By Iain McIntyre.
Eviction resistance, which had begun in Brunswick with a successful protest in 1930, continued during 1931 and 1932. These actions drew large numbers and one in Larnoo Avenue in Brunswick West saw 1000 people force a Bailiff to sign an agreement stating that “he would not act in such a capacity again for the term of his natural life.” He was eventually rescued by the police, but refused to travel back to the city by tram unescorted.
Although none of them were prepared to admit it at the time this kind of action forced a number of landlords to cut better deals with their unemployed tenants. Noel Counihan recalled in Wendy Lowenstein’s oral history of the Depression Weevils In The Flour that Brunswick activists would call demonstrations which took “place at the estate agents office. The agent who’d issued the eviction order on behalf of the landlord would be asked to receive a deputation. As a rule he tried to avoid it but he couldn’t. If you had several hundred people outside and six to a dozen of them came into your office you simply had to talk. So it was often put to him that it was very much in his interests and in the interests of his office if he rang the landlord and asked him to call of the eviction and of course he often did. This was a display of force. We stood there until he did.”
A similar type of action saw a Brunswick landlord HD Evans complain to the Minister in Charge of Sustenance that his own home had been wrecked in July 1931 following a threat made by a group of 500 at his office. According to the local paper such pressure saw a local councilor and member of the Ladies Benevolent Society back off from evicting locals the following year.
One of the biggest mobilizations of the era saw a massive protest held in Charles street during March 1932 when thousands marched from all over Melbourne to defend a household from eviction. According to the Brunswick and Coburg Gazette “From early morning men marched to the place from numerous suburbs, the first detachments arrived as early as 5.30am. Hundreds marched four abreast from Preston and some came from a place as distant as Williamstown. All day long the main thoroughfare was blocked by a seething mass humanity.” Unsurprsingly the police and bailiff declined to appear and the crowds were entertained by street speakers before dwindling away in the evening.
In 1931 a political squad had been set up to deal with such disturbances, but when they failed to deter anti-eviction action the conservative Argyle government realised it would have to give some ground. Fearful of anti-eviction sentiment turning to other issues it introduced a form of rent assistance in 1932. Although a large number of evictions continued to take place this victory took much of wind out of the militant’s sails. The new system also allowed the police to keep a closer eye on troublemakers as it was administered through local police stations who kept Special Branch apprised of upcoming evictions.
Although diminished, a role for unemployed organizations continued as people could only claim the eight shillings rent assistance a week after they had been evicted. With the help of unemployed organisations a number of deals were worked out with landlords in which residents agreed to be evicted and swap houses with others in order to access the benefit. Given that the average rent in Brunswick was 12 shillings a week the unemployed were still only able to rent the most substandard properties. As a result agitation against slum housing became a major issue in the second half of the decade.