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Clarence Lyell O'Shea, more commonly known asClarrie O'Shea (1906–1988), was the Victorian State Secretary of theAustralian Tramway and Motor Omnibus Employees' Association who was jailed in 1969 by SirJohn Kerr for contempt of the Industrial Court when he disobeyed a court order that his union pay $8,100 in fines, under the penal sections of theConciliation and Arbitration Act.
A lifelong Communist, O'Shea was a leading member of the pro-ChinaCommunist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) (CPA(ML)) at the time he was imprisoned.
O'Shea's jailing triggered the largest postwar nationalstrike largely organised by left unions (and against the open opposition of theVictorian Trades Hall Council and theLabor Council of New South Wales) when one million workers stopped work over six days to demand "Free Clarrie and repeal the penal powers". On the sixth day O'Shea was released when the fines were paid by a man who claimed to have won the New South Wales lottery.[1]
Over the previous five years, the Tramways Union had militantly defended and improved the conditions of its members. The union had accumulated 40 fines totalling $13,200 imposed on it by the Conciliation and Arbitration Court. Due to the inaction ofMelbourne Trades Hall, twenty seven left wing unions had caucused together in response to the perceived attacks on unionism by the widespread application of fines. They called a mass delegates meeting for the day of the hearing that was attended by 5,000 delegates. After the meeting the delegates marched to the courthouse led by Clarrie O'Shea.
In court O'Shea refused to take the oath, then refused to present the union books, in line with the wishes of the members of his union, and was formally arrested and sentenced for contempt of court on Thursday 15 May 1969 and taken toHM Prison Pentridge. This led to immediate walk outs on the Thursday, and ageneral strike which paralysedVictoria on the Friday. There were two 24-hour stoppages in Victoria, involving 40 unions. All trains and trams stopped, delivery of goods was severely restricted, the power supply was cut and TV and radio broadcasts were disrupted. Protests and strike action also occurred in regional Victoria with theGeelong Trades Hall Council supporting the strikes and similar action inBendigo,Ballarat, and theLatrobe Valley.
All together, about 500,000 workers struck across Australia on Friday, 16 May. TheTrades and Labour Council of WA, theQueensland Trades and Labour Council and theUnited Trades and Labour Council of South Australia all called statewide general strikes. In Queensland, mass meetings or strikes occurred in 20 cities, while Trades and Labour Councils inNewcastle,Wollongong andCanberra called out members of affiliated unions. TheTasmanian Trades and Labour Council also refused to sanction any action, while 22 'rebel' affiliated unions representing 50,000 workers (80% of Tasmania's workforce) organised a general stoppage.
Protests calling for O'Shea's release occurred outsideHM Prison Pentridge inCoburg over the weekend.
On Tuesday 20 May, Dudley MacDougall, a former advertising manager for theAustralian Financial Review, acting on "behalf of a public benefactor", paid the union's fines. Kerr ordered O'Shea to be released. Although the penal laws were not repealed, they have never been used again.
