PERTH FREEDOM FIGHTERS

Dougherty was regarded even by his enemies as a very effective trade union leader, and he built the AWU up to be largest and wealthiest union in Australia, with 180,000 members in the 1950s. He helped to make Australian shearers the highest paid in the world. The AWU's industrial muscle kept Communist influence out of the union and made both employers and other unions wary of antagonising the AWU. Dougherty stated in 1954 that "The Australian Workers Union bars communists from admission." Tom Dougherty in the same interview proclaimed that the Union also bars "Asiatics and Kanakas from membership." highlighting his long-term advocacy for the White Australia Policy; in the same article he referred to the Australian Workers Union as the 'spearhead' of the 'White Australia Forces' which sought to the repatriation of coloured labourers. Dougherty argued that the Communist Party's interest in ending the White Australia Policy was in 'conformity' with instructions from the Communist International; further he tabled a motion in the Union's executive council directing the union to oppose "attempts being made by a strange combination of certain wealthy employing interests and the Communist Party to secure the free entry of coloured and Asiatic labour into Australia."