Direct Action – An inspiring tradition

Direct Action – September 1990
By John Percy

20 years of publishing a socialist newspaper.

One of the traditions on which Direct Action built is that of the old Industrial Workers of the World, who were the first publishers of a paper with this name in Australia. The IWW was formed in Chicago in 1905, and by the outbreak of WWI was well established in Australia. The IWW – otherwise known as the Wobblies – set out to be an industrial union uniting all workers in the struggle against the bosses. But it was also a revolutionary organisation based on a dedicated membership preaching the doctrines of all-out class struggle and the fight for a new social order.

In January 1914 in Sydney the IWW began publication of a weekly newspaper under the name of Direct Action. The editorial in the first issue explained that: “For the first time in the history of the working-class movement in Australia, a paper appears which stands for straight-out direct-actionist principles, unhampered by the plausible theories of the parliamentarians.”

The IWW’s revolutionary message was ceaselessly hammered home in Direct Action. The paper ridiculed the petty-bourgeois reformism of the Labor Party. It attacked the arbitration system, the pet creation of the ALP leadership. It attacked the nationalism, the White Australia racism, and the imperialist jingoism of the ALP hierarchy – against which it counterposed the international solidarity of the working class in its struggle against international capitalism.

The IWW was the backbone of the struggle against the imperialist First World War and conscription in Australia. Against the war-madness of the ruling class and its servants in the ALP leadership, Direct Action spread the ideals of international working-class solidarity.

As the caption on the cover of the August 10, 1914 Direct Action says: “War! What for?… War is Hell! Send the capitalists to hell and wars are impossible.”

Although the IWW lacked a well-rounded theory, and was prone to sectarian mistakes, they did wage an exemplary struggle, and showed that revolutionary ideas are not alien to the Australian working class. The new Direct Action founded in 1970 identified with these revolutionary pioneers of the labour movement, and carried on both the name and the tradition. And it revived the militant, campaigning tradition of selling the paper – in the factories, out on the streets, on the campuses – a tradition that had been increasingly neglected by the Communist Party of Australia as it declined in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s.

Campaigning for Vietnam

When Direct Action was launched, the Vietnam War was at its height. The movement against Australia’s involvement had mobilised hundreds of thousands of people around the country. In May 1970, 100,000 people had poured into the streets of Melbourne – one of the largest political demonstrations in Australia’s history. The first issue of DA was sold at the second national Vietnam Moratorium mobilisations in September 1970, and the demand for such a new left paper surpassed even the expectations of our enthusiastic young paper sellers. People queued up to buy. At the Melbourne rally, where we were just getting a foothold with four supporters there, more than 600 copies were sold, with one comrade selling 450 on the day.

Over the next few years DA continued to emphasise the vital importance of campaigning against US and Australian aggression in Vietnam.

In April and May of 1972, US President Nixon escalated the war with the mining of North Vietnam’s ports and saturation bombing of the North. DA responded with a special Vietnam issue. Our cover heading was unequivocal: “Our One Point Peace Plan, OUT NOW!” That special issue was rushed out in less than two days. It consisted of eight pages of analysis, history of the war, an article on what strategy for the movement, and a strong editorial line.

When all of Vietnam was finally liberated and the US forces and their puppets scrambled aboard the last helicopters, DA had a special Vietnam victory issue. The cover proclaimed: “Saigon Liberated! A VICTORY FOR ALL HUMANITY.” The issue included articles on “War and Revolution in Vietnam. Lessons of the 30-year struggle,” by Allen Myers; “Liberation Forces take Saigon,” by Jim McIlroy; “The real Vietnam bloodbath is over,” by Sol Salby; and an article on the history of the anti-Vietnam War movement in Australia, and its lessons, by Jim Percy. The editorial said:

“The fall of Saigon to the Vietnamese liberation forces is a decisive victory in the Vietnamese people’s three-decades-long struggle for national self-determination….

“This stunning reversal for imperialism is a great victory for the Vietnamese masses who have died in the hundreds of thousands and suffered in their millions…

“But their victory is also a victory for all of oppressed humanity. The indomitable struggle of the Vietnamese people against the American war of intervention has inspired the oppressed throughout the whole world.”

The Whitlam Labor government

In December 1972 the ALP was elected to office. Many people had illusions that Australian society was in for a fundamental change. The Whitlam government followed more than two decades of reactionary Liberal rule, and was swept to power on a wave of popular protest against the Vietnam War and conscription. There were massive ALP rallies in the lead-up to the elections. We campaigned for a Labor victory, and sold huge numbers of DAs at these meetings.

The experience of a Labor government trying to run a capitalist economy better than the capitalists helped dispel many myths about the ALP. The Hawke experience a decade later should have removed any remaining illusions.

Nevertheless, when the Fraser-Kerr Coup on November 11, 1975 turfed Whitlam out of office, thousands of people mobilised to vent their anger. DA responded to the crisis by shifting from a fortnightly to a weekly publication schedule. We called on Labor’s supporters to fight back, rather than restrain their rage. The cover headline on the October 23 issue read: “Labor Should Call for a General Strike.” The same issue also presented “A socialist program for labor”, since with this election we were standing our own candidates for the first time.

The Socialist Workers League conference that January changed our name to Socialist Workers Party, and also took the decision to produce DA as a regular weekly. During the upsurge after the sacking of Whitlam, DA was still listed on the masthead as “A socialist fortnightly,” although it was coming out weekly.

Peace & anti-nuclear issues

With our origins in the movement against the war in Vietnam, it’s natural that DA has consistently campaigned for peace and against nuclear weapons. 1977 was the year in which opposition to uranium mining developed as a major issue in Australian politics. DA covered the early mobilisations and carried many features explaining the dangers of the whole nuclear power industry.

DA has helped build the regular Hiroshima Day rallies and Palm Sunday peace marches, and has been well-received by participants. In 1984, 3800 copies were sold at peace rallies around the country. The following year our supporters raised enough money to organise a massive free distribution at the rallies. 50,000 copies were given away. The following year a similar free distribution was organised. Many people decided to subscribe after getting a copy for the first time at these demonstrations.

Throughout our 20 years DA has been a consistent campaigner on all other important social issues as well. We’ve defended Black rights, from the very first issue, through the 1972 Black moratorium marches, the campaigns for land rights, against the killings of Aborigines, the deaths in custody. We’ve campaigned in defence of gay rights, for the rights of migrants, in defence of democratic rights.

Fighting for women’s rights

When we started Direct Action, the modern women’s liberation movement was just getting off the ground in Australia as well, so our history is that history too. We’ve covered the key discussions in the women’s movement, and campaigned strongly on the issues we judged most important.

In the 1970s the major campaign was in support of a woman’s right to choose, the abortion struggle. This often featured on the cover. And every year DA helped build the International Women’s Day march and activities. Our supporters were always there, and in recent years have been crucial in helping revive them when others have been flagging in their enthusiasm.

The biggest issue throughout the 1980s – and the most heart-warming victory – has been the Wollongong Jobs for Women Campaign. The April 30, 1980 issue of DA announced the launching of the campaign. It was initiated by a group of women including members of the Socialist Workers Party, supporters of DA, who demanded that BHP end its practice of sex discrimination and give them jobs. Many of the women had been knocked back time and again over many years.

The initial victories won by the women had to be defended again and again, throughout the 1980s, by mass political campaigns and legal challenges. Early on the women won the support of BHP workers, collected petitions, set up a tent embassy, organised meetings, and put pressure on BHP.

The Nov 26, 1980 DA was able to announce, “Women Win Jobs From BHP”. It was an anti-discrimination breakthrough. All the initial complainants were offered jobs.

The Dec 3, 1980 issue commented, “Knowing BHP, the fight’s not over”. But we wouldn’t have predicted it would still be going on nine years down the track, and still extracting victories from “The Big Australian”.

Most of the women who won jobs in 1980 were subsequently thrown out in a mass sacking in 1982-83. 36 lodged a complaint with the NSW Equal Opportunities Board against BHP. In 1986 the Equal Opportunity tribunal awarded more than $1 million damages to the women. The legal challenges continued. The May 25, 1988 issue of DA reported the failure of BHP’s appeal to the NSW Appeals Court.

For a record of this struggle, you need a file of DA. It has been a heroic battle, worthy of a book, providing inspiration not only to other women, but to everyone suffering injustice.

A paper for young people

Direct Action began as the paper of the socialist youth group Resistance, and even though today it’s published jointly by the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance, throughout its existence DA has maintained its orientation to young people.

Young people are the most radical, they have an interest in overturning entrenched conservative traditions, so they are the natural readership and base of support of a socialist paper. DA has always been the paper with the best coverage of issues of special concern to young people – high school student actions; campaigns on university campuses; youth unemployment.

Over the last few years as Resistance members have been in the forefront of the campaign around the country against Labor’s tertiary [education] fees, this has been reflected in the pages of DA.

Throughout our 20 years DA has depended on the dedication and enthusiasm of its young supporters to ensure both its production and successful circulation. Each week they are out on the streets, on campuses, outside high schools, factories, or train stations, selling the socialist press. Without this army of sellers, DA wouldn’t have lasted two issues, let alone 20 years, and 757 issues!

Every now and then a special effort is required to boost the circulation, and we schedule a sales drive, or a special sales week. Our recent sales drive and sales week, when our sales were doubled or even tripled, succeeded because of the efforts of our young supporters.

We also organise regular drives to boost the subscription base of DA, setting targets of 300, 500, 1000, once even 1100, and ending up with 1170 new subscribers. During these campaigns teams of young DA supporters organise sub-selling trips to far-flung places to reach people who normally don’t have access to DA. In 1980 a subscription selling team made a 3000 kilometre car trip from Perth to the mining and port towns of the Pilbara, and sold 100 subs.

With this issue DA is launching another drive for 500 new subscribers. If you don’t already get DA regularly, why not fill in the form on page 11?

International solidarity

DA has a lot to be proud of in its 20-year history, but probably our proudest achievement (recognised by most others on the left also) has been our consistent coverage and solidarity with the struggles of the oppressed around the world.

To maintain this excellent international coverage we’ve frequently sent staff writers to different corners of the globe, sometimes on permanent assignment, often for special events. Today, for example, we have two journalists based in Prague covering developments in Eastern and Western Europe, and one comrade stationed in Moscow. As well there are comrades temporarily living in Germany and Greece sending back reports for DA, and several comrades have been able to send articles from Ireland.

We’ve had journalists based in the U.S. in the past, and frequently in Europe. We sent a reporter to cover the rise of Solidarnosc in Poland, attending the first conference of the union in September 1981. We have supporters of the paper in Papua New Guinea who send us regular coverage from there, and we’ve sent comrades on regular trips to cover events in the Pacific – to Kanaky, the Philippines, Vanuatuu. We rushed a comrade to Peking [Beijing] last year to cover the pro-democracy movement, and he sent back on-the-spot interviews and reports before, during and after the Tiananmen Square massacre.

1979 was a particularly momentous year for oppressed people all around the world. In January and February the Iranian workers and peasants succeeded in toppling the Shah of Iran. DA‘s coverage was exemplary. Also at the beginning of 1979, Pol Pot was overthrown, with the assistance of Vietnamese troops, and when China – with support from the U.S. – invaded Vietnam, DA campaigned strongly in defense of Vietnam. Then in July the Sandinista revolution toppled the hated Somoza dictatorship. We sent a comrade to Nicaragua to cover the new revolution and the task of reconstruction. He wrote articles from there, and came back and went on a national speaking tour in defence of the revolution.

Our August 23, 1979 issue, number 266, had the cover “Nicaragua: On the Cuban Road”, with a special supplement of coverage on Nicaragua making it a bumper 28-page issue. We also sent a comrade there on the first anniversary of the revolution, and DA reporters have travelled regularly there since, as well as to Cuba, and also to Grenada. Solidarity with the struggles of the people of Latin America and the Caribbean has been a major concern of DA throughout its history. Before the coup in Chile, DA warned of the impending danger, and afterwards campaigned against Pinochet. Throughout the 1980s we’ve had comprehensive coverage of the struggle by the people of El Salvador.

We have also sent reporters to New Zealand to cover major developments. Most recently, DA has been the only paper in Australia to cover the growth of the New Labour Party in any thorough way. At their recent conference, our comrade from DA was the only international guest.

Every time there’s been a major international development, we covered it well. We carried feature articles, and made a tremendous effort, given our limited resources, to get on-the-spot coverage. At the very least we were able to draw on sources from our co-thinkers in other countries, or the people in struggle themselves. These sources that gave the real picture have been essential for understanding the world, and breaking through the lies in the media of the press barons. Whether our positions were initially popular and well understand or not, many people were still wanting to read an alternative, and so often big international events also meant a big rise in our circulation at these times – for example, in the early months of the Soviet troops in Afghanistan, and also during recent months with the looming war in the Gulf.

This is not the first time of course that US imperialism has been waging war or engaging in gunboat diplomacy in the Middle East – it’s been a constant factor in world politics since WWII and DA‘s coverage for the last 20 years has been excellent. The cover of issue number 2 featured The Arab Revolution. DA has debated and combated the Zionists from the beginning, campaigned against Israeli aggression in 1973; thoroughly covered the Iranian Revolution in 1979; opposed Australian troops in the Sinai in 1981; waged a strong campaign against Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982; denounced Washington’s bombing of Libya.

The struggle for Irish freedom has also been covered consistently by DA, with regular first-hand reports and interviews. For example, Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey has been a regular in our columns, first appearing in the early 1970s, and most recently in the last issue. In the March 11, 1981, issue, we carried an interview with Michael McAliskey after the assassination attempt on himself and Bernadette. During 1981 we had on-the-spot reports during and after the hunger strikes by the H-Block prisoners, including an interview with Bernadette McAliskey. The April 14, 1982 issue also had an interview with McAliskey by another two supporters of DA who were visiting Ireland. (We were also able to produce a book on the Irish freedom struggle – Ireland Unfree, edited by Martin Mulligan – based mainly on reports and essays that appeared in Direct Action.)

Direct Action has also made use of coverage from like-minded socialists in other countries. In the 1970s, Intercontinental Press was invaluable. Today, the US Guardian is especially useful.

Direct Action has been the paper that covers the visits of socialists and left political activists from other countries. As a sampling, for example, the following interviews or transcripts of speeches were carried in four consecutive issues in 1984: a speech by visiting Nicaraguan trade minister Alejandro Martinez (issue 471); an interview with a Tamil socialist activist from Sri Lanka (471); an on-the-spot report from Nicaragua (471); a speech by Vietnam’s foreign minister Nguyen Co Thach who was visiting Australia (472); a report from Cuba on their elections by a comrade who was part of the Australian brigade; an interview with former CIA agent Phillip Agee, author of Inside the Company (473); an interview with Swedish socialist and car workers union leader Goete Kilden (473); an interview with Don Rojas, leader of the Grenadan New Jewel Movement (473); an interview with Peruvian socialist and peasant leader Hugo Blanco (472, 473); an interview with Roman Bedor, Director of the Belau Pacific Centre (474). Many of these were exclusive interviews, and certainly the material appeared nowhere else in any comprehensive form.

Workers’ rights

As befits a paper carrying on the tradition of the original IWW paper, Direct Action has built and supported any struggles by workers in defence of their rights and conditions. Where possible, DA has encouraged workers to write for the paper, see it as their own, and use it in their campaigns. When major disputes break out, DA is there.

For example, in 1979 we carried comprehensive coverage of the Union Carbide sit-in at Altona, Melbourne. The petrochemical workers sat in for seven weeks in support of their demands for jobs and a 35-hour week, and DA campaigned vigorously in support, carrying interviews with strike leaders and their families, and building support outside. The articles and photos carried in DA were later produced as a booklet.

Throughout the 1980s, supporters of the paper working in both the Newcastle and Port Kembla steelworks have provided regular coverage of all the major industrial campaigns there.

Our coverage of the vehicle industry has been a feature, starting with the big 1973 strikes. In 1980 we produced a special supplement, that also featured the SWP election campaign, when GM-H shut down its Pagewood plant, with the slogan: “Save Jobs: Nationalise GM-H Pagewood.” Also that year we had excellent coverage of the sit-in at AMI in Melbourne, provided by DA supporters working in the plant.

Our supporters were also involved in the big 1981 Ford strike in Melbourne. In fact one comrade, now our correspondent in Moscow, Renfrey Clarke, was sacked and victimised two hours before the strike began. That strike went on for seven weeks, and DA was there all the time (camped on the picket line!) The rank-and-file union members – mainly militant migrant workers – took charge of the campaign and gave a glimpse of what was needed.

When the big miners strike developed at Rosebery on the West Coast of Tasmania in 1983, our comrades in Hobart supported it, but we also sent Renfrey Clarke to cover it as a DA journalist. We later published his record of that struggle as a book, The Picket, and have covered the issues on the Tasmanian West Coast, right up to last month’s big demonstration in Hobart.

Similarly, we’ve defended the Builders Laborers Federation throughout the 1980s – the deregistration, the raids, the slanders, the frame-up trial of Norm Gallagher. Our coverage of the historic Victorian nurses strike in 1986 was also a highlight, with many of our members both helping lead the strike, and report on it for DA.

Most importantly, we haven’t just reported strikes and workers actions. Direct Action has provided essential political analysis and direction for the labour movement. For example, our thorough analysis of the Accord, and the events leading up to it, was a model for a workers’ paper. The September 23, 1981 issue carried an article by Allen Myers, “Should the left back an incomes policy?”, and a policy statement from the SWP pointing out that it was a trap for workers. DA was the first on the left to warn of the dangers looming. Debate continued in the lead up to the election of the Hawke Labor government in 1983. The November 4, 1981 issue began an ongoing polemic with the Communist Party of Australia, which supported the Accord, even helped draft it. And throughout 1982 DA ran thorough analyses on the looming social contract. In 1983 Hawke was elected, and implemented the Accord. The subsequent ongoing disaster for workers and the poor has been recorded in the pages of DA.

Defending the environment

For 20 years DA has been campaigning against the growing threat to the environment. The cover of issue number 3 featured the problem of pollution with the heading “Capitalism Fouls Things Up”, and a double page feature inside. In 1971 we carried articles like “The Shame of Westernport”, and “The Pollution Crisis: How can we save our environment?”

Over the years DA has been an excellent source of information on environmental issues. Picking one year at random, here are some notable feature articles from 1984: Feb 8: What have they done to our Forests? Aug 1: Bulla; Victoria’s Love Canal. Aug 29: Behind the battle for Daintree. Sept 12: The Baryulgil Disaster – Asbestos mining on the NSW N Coast. Sept 19: The Problem with Roxby… Oct 10: A radioactive car park and a nuclear iceblock (on US nuclear reactors in Greenland and the Antarctic.) Nov 7: The Barren Hills of Mt Lyell. Nov 14: Maralinga.

We carried articles on the greenhouse effect, and the threat to the ozone layer, well before they became household words.

Regrouping the left

When Direct Action first started publishing in 1970, we were at the very early stages of building a political organisation, clarifying our political positions, and carving out a space on the left. The people who started DA got active in the late 1960s under the impact of the Vietnam War and the youth radicalisation that was occurring in most advanced capitalist countries. During the first few years we firmed up our political positions, and became part of the international Trotskyist organisation, the Fourth International. Our concern to be part of an international movement was commendable, reflecting our recognition of the international nature of the class struggle, and the importance of world political events.

But membership of such an international organisation had its downside as well, as we discovered. Mirroring a division in the FI, our organisation here split in 1972, and two papers were produced, Direct Action and Militant. By 1977 we were able to overcome that division, in Australia at least, and reunited our organisations at the end of the year. For the last few months of 1977 the two papers appeared in a unique format – DA at one end, and Militant at the other.

Our experiences in the 1970s paved the way for the political process that the SWP, Resistance, and DA have gone through in the 1980s. We recognised the need to broaden out and regroup the left, both on an international level, but especially in Australia. We left the FI, and set out to develop better links with different revolutionary movements around the world.

In 1984 when the Nuclear Disarmament Party emerged we gave it our full support. Our comrades worked tirelessly in the election campaign, some stood as candidates, and DA reported its progress every week. The election issue of DA had a big cover headline – “Vote for Nuclear Disarmament.”

DA immediately took note of the changed international situation with the election of Mikhail Gorbachev as the secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. We welcomed perestroika and glasnost as necessary developments for the Soviet Union, and DA‘s coverage of events there and in Eastern Europe over the last five years has been a wonderful source, invaluable to political activists, and also to students and teachers of Soviet history and politics. We’ve noted the international consequences of perestroika, such as the lessened danger of a nuclear holocaust. In Australia such international developments have made left regroupment both more necessary and more feasible.

In 1986 DA supporters intervened in both the Broad Left Conference and the Getting Together Conference, and the debates leading up to them. At the Broad Left Conference we campaigned in defence of the BLF, collecting more than 800 signatures on a petition of support. During the conference a meeting of the militant left was also held at Glebe Town Hall [Sydney], attended by 400 independent left activists and members of the SWP, the SPA, the CPA-ML, and IS. DA carried papers, talks, and commentary on the conferences and meetings in subsequent issues.

These conferences were followed by the Left Consultation in Melbourne in April, supported by the SWP, the SPA, the CPA-ML and some of the ALP left. Then in July 1986 the Left Fightback Conference was held in Canberra, focussing especially on the defence of union rights. The following Easter the national Left Fightback Conference was held in Melbourne.

When later that year, with the further ALP sellout on uranium, the need for socialist renewal and regroupment became even more acute, DA carried a big cover headline – “We need a new party of labor.” During 1986 and 1987 we attempted to build such a new party with the CPA and others.

During 1988 and 1989, we explored the possibility of regroupment with the SPA, and DA charted the progress of our joint activities and discussions.

Also in recent years, with the formation of Green political organisations, DA has been the paper to chart their progress around the country. In many cases supporters of DA have helped build or initiate such groups, such as the Green Alliance that campaigned in many states in the last Federal elections. Although no project for regroupment or renewal of the left has succeeded as yet, our experiences in the 1980s confirm the validity and necessity of this perspective. Perhaps in the 1990s a new broad paper of the left will be able to take the movement further down this road.