Abstract
Claire Kelly was an influential member of the central committee of the VSTA from 1975 until 1981, gaining the position of vice-president in that year at the age of twenty-nine years. Continue reading
Abstract
The Barrier Industrial Council (BIC) is one of the best known examples of a powerful union peak body in Australia. Upon its establishment in the early 1920s, it oversaw a particular form of working class mobilisation and, for many years, exercised something like a hegemony both for and over its affiliates. Continue reading
Abstract
Peak unions occupy a constantly moving point of intersection between two competing sets of forces: those of organisational unity and class solidarity and the forces of fragmentation and sectionalism. We suggest that for any group of unions to form a peak body a state of internal equilibrium of power balance must exist between the unions concerned. Continue reading
Abstract
Patrick Joseph Lynch (1867-1944) emigrated from Ireland to Australia as a nineteen-year-old. He subsequently served as a senator representing WA in the Federal Parliament (1906-38), the last six years as President. Unusually for an Irish Catholic in the Labor Party at this time, he adopted a pro-conscription stance in 1916-17. Continue reading
Abstract
This paper examines beliefs – where any exist – about the Split and the Santamaria Movement. It concludes that distorted perceptions were created at the time of the Split and have been nurtured ever since. Continue reading
Abstract
Labour and social historians alike have rarely considered the role of company-based recreation in Australian industry. As a result many issues are left unexamined, issues that should lead to a greater understanding of class relations, working class culture and labour management strategies. Continue reading
Abstract
This paper investigates the origins, roles and destinies of the Rockhampton Trades and Labour Council and its ephemeral predecessors over the past century. Continue reading
Abstract
The Eveleigh railway workshops in Sydney were not just a geographic location in which specific industrial activities occurred, but also a political space in which power was exercised by the state, bureaucratic authority, and also through industrial and political mobilisation. Continue reading
Abstract
In the 1950s stevedoring took over from coalmining as the strategic flashpoint in national industrial relations. Continue reading
Abstract
When labour activist Edna Ryan was widowed at the age of 53 in 1958, she became the family breadwinner. She quickly found that while pay and conditions for all workers were negotiated on a triennial basis between unions and management, whereby men had access to a career path and regular pay increases, no such provisions existed for women. Continue reading
Introduction
With over 1,300 titles, the film archive of the Österreichisches Produktivitäts-Zentrum (Austrian Productivity Center) presents a resource which is not only unique in Europe but also extremely informative for contemporary history. Continue reading
Abstract
In the first two decades of the twentieth century, the proportion of women working as domestic servants in Australia was steadily decreasing. Continue reading
Abstract
Australian trade union membership grew dramatically in the period from 1900 to 1914. While there is recognition that compulsory arbitration may have played an important role, there are a range of explanatory factors that may explain the growth. Studies of union growth also neglect the workplace. Through an analysis of the Lithgow Ironworks this paper hopes to broaden the debate about union growth. Continue reading
Abstract
Family Day Care began in Australia, in the early 1970s, as an inexpensive and flexible means of providing community childcare places in private homes with authorised care-providers, then known as “day care mothers.” Continue reading
Abstract
This paper argues that adopting the Australian Labor Federation model, with the political and industrial wings in one organisation, made the labour movement in Western Australia significantly different from its counterparts in the eastern states of Australia. Continue reading
Abstract
This paper traces the history of the major unions covering Australian academic staff from the registration of the Federation of Australian University Staff and the Union of Australian College Academics in the federal industrial jurisdiction in the mid-1980s to the formation of the National Tertiary Education Union as an “industry” union incorporating general staff in 1983. Continue reading
Abstract
European miners in the colonial and post-Federation period worked in one of three ways: independently on their own account, in co-operative groups, or as wage employees for companies or syndicates. Continue reading
Abstract
In July 1937 Japan embarked on a full-scale invasion of China and by October the war zone extended to the eastern seaboard and to Canton. Continue reading
When a society shows an attitude of intolerance and malice towards part of the organic process of its cultural development, it is acting malevolently towards the whole culture as well as towards the part of the organism…it does not merit a living culture.1 Continue reading
Abstract
John Dwyer (1856-1934) was a London docks foreman who emigrated to Australia in 1888. Dwyer embarked upon a quest for recognition—recognition of his rights as a worker and his identity as an individual. Continue reading