Pig Iron Bob dead at last : obscene imperialist rites for militarist, witch-hunter : only the ruling class mourns its dead hero / by Chips Mackinolty
- Bib ID:
- 7830241
- Format:
- Picture
- Author:
- Mackinolty, Chips, artist
- Online Version:
- National Library of Australia digitised item. POSTER 2024-217 copy
- Description:
-
- [Sydney, N.S.W.] : [Earthworks Poster Collective], [1978]
- 1 poster : colour ; 76 x 52 cm
- Summary:
-
Poster features black and white photographic screenprint of Sir Robert Menzies on a background of text relating to Menzies political career. The full main text wording printed in black, red and white reads 'Obscene imperialist rites for militarist, witch-hunter / Pig Iron Bob / dead at last / Only the ruling class / mourns its dead hero'. -https://ma.as/365418, viewed September 2018.
- Biography/History:
-
Robert Menzies became known as "Pig Iron Bob" in a 1938-1939 industrial dispute with waterside workers at Port Kembla. Supported by the local Chinese community, the wharfies refused to load scrap iron onto a ship called the Dalfram when they learned the pig iron was being sold to Japan, and, they believed, would be used to make weapons to be deployed against the Chinese, as demonstrated the Rape of Nanking in late 1937 (and ultimately against Australia). On 11 January 1939, then Attorney General Robert Menzies came to Wollongong to sort out the dispute. He confronted an angry crowd, where (according to Ted Roach, Secretary of the South Coast Branch of the Waterside Workers' Federation) for the first time, Mrs Gwendoline Croft, a member of the union's women's relief committee, called out "Pig Iron Bob," a nickname that dogged Menzies for the rest of his career. The name was subsequently picked up by others, notably Stan Moran, a well-known wharfie and communist orator, who thought he had used it first, if not most often, but in 1993 conceded it was a long time ago. -Edward C. Roach, "Menzies and Pig Iron for Japan," Illawarra Unity - Journal of the Illawarra Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, 1(1), 1996, 25-34; Tony Stephens, "'Pig Iron' memories bob up," Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday, 17 July 1993, page 9; The Dalfram Dispute 1938: Pig Iron Bob (2015; director, Sandra Pires).
- Notes:
-
- Caption title.
- Attribution and statement of responsibility from acquisitions documentation. Earthworks Poster Collective logo appears bottom left.
- POSTER 2024-217 copy Also available online https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-737623350
- Subject:
- Other authors/contributors:
- Earthworks Poster Collective, issuing body
- Also Titled:
- Obscene imperialist rites for militarist, witch-hunter : Pig Iron Bob dead at last : only the ruling class mourns its dead hero
- Terms of Use:
- Copyright restrictions may apply.
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
You may copy under some circumstances, for example you may copy a portion for research or study. Order a copy through Copies Direct to the extent allowed under fair dealing. Contact us for further information about copying.
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Artistic
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 1978
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