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Title
Release Clarrie O'Shea
Imprint
Melbourne, May 1969
Abstract

Single-sided blue, printed leaflet issued by left-wing unions in Victoria. Clarrie O’Shea, the Secretary of the Tramways Union, was gaoled in May 1969 for defying the Penal Powers of the Arbitration Act. The Arbitration Court had been empowered to penalise unions by imposing stiff fines whenever they exercised their ‘’right’’ to strike. O’Shea’s ‘’crime’’ was to refuse to reveal the whereabouts of his union’s funds. The immediate and outraged response of the trade union movement resulted in a near-general strike in Victoria. At the high point of the struggle in mid-late May 1969, hundreds of students joined trade unionists in protesting the gaoling. - [Ken Mansell]