Platon: Adelaide's Greek Workers' League

Abstract

The year 2007 marks fifty years from the formation of Adelaide’s Greek-Australian workers’ league, Platon. Drawing on the record of the league’s inaugural meeting we offer a snapshot of the hopes and aspirations of the Greek-Australians who identified “the problems of migrant workers”, namely “language, unemployment and a different lifestyle” as a central neglected social issue within Adelaide’s organised community. Through a discussion of the early formative years we argue, firstly, that in close collaboration with Democritus and Atlas, the older established Greek-Australian workers’ leagues of Melbourne and Sydney, Platon counter-posed an alternative to the dominant vision of migrant and ethnic community life which it based on the principles of mutual aid and collective self-determination. Secondly, we illustrate the role that Platon played in the establishment of strong links with the wider Australian labour and social movements.