Category Archives: Conference

Unions and anti-Chinese agitation on the Victorian goldfields

Unions and anti-Chinese agitation on the Victorian goldfields
The Clunes riot of 1873

by Jerome Small

Small, Jerome – Clunes riot 1873

This paper (access via the above link) was presented at the seventh national Labour History Conference held in Canberra in April 2001. It never appeared in the published proceedings. At a time of heightened anti-Chinese racism in Australia, its publication now in 2020 is a timely reminder of how little has changed. The paper was condensed from the author’s 1997 Honours thesis which can be found in full at the following website: https://sa.org.au/interventions/interventions.htm

Malcolm Ellis: Labour Historian? Spy?

Malcolm Ellis: Labour Historian? Spy?

Andrew Moore
UWS, Macarthur

First published in Labour and Community – Proceedings of the Sixth National Labour History Conference, Wollongong, October 1999

When, on New Year’s Day 1952, Sir John Ferguson, the eminent bibliographer and Industrial Commission judge, wrote to his friend and colleague, M.H. Ellis, the anticommunist historian, he evinced sentiments with which many labour historians would agree. Continue reading

Note on Refereeing Process

In accordance with the Australian Government’s Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research’s Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) Criteria, the papers published in these Proceedings meet the definition of research in that:

  1. The 12th National Labour History Conference is a conference of national and international significance;
  2. Each paper in the refereed stream, in its entirety, was double blind, peer reviewed before publication by independent, qualified experts;
  3. The proceedings will be made available to libraries; and
  4. Author affiliation is identified for each paper.

The conference organizing committee would like to acknowledge the following for refereeing the papers for 12th National Labour History Conference Proceedings:

Frank Bongiorno                                Australian National University
Tom Bramble                                      University of Queensland
Verity Burgmann                              University of Melbourne
Drew Cottle                                        University of Western Sydney
Ann Curthoys                                    University of Sydney
Rae Francis                                        University of Melbourne
Peter Franks                                       Department of Labour, Wellington
Keith Gildart                                      University of Wolverhampton, UK
Mark Hearn                                       Macquarie University
Victoria Haskins                                University of Newcastle
Tom Heenan                                       Monash University
David Howell                                     University of York, UK
Michael Hess                                      University of New South Wales at the Australian
                                                            Defence Force Academy
Terry Irving                                       University of Sydney
Julie Kimber                                       Swinburne University of Technology
Peter Kirkpatrick                                University of Sydney
Jim McAloon                                      Victoria University of Wellington
Malcolm Mackerras                           University of New South Wales at the Australian
                                                          Defence Force Academy
Andrew Moore                                   University of Western Sydney
Bobbie Oliver                                     Curtin University of Technology
Erik Olssen                                        University of Otago
Fran Shor                                           Wayne State University, Detroit
John Stenhouse                                   University of Otago
Glenda Strachan                                Griffith University

 

2011 ASSLH conference – Much more than green bans

 

Much more than green bans: locating the New South Wales Builders Labourers’ Federation in the history of international trade unionism
 

Verity Burgmann and Meredith Burgmann

Abstract

The green bans movement of the New South Wales Builders Labourers’ Federation (NSWBLF) was immensely significant, but has tended to overshadow the union’s other achievements. This paper marks the fortieth anniversary of its green bans that commenced in 1971 by offering a more broad-ranging tribute to this extraordinary union. Continue reading

2011 ASSLH conference – ‘A not unimportant role’: industry peak unions and inter-­union organising

 

‘A not unimportant role’: industry peak unions and inter-­union organising

Cathy Brigden

Abstract

Since the mid 1990s, there has been a significant expansion in the literature analysing peak unions. However, most of the research has focused on national, state and regional peak unions, with little attention given industry-scale peak unions. Just as peak bodies have long been part of the union landscape in many towns and cities, so too industry peak bodies have similar deep historical roots, evidenced by discussion by the Webbs. Continue reading

2011 ASSLH conference – A Leftist in Cold War Canberra: Bruce Yuill

 

A Leftist in Cold War Canberra: Bruce Yuill

 Stephen Holt

Abstract

On 29 July 1953, the Canberra Trades and Labor Council, the city’s peak employee body, re-elected a boisterous young Labor man named Bruce Yuill as its President.  The Council’s vote of endorsement meant that Yuill, a flamboyant socialist, headed the trade union movement in Australia’s federal capital at a crucial time politically, with the Cold War well underway and the Australian Labor Party teetering on the historic schism of 1955.

Continue reading

2011 ASSLH conference – The Aftermath of the 1951 Waterfront Lockout

 

‘We never recovered from that strike’: The Aftermath of the 1951 Waterfront Lockout and Supporting Strikes

 Grace Millar

 

Abstract

The 1951 waterfront lockout and supporting strikes lasted five months and involved 20,000 workers.  As one of New Zealand’s largest industrial disputes it has received considerable historical attention, but the main focus of research has been on the beginning of the dispute. The limited historical work on the end of the dispute and the aftermath has focused on union structures, rather than the people of labour history.   Continue reading

2011 ASSLH conference – Anti-­Communism Undermined: The Uncomfortable Alliances of W. C. Wentworth

 

AntiCommunism Undermined: The Uncomfortable Alliances of W. C. Wentworth

 Lachlan Clohesy

Abstract

William Charles Wentworth, one of Australia’s most prominent anti-communist agitators, frequently linked both socialism and communism to Nazisim, on the basis of the perceived totalitarian nature of socialist and communist governments. To Wentworth, even the Chifley Labor government’s policies in the late 1940s would inexorably lead to a Soviet-style regime in Australia. Continue reading

2011 ASSLH conference – Reinstating ‘Casual Connelly’

 

Reinstating ‘Casual Connelly’: a Labour pioneer and the struggle for political rights for public servants in New Zealand

 Peter Franks

 

Abstract

When the New Zealand Labour Party celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1966, Michael Connelly was the only living member of those who were elected to national office in 1916 when the party was founded. Continue reading

2011 ASSLH conference – Harry Atkinson and the Socialist Church, 1896-­1906

 

Harry Atkinson and the Socialist Church, 1896-­1906

 James Taylor

Abstract

In the early 1890s Harry Atkinson, the subject of this paper, travelled to England and spent a year as foundation secretary of the Manchester and Salford Labour Church. In Manchester Atkinson worked closely with the Church’s founder John Trevor and experienced the colour and symbolism of protest and demonstration, and the ritual and rhetoric of Labour Church services. Continue reading

2011 ASSLH conference – The ‘Radical’ Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr William Temple

 

The ‘Radical’ Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr William Temple1

Doris LeRoy

Abstract

This paper will outline the life of Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, who was the head of the Church of England worldwide from 1942-1944. Temple was an unusual archbishop, who had joined the Labour Party in Britain in 1918.  While his parentage doubtless assisted to his rise within the church ranks, his ability was recognised despite his socialistic leanings. Continue reading

2011 ASSLH conference – Biography and Ideology in the Industrial Workers of the World in Australia 1911-­1922

 

Biography and Ideology in the Industrial Workers of the World in Australia 1911-­1922: A Brief Review

Frank Cain

 Abstract

The ideas of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were introduced from Chicago to Australia via Sydney in 1907 by a group of immigrant, English-speaking, itinerant, Marxist, semi-skilled workers.  They dismissed the existing Labor governments as time servers and the Great War as against the interests of the working class. This paper will present short biographies of five of these foreign-born activists and how they adapted their radical IWW ideology that had evolved from the class war in the early 20th century United States.  Continue reading

2011 ASSLH conference – The Political Cultures of the Irish Diaspora: Some Comparative Reflections, 1800-­1920

 

The Political Cultures of the Irish Diaspora: Some Comparative Reflections, 1800-­1920

 Donald M. MacRaild

 Abstract

Whilst Irish people clearly were highly active in trade unions and labour organisations in the English-speaking world, there is disagreement as to the extent of their participation. The weakness in Ireland of organisations, such as Chartism, and the endemic sectarian conflict between a plethora of nationalist and loyalist organisations, has obscured the role of class in Irish identity formation. Continue reading

2011 ASSLH conference – Framing the Unions: The Changing Images of Unionists on Screen

 

Framing the Unions: The Changing Images of Unionists on Screen

Lisa Milner

Abstract

 In Australia in the 1950s, the Waterside Workers’ Federation Film Unit was the only film production group in the world that was funded by a trade union. The unit produced short films on subjects that other production units would never tackle, like the political background of protests from the union members’ viewpoint, and issues concerning workers’ rights. The filmmakers took a particular stylistic approach to the portrayal of workers, in a period when attempting to make public any labour culture was problematic.  

Continue reading

2011 ASSLH conference – Shirley Andrews: social idealist for Aboriginal rights or agent of the CPA?

 

Shirley Andrews: social idealist for Aboriginal rights or agent of the CPA?

 Sue Taffe

Abstract

Shirley Andrews joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in 1945. During the Cold War years her Party membership had a negative impact on her life. Political interference by an anti-communist member of the Victorian Parliament meant she had to fight to retain a job to which she had been appointed. Continue reading