Ted Bull Memories of the Brunswick Free Speech movement 1933

The following 22 minute excerpt from an interview I recorded with Ted Bull (1914-1997) between 1988 and 1990 recalls Ted's memories and reflections on the Free Speech movement in Brunswick, Melbourne, in 1933. The struggle is commemorated today by a monument in Sydney Road, Brunswick, but the lessons - the need to defend and assert free speech - remain valid.

Ted Bull was arrested on the free speech protests. As he recalls: "You'd get half a dozen words out and you'd be arrested. Not only arrested but the coppers would take you behind the Town Hall and they'd give you a bloody 'doing over' - and a good 'doing over' too".

For overseas listeners, a "stump" in this context refers to a spot where a speaker regularly set up - usually a street corner - to speak to passers-by. Crowds would gather and this was seen as dangerous by the state at a time when communist ideas were gaining support. Also, when Ted refers to "the hook", he means his work as a waterside worker - or 'wharfie' - in the days before widespread mechanisation when much of the work was manual and sacks were carried using a hook. The full interview runs for about 20 hours, based on a whole-of-life approach, and is available in full via the National Library of Australia's on-line catalogue.

Видео Ted Bull Memories of the Brunswick Free Speech movement 1933 канала Barry York