A Solidarity pamphlet by Phil Griffiths, Published October 2025, 64 pages

By Phil Griffiths

In 1975 Gough Whitlam was sacked as Prime Minister by the Governor-General, as the Liberal Party and the ruling class conspired to get rid of a Labor government they saw as a barrier to attacking the unions and restoring corporate profits. This set out one of the most dramatic class confrontations in Australian history, as tens of thousands of workers went on strike to defend the government. Phil Griffiths, a socialist activist at the time and a retired lecturer in Political Economy, tells the hidden history of the dramatic struggle that resulted, and how it was squandered by union leaders and the Labor Party.