Greetings from Solidarity Park
Booloo, Perth, Western Australia, unceded lands of the Whadjuk Nyoongar people
In 1997, in response to anti-union legislation, 30,000 unionists marched on Western Australian Parliament. They were ignored.
On May Day, directly across the road from Parliament (AKA "Bullshit Castle"), a site was pegged and legally claimed by unionists using the Mining Act. A 24-hour-a-day six-month long occupation took place.
A caravan ("The Worker's Embassy") came to be surrounded by tents, vegetable gardens, installations, a campfire, pergolas, a sandpit, barbeques, a fountain, paving stones, a rotation of artistic performances, a memorial, and a live-in organizer. The occupation was just one of many tactics deployed in the campaign.
The anti-union laws were eventually repealed and the site's structures made permanent. The site is not just historic though, it's alive. And we out to keep it overflowing with our movements.
This CPH poster printed at the worker-owned and union-run Community Printers, Santa Cruz, CA.
This is #186 in the Celebrate People’s History Poster Series.
