Remembering prayers and rock 'n' roll on the picket line

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This was published 5 years ago

Remembering prayers and rock 'n' roll on the picket line

By Martin Boulton

Had it not been so damn serious it might have been funny. At least it was fun, according to Paul Stewart, who fronts Melbourne band the Painters and Dockers, who helped keep spirits up on the frontline of the waterfront dispute in 1998.

Tensions were already high on Webb Dock in Melbourne when the Patrick Corporation locked out members of the Maritime Union of Australia over a dispute about productivity.

Stewart, who's band had taken on the same name as another prominent union in the early '80s, were no strangers to playing a benefit. They found themselves roped into a battle where the headliners were John Howard's government, then industrial relations minister Peter Reith, Patrick's boss Chris Corrigan, the Federal Court and of course, the workers, who at the height of the dispute were replaced by SAS commandos flown in from Dubai.

Paul Stewart and Fr Bob Maguire at Webb Dock.

Paul Stewart and Fr Bob Maguire at Webb Dock.Credit: Justin McManus

Twenty years since the lock-out gripped the nation, Stewart and his band will play an anniversary concert at the Melbourne Convention Centre, April 12, for those who were close to the dispute in 1998 and those who simply want to revisit a fascinating chapter in MUA history.

''There was some classic nights on the picket line,'' Stewart told Fairfax this week. ''One night there was a big row of wharfies and a big row of cops facing them, it was all getting pretty tense and then it started pissing down rain. We launched into You're Going Home in the Back of a Divvy Van and everyone joined in - the wharfies and the cops all started singing and everyone had a good laugh, it was this really light moment in a tense situation.

''We'd always been a fun band, but we also had a political undercurrent, so we were happy to play for the unions.  Rock 'n' roll is supposed to be unpredictable and dangerous,  so playing on a picket line was something that fitted in with our philosophy and I can honestly say it was one of the most memorable shows I've ever played.''

Another Melburnian who recalls being on the picket line is Father Bob Maguire, who rode his bicycle from his parish at South Melbourne to provide pastoral care to those locked out of their jobs.

''I didn't spend all night there or anything, but I can say the workers out there during that dispute were as peaceful as a chorus of nuns,'' Father Maguire said this week.

''I'm a great believer in solidarity of the working class. They might sound a bit rough to some people but you have to be short, sharp and to the point if there's a bloody girder falling on you.''

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