broke a police strike.
———
"The Welcome" [extracted]
"Racial prejudice is bad medicine…you think the other fellow threatens your job…But, as I said, it's only skin deep. Human decency will always come to the top if it gets even the ghost of a chance."
Iotl the wharfies, Greek children, ice cream seller and stevedore company won. The hooks moved. The obstinate bastard folded underneath Fed pressure. The kids got ice creams.
Yours,
Sam R.
Bibliography
Morrison, John (1984) [1947] "The Welcome" _Stories of the waterfront_ Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin, 65-72. Orig _Tribune_
The hatches were to be off for only a few hours as it she was dropping this load on Sydney's or Brisbane's slums. The dagos were already blueing as the wharfies boarded. They wanted to march up to Melbourne and see it. Probably flee into it. As ignorant of distance as of language.
We broke bulk.
Charlie up on the hatch started muttering something over the whine and the hook. "Bloody Ice Cream man's turned up."
500 hundred weight later, "You won't believe this, Miser Johns just bought a dago kid an ice cream. Bloody Johns of all men."
Halfway through the next hookload we knew what we were doing but Charlie preempted us, "the other gangs beat you to it. You're already in the collection… hang on, get up here."
We pushed through the women and children lining the side. Maybe a tenth of them with sticky faces. One young woman grumped, saw I was Aussie, then gave way. The ice cream man had run out. The Fed delegate was busy yelling at the port captain that he was getting more ices and we wouldn't hold up the load, slackers would run the icecreams up and the hooks would keep moving.
But this port captain was an obstinate bastard. He'd done the last war in Bengal. We yelled our delegate up that no ice cream no work. Even the sixty scab bastards on other holds came in. And then we sat down.
The last thing I remember as Monash specials came up the gangway was that dago bint I'd jostled crying "The same, the same. Ah you Australis. You Australis."
———
Tribune. [illegal]. —/—/47
100 wharfies to Pilbara conc'nt'n camp for ice creams.
Age. —/—/47
Communist dock riot against Our British Allies: protective relocation leniency unacceptable
Jargon
White Australia was a historic immigration policy dismantled in the late 60s and early 70s
Very White Australia is a conjecture about British and Australian anti labour radical racial popularism triumphing quietly in the 1920s
40%: historically the union to scab ratio was the other way around after the 28 strike
Fed: Waterside Workers Federation. Hot bed of labourism. Rumoured in White Australia to be infiltrated by Reds.
P&Cs: permanents and casuals, the scabs union, 1928
Blue: argument
Wharfies: dock workers
Monash: famous first Great War general. Historically organised a fascist underground army and broke a police strike.
———
"The Welcome" [extracted]
"Racial prejudice is bad medicine…you think the other fellow threatens your job…But, as I said, it's only skin deep. Human decency will always come to the top if it gets even the ghost of a chance."
Iotl the wharfies, Greek children, ice cream seller and stevedore company won. The hooks moved. The obstinate bastard folded underneath Fed pressure. The kids got ice creams.
Yours,
Sam R.
Bibliography
Morrison, John (1984) [1947] "The Welcome" _Stories of the waterfront_ Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin, 65-72. Orig _Tribune_