1969
January – Interstate conference in Melbourne sets up National Campaign Against Conscription (NCAC)
January 3 – Twenty-year-old medical student Sean Foley begins serving 29-day sentence at Long Bay jail for refusing to pay a fine arising from failure to attend medical examination for National Service
January – Conscientious objector Desmond Phillipson alleges brutal treatment at Holsworthy Military Detention Centre
January – Formal negotiations on Vietnam begin in Paris
January 20 – Posters reading ‘Don’t be a Machine – Don’t Register’ begin appearing on Post Offices all over Melbourne
January 25 – Police in Melbourne fire at four young poster-pasters engaged in early-morning pasting-up of ‘Don’t be a Machine – Don’t Register’ poster in lane off Collins Street
January 25 – Anti-conscription demonstrators in Melbourne distribute ‘Why register for National Service?’ leaflet at GPO. Commonwealth Police arrest Sydney SDS Secretary Mike Jones and Hobart SDS Secretary Nick Beams under the Crimes Act
January – Twenty-year-old Melbourne University SDS member Diana Crunden fined $10 (in default two days jail) for her part in October 25 anti-Vietnam war demonstration. Crunden refuses to pay fine and spends seventeen hours in cell at City watch-house
January 28 – Anti-conscription protest at Hobart office of Department of Labour and National Service. SDS members John Tully and Dennis Rider are arrested under Crimes Act for distributing leaflet urging the filling out of false registration forms
January 29-30 – Skirmishes on the steps of GPO in Melbourne as anti-conscription protestors persist in leaflet distribution despite efforts of Council officers to deter them
January – Cambodian Government again protests against violation of its borders by U.S and South Vietnamese (Saigon) forces
February 1 – Young people distribute ‘You have a choice – Why Register for National Service?’ leaflet on steps of Melbourne GPO. They are joined by members of Young Socialist League (YSL) handing out their own leaflet ‘Evade the draft – Refuse to register’. Nine of the protestors are arrested by Commonwealth Police on Crimes Act charges
February – In Melbourne a new anti-draft leaflet urging young men not to register for ‘National Service’ has been authorised by 183 citizens from three states. They are defying the Government to prosecute them under the Crimes Act
February 8 – Mass Saturday morning hand-out of anti-draft leaflets at Melbourne GPO. Five young people are arrested on ‘obstruction’ and other charges relating to alleged breaches of City Council by-laws
February – UNSW student Geoffrey Mullen is released from Long Bay jail after serving twenty-nine days for refusing to take medical examination
February 15 – Over 100 students and trade unionists hold Saturday morning mass distribution of anti-conscription leaflets at GPO in Melbourne
February 22 – Another mass anti-conscription leaflet distribution at Melbourne’s GPO
February – Adelaide student teacher Bob Hall suspended after being charged with distributing leaflets against National Service Act
March 1 – Adrian Desailly (17) and Ken Mansell (23) caught painting ‘Free Zarb’ sign on railway bridge in Urquhart Street Northcote. They are kept in Northcote police cells overnight and taken to Pentridge jail next morning
March – The list of conscientious objectors who defy the National Service Act by refusing to register is growing
March 2 – ‘Campaign for Conscience on Conscription’ kicks off a month of planned action with big Sunday afternoon public meeting at Melbourne Town Hall
March 4 – Anti-conscription painters Desailly and Mansell are fined $200 each (in default three months jail) in Northcote magistrates court
March 5 – Huge Zarb Hero sign visible from railway line (Glenferrie, Melbourne)
March 5 – Monash Labor Club establishes off-campus headquarters at ‘The Bakery’, 120 Greville Street Prahran
March – Earl Ingleby and Julie Ingleby of Williamstown fined for distributing anti-conscription handbills
March 7 – 2000 Sydney University students march against conscription and are joined by workers from city building jobs
March 7 – 500 Monash and La Trobe students distribute anti-conscription leaflets in defiance of City Council by-laws
March 8 – Demonstration at railway bridge in Urquhart Street Northcote in support of Mansell and Desailly. Adelaide poet Robert Tillett arrested for completing ‘Free Zarb’ sign
March – Eighteen-year-old Brisbane high school student Margaret Bailey expelled from Inala State High School
March – Robert Tillett sentenced to three months jail (without option) for painting two letters
March – Billy Graham Crusade opens in Myer Music Bowl. As Graham rises to speak ten SOS women and two Ministers of religion parade with anti-Vietnam war placards
March 15-16 – ‘Campaign for Conscience on Conscription’ in cooperation with CICD holds weekend of deputations to all Victorian members of Federal Parliament
March – Sydney SDS leader Mike Jones is serving concurrent sentences totalling 125 days for refusal to register for National Service and for 1968 protest against Green Beret film
March 21 – Queensland Education Reform Committee sponsors ‘Teach-in’ at University of Queensland on Margaret Bailey case. Bailey has been blackballed from every State high school in Brisbane
March 25 – City Court hearing in Melbourne dismisses Crimes Act charges against ten young people for handing out anti-conscription leaflets in Melbourne
March 25 – National (anti-conscription) Cavalcade to Canberra
March – Six students arrested in Hobart for alleged breaches of the Crimes Act by handing out leaflets opposing ‘National Service’
March – Young Sydney barrister Murray Sime (employee of Deputy Crown Solicitor’s office) victimised by Commonwealth Public Service for sponsoring March 7 students’ anti-conscription march
March 28 – 500 high school students demonstrate in Brisbane for immediate reinstatement of Margaret Bailey. The demonstrators defy police orders and refuse to move from the entrance to Education Department building
April 1 – Hobart demonstration organised by University of Tasmania students against National Service Act and recent Crimes Act charges
April 3 – Anti-conscription leaflet distribution in Melbourne. Dr Jim Cairns is arrested on charge of violating City Council by-law prohibiting handing out of leaflets. At least 120 people have been convicted for defying the by-law. Twenty-seven unions threaten boycott of Courage beer whose chairman Sir Maurice Nathan supports the by-law
April 4-7 – 791 people attend ‘Left Action Conference’ in Sydney. The Conference endorses proposal by Brian Laver for campaign in support of NLF
April – 500 delegates attend ‘Australia, Vietnam and the Asian Revolution’ Conference in Adelaide organised by Campaign for Peace in Vietnam (CPV)
April – SDA in Brisbane dissolves into Revolutionary Socialist Alliance (RSA) and Revolutionary Socialist Students Alliance (RSSA)
April 8 – Demonstration outside Victorian Government Tourist Bureau (Sydney) in solidarity with Melbourne opponents of City Council by-law
April – Melbourne City Council rescinds anti-leafleting by-law 418 after unions threaten ban on Courage beer and Paterson’s furniture stores
April 11 – Australian casualty figures so far in Vietnam – 274 killed, 1267 wounded
April 11 – American academics Professor Herbert I. Schiller and Professor Urban Whitaker begin CICD-sponsored tour
April 11 – Student anti-conscription march in Sydney turns nasty after 800 police respond viciously to occupation of Government offices and arrest 110
April 11 – Demonstration in Adelaide against Crimes Act and City Council by-law restricting distribution of leaflets. Police respond to occupation of Department of Labour and National Service office by wading into demonstrators and making 54 arrests
April 18 – Hundreds of students in Adelaide march to Department of Labour and National Service in protest against Vietnam war and conscription
April 20 – CICD’s American guests Professor Schiller and Professor Whitaker address big Sunday meeting at Melbourne Town Hall on Vietnam
April 23 – Student organisations and unions in Sydney hold demonstration to protest April 11 police brutality against anti-conscription demonstrators. Violence erupts again
April 23 – Sit-down demonstration on railway line delays train taking conscript intake out of Wollongong station
April – Mike Jones released after serving 25 days for refusing to register for ‘National Service’ and (allegedly) assaulting cinema manager
May 1 – Organised right-wing squads bash 100 students holding sit-down demonstration against Sydney University Regiment. State Governor Sir Roden Cutler is hit by tomato. Premier Askin orders expulsion of ‘hooligans’ (by which he means the left!)
May – Louie Christofides fined $10 for April 23 sit-down action at Wollongong station
May 4 – Labour Day (May Day) procession in Brisbane. 300 youthful demonstrators heckle Gough Whitlam and alienate Trades Hall bureaucrats. It is the end of ‘new left’ ties with ALP in Brisbane
May 6 – Monash students demand input into proposed Discipline Statute. 500 gain entry to Administration building and 5000 gather around the steps – the biggest student meeting ever held in Australia
May 7 – President of Queensland Trades and Labour Council Jack Egerton imposes ban on radical students marching with union members
May 7 – Night-time demonstration in Adelaide in support of NLF is broken up by unprovoked and violent police action
May 8 – Margaret Bailey spends ten hours chained to stairs of Treasury Building in Brisbane
May – Australian Prime Minister Gorton visits President Nixon in Washington – and makes obsequious pledge: ‘We’ll go a Waltzing Matilda with You’
May 14 – U.S President Richard Nixon proposes ‘eight-point plan’ for Vietnam settlement
May 15 – Tramways Union Victorian State Secretary Clarrie O’Shea is jailed. This provokes greatest national strike wave in Australian history – on a political issue. O’Shea had received summons to appear before Industrial Court to be questioned on his union’s finances
May 15 – Shotgun and tear gas assault on student demonstrators at University of California (Berkeley) leaves 128 students injured (three in critical condition and one dead). The National Guard assault was ordered by California Governor Ronald Reagan
May – Federal Attorney-General Nigel Bowen threatens ‘full range of measures’ against ‘deliberately manipulated student protests.’ He predicts large-scale occupation of high schools by students in July
May 16 – 500,000 workers are on strike in all states of the Commonwealth. 5000 workers hold mass rally at Olympic Park in Melbourne. Violence erupts in Little Bourke Street when police charge demonstrators outside Industrial Court
May 17 – Protest meeting at Pentridge jail for John Zarb. The half-hour meetings are held on third Saturday of every month
May 19 – Ho Chi Minh celebrates his 79th birthday
May 23 – Students from Adelaide University and Flinders University hold lunch-hour demonstration in defence of the right to assemble and conduct a peaceful protest
May 25 – Vietnam Coordinating Committee Sunday afternoon rally outside Pentridge jail in support of John Zarb
May – Over one million Australian workers have taken strike action against the penal powers of the Arbitration system. O’Shea is released after $8600 payment to Industrial Court by stranger
May 28 – Students demonstrate in Melbourne against trial of Albert Langer and Dave Rubin. Both are charged with inciting to riot. Rubin also faces malicious wounding charge
May 28 – 315 Australians killed to date in Vietnam, 1344 wounded
June 2 – Trial of Monash student Albert Langer begins in Melbourne’s County Court. (Dave Rubin has decided to conduct a separate trial with his own lawyer). Langer is conducting his own defence
June – Queensland Trades and Labour Council forces FOCO out of Brisbane Trades Hall
June 12 – Occupation of University of Queensland Senate Room by twenty-five students pressing for ‘staff-student control’ of University Council
June – U.S President Richard Nixon announces plan for withdrawal of 25,000 U.S troops from Vietnam. There is no sign of Gorton Government following suit
June – Revolutionary Provisional Government (PRG) proclaimed in South Vietnam
June – Ninety Australian academics defy National Service Act by publicly declaring full support to students who refuse to register for ‘National Service’. They are led by Sydney University Professors L.C. Birch and C.B. Martin
June 20 – 600 demonstrators march through Adelaide streets (the ‘Ho Chi Minh Trail’) against Vietnam war and conscription and in defiance of City Council edict against peak-hour demonstrations
June – Trial of Albert Langer in Melbourne’s County Court ends after jury fails to agree on verdict. Langer’s unorthodox defence had prosecution on back foot from outset and turned proceedings into political trial of the Government
June – Sydney University students hold anti-conscription sit-ins at offices of Treasurer McMahon and Attorney-General Bowen. Forty students manage to invade Bowen’s office despite strenuous efforts by police
July 3 – Newly-formed ‘Committee in Defiance of the National Service Act’ holds press conference and ‘sign-in’ at Sydney Town Hall where 68 prominent citizens sign ‘Statement of Defiance of the National Service Act’
July 4 – 4000 demonstrators march down St. Kilda Road towards U.S Consulate in tight formation. Police on horseback charge protestors at barricades. The following afternoon twenty Consulate windows are smashed by ‘Melbourne People’s Liberation Army’
July 4 – Sydney’s 1969 July 4 (‘Freedom Day’) rally highlighted by burning of U.S flag and effigies of Prime Minister Gorton outside U.S Consulate
July – Waterside workers in Sydney seek exemption from working on Jeparit which plies to and from Vietnam with war supplies. The ship is crewed by Navy sailors because Seamen’s Union members refuse to ‘man’ her
July 10 – Twenty-year-old student David Day of 57 Palmerston Street Carlton fined $40 in Melbourne City Court for refusing to register for ‘National Service’
July – Seamen’s Union delegates in Sydney threaten newsprint ban on Sydney Morning Herald after ‘SMH’ refuses to accept advertisement for ‘Statement of Defiance’
July – ‘Committee in Defiance of the National Service Act’ begins mass campaign in registration period July 21-August 4 to collect signatories to the ‘Statement of Defiance’
July – ‘Fill in a falsie’ campaign begins. Students at Monash, Latrobe and Melbourne Universities fill in 10,000 National Service registration forms with names taken at random from telephone book
July 20 – Ho Chi Minh issues statement to mark fifteenth anniversary of Geneva Agreements
July 21 – Monash erupts again over proposed clause in new discipline statute enabling ban on anyone with criminal record from the University. 100 militants stage sit-in outside Council Chamber. Mass meeting of 1500 students votes overwhelmingly to reaffirm its opposition to objectionable clause
July 25 – 2000 people have signed ‘Statement of Defiance’ issued by ‘Committee in Defiance of National Service Act’. All are in breach of the Crimes Act
July 25 – Adelaide teacher Bob Hall is jailed for refusing to comply with National Service Act. Hundreds march through the city to protest at Adelaide jail
July 26 – Australia’s Vietnam death toll now stands at 305 killed in action. 1513 Australians have been wounded
July 27 – 21-year-old Adelaide teacher-student Ann McMenamin chains herself to iron fence at Adelaide’s Parliament House and begins 60-hour vigil in protest against jailing of Bob Hall
August 4-5 – Eight Monash students charged with breaches of discipline arising out of July 21 sit-in. In response students twice occupy Administration building – on the nights of August 4/5
August 6 – CICD demonstration in Melbourne CBD to mark Hiroshima Day and in support of draft resisters
August 10 – CICD Sunday afternoon ‘Mass Walkathon’ Alexandra Avenue to Pentridge for John Zarb and repeal of National Service Act. Application has been made for release of Zarb on compassionate grounds due to illness of his parents
August 14 – Brisbane students demonstrate in support of people of Bougainville and are met with unprecedented violence from Special Branch and uniformed police. Special Branch Detectives smash windows and damage stock at ‘Red and Black Bookshop’
August – Dave Rubin appears in Melbourne’s County Court charged with malicious wounding of a policeman and resisting arrest at 1968 July 4 demonstration. He is
found guilty on the lesser charges of ‘common assault’ and ‘resisting arrest’. Earlier the jury had thrown out the more serious charges
August – United States Federal Appeals Court dismisses all charges against Dr Benjamin Spock
August – Conscientious objector John Zarb is released from Pentridge Jail on compassionate grounds after serving ten months of two-year sentence
August – U.S promises withdrawal of 50,000 troops by year’s end but still no move from Gorton Government to scale back Australia’s Vietnam troop commitment
August 25 – Forty-two waterside workers in Sydney refuse to start work on Jeparit as protest against Australian involvement in Vietnam war
August 30 – ‘Committee for Defiance of the National Service Act’ formed in Victoria
September 3 – Death of Ho Chi Minh, legendary leader of the Vietnamese people
September 6 – 318 Australians so far killed in action in Vietnam. 1559 have been wounded
September 15 – Michael Hamel-Green appears in City Court and is sentenced to seven days’ jail for refusing to attend medical examination
September 16 – RMIT architecture student Tony Dalton appears in Cheltenham Court and is sentenced to seven days’ jail for non-compliance with National Service Act
September – Public meeting called in Melbourne to pay tribute to John Zarb
September 19 – Computer technician Laurie Carmichael junior ‘appears’ at Williamstown Court charged with refusing to answer call for medical examination. Carmichael is whisked away by car into hiding. Police assault diminutive Mrs Laurie Carmichael. Laurie Carmichael senior and others are arrested as they come to her aid. Workers in local factories down tools
September 20-21 – Weekend vigil outside Pentridge jail in support of Tony Dalton and Michael Hamel-Green
September – Dr Jim Cairns returns to sittings of Federal Parliament after recovering from effects of savage attack on himself and guests at party held in his own home
September 26 – Workers in Melbourne’s western suburbs stop work and rally at Williamstown Court to support those arrested on September 19. Union officials collaborate with police in moving student protestors away from the Court
September 27 – Laurie Carmichael junior makes himself available for arrest
October 2 – 509,600 U.S troops still in Vietnam
October 14 – Simon Townsend lays ‘citizen’s prosecutions’ in special Federal Court in Sydney against 37 signatories to the ‘Statement of Defiance of the National Service Act’
October 15 – An estimated fifteen million (perhaps twenty million) people demonstrate in ‘Moratorium Day’ demonstrations in U.S
October 15 – Cast and audience of musical Hair observe minute’s silence in Sydney to support U.S Moratorium
October 18 – Pre-election march through Melbourne CBD organised by CICD
October 19 – ALP leader Gough Whitlam commits ALP to amnesty for all opponents of the National Service Act
October 21 – Michael Hamel-Green and Tony Dalton fail to present themselves for induction into Army and take refuge in NUAUS draft sanctuary
October – 300 unionists at Walsh Bay in Sydney protest against having to handle Jeparit war equipment
October – An appeal by Commonwealth authorities against the dismissal of Crimes Act charges against six Melbourne students by magistrate in March (1969) is upheld by Supreme Court (Melbourne)
October – Norman Rothfield, John Lloyd, and Bevan Ramsden, all of whom are associated with CICD in Victoria, hold informal discussion on possibility of a Moratorium campaign in Australia
October 25 – Big swing against Gorton Government in 1969 Federal election indicates growing support for policies of ALP, including pledges to withdraw from Vietnam and abolish conscription
October 29 – Young Orbost farmer Brian Ross appears in Orbost Court and is jailed for two years for refusing to obey call-up notice
November 1 – March of thousands in Chicago demanding unchaining of Black Panther Party leader Bobby Seale and dropping of charges against ‘Chicago Eight’
November – CICD Secretary John Lloyd sends letter to contacts in all states suggesting ‘national consultation’ in Canberra November 25 (first day of new Parliament) to discuss possibility of Moratorium
November – 79 people have so far been charged in Sydney and Canberra for signing ‘Statement of Defiance of the National Service Act’
November 9 – New York Times carries full-page advertisement calling for immediate withdrawal of U.S troops from Vietnam. It is signed by 1365 active duty U.S servicemen
November 11 – 200 job delegates representing 200,000 unionists meet in Sydney and pledge support for union officials and others who face jail under Crimes Act for signing ‘Statement of Defiance of the National Service Act’
November 11 – Printing apprentice Karl Armstrong is convicted of having refused to register for National Service and is fined $40
November 13 – About 200 executives and members of more than thirty unions hold conference in Melbourne to discuss strategies for opposing National Service Act and Vietnam war
November 14 – Hobart demonstration in support of U.S Moratorium
November 15 – Second round of Vietnam Moratorium in U.S. 150,000 march against the Vietnam war in San Francisco; 250,000 march in Washington
November 15 – Saturday demonstrations in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide in solidarity with second round of U.S Moratorium
November 15 – AICD in Sydney sponsors program of action in solidarity with U.S Moratorium
November – The world reacts with horror to allegations of massacre by U.S forces of hundreds of unarmed villagers in South Vietnam (Song My village, Quang Ngai province). The massacre occurred twenty months previous (March 16, 1968) but has been hushed up
November 22 – 329 Australians so far killed in action in Vietnam. 1617 have been wounded
November – So far 68 signatories to ‘Statement of Defiance of National Service Act’ have been sentenced for breach of Crimes Act
November – NSW South Coast signatories to ‘Statement of Defiance of the National Service Act’ now exceed 2000
November 25-26 – Representatives of 35 peace organisations from throughout Australia attend Moratorium ‘national consultation’ in Canberra
November 26 – Press conference at conclusion of two-day ‘national consultation’ reveals plans for nation-wide Vietnam Moratorium Campaign to culminate in Australia-wide demonstration on weekend of April 18, 1970. Provisional convenors return to their states and take steps toward establishment of VMC groups in the capital cities
November 28 – Attorney-General Hughes meets deputation from ‘Committee in Defiance of the National Service Act’ (CDNSA). The deputation draws attention to two young men in jail while 68 others in contempt of the Act remain free
November 30 – Waterside workers in Sydney begin strike over loading ships with materials for Vietnam war. They refuse to work the Vietnam arms-supply ship Jeparit
December 4 – Rupert Murdoch’s Australian newspaper calls for withdrawal of Australian and U.S troops from Vietnam
December 5 – Gorton Government backs away from confrontation with Sydney waterside workers over their strike against loading ships bound for Vietnam
December 8 – U.S President Richard Nixon outlines his policy of ‘Vietnamisation’. The objective of the U.S remains a military victory on the ground in Vietnam
December 9 – First meeting of supporters of the Moratorium in Melbourne is held in the Caprice Restaurant in Collins Street and is attended by some 120 interested individuals
December 9 – Public ceremony in Chifley Square where 67 people sign ‘Statement of Defiance’. 8000 people have now signed the ‘Statement’ and risk prosecution and jail under the Crimes Act
December – 119 people have so far been sentenced and fined for signing the ‘Statement in Defiance of the National Service Act’. Almost all have refused to pay the fines but there have been no arrests
December – Newly-formed ‘Vietnam Solidarity Committee’ in Sydney launches ‘Vietnam Solidarity Fund’ which is to be sent to PRG of South Vietnam for all purposes it thinks fit, including military purposes
December 13 – Saturday ‘freedom ride’ to Sale prison in Gippsland in support of non-complier Brian Ross
December 15 – Anti-Vietnam war rally (‘Peace Mobilisation’) in Sydney organised by ‘Vietnam Mobilisation Committee’
December 15 – ‘Trade Union Anti-Conscription Committee’ backed by thirty-two unions holds Shop Stewards and Delegates rally at Fitzroy Town Hall. The rally adopts resolution calling for Australian troops in Vietnam to mutiny rather than commit acts of barbarism. The Gorton Government begins investigations into possibility of prosecutions
December – First meeting of supporters of Moratorium in Sydney passes motion deploring unrepresentative nature of Canberra consultation
December 16 – First meeting of Moratorium ‘temporary committee’ in Melbourne decides to arrange public meeting of sponsors for February 1, 1970
December – Gorton Government commissions Jeparit as Navy vessel for its voyages with Vietnam war supplies and concedes victory to Sydney waterside workers
December 19 – ‘Trade Union Anti-Conscription Committee’ in Melbourne clarifies controversial December 15 ‘mutiny’ resolution by referring to Nuremberg war crimes judgement
December 23 – Protest group ‘Provo’ holds colourful demonstration in Adelaide and burns replica of Song My (My Lai) village
December 28 – Victorian ALP Secretary Bill Hartley suggests Australian troops ‘should disobey and in fact arrest their superior officers’ if given orders of ‘My Lai’ type
The Ballad of Ho Chi Minh
Ken Mansell singing Ewan McColl’s The Ballad of Ho Chi Minh in the shopfront of ‘The Bakery’ circa August 1969, accompanied by Gayle Williams on guitar. ‘The Bakery’, at 120 Greville Street Prahran (Melbourne), was the headquarters of the newly-formed Revolutionary Socialists, and off-campus headquarters of the Monash Labor Club. The ‘Friday night coffee lounge’ performance was recorded on reel-to-reel tape recorder by Darce Cassidy. McColl wrote the song in 1954 to honour Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh. Ho Chi Minh died in September 1969
Download the full timeline here, or click through below for a year-by-year timeline (with pictures) of this momentous period.
‘Taking to the Streets against the Vietnam War’: A Timeline History of Australian Protest 1962-1972
©Ken Mansell
