Category: Ken Mansell

Cat Links Ken Mansell, Labour History, Westgate Bridge Disaster

ONE SONG – MANY LIVES: Remembering the Westgate Bridge tragedy

labourhistorymelbourne

15 October 1970 is infamous as the date of one of Australia’s worst industrial disasters.  A span of the Westgate Bridge, then under construction, collapsed. 35 workers plummeted to their deaths below.  Covid-19 restrictions in 2020 played havoc with plans to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the tragedy. The annual pilgrimage of remembrance to the memorial plaque was cancelled, but the anniversary was still appropriately observed, with the Memorial Committee’s live stream Facebook event, 3CR’s documentaries from 1990 and 1995, Channel 9’s documentary feature, and Sam Wallman’s magnificent eight-panel artwork. … Continue readingONE SONG – MANY LIVES: Remembering the Westgate Bridge tragedy

Cat Links Anti-conscription, Anti-war, Ken Mansell, Labour History, moratorium, Vietnam War

The Gloves Come Off – The 1970 Moratorium and the Limits of Tolerance

jkimber

On 18 September Moratorium marchers encountered a determined effort by the police to reassert their ‘dictatorship of the streets’. This might have been expected to occur most virulently in Brisbane and Melbourne but it was in Sydney and Adelaide that the police were most vicious, attacking demonstrators with pre-planned clockwork precision. … Continue readingThe Gloves Come Off – The 1970 Moratorium and the Limits of Tolerance

Cat Links Activism, Anti-conscription, Anti-war, Conscription, Ken Mansell, moratorium, Radical History, Vietnam War, Youth Radicalism

‘Taking to the Streets against the Vietnam War’: A Timeline History of Australian Protest 1962-1972

jkimber

On this, the 50th anniversary of the 8 May 1970 Moratorium, we publish Ken Mansell’s “‘Taking to the Streets against the Vietnam War’: A Timeline History of Australian Protest 1962-1972”, which takes you through the myriad protests and events that led to the largest demonstrations Australia had ever seen. … Continue reading‘Taking to the Streets against the Vietnam War’: A Timeline History of Australian Protest 1962-1972