The NSW Builders Labourers Federation and Aboriginal rights activism in the 1960s
This webinar is the first in the Australian Centre's 2025 Critical Public Conversations series: Settler Nationalism and its Discontents.
The NSW Builders Labourers Federation played a central role in the fight for equality, Aboriginal self-determination and land rights in the 1960s. In this webinar, Padraic Gibson, an historian and socialist activist, analysed the relationship between the socialist construction workers who successfully challenged for the leadership of the BLF from the late 1950s and growing coordination amongst Aboriginal activists and supporters in Sydney. BLF support for Aboriginal rights was part of a broader, dynamic movement of solidarity amongst trade unionists that effectively pushed back the draconian power of the NSW Aborigines Welfare Board throughout the 1960s.
At the centre of this struggle was Ray Peckham, a Wiradjuri man from Dubbo, who was an active Builders’ Labourer, a communist and a leader of his people. We are privileged that Uncle Ray was able to join this seminar and make a brief contribution at the end, highlighting the importance of this history for the working-class movement. Uncle Ray died three weeks later, on June 6 in Dubbo at age 95, leaving an incredible legacy of progressive change and important lessons for future struggles. We honour this legacy and offer condolences to his family and friends.
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Padraic would like to make one correction to the presentation. He stated that Pete Thomas was BLF Secretary during the period of corrupt, right-wing leadership of the BLF in the 1950s. The name of the Secretary was actually Fred Thomas. Pete Thomas was a journalist who worked for the Tribune newspaper and wrote the book “Taming the Concrete Jungle: The Builders’ Labourers Story” about the rise of the left within the union.
PRESENTER
Padraic Gibson is a post-doctoral fellow at the Jumbunna Institute, University of Technology Sydney. He is an historian focussed on social movements, particularly the Australian labour movement and struggles for Aboriginal rights. Padraic is an active socialist and co-editor of the Solidarity magazine.
The presenter has granted permission for this recording to be used for personal viewing and educational purposes.