Anti-war bond in history remembered

In mid-October 1937, a total of 36 Chinese crew members of the SS Silksworth refused to work and walked off the British-built vessel, which was loading supplies at Newcastle in Australia's New South Wales state.

The ship was headed for a Japanese-controlled Chinese port — it was just months after Japan's full-scale invasion of China and after news about the atrocities committed by the invaders spread rapidly across the world.

"The crew of the Silksworth had become aware of the Japanese invasion of their homeland during the process of the ship loading products … Upon arriving to load fuel at Newcastle for the journey, the crew decided to desert the ship," Leigh Shears, secretary of Hunter Workers, the overall representative body that acts on behalf of all affiliated unions in the Hunter region of New South Wales, told China Daily.

Shears was recalling what became known as the Silksworth Dispute — a major event that highlights the anti-war ties between the Chinese and Australian communities, with those bonds gaining renewed significance amid this year's 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and the World Anti-Fascist War.

Shears, whose organization was formerly known as the Newcastle Trades Hall Council, or NTHC, said that the Communist Party of Australia was established in 1920, and with the Great Depression of the 1930s, there were conditions then "for a large number of people to look for an alternative to capitalism and to oppose fascism".

Shears said the council had several communist party members in its leadership, and that its delegates voted unanimously to support the Silksworth crew members, who were liable for arrest and imprisonment for their protest.

"The support for the crew included food and board, protecting them, (and) representing them," he said.

The main reason the NTHC chose to support the Chinese seamen at that time was the awareness of the problems of capitalism on a global scale and the looming dangers of fascism that had radicalized many in the workforce, including in Newcastle. It was simply a question of solidarity with fellow workers in their time of need, Shears said.

The episode became part of the local history of Newcastle's labor movement, where unions supported the Chinese crew members until they were able to return home.

Act of solidarity

Yu Tao, associate professor in Chinese studies at the University of Western Australia, told China Daily that the dispute brought together Chinese seafarers, Australian trade unionists and sections of the labor movement "in an act of solidarity that transcended nationality".

"In retrospect, the episode foreshadowed the kind of people-to-people connections that would later underpin Australia-China relations since the 1970s: ties not merely driven by governments or diplomacy," he said.

"Remembering such moments is valuable not for nostalgia, but because they remind us that mutual understanding has often begun from the ground up — among workers, communities, and ordinary citizens — rather than through grand geopolitical gestures," Tao said.

In an era when bilateral relations between many countries — including Australia and China — are again influenced by complexity and rivalry, reflecting on these early solidarities can help restore a sense of historical depth and moral subtlety, Tao said.

Christian Raymond, a public servant and a member of the Communist Party of Australia, told China Daily that the story of the workers' action resonated with him.

"It shows a practical example of international solidarity … to expose the hostile efforts by fascism at the time," he said.

Raymond added that revisiting the seamen's stance and the support for them was also important at a time of international tensions and other global challenges to the hard-won peace.

"It holds enormous significance," he said. "It really should highlight that Australia has stood in support of the Chinese people's struggle in the past and Australians have worked together side by side with the Chinese people."

The loss and destruction of so many people's lives that happened in turning back fascism in World War II and the lead-up to it should never be forgotten, Shears from the union group Hunter Workers said.

"Both the Chinese and the Australian people have every reason not to forget. There are a number of very worrying things developing in parts of the world at the moment. We need a strong peace movement, and strong advocacy for it," he said.

"Friendship between nations, including between China and Australia, is a crucial part of the future. The ties that bind us — peace, friendship, solidarity, respect and prosperity — will always be our shared values with the working people of the world," Shears said.