A film about the history of the Australian Trade Union movement – starting with the Shearer’s strike of the 1890’s and leading to the present day.

Overview

Zubrycki’s controversial, provocative and rarely screened documentary about the Australian trade-union movement was originally commissioned by the ACTU and funded by the Bicentennial Authority to provide an audio-visual history stretching from the birth of the movement in the mid-1850s and the formation of the Australian Labor Party to key events like the 1891 shearers’ strike and the 1988 Bicentenary. This pro-union but objective history, focusing on the struggle between capital and labour, and featuring the candid testimony of many unionists, was refused sanction by the ACTU and has long languished in obscurity aside from some “illegal” screenings in the early 1990s.

1. Tom Zubrycki

   Director