Summary

Dave Kerin became active in the anti-Vietnam War and Moratorium movement in 1968 before starting work in the building industry at the end of 1970 when he joined the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF). At that time he was also a member of the Socialist Youth Alliance but later became involved with libertarian left elements in the Communist Party. In the mid 1970s, he attempted to establish an IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) office. In the BLF, he was involved in the Green Ban movement in the 1970s and resistance to the deregistration of the union in the 1980s. In the 2000s, he coordinated the "Union Solidarity" movement which mobilised unionists and community members to set up picket lines and other actions in support of aggrieved workers. He is also part of the Earth-Worker project which mobilises unionists in support of environmental action. He is currently (in 2009) an organiser with the Mining Division of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and is based at Morwell in Victoria and a member of the IWW Melbourne General Membership Branch.

Resources

Pamphlets

• Kerin, Dave, Economic Democracy: Poverty and Price, Environment and Cost, Earth Worker Cooperative, Melbourne, 2010, 13 pp. PDF Details

Sound recordings

• Kerin, Dave; Cleary, John, Earthworker Social Enterprise's First Factory: Workers Leading the Way to a Green Economy., Talk and discussion at the New International Bookshop, Trades Hall, Carlton, on 7 July, 2010 at 6:30pm. Duration: 1 hr 42 min., Reason in Revolt: Source Documents of Australian Radicalism, Melbourne, 7 July, 2010. MP3 PDF Details
• Kerin, Dave; Kuhn, Gabriel., The Return of the One Big Union? Syndicalism and the IWW in Australia and Sweden., Interview with Dave Kerin and Gabriel Kuhn; 46.43 minutes., Reason in Revolt: Source Documents in Australian Radicalism, Melbourne, 27 November 2009. MP3 Details