Med betongen som argument: Australiensiska byggnadsarbetarna med samhällspolitisk agenda

Between 1971 and 1975, construction workers in Australia organised in the New South Wales branch of the Builders Labourers’ Federation engaged in strikes (»bans» in Australian industrial terminology) to prevent ecologically damaging development and in support of other radical causes, such as women’s liberation, homosexual liberation and indigenous rights. Proclaiming the principle of »the social responsibility of labour», this union became especially famous for its »green bans» that halted huge development projects. This union prefigures the development of »social-movement unionism» from the 1990s onwards in its militancy, ultra-democratic forms of organisation, its agenda for radical social and economic change, its determination to overcome working-class fragmentation and its capacity to lead community struggles.