Film tells the story of Pig Iron Bob
Print Edition
A FAMOUS protest by Australian union workers against Japanese atrocities to the Chinese people has become the topic of a newly released Australian documentary.
“The Dalfram Dispute, 1938: Pig Iron Bob” tells the story of a group of Australian wharf workers who refused to load pig iron on board the steamship Dalfram which was bound for Kobe in Japan because the materials were being used to make weapons used in Japan’s war against China.
The incident led to a nine-week workers lockout and climaxed when the then Australian prime minister Robert Menzies came to the Wollongong port, south of Sydney, to sort out the strike. When Menzies arrived, protesters yelled out: “Pig Iron Bob,” and the term became his nickname.
Associate producer and Australian union leader Arthur Rorris said the story reflects a bond between the Australian and Chinese people.
“There was the Chinese people suffering unimaginable suffering, acts of inhumanity and a community on the other side of the world, and the maritime workers of Port Kembla who took those courageous steps in standing themselves in the way, literally, being used to build an imperialist war machine,” he said.
Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said the people of his city played a major role in highlighting the atrocities committed by the Japanese in the late 1930s.
“Back in 1938 the people had compassionate concern for the people caught up in the dreadful situation where Japan invaded China,” he said.
There are plans for a China screening in September.
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