Betrayed

A film exposing the Cold War against seafarers in Canada to the 2002 battle of the Yarra in Port Pirie

It was 1949. Canadian seamen had just returned from war. Many had not. All too many had died for their country. But unlike their fellow seafarers in the navy there was no welcome on their return. Just another war to fight. The Cold War. And this time they were the enemy.

Elaine Briere’s film Betrayed tells how Canadian shipowners joined forces with the government and recruited an army of thugs from across the border to wage war on the Canadian seafarers.

It was a war that escalated from fist fights, baseball bats and bicycle chains, into a world war against maritime workers, employing gunboats, the military, the air force and real bullets. Some seafarers died in the struggle.

A key player in this war against workers was none other than Canadian Steamship Lines, the same CSL that took on the Maritime Union in Port Pirie in 2002 — 53 years after the Canadian Seamen’s Union was crushed.

No maritime worker, indeed no worker, should miss this film.

Painstakingly researched, the film documents the merchant marine at war, the union’s fight to get seafarers better conditions, the bloody battles around the coast, as well as the solidarity action in Australian and other world ports. Personal recollections of those who survived the battle are interwoven with graphic archival footage and newsreel of the times.

It also documents the world fire sale of national flag shipping and the rise of Flags of Convenience, the devastating impact they have on the world’s marine life and the brutal exploitation of third world seafarers who crew them.

Organised labour grew after the war and the CSU was one of a number of trail blazing unions. Against the odds the union won a shorter working week and better cabin conditions for its members in 1947.

The government and the shipowners retaliated by labelling the union Red. Hundreds of world unions took action in support of their comrades. Sixty per cent of worldwide shipping was affected.

It was the biggest international strike of the 20^th century.

The story of the Yarra is also told in Betrayed, with news footage and in an interview National Secretary Paddy Crumlin.

More information: Betrayed

The Maritime Union helped fund the making of Betrayed and in return the filmmaker has provided copies of the film for $20. It is available in DVD and VHS formats. Contact: muano@mua.org.au