AUSTRALIA: The Governor General's Coup d'Etat

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In days when monarch ruled as well as reigned, sacking a Prime Minister was a well-exercised royal prerogative. Things are supposed to be different nowadays—at least within the British Commonwealth—but it did not seem so in Australia last week. There the personal representative of Queen Elizabeth II, Governor General Sir John Kerr, seemingly seized with the spirit of George III, fired Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, leader of the Labor Party, and installed Opposition Leader Malcolm Fraser as head of a caretaker government. Invoking constitutionally questionable powers never before exercised in Australia, the Governor General also dissolved Parliament and proclaimed new elections for Australia's House and Senate on Dec. 13. From one end of the continent to the other, the public was stunned—and Whitlam's Labor Party supporters were outraged. In Canberra, the federal capital, Kerr's action was being assailed as a "legal coup d'etat" that could trigger the most bitter election campaign in Australian history.

As word of Whitlam's ouster spread through Canberra, a crowd of his sympathizers gathered in front of Parliament House chanting: "Shame, Fraser, shame!" and "We want Gough!" Responding to their cries, Whitlam, whose election in 1972 had ended 23 years of rule by conservative parties, emerged to greet the demonstrators and lead them in a chorus of Solidarity Forever, international unionism's anthem. In Melbourne, hundreds of protesters stormed the headquarters of Fraser's Liberal Party, stoned it, and smashed its windows. Melbourne union leaders proclaimed Friday "Stop the State Day," calling on 500,000 workers to strike for four hours and attend a pro-Whitlam rally.

Soaring Shores. Sporadic strikes closed slaughterhouses, steelworks, wharves and construction sites across Australia. When Fraser and his Cabinet arrived at Government House to be sworn in, they came in private cars; government drivers had stopped work to demonstrate for Labor. Warned John Halfpenny, militant secretary of the metalworkers union: "We do not accept Fraser as Prime Minister. It is a dictatorship, and we will not cooperate with it." Bob Hawke, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, however, urged workers to remain calm. At week's end, nonetheless, police tightened security around Fraser after he had received several anonymous threats on his life.

Not all of Australia was behind the deposed Prime Minister. In the trading pits of the stock exchanges, word of Whitlam's ouster was greeted with ear-splitting cheers and a 17-point jump in the Sydney Stock Exchange's index of shares, bringing it to a high for the year. In Brisbane, a woman telephoned a radio station to stress that "for all those in the streets, there are many more in their homes quietly celebrating Whitlam's departure."