Ceci Cairns
Ceci Cairns was born in 1944. Her father was “a conscientious objector in the Second World War. … My father probably would have been a Communist, except he had differences with the way the Communists were behaving in Europe, and he never joined the Communist Party.” Rather than the Communist Party, her family “were Labor Party supporters” (interview with Ceci Cairns). Cairns was probably the youngest member of the Melbourne SOS group, with a very young child at the time. She was heavily involved in SOS from early on, from attending the intakes for new national servicemen, to driving draft resisters around, as well as other more mundane activities.
This is how Cairns recalls joining SOS:
Transcript:
Ceci
So in those years, I was quite a young SOS person.
Alex
I think I read somewhere that you were one of the youngest official members of the SOS.
Ceci
Yeah, I think I probably was.
Alex
So obviously you got involved with SOS. Were you particularly concerned with the National Service Act, or with Australia being involved in Vietnam?
Ceci
Well, I was – I came from a family – my father was a conscientious objector in the Second World War. And my family were Labor Party supporters. My father probably would have been a Communist, except he had differences with the way the Communists were behaving in Europe, and he never joined the Communist Party.
But he was – he basically believed in, sort of, socialism, and in peace, and he was totally anti-war, obviously. And he was an official conscientious objector. Which meant you were officially in the army. Bizarrely, he has an army record. But they went off somewhere or other, to a camp, I think it was, and they trained to be nurses. That’s what he did in the Second World War.
And so I come from that sort of background, which I’m still dedicated to, that idea of freedom and peace, and anti-war. I mean, I’m anti the whole idea of armies anyway, I think they should be – I mean, I think the way they’re trained, which is to kill – basically to kill people, they have to be trained to – they have to be brainwashed into thinking the people they kill aren’t actually human beings like them. And so they become monsters without even realising. So perfectly normal people can become terrible people. As we keep finding out about army generals and things, who go wrong.
And so that’s my position. I very deeply feel all that. So when – I remember when I was at school, and I was about seventeen years old, reading then about – in the early days of Vietnam, when America actually was very influential in the politics of Vietnam, and put – I can’t remember the history of all that … So I was interested from an early age in Vietnam, anyway. To do with being at school, I suppose, and what was interesting in that era was, there was a great deal of information out there about what was going on in the world. I think, despite all our media, and despite our flash, flash, flash of information, we actually – there was a deeper understanding of the politics, if you bothered to read it, at that time.
And, of course, over the period, sort of, ten years after that, the papers were full of terrible photographs which illustrated what was happening. And I think everyone who became anti that war learnt a lot from those photographs, which I’m sure everyone says.
So that’s my kind of position. I wasn’t particularly – I mean, I had feminist sensibilities, but I didn’t come at it because I was a feminist. I came at it because I wanted justice for everyone, and justice for the Vietnamese. I wanted justice for the young men who were coerced into being in the army. The cruelty for those young men, putting them in a situation that they had no idea what they were going into, just seemed to me so unjust.
So that was where I was coming from. I wasn’t a – I was a feminist in a sense, but only in a very broad sort of way. So when I realised how much I was – I knew I was on the side of the anti-Vietnam people, and I must have met up with Jeanie [McLean] somewhere, and said, “Hey, I want to join you.” [laughing]
And I loved the way that – her SOS was really focusing on the women who would never have gone to an ALP meeting, or put themselves out in the front in any way. They were just ordinary people who were – would have been very shy of that sort of activity. But they were passionate when they realised what could happen to their sons or their – brothers or relatives, or something. They were the ones I wanted to join, for that reason. I thought it was wonderful that we were working with women who just wanted to express themselves with that.
Note: “Jeanie” is Jean McLean
Cairns recalls accidentally stealing a car, and undertaking more mundane activities:
Transcript
Ceci
I went to meetings, I did everything. And eventually we were harbouring draft resisters, driving them around, having adventures. You know, it was pretty adventurous and funny. Sort of very funny things happened. Like the day I stole a car. Very funny things. I lived in South Melbourne at the time, and when we drove draft resisters around, we tried to get different cars. Because we knew we were being watched and followed, and everything. And how much we knew, I’m not sure, but we just were very careful. So I used to sometimes borrow my grandmother’s Mercedes Benz, or I’d borrow someone else’s car.
Anyway, one day, we ran out of cars, and Jeanie [McLean] said, “Well, look, you’ll find–” gave me a set of keys to a blue Holden, and said, “Look, the car will be parked halfway along your street.” So I walked out of my house, walked halfway along the street, and there was a blue Holden. And it was open. And I thought, oh, that’s a bit peculiar. Anyway, I hopped in, and on the front seat was a packet with fresh, hot chips on it. And I thought, that’s funny. So I ate a chip, and put the key in, drove off. Get to the meeting place, I’ve taken the wrong car. I mean, I’ve stolen a car. So the absolute nightmare was, what if I get caught in a stolen car? [laughing]
Alex
With a draft resister.
Ceci
Yes! So I thought, I’ve just got to get back to that car park, get rid of this car – so I just drove back. By this time, it was about three quarters of an hour later, because by the time we realised what had happened – and where I was living was opposite the South Melbourne football ground. And it was a football day, so there were no car parks anywhere near where I took the car from. I had to park it again about a mile away. And so that was one of the sort of mad sort of adventures that happened. [laughing] Yeah, it’s very funny. But it’s a sort of – breaking the law on all fronts, it was getting a bit too much.
Alex
Were you involved in the more mundane things, like handing out pamphlets and those sorts of things?
Ceci
Oh God, yeah, all the time. Yeah. Absolutely. In fact, that’s what it was. And that’s – I mean, for instance, we used to meet on the library steps, outside the Melbourne Library in Swanston Street. And every – I can’t remember if it was every week or every month. A few of us met there with a sign saying Anti-Vietnam War – Stop The Draft, or whatever it was, Join Us. And we met there week after week after week for I don’t know how long. I mean, it seemed like years. And occasionally someone would come up, you know, we’d meet someone.
But most of the time, we just did it. I learnt how long it takes to – you know, that movement was a movement that – my God, it didn’t build up to the moratorium quickly. It was that kind of drudgery that we – we just did. That gradually built up to the huge moratoriums.
Note: “Jeanie” is Jean McLean
Cairns on attending the Swan St Army Barracks for national service intake:
Transcript:
Alex
And were you involved in the being outside the [Swan St army] barracks for the intakes?
Ceci
Yeah, yeah, that was terribly sad. That was one of the saddest things we did. That – you just – you so often saw these young men, they looked like babies, you know, they were coming in, they were crying a lot of the time. I mean, what we saw was not what you’d think. They came in with their families, and a lot of them had girlfriends, and they were always drinking – you know, the families were trying to get them to drink champagne, or something, to make them feel better.
But often, they looked utterly – many of them – and, of course, they – we just stood there, saying, “You don’t have to go. Join us, and we’ll get you out.” And, of course, no one ever did. Because by that stage, of course, it was impossible for them to realise that there was another option.
It was terribly sad. It was one of the saddest things you ever saw, these boys who didn’t want to do it. You know, they didn’t actually want to. It wasn’t their choice. And they were crying. A lot of them had tears in their eyes, and they looked miserable, and the families were hugging them. It was just horrible.
I mean, there were some who were gung ho, of course – not all of them were like that. But enough of them were like that to make you realise that the common perception was – you never saw that picture in the paper.
Alex
And was that extra encouragement for you to keep doing what you were doing?
Ceci
Interesting, because we did get accused of being anti the soldiers. And our position always was that we’re supporting them. We’re not anti those people who, for whatever reason, go into armies, because we knew that either they want in – you know, these were the foot soldiers. They weren’t the, sort of, officers or the private school kids who went in through the top levels. They were the ones who were going to be bullied, probably.
Yeah. It was just part of the whole story. It was very much part of a story about injustice and unfairness. And, of course, it was the ones who were educated, and who were able to avoid it legally, and stay on at uni, and all that, who were the lucky ones. And who were the – usually more well off, from well off families. But the ordinary young boys who would have been apprentices or something, they were caught up in it.
Cairns on her experience at the Melbourne Cup, with Jean McLean, in 1967:
Transcript:
Alex
Am I right in thinking that it was you with Jean McLean in the Fashions on the Field at the Melbourne Cup?
Ceci
Oh yes, that was another hilarious story. Well, we had a committee, and we were always trying to think up ideas of what to do. And I can’t remember exactly who came up with it at first, but it – someone came up with the idea. I can’t remember who it was. Maybe it was Jeanie [McLean]. And we had marvellous women on the committee, Jo Maclaine-Cross I think was the person – everything that we wore that day was handmade by our committee.
Alex
Wow.
Ceci
They made the dresses, they made the hats. We bought shoes and dyed them orange, I think. And we made the capes, and painted the signs on the back. And the idea was that – we thought no one would take any notice of – I mean, the main thing about it was that we were copying – who was the model from the year before? Famous – not Twiggy. Someone like that, though.
Alex
Yes.
Ceci
Someone quite famous. Who came to the Melbourne Cup and wore a skirt halfway up her thighs, you know, it was quite – longer than a real miniskirt. And she was sort of in the press, and it was a great drama, and everything. And we thought, oh well, we’ll just go a bit shorter, and just go up – you know, up to the – sort of – almost up to the crutch.
So I remember one of the things I had to do was find some stockings we could wear. And in those days, there were no pantyhose. There was one – I’ve searched Melbourne’s pantyhose. Because you had to have pantyhose if you were wearing really short skirts. You couldn’t have suspenders. And I finally found these quite thick, funny old pantyhose that no one would dream of wearing these days. I mean, they looked all right – so that’s what we wore. So that was interesting, you know, pantyhose had barely been invented.
And then we went on thinking we’d be just pretty ordinary in the crowd. But we were hoping that, because we were a bit exotic, wearing matching clothes, that we’d go into some sort of competition. People kept saying, “Oh yes, you know, you’ll make it,” you know.
So we had this mad home-made gear on, and as soon as we stepped out into the Cup place, where you walk around, we started being photographed. And we couldn’t believe it. And everyone was taking our photograph. And we realised we were the only people there with really short skirts. That was why they were photographing us. They were photographing us because we showed our legs, and if you – and the other bizarre thing was that the men – they were all men. At one stage, we found we were – a circle of men were around us, lying on the ground with their cameras, so they could get sexy pictures of whatever. Which, you know, you couldn’t see a thing. But, you know, it was kind of their idea of getting these outrageous pictures. And we just said, “We can’t go on like this. We can’t go on being photographed for this reason. This is bizarre.”
Alex
That’s wonderful.
Ceci
But the other funny thing was, we did think – we thought we were going to be up on some pedestal before we turned our cloaks around, so we never dreamt we’d be turning them around in the crowds. And because there was such a sense of goodwill around, and they were all laughing with us, and thinking we were hysterical, and everything, and we were laughing with them – and we just changed our cloaks around.
And everyone noticed it, and they – and these people came up and said, “Oh, that’s interesting. Good on ya.” Or, “What are you doing?” or – no one abused us, or was rude or unpleasant. That was the most extraordinarily bizarre experience. It was really bizarre.
Alex
That’s really awesome.
Ceci
And, again, we didn’t – I mean, I did – I suppose I felt – I probably did feel afraid. I mean, you felt courageous, you know, you were doing this bizarre thing, you were standing out there, all alone. We had no – we had – I think we had one – Jo Maclaine-Cross, I think, was with us, carrying our handbags for us, so we could pose. It was quite mad. It was quite mad. It was a good experience, and it got the best press of almost anything we did. It was amazing. And when I got home, my – this was before I was a single mother – my mother-in-law rang me up and said, “Oh,” she said, “how dare you call your—” she said, “Thank goodness you’ve called yourself by your maiden name, I would never want the name O’Brian besmirched with your behaviour.” So, you know, that was the worst thing I had, was from my mother-in-law. Which was a bit funny, too.
Note: the woman Cairns is referring to was Jean Shrimpton, who wore a short dress to Derby Say in 1965 (see, for example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_shift_dress_of_Jean_Shrimpton).
Cairns on the importance of SOS
Transcript:
Alex
Did you feel like the women in SOS were coming from a lot of, I guess, different political backgrounds, and those sorts of things? Like, was the conscription issue the only thing that brought them together?
Ceci
Well, it was the thing that brought them together, and it radicalised a lot of people. But you’ve got to start somewhere, you know, and a lot of people did start with, “Oh dear, my son could go to war.” And the more they learnt, and as I was saying, you know, we were being educated about this all the time. And you only had to go a meeting, and you would learn something more.
So women who had no other access to this sort of information, or who wouldn’t have known, necessarily, to even try and find it, learnt a great deal, and in that, became much more politically interested, and much more involved. So women who never thought they might be out on a demonstration would end up in demonstrations. So it was, you know, it was – it happened over several years.
So it wasn’t quick. You know, so there was time for people to learn that they could actually aim for something that they wanted, and work towards that aim. So the aim was very clear. It was to get out of Vietnam and stop conscription. So it was a very clear aim, but, of course, it involved all sorts of politics, and it involved standing on the steps and handing out leaflets to – which was a law, that you weren’t allowed to stand on the post office steps and hand out leaflets. And due to the activities of SOS and lots of other people, that law had to be overturned. So we had little triumphs en route, which was a political lesson for us all.
Many men who helped us. But we worked together as women, mostly. So we did have help, and that was how we saw them. We saw the men, like, people at Monash University, and various people who helped us out
Alex
Do you think that women played a significant role in educating the public about these issues, and eventually bringing Australia to repeal the National Service Act?
Ceci
Oh, I think women were important in all kinds of ways, whether it was just a woman in a family who brought into that family a breath of fresh air about what was going on, and said, “Look, I’m standing up for this,” and whether their husbands said, “No, you can’t,” or whatever, it was a kind of changing dynamic all through.
So I think, in that way – I can’t talk about the women’s movement, because I wasn’t especially involved in that. And there were often differences with the politics of feminism, I think. But my feminism was just straight down the line, “Let’s work together, and—” you know.
But, yes, I think, of course they did. They did, but in all sorts of ways. In being awakened to what could be done. And also that there’s such a marvellous history of women taking to the streets, and, you know, suffragettes and women during the War who stood up and did things. And, you know, I think that being reminded of those past sort of heroines was really helpful.
And Jeanie [McLean] was a marvellous leader. She was fabulously inclusive. She was fabulous at – you know, people would get upset about something, or we’d have members of the committee who were sometimes difficult, and she dealt with that – and we all dealt with it really well, I think. She was a very good leader. I think that was a huge advantage.
Note: “Jeanie” is Jean McLean
Reference:
Cairns, Ceci (10 September 2018). Interview with Alexandra Pierce.