John Ward September 12, 2019 at 6:50 pm

Leading up to the ‘1978 WRAN SLIDE’

Royal Dutch Shell,(with Queens’ Elizabeth the 2nd of England and Queen Juliana of the Nederland) and in 1978 fifinanced the closure of refifining operations in both Shell at Granville and Caltex at Botany refifineries, with millions of dollars provided by the Royal Dutch Shell head office in ThThe Hague.

ThThe Dutch were attempting to destroy the fifirst term Wran Government (which had refused to permit a rise in the price of petrol), by provoking an industrial dispute and forcing a strike by the FEDFA and the AWU. ThThis led to the shutting down of the Granville refifinery.

Shell Corporate Headquarters in ThThe Hague, also paid the projected operating losses for Caltex to shut down the Kurnell refifinery. ThThis joint action by two international corporations was designed to have the soveriegn NSW Labor Government go to the polls with the voting population totally off side, having empty petrol tanks.

At this time, I was a part-time union secretary but still a middle manager working for Shell and was therefore privy to the management briefifings of all salaried officers in the staff canteen where Shell outlined their strategy and tactics.

ThThese bastards; were going to interfere in my country to bring down a democratically elected government.

Accordingly, I became angry to pass all this detail onto Barry Unsworth who was Secretary of the Labor Council of NSW at the time, in Sussex Street.

I spent the next two weeks sitting in the adjoining, room next to his Ministerial Office with another member of my union named Albert H*****n providing the NSW Minister for Industrial Relations Pat Hills, with answers each time the Shell managers tried to prolong the stoppage they had deliberately provoked.

ThThe workers voted to go back to work after their union secretary Jack Cambourne, alerted them to what the game was. Once they returned to work “ready willing and able to take up their duties”. Management told them to stay in the meal rooms until called, but not to start up any plant.

ThThe management then ordered key parts of the refifinery dismantled. ThThe Government used its authority to order them to reverse that process. ThThe corporation raised ‘technical matters’ and the government rebutted those with answers provided by Shell’s own salaried employees in the next room (unknown to Shell). ThThese employees had the knowledge and skills to start up and shut down refifineries all around the world (a complex and difficult process taking days) as the need arose.

Shell fifinally ordered operators to deliberately poison huge tanks of fuel with far too much Tetra Ethyl Lead. ThThat should have been a crime deserving jail time.

To make sure the refifinery would stay off-line, the corporation had arranged to import a workforce of 700 South Korean construction workers who normally worked as refifinery task force in the Arab oil countries under supervision of armed staff. ThThe AMWU led an industrial dispute objecting to these workers coming into the country via New Zealand on tourist visas to circumvent immigration laws. ThThe Koreans were housed in Wollongong and bussed up to the refifinery early one morning in a military style operation.

ThThe proverbial then hit the fan.

ThThe Labor Council called an emergency meeting in its Sussex St Board room chaired by Barry Unsworth. ThThis meeting of all affected unions also included the Australian Government Immigration Minister Ian McPhee. To his credit he came and listened to people’s concerns without putting any politics into the mix.

However, Barry Unsworth gave him a bit of a harangue when Ian McPhee read a report from his department claiming “ThThere are only 70 South Korean tradesmen registered with the department with special visas to do this type of work”, to which Barry retorted, “Well we have something like

700 out there at Granville refifinery, there is something wrong in your department”. He went on to say in an exasperated tone, “If people are able to come in under the radar like this, pretty soon we’ll have drugs, stand-over merchants, corruption and prostitution all over Sydney”.

I joked from the other end of the table “But Barry, that’s how we got the country started”. Other representatives around the table had a chuckle, but Barry was not amused. He pulled me to one side after the meeting and said roughly, “what was that? ThThe empire striking ******* back?”

I liked Unsworth in lots of ways in those days, because he allowed the mongrel in him to be on display and he pushed the agenda of working people without let. Later, when he was Premier, his minders had him take on a softer face, had him wear a cardigan and the voters saw this as false. He should have stuck to being a driven leader and the bastard he often showed when he was the Trade Union leader.

ThThe next day, when Unsworth (a good Catholic) came to the refifinery on an inspection with the NSW Industrial Arbitration Commission relating to the Amalgamated Metal Workers Union dispute, he asked me about the contents of the huge petrol storage tanks. He said, “ Shell is telling Pat Hills that they don’t have petrol available for sale, so these tanks must be empty, right?”

I informed him that the tanks were full of perfectly good ’On Grade’ petrol, that had been deliberately poisoned the night before with lead to make it illegal and therefore impossible to distribute this so called, ’country petrol’ as fuel in urban environments under the State Governments health regulations. I thought Barry was going to have a stroke, he was absolutely livid.

ThThat was when Pat Hills issued an emergency order to Shell to put ‘country petrol’ onto Sydney streets, and fuel began to flflow after an historic, internationally inspired, two week corporate strike. Royal Dutch Shell (Queen Elisabeth the second And Queen Juliana of the Netherlands sitting on the board) fifinally caved in when it became apparent to them that the population was awake to their dirty deeds.Knowing the lengths an international corporation will go to, the voters delivered their verdict and returned the Wran government for a second term, in what was to become known as a ’Wran slide’.

Labor under Neville Wran winning the Earl wood by-election in 1978, in his fifirst term, defeating the political aspirations of the Liberal candidate one Alan Jones.

We should never be bluffed or coerced by these corporate psychopathic bullies. ThThese large corporations will always get their pound of flflesh. To quote the late Joh Bjelke Petersen “don’t you worry about that”.

ThThe same Corporations are now pulling out of Australia, leaving us in extreme jeopardy if war breaks out. ThThese are the same Corporations who fifinance the Liberal Party, the climate change deniers and Prime Minister Abbott’s attack on the conservation movement, I hope you now understand the real world truths we are dealing with. ThThe corporate Personhood that created these relationships have no interest in being LNP mates.ThThe reality is they simply make or dismiss conservative governments only as long as they ‘behave,’ if a Labor Government moves too far to the left the will go out in disfavour.Corporations hate the unions because they stand up and resist the harm being done the LNP and the National rump carry out their master’s wishes, ThThey cannot afford to have the rabble at the gate realise what power the working women and men have when they unite in common cause. ThThis is why women still don’t get equal pay. Imagine the spending power and the circulation of more cash and more taxes paid if wages were paid on Skills, Knowledge and Competency. Don’t forget the ‘Job’ was only invented 150 or so years ago. Many women are actually more skilled and capable than their male counterparts we have to look after each other. ThThese private school boys are content when the rifts and resentments are obvious in the work force. stop playing into their hands.

A majority vote does not necessarily mean rule by the people. What we do have is elections once every three years and “democracy” one day every three years. We are told if you don’t like what we do, then throw us out in three years. No input in between so called elections.

ThThis last election was so deadly boring for six years of Abbott campaigning, that of 14 million eligible voters, 400,000 failed to register. 1 million registered voters, voted informal (a record).

Finally, and signifificantly the registered youth voters almost militantly did not vote. ThTheir numbers were 2 million! So more than 25% of the electorate surrendered in apathy their right to use their vote, in the once every three-year chance at least to express their right to be heard.

Abbott won on AAA of Apathy. Look at the result.

AND it is happening again this time. ThThe Liberals are playing at being stiffly boring, the cunning swine.

When you combine the ruthlessness of Oil Corporations with the self-serving, corrupt and criminal behaviour of the former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. ThThe way Australia spied on the Timorese Government, for their masters in the Oil Industry. ThThen set international boundaries to steal Oil fifields from that impoverished tiny nation we allowed that behaviour by our Government. We should repair the damage at the soonest opportunity.you can see we owe Timor Leste a debt of honour, for their unflflinching support of us as the Japanese came for us. ThThe confounding, absence of scolding, when they were brutally occupied for 25 years while we looked the other way. It was, if you remember, the people who clamoured for action until we forced John Howard, to act with President Clinton standing slightly back and holding our coats for us.

John Ward

johnlward010@gmail.com

03 62921211 20 Grosse Road Gordon Tasmania