Meredith Burgmann

Nadia Wheatley

Remembering the Sixties

Radicals

Verity Burgmann

At the height of the building industry boom in the 1970s a remarkable campaign stopped billions of dollars worth of indiscriminate development that was turning Australian cities into concrete jungles. Enraging employers and politicians but delighting many in the wider community, the members of the New South Wales Builders Labourers' Federation risked their jobs in order to preserve buildings, bush and parkland. Green Bans, Red Union documents the development of a union that took a stand on a number of social issues. Apart from the green bans movement, union members also used their industrial power to defend the rights of oppressed groups, such as Aborigines, women and homosexuals. In telling the colourful story that inspired many environmentalists and ordinary citizens - and gave the word 'green' an entirely new meaning - Meredith Burgmann and Verity Burgmann open a window on a period when Australian workers led the world in innovative and stunningly effective forms of environmental protest.

Environmental Activism and the New South Wales Builders Labourers' Federation

Green Bans, Red Union

In this moving, funny and sometimes chilling book, leading Australians open their ASIO files and read what the state's security apparatus said about them. Writers from across the political spectrum including Mark Aarons, Phillip Adams, Nadia Wheatley, Michael Kirby, Peter Cundall, Gary Foley and Anne Summers confront – and in some cases reclaim – their pasts. Reflecting on the interpretations, observations and proclamations that anonymous officials make about your personal life is not easy. Yet we see outrage mixed with humour, not least as ASIO officers got basic information wrong a lot of the time, though many writers have to contend with personal betrayal. Some reflect on the way their political views have – or haven’t – changed. Meredith Burgmann and all those who were spied on have produced an extraordinary book where those being watched look right back.

Meredith Burgmann

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