Home

Welcome to the Canberra Region Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History.

The ASSLH aims to encourage the study, teaching and research of labour history and to encourage the preservation of labour archives.

This website was designed by Webtrax with the assistance of the Bede Nairn Fund. It aims to present a selection of articles and publications that can easily be accessed by students, teachers and others wanting to know more about labour history and politics.

The ASSLH encourages open debate on questions relating to labour history and politics. The articles published on this website do not necessarily reflect the views of the ASSLH and its officers. New contributions welcome. Links to other websites do not necessarily imply an endorsement of the content of those websites.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vale Les Louis

L.J. (Les) Louis (1929–2025) died peacefully in Canberra on Sunday 19 January, at the age of ninety-five. Les was a North Queensland canecutter in his early working life before he put himself through matriculation and study at the Queensland Teachers College (now QUT) and the University of Melbourne. A Master of Arts thesis at Melbourne led to the publication by the Australian National University Press, in 1968, of Trade Unions and the Depression: A Study of Victoria, 1930–1932. Here, Les displayed the same meticulous scholarship that would figure in all his work over the years. He was helped and mentored by A.W. Martin, who remained a good friend. Also in 1968, he edited, with Ian Turner, The Depression of the 1930s for the Melbourne publisher Cassell, a collection of documents and commentaries that was widely used in schools and universities.

Les spent some time at Warwick University (where he encountered E.P. Thompson at the height of his fame) and he taught at Monash and for a year at the ANU before taking up an appointment at the Canberra College of Advanced Education, now the University of Canberra, in its formative years of the early 1970s. Les demanded high standards of his students, as he always did of himself. He retired as Associate Professor from the University of Canberra in 1993 so he could better pursue his burgeoning research on Australian cold war history.

For almost 20 years, his regular Cold War Dossier served as a remarkable work of scholarship in its own right. A newsletter about cold war archives, research and scholarship – in Australia and around the world – it was much more than that: the Dossier also was a focus for a vibrant community of Australian cold war scholars working at a time when archives were opening around the world and revisionist histories were in full flight. Les was a fixture at the Australian Archives, later the National Archives of Australia, where he did much to open the archival record to scholarly scrutiny. A steady stream of deeply researched articles on Australian cold war history culminated in the ground-breaking Menzies’ Cold War: A Reinterpretation (2001), which brought together many of his findings. A member of the Communist Party of Australia as a young man, Les remained committed to Marxism to the end, with his cold war scholarship laying stress on the state as a repressive apparatus serving the interests of capital. To be accused of ‘a cardinal historiographical sin’ by Les in a seminar could be an ordeal for the uninitiated, but he invariably had a point. Les was, over the years, a generous and loyal mentor and friend to several younger historians whose efforts he generously encouraged. Our sympathies with Les’s wife Nina and his family.

Frank Bongiorno

(This obituary was originally published in theNewsletter of the Australian Historical Association and is reprinted with permission of the author). 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COMING EVENTS

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are you financial?

As we’ve started a new financial year we are also opening membership renewals for 2024-25.
Our membership fee remains $30 (with a $15 concessional rate), but we have moved our renewals online. You can renew here and contact me at this address with any queries about the process.

All the best,
Chris Monnox
Secretary

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recent articles

Here are some of our recent articles. To search the complete list, click on the Articles and Publications menu.

  • Labor, the External Affairs Power and Aboriginal Rights December 9, 2022 - David Lee Originally published in Radical Currents, Labour Histories, No. 1 Autumn 2022. Australian Society for the Study of Labour History In 1900 the Australian Constitution gave the Commonwealth Parliament not a ‘treaty power’ but a vague power over ‘external affairs’. Its precise meaning remained elusive for most of the twentieth century. But from the […]
  • When the Australian ruling class embraced fascism November 21, 2022 - Originally published in Marxist Left Review 13, Summer 2017 When the Australian ruling class embraced fascism Louise O’Shea It is commonplace today to treat the far right and far left as mirror images of each other: both extreme, ideologically rigid, intolerant and similarly isolated from the sensible mainstream. But history demonstrates that there is little […]
  • Before the Teals, the DLP rewrote politics August 13, 2022 - This article first appeared in The Canberra Times of 5 July 2022 Before the teals, the DLP rewrote politics by Stephen Holt The election of sixteen House of Representatives crossbench members, including six or so Teal independents, on 21 May 2022 signals a big shift in the underlying structure of Australian politics.
  • Bob Hawke and Canberra’s ‘factional wars’ April 11, 2022 - By Stephen Holt (An edited version of this article appeared in The Canberra Times (Public Sector Informant) of 5 April 2022) There is an intriguing reference to political shenanigans in Cold War Canberra in Troy Bramston’s new biography of Bob Hawke. Bramston in an early chapter refers to a letter dated 24 October 1956. Written […]
  • Slavery in Australia – Convicts, Emigrants, Aborigines August 18, 2021 - Slavery in Australia – Convicts, Emigrants, Aborigines KM Dallas Kenneth McKenzie Dallas (1902- 1988) was a Tasmanian historian, teacher, writer and socialist. In September 1968, the Tasmanian Historical Research Association (THRA) published a collection of three articles by Dallas, each offering a different perspective on aspects of Australian history. The third of the three: ‘Slavery […]

___________________________