Victorian Trades Hall Council. The voice of Victorian workers since 1856.

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Stand Up!

Poem by Sally Stein (Anna Stewart Memorial Participant October 2008)

Stand Up!

Striven, strove over burning dates
gritty, graven marchers, mates
with ever-after placards
punctuating airs and minds.
 
Reminisce, the bluestone begs,
encounter, says the list of men,
consider, says unsighted marshland,
what they did for you back when.
 
The women with their nimble fingers
- our hats are off to them -
displaying public issue of gender
that to this day small minds offend.
 
A force of kind constituency
as stalwart as a winter bear
- our stewards and our industrial
representatives, our working politic -
 
Stand up, all who benefit of
Australia's gutsy partisanship
for workers everywhere
to have it fair
 
Stand up!