The Maritime Strike of 1878

The Great Maritime Strike of 1878

The great ‘Australian Maritime strike’ of 1878 was triggered when the Australiasian Steam Navigation Company decided to replace all of their Australian sailors/seamen with Chinese sailors. They were paying Australians eight pounds per month and knew that Chinamen would work for three pounds per month.

The strike was on, in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland Australian seamen went on strike and in November 1878 they were supported by miners in NSW and by wharfies in three colonies. In December 1878 a crowed gathered outside the Australian Steam Navigation Companies wharf and when the scabs finished work and made their way home, the crowd began hooting and harassing them. Sixty police on foot and six mounter troopers turned on the crowd and beat many of the demonstrating seamen.

On the 2nd of January 1879 the company capitulated and agreed to discharge all their Chinese crews over the next two years and re-employ the Australian seamen who had been terminated. 1878 in this strike clearly put race, international capital and labour squarely on the colonial political agenda.

International capital claimed the right to employ anyone they wanted to; including workers from Southern China and the South Pacific – these coolies were targeted as they would work for something akin to a ‘bowl of rice per day’ and they were not unionised and therefore would not oppose their big business overlords. Australian workers refused to be muscled out of meaningful employment by foreigners, and it was this event (among many others) which kindled the cause for the White Australia Policy.

THE SEAMEN'S STRIKE AND THE CHINESE QUESTION.

23rd December 1878 'THE SEAMEN'S STRIKE AND THE CHINESE QUESTION.', The Sydney Morning Herald

The strike of the A. S. N. Company's seamen has assumed larger dimensions, and has led to active measures on the part of the labouring classes against Chinese importation or immigration. The actual dispute between the seamen and the A. S. N. Company has been almost lost sight of in the larger question of a general introduction of Chinese, which trades unions have done their best to persuade the people is only a matter of time, and must result in the complete exclusion of Europeans from the labour market, unless the threatened evil is at once nipped in the bud. Following out this idea, public meetings have been held in Sydney, and in various towns in the interior, and resolutions, disapproving of any influx of Chinese into the colony, have been passed, with others, which have lauded the action of the seamen in breaking their agreements with the A. S. N. Company, and leaving their ships, as that of men, who were leading in the van of a great struggle against the liberties and distinctive British character of the Australian people being destroyed by the introduction of an alien.and inferior race. This has given the strike an importance which it does not deserve; and, so far, the seamen have been well supported by subscriptions from trade societies and portions of the general public in New South Wales and in the neighbouring colonies.

At present there is little prospect of any termination to the dispute between the men and the company. An effort at mediation, made by representatives of the Eight-hour Conference of the Iron Trades and the marine engineers employed by the company, failed in consequence of the company's directors declining to depart from the terms of an ultimatum they had forwarded to the men, requiring them to return to their work, and agreeing that in the event of their doing so the whole question of the employment of Chinese by the company should be submitted to arbitration; and now it is unlikely that any settlement of the dispute will be arrived at, as the company have sent to Hongkong for 300 more Chinamen to man their boats, and it is understood that the Chinamen are on their way here. If these China- men are placed on board the A. S. N. Company's steamers, there will of course be no room for the Europeans who are on strike, and probably the men will then look for an in- creased agitation against Chinese coming here, and to obtain employment will be drafted off by their leaders to other ports. But the end of the matter is not near, and circumstances have occurred recently which indicate that the agitation and struggle may not be conducted in the most peaceable way. With a view to secure what labourers they could for working upon their wharf, the A. S. N. Company advertised for men, and offered liberal wages, board and lodging, and protection. "Very soon they had offers from 'more men than they required, and as far as regards discharging and loading the two or three steamers for which the company had Chinese crews, the wharf quickly assumed something like the old busy appearance.

This greatly incensed the men on strike and their sympathisers; and though the officers of the Seamen's Union have from the commencement of the strike counselled peace and good order, numerous assaults have been committed on' the "blacklegs" as they are called, and on one occasion there was a demonstration against them so like a riot that extraordinary measures were taken by the police authorities to quell the disturbance. For days, at the time when the workmen left the wharf for their homes, a small body of mounted troopers patrolled Lower George-street ; sixty or seventy foot police, in uniform and plain clothes kept close guard over the workmen ; and a body of the Permanent Artillery, numbering fifty men, were under arms at Dawes Battery ready to be called out the moment their services were required.

On only one occasion was there, however, any collision between the crowd and the police, and then the police-by a well-directed and vigorous use of their batons proved quite sufficient to disperse the disturbers of the peace, and to secure something like order. Several assaults have been committed on Chinamen, chiefly by the larrikin element of the population, and the Chinese residents of Sydney have through a deputation to the Colonial Secretary earnestly requested ample police protection. On Saturday last, a large public meeting to consider the Chinese question and the seamen's strike was held in the Victoria Theatre, the Mayor presiding. The meeting was enthusiastic and unanimous, and resolutions were adopted protesting against the importation of Chinese as detrimental to the interests of this community, socially, morally, and politically ; calling for immediate action on the part of the Legislature to prevent any further importation of the kind ; and expressing sympathy with the seamen "in the deprivation of employment through their manly resistance to Chinese labour."

One recent feature of the strike, and one that is attracting considerable attention, is hat the coal miners of the Newcastle district are said to be unanimous in a disposition to assist the seamen to the utmost in their struggle against the A. S. N. Co. A deputation from the Seamen's Union visited Newcastle the other day, and conferred with the district officers of the Miners' Association upon the advisableness of stopping the supply of coal to the A. S. N. Co.'s steamers, and a meeting of the delegates of the several district lodges is to be called as soon as possible to consider the matter.