On this day, 24 September 1945, dockworkers in Brisbane, Australia launched a “black” ban on Dutch ships transporting materials to aid the invasion of the newly-independent Indonesia by the Netherlands. The previous evening, Indonesian seamen refused to take the vessels to sea, then approached the Waterside Workers Federation for support. A mass meeting of 1,200 dockers then agreed on the ban.
Despite the racist white Australia policy being in place, unions of engineers, carpenters, boilermakers, ironworkers, plumbers, transport workers, seamen, meat industry workers and many others all agreed to impose a ban on work involving six ships: the Minvak Tanah, Van Outhorn, Khoem Hoea, Cawra and the Van Heutsz. Workers in other port cities like Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle also backed the ban, in solidarity with the struggle against Dutch colonialism. Eventually up to over 550 ships were grounded by the ban.
The stranded vessels became known as the Black Armada, and were held up until 1949, when the Netherlands was eventually forced to acknowledge Indonesian independence. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2089834031201736/?type=3