Union Songs
Hogan's Flat
A song by Mark Dreyfus (1998)
They tell of one Port Melbourne man who scabbed in twenty eight,
He never left his bed again, he feared the wharfies' hate.
He listened to his crystal set until he left the town,
But in the street the pickets fell, the coppers shot them down.They signed as scabs in Bourke Street, they signed them off the boats,
As new-come men and foreigners who didn't know the ropes.
We ambushed them at Hogan's Flat, the coppers aimed and fired,
While Hogan's men in Parliament betrayed our trust and lied.The ship owners were scornful, they'd let the wharfies starve,
Between the scabs and licences they squeezed the union hard.
But worse there was to come my lads, if only we could know,
With starving kids and worlds men and no-where else to go.The waterfront was finished, there was no work at all,
The wharfies stood at Hogan's Flat to here the foreman's call.
We stood there in the sleet and rain, so cold you can't believe,
But even those in work could barely get enough to eat.Now Webb Dock is the Battlefront in 1998,
Our victories in the years gone by have fed the bosses' hate.
Now Patricks and the NFF they want to rule this town,
So scabs can work the waterfront and cut our wages down.But wharfies know their history, we've fought this fight before,
'Gainst cops and and scabs and media lies and bosses' crooked laws.
And governments of every sort who starve the workers out,
But Comrades All, our fight is yours - we'll see this struggle out!
Notes
Rodger Smith from the Victorian Trade Union Choir sent me this song and explains its origins" "My local federal member is Mark Dreyfus QC (the current Shadow Attorney-General).
Mark's father was prominent Melbourne musician George Dreyfus.
While much of George's work was within the Conservatorium of Music Melbourne,
he did write the theme music for the ABC series Rush. He also wrote a song for the Victorian Trade Union Choir - "Hogan's Flat". Hogan's Flat was an area on the Melbourne waterfront, from which wharfies were hired on a daily basis - the counterpart area in Sydney was The Hungry Mile.
The name traces from a terrible Labor Premier of Victoria called Hogan (who was quite anti-union). The song recalls an incident in 1928 when police were ordered by their Chief Commissioner to use live ammunition against striking wharfies standing on a picket line. Three were killed and one later died in hospital from the injuries he sustained.
As far as I know, there has been only one other incident of live ammunition being used against strikers (the Rothbury Mine strike and Maurie Mulheron's song about this is already on your website). It is therefore important that more unionists are aware of the terrible incident at Hogan's Flat and I would ask you to post it on your Union Songs & Poems website please.
So it is that 20 years later this song now joins with some 32 songs and poems composed during the 1998 Patrick Dispute in Australia.
In her oral history of the Melbourne waterfront, "Under the Hook", folklorist and historian Wendy Lowenstein writes of the depression:
"The waterfront communities were decimated and dispirited. Children left school to try and earn a few shillings in dead-end factory jobs.
Many single men went on the track, family men desperately sought work of any kind ... postponed marriage plans, tried to avoid having children.
union songs..........a selection by mark gregory