The Dismissal from Below

This 'history from below' explores the crisis of the blocking of supply, and then the dismissal itself, from the point of view of popular protest and reaction, union campaigns, political mobilisations, and so forth. Millions of words have been written about the dismissal of the Whitlam Government on 11 November 1975. Almost all have told that story via an account of the major players – politicians, judges, the Governor-General and the Palace – and in relation to constitutional law, parliamentary convention and high politics. Accounts of the Dismissal 'from below' – for instance, the strike, march, demonstration or meeting – have appeared but are less common. This paper seeks to recapture the Dismissal as an event that engaged the emotions and

commitments of 'ordinary Australians' – on both sides of the controversy – and to explore its role in mobilising social movement, interest group and political protest (and affirmation). Its aim is to recover the Dismissal, and the anti-Kerr protests that extended through to 1976, less as unique constitutional event, than as an emblematic and supremely important example of the wider political mobilisations characteristic of Australia in the 1970s.