Old Union
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Wayne Ward gained his writing skills as a young seaman recording minutes of meetings called with a vengeance against shipowners and governments. His blunt style is proof in Old Union, words rarely wasted but capturing a period post-sail and seamen coming to grips with modernisation. Seamen- revolutionaries, anarchists, certifiable, schemers, geniuses and the misguided. Seamen fought three adversaries; authority, government and shipowners. Their struggle against shipowners proved one-sided with the enemy moving their head offices to rocky outcrops in the Indian Ocean and beaches in the Caribbean, who now paid no taxes and flew a flag of convenience. Governments chose as their weapons legislation and the courts, authority the Navigation Act. Seamen suffered two debilitating strikes in 1927 and 1935. It almost destroyed the Federated Seamen's Union of Australasia, and only a small core of officials and militant rank and file reignited the embers and set a course of survival. Old Union decries class and honours, privilege and wealth, trappings of rank and regal pomposity, obvious where the author's loyalties lie with his working class warriors taking no prisoners in a continuous struggle against the establishment. The officer class, the political right, leaders of industry, and those who make life miserable for the working class, are without exception the foe. Old Union proffers the theory nothing in this world changes and that those who currently seek high office are no different from their brethren from the past. On attaining power courted by the elite, drawn into the establishment and their self-importance an ego trip of falsities. The Great Depression is clear evidence of who suffered abject poverty, despair and hopelessness, the man and woman who laboured with their hands and produced the goods and services. Wanting nothing more than a fair return for their labours, security and stability. Ward depicts a world dominated by the politics of Sir Robert Menzies. A rightwing conservative imposing his self-opinionated decree upon a nation searching for an identity in a new and dangerous world. A prime minister crusading freedom and democracy in the public arena, but in fact concealing a deep-seated obsession to crush the union movement. Ward is biased to his working class roots of which he makes no excuses, Old Union opening a widow into the past where a larger than life presence dominated politics and attempted to destroy freedom of association.
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About the Book
Old Union is the life's journey of Sam and Emily Wright who become of age in the Great Depression. Sam as a boy walks 550 miles from outback New South Wales with a single obsession, to go to sea. The 1935 seamen's strike pits seaman against seaman, strikebreaker against militant, the strong against the weak, a futile struggle that will gut a union of seamen.
Sam matures in the turbulent years of war and the political upheavals dividing Australia. A coming of age in an era of persecution against political beliefs, union demonizing, and a working class demanding a fair share of a new and modern world.
To save a life Sam walks away from the sea, but never loses what beats in his heart, the equality of man and his right to a voice.
About the Author
Wayne Ward spent all his working life at sea, from deck boy to AB, bosun to Chief Integrated Rating. Ships with forests of gear, cranes, tankers, self-dischargers, dredges, ketches, bulk carriers and colliers. From his first ship he recognized the formidable strength and determination of the men he sailed with, these worldly men bound by a single bond- union. He became a committed unionist, delegate and lifelong advocate for equality and representation in the workplace. He married young and his three sons followed him to sea. Unlike their father, against great odds which showed their true mettle, all three achieved foreign-going masters certification.
Wayne is the author of The Last Seaman, 28men and The Chinese Seamen's Children. He and Heather live in Wangi Wangi on the shores of Lake Macquarie, New South Wales.