A large cigar is being lit atop an offshore gas platform by a greedy capitalist wearing an Esso top hat. He’s weighing down heavily upon the workers below, who are under the water.
I was invited to paint this large mural at the Longford gas plant picket, which has just passed 90 days in length. The artwork is inspired by the 200 onshore and offshore gas workers who are fighting against a new workplace agreement. The dodgy deal that’s being forced on them cuts wages by 30 percent and wipes out important conditions.
One of the main concerns is a section of the new agreement that would force offshore workers to work a shift rotation of two weeks on and two weeks off, instead of the current one week arrangement. “It’s already hard enough on workers’ families with the current shift arrangements”, said Owen Booth, an offshore worker.
Because the gas plant is located in a part of Victoria renowned for its gusty winds, its owners also want to transfer the costs and risks associated with rough weather to workers. A clause in the new agreement would mean that workers would not be paid for any periods in which the weather prevented active work, though they would be required to remain at the plant.
The workers maintaining a presence outside the gas plant are taking a stand for their own working rights and against the attacks rapidly mounting against the whole working class. I was proud to stand alongside them.

Van Thanh Rudd

A solidarity mural for workers standing up for us all

Since their sacking 18 weeks ago, maintenance workers have kept a protest camp outside their former workplace, the Carlton United Brewery in Abbotsford. For months, they’ve battled Melbourne’s persistently frosty weather and built the site into an impressive symbol of their determination to stick it out until they win.
A few weeks ago union activists let me know that the camp was looking for people to create street art to adorn the shipping containers that had been donated by the Maritime Union of Australia. They thought that murals would help inspire those involved to continue their defiance of the brewery’s aggressive restructuring.
I jumped at the chance and began some sketches straight away. I wanted to display a profit-guzzling CUB boss hiding in a shipping container, while a unionist’s hand pulls back a façade to reveal the bosses’ activity. The workers at the site loved the idea, and enthusiastically supplied all the materials necessary to pull it off.
It’s not very often that you find genuine support for a large public mural that directly depicts the conflict between workers and bosses. “CUB, they’ll hate this mural”, was the kind of laugh coming from several of the sacked CUB workers while I was painting.
As the work was being created, we shared stories of class warfare, and talked about how rare it is in Melbourne to see a mural about workers or unions. Maybe this one will help change that.

CUB ‘will hate this mural’: Melbourne artist talks about his recent work

A public and determined boycott campaign has notched an important win for opponents of mandatory detention. The Sydney Biennale arts festival announced on 7 March that it is cutting ties with Transfield.
The event, promoted as “Australia’s largest and most exciting contemporary visual arts festival”, might seem a world away from the horrors of Australia’s gulags. But it has long been funded by Transfield, a mandatory detention contractor.
In 2012, on the bank of the Yarra River in Melbourne’s CBD, I set fire to an artwork of mine called No Nauru. It was a response to the Australian Labor Party reopening offshore detention facilities and granting $24.5 million to the multinational corporation Transfield to provide services and infrastructure on Nauru.
Last month, Transfield again received a contract, this time worth $1.2 billion, from the Abbott government, to provide “garrison and welfare services” for Nauru and Manus Island refugee detention centres.
The relationship between Transfield and the Biennale prompted arts educator Matthew Kiem to call for a boycott of the event. His open letter, posted on social media in early February, argues that Transfield is profiting from the misery of refugees. “Profits from mandatory detention fund the Biennale”, he wrote.
A Facebook page called Boycott the 19th Biennale of Sydney quickly gained well over a thousand likes. A website of the same name bears the slogan “Boycott Sydney Biennale – Don’t Add Value to Detention – Boycott, Divest, Disrupt”.
One of the aims of the boycott was to convince the 90 artists presenting exhibits to pull out. There was a decent response – more than 30 Biennale artists formed a working group to pressure the directors to sever ties with Transfield.
A protest action in support of the boycott was planned for 24 February. It was to be held at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art – next to the Victorian College of the Arts, where a Biennale promotional event was to occur. However, in the boycott’s first small victory, the promotional event was cancelled. The protesters instead had a meeting to plan further boycott strategies.
At this stage, Biennale directors, however, remain unmoved: “We unanimously believe that our loyalty to the Belgiorno-Nettis family [owners of Transfield] and the hundreds of thousands of people who benefit from the Biennale must override claims over which there is ambiguity”, said the directors in response.
But pressure continued to build. An initial group of five artists withdrew their work, then another four. An installer, Peter Nelson, also resigned. “The relationship between the Biennale and the punitive practice of mandatory detention is a context that I feel I am unable to work within”, he said.
Eventually, the boycott proved effective. “We have listened to the artists who are the heart of the Biennale and have decided to end our partnership with Transfield effective immediately”, read the Biennale organisers statement.
[A public forum, “Artists, Boycotts and Movements”, supported by the Victorian College of the Arts Student Association, is scheduled for 18 March, 1-2pm, Cinema 2, VCA, St Kilda Rd, Melbourne.]

A solidarity mural for workers standing up for us all

CUB ‘will hate this mural’: Melbourne artist talks about his recent work

Sydney arts festival boycott successful

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