Joan Coxsedge
Joan Coxsedge was born in 1931. She got involved in SOS via the Labor Party, having already been opposed to the Vietnam War and conscription from the very beginning. She was instrumental in having her local Labor branch, in Balwyn, pass a resolution that they should be a draft resistance centre, where “young men could come to us for advice” (interview with Joan Coxsedge). She was heavily involved with all of SOS’ actions, from demonstrations in the city and at the Swan St barracks to blockading a train to protest the arrest of a draft resister, as well as being on the Moratorium Committee.
Coxsedge on joining SOS:
Transcript:
Alex
So I have heard about you because of your involvement with SOS. How early did you get involved with SOS?
Joan
Pretty early in the piece. Yes. And I got on their committee early in the piece.
Alex
How did you hear about them? Do you remember?
Joan
Through the Labor Party.
…
Alex
When did you join the Labor Party?
Joan
About '66, '67, somewhere in the mists of time, just shortly before I joined Save Our Sons.
Alex
Right.
Joan
And I was also in the broad anti war movement, because I was a delegate from the branch to the moratorium movement, as well as Save Our Sons. So I was wearing a couple of hats back then.
…
Alex
So you're already involved from the Labor Party perspective, why did you choose to get involved with SOS as well?
Joan
It seemed to me to give it an added perspective, focusing on conscription, which I thought was good, because the anti war movement was a broad brush, taking in all sorts of people, and women who'd never ever been involved in anything else before - many of them had husbands who might have even supported the war - but they could then enter a space where they were comfortable. You know, and I think the important part was that they could operate at whatever level they wanted, without being judged, you know, that you had to do this or that. And that was good. I was working at the time, fortunately, I think it was in the city at the time I was working. So I could go to most of their lunchtime meetings, but it was a bit hard for other people, other women to go and I did get the feeling - I mean, I think basically, it was a middle class group. I think so. There weren't very many working class women in it, because of the difficulties they had of being able to go to things. But I think it did provide a niche for many women, you know, to just operate and feel comfortable and get away from sons and husbands that might have been quite hostile towards them as it can happen. "How dare you?"
Alex
And do you think it fulfilled that purpose?
Joan
I think it did. I think it did quite well on that. And I mean, out of that there were people who were quite happy just to go to meetings, once a month and do all - and fundraisers and all sorts of things. There were different levels you could operate and there was a more radical level, you know, but it was also very important that we took part in the bigger actions of the broader movement. And so we were important part of that too, you know, and I think you made friends there that, you know, survived.
Coxsedge on handing out leaflets, attending the Swan St intake, and protesting at a Billy Graham crusade:
Transcript:
Joan
Well, I've got here, you know, we wrote letters, of course, we organised petitions and fundraisers, we held lunchtime rallies in Melbourne's former city square - that's next door to the town hall in Collins Street, which is now God knows what. We used to walk around and around holding placards looking very respectable, which used to irritate me a little bit, because some of the women even had hats, and I thought 'oh good God you can carry that one too far', you know, but anyway...
Alex
I think I read somewhere about - was it Irene Miller was saying something about hats and gloves so that they'd look – maybe it wasn't Irene who said that, somebody else said something about, put your hats and gloves on so we look respectable.
Joan
Somebody did say that; I wasn't into hats and gloves, so I just walked around as I was. But anyway, and you did get a lot of abuse - you'd get - it was incredible - you'd get some of these well-dressed men in their business suits coming up and saying you should be crucified. This was Easter time. I thought, Oh my God, that's not very nice, you know, and you just kept walking and marching. But that was the level of animosity in the early stages. Now sure that mellowed, but in the early stages God help us it was, you know, you just didn't know what you were likely to get. And one of the things I disliked more than anything was induction period, at the Swan Street barracks. We used to go get up at the crack of dawn and go there with our placards. And the families were celebrating with champagne for their sons to go off to fight in Vietnam. And quite honestly, the atmosphere was just so bad. And we'd be rolling up and singing a different song. And we were not popular. We were not popular. I hated those - hated those mornings.
Alex
What made you keep doing them? If you hated them?
Joan
God knows; you felt you should, you know, but I can't say I enjoyed them. I didn't. Because you know, you had to get up at the crack of dawn. That's bad enough, but then having to drive there and get abused is worse. One of the things that I have never forgotten - you might have heard about this - was a demonstration against Billy Graham. God, well, it was only a handful of us that turned up, most of them wouldn't have a bar - there was a hard core of us if you like - we were, I think that you have to admit there was a hardcore, and I was in that, of course. And he had a crusade held at the Myer Music Bowl. And we thought well, he was very close to Richard Nixon, very pro war. Fair target. We'll have a go. And then of course to do that we met in St Kilda Road. I remember that, feeling fairly apprehensive. And we had our placards, and we marched - and they're all praying or doing something, I can't remember really, but I think they were all praying. He was up there on the stage going for his life, as Billy Graham does, because I can't stand the man but anyway, that's beside the point. We walked up behind him and held up our placards. Nobody said a word. Not a sound was said. He ignored us completely, you could have heard a pin drop. And we were just holding up these things behind him. He didn't move a muscle, not a muscle. And so we just stood there for a while. And then we quietly filed out again, and stood there at the back and waited till they all came out.
Note: Billy Graham was an American Christian preacher. His ‘crusades’ were held all over the world as ways to tell people about Christianity. Graham was a confidante of American president Richard Nixon, and was generally seen to be supportive of the Vietnam War due to his anti-communist stance (see https://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2018/02/billy-grahams-vietnam-grant-wacker.html for a good overview of the complexities of his attitudes).
Coxsedge on being part of the Fairlea Five, and the impact of SOS:
Transcript:
Alex
Did you feel like your actions were effective, that they had an impact?
Joan
I think so, and I think certainly when we went to jail it was a very effective thing. It upset people profoundly that five women with all these children were sent to jail. That was a very, very important, if you like, watershed - was a very important watershed in the whole anti war movement. That upset them. Five women, you had Rene with 10 bloody kids or something, had a headstart. I think Jo Maclaine-Cross had five. Chris Cathie had four, I had three and Jean had two. So we - between the lot of us, there were a lot of children, a lot of children. And the anti war movement came behind us and the trade union movement did, and very effective here. And I think there were a few stoppages at the waterfront over that.
Alex
So I guess you got so a lot of publicity out of that.
Joan
A lot of publicity. And that was luck, too, because it was held... The court case came up on the Thursday before Easter. And it dragged on and on and on. And we were at the magistrate's court waiting for the damn thing to come on. And nothing was happening. And it didn't come on until about four o'clock in the afternoon before Easter. And of course, all the media had gone, except for one ABC journalist, except for one. And he was there and he reported it. And that's when it got out. Now, it was sheer luck, because he could have gone and then - I don't know, it would have got out but not like it did, it ended up on the, you know, seven o'clock news. And that really helped and the others picked up on it. And away it went.
Alex
You said that the reaction that you got from people changed from early in the war to later in the war. Do you think that that was your actions? Or was that increasing knowledge within the public?
Joan
I think it was a bit of everything. I think it was increasing knowledge. I don't think we can lay claim to all of it. And of course the courage of the Vietnamese themselves, never take it away from what they did; we were just there, you know. But yes, it would have been the information coming through and people could see, you know, terrible, terrible things happening there. And the way it was affecting the soldiers here, they were traumatised too, definitely. And the government played a shocking role. Terrible role
Reference:
Coxsedge, Joan (27 November 2018). Interview with Alexandra Pierce