Illawarra Unity - Journal of the Illawarra Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History

Jim Hagan - A Personal Memoir

Glen Mitchell — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:14:42 PDT

Jim Hagan joined the History Department at the then Wollongong University College in 1966. Those qualities that he sought to develop in his students were present, however, long before he took up this appointment. And to understand what he did at Wollongong and why, some explanation of his life before Wollongong is important.

The songs of Don Henderson

Maurie Mulheron — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:09:10 PDT

A few years ago at the National Folk Festival, the Don Henderson Project was launched to collect and preserve the songs of a remarkable figure of the Australian folk-music movement. The result is a new two-CD collection, The Songs of Don Henderson. One of the project’s aims was to ensure that new generations of singers and songwriters were aware of the many songs Don left behind after his death in 1991; songs that spanned most of his working life from the late 1950s until the late 1980s. And it was largely his working life that provided the rich material that inspired him to write in a style that might be compared to the legendary Woody Guthrie but which probably owes as much to the traditions of Paterson and Lawson.

Review - Ill fares the land

Anthony Ashbolt — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:04:03 PDT

Putting aside for a moment his wonderful autobiographical reminiscences in The New York Review of Books, this is Tony Judt’s last major work. And it is an extended essay of immense significance. It constitutes a clarion call for the resuscitation of a genuine social democracy committed to equality and social justice. It is simultaneously an appeal to resist the fetishism of “small” government, the deification of budget surplus, the pathetic passion for privatization, the capitulation to markets whose freedom is measured purely by profits. We need, argues Judt, a commitment to the commonweal, a shared goal rather than one divided into special interests and identities, a public sphere that is vibrant and egalitarian.

Review - Of human right & human gain: peak labour organisation in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, 1869-2000

Mike Donaldson — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:04:01 PDT

Of Human Right & Human Gain traces the development from 1869 to 2000 in the Hunter Valley of the oldest continuous peak union organisation in Australia. This is a story well worth telling and decades of meticulous research by Rod Noble mean that it is told very well. Since its inception and currently, the principal role of the Newcastle Trades Hall Council (NTHC) is “to act as a collective industrial, political and community authority for its affiliated unions and the broader labour movement”. Early industrial issues of concern for the NTHC in 1885 and proximately usually involved pay and conditions, industrial legislation, union demarcation, health and safety particularly in the mining industry, shorter working hours and a rejection of dependence on organisations in metropolitan Sydney. And by the 1930s, the NTHC had established a pattern of support for equal pay for women, Aboriginal rights, public education, jobs, control of planning and development, housing, price control, public ownership, peace and disarmament.

Review - Radical Sydney: places, portraits and unruly episodes

Maurie Mulheron — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:59:02 PDT

If so much of Sydney’s physical space was saved in the 1970s by Jack Mundey and the NSW BLF, then much of its historical record has been preserved in this fine book by Terry Irving and Rowan Cahill. It’s an ambitious but successful attempt to trace our radical roots from the arrival of the first Europeans through to the present day.

A radical history book: how we came to write it

Terry Irving — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:42:33 PDT

Rowan Cahill and I have lived with the idea of this book since December 2001, when Ian Syson, an independent publisher from Melbourne, suggested to us that we might write about Sydney for a series of books on ‘radical cities’ published by his 59 company, Vulgar Books. The organizing idea was a walking tour of about 50 places associated with radical events or people in the city, each site identified on a map, described in a short slab of text, and illustrated by two images: one of the site as it was at the height of its radical notoriety and another as it is today. The first in the series, Radical Melbourne, had sold a couple of thousand copies and Ian was anxious to capitalize on this success.

Public education and the public good

Anthony Ashbolt — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:27:43 PDT

When Julia Gillard became Minister for Education and Everything Else That Moves, as well as de facto Prime Minister, she expressed a desire to have a conversation about school funding. This politics of inclusion (social inclusion is one of her many portfolios after all) was short-lived and it became clear that conversation was code for acceptance of the status quo. So Julia went off and had a conversation of her own with utopian dreamers whose vision of the good society revolves around testing regimes, job credentialism, disciplinary control of schools (particularly teachers), and whose heights of ecstasy are only achieved when public schools are closed down at a rapid rate. Their concept of worth, of good, is thoroughly corporatised and their utopia, of course, thus a nightmarish dystopia. That a social democrat, one who had genuine egalitarian tendencies, can become captive of such narrow thinking speaks volumes about our times. Gillard is now part of a political machine that grinds on relentlessly and strips policy-making of critical thought, rendering it ultimately an instrument of bureaucratic apparatchiks some of whom look and sound strangely like Godwin Gretch. Poor old Gretch, you see, is simply the embodiment of a soulless Public Service whose master in reality is the corporate dollar. Patients running the asylum becomes the order of the day not an aberration.

A new look at "Waltzing Matilda"

Doreen Borrow — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:27:40 PDT

For more than a century the song “Waltzing Matilda” has been sung by Australians at many gatherings the world over. It has become the unofficial National Anthem of Australia; in fact many would prefer it to the present National Anthem. Little thought has been given to its content that amounts to nothing more than the glorification of a brutal crime committed by three troopers and a member of the landed aristocracy.

"Never neutral": on Labour history / radical history

Rowan Cahill — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:23:26 PDT

Eric Fry, one of the founders of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (ASSLH), wrote about radical history in the ‘Introduction’ to his neglected Rebels & Radicals (1983). The book is not listed in Greg Patmore’s comprehensive listing of labour history publications (1991), rates no mention in the 1992 tribute to Fry’s work edited by Jim Hagan and Andrew Wells, and receives only brief mentions in the Labour History tribute issue to Eric Fry and fellow ASSLH pioneer Bob Gollan (2008). Arguably with good reason, since the book was exploring a different way of writing dissident history, one not in accord with the traditional practice of academic labour history as it developed in Australia, but in accord with the “broadness of scope and orientation” of labour history envisaged by Fry and Gollan as early as 1961 in the early days of the ASSLH.

Boycotting Israeli apartheid: practical and ethical questions

George Bisharat — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:19:10 PDT

George Bisharat is Professor of Law at the University of California’s Hasting College of the Law in San Francisco. He is the author of amongst other things, Palestinian Lawyers and Israeli Rule: Law and Disorder in the West Bank. Professor Bisharat was brought to Australia by the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine. This address, delivered on May 13, 2010, was sponsored by the School of History and Politics, University of Wollongong.

State of emergency: the violence of the Sydney 2007 APEC meeting

Nick Southall — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:14:00 PDT

This article emphasises the activity of what will be referred to as the alter-globalisation movement rather than the antiglobalisation movement, as I consider this a more accurate description of the global movement against neo-liberalism. It also examines the global state of emergency which has become increasingly evident since September 11, 2001. My aim is to help understand how and why this state of emergency was manifested during the APEC week in Sydney, September 2007. To shed more light on the implications of the state of emergency, the article traces a history of confrontations between those advocating neo-liberal globalisation and those opposing it.

Illawarra Unity: Editorial & Contents 2010

Anthony Ashbolt — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:08:06 PDT

Since the last issue of Illawarra Unity, the labour movement has been shaken to its core. The leadership coup in the Labor Party and subsequent election highlighted problems so severe within the organization that it is still descending slowly into a hell of its own making. It is tempting to wax eloquent about a once great Party being dragged into the mud by self-serving factional hacks; tempting but insufficient. Singling out a few nasty creatures here or tendencies there does nothing to explain the thorough decay. Even those within Labor who acknowledge something is wrong are themselves part of the problem. They launch blistering critiques of a Party without soul or substance. They speak about parliamentarians silenced like zombies and unable to stand up for the things that matter. Yet when the crunch comes – whether it be electricity privatisation in New South Wales, railway privatisation in Queensland, the war in Afghanistan – guess where they line up? The Labor Government had not really lost its way at all – it was doing the sorts of things that right-wing social democratic Governments do. It had, however, lost its mind and its spirit and its ideals and its vision and anything else it might once have had. This, after all, was and is a Government that saw nothing amiss with keeping the Australian Building and Construction Commission in place with draconian powers to pursue and prosecute those, like Ark Tribe, struggling for the rights of workers. Line that up with the maintenance of the school funding rort manufactured by the previous Liberal Government, continued commitment to the Afghanistan disaster (and our endorsement, along the way, of torture, drone attacks and other crimes of war), the brazen support for whatever illegal and immoral actions Israel undertakes … the list could go on but this is more than enough to signal a deep malaise.

Review - Employment Relations: theory and practice

Mark Hilder — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:42:46 PDT

Employment Relations: theory and practice is an ambitious book that provides a balanced view of employment relations in Australia. The authors, Bray, Waring and Cooper, are scholars in the field of Industrial Relations in Australia. Mark Bray is a Professor in Employment Studies at the University of Newcastle, Peter Waring is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Newcastle’s Singapore Campus and Rae Cooper is a Senior Lecturer in Work and Organisational Studies at the University of Sydney. The book appears to be written to provide a historical perspective of the employment relationship in Australia, introduce key concepts, explain the legal framework of employment relations and to muse about the future of employment relationship in Australia.

Vale: Jim Hagan

Glen Mitchell — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:39:47 PDT

His PhD students finally reduced it to three letters – the BJQ. He often smiled when he heard it because he knew he had made an impression and penetrated the chaos and confusion that is the lot of the doctoral student. The letters stood for the Big Jim Question. In other words, what is your central defining question? He argued that without it you were wasting time and you lacked a point around which you could and should organize your research. Yesterday, Wednesday 21 October 2009, we heard of the sudden passing of Emeritus Professor Jim Hagan. It was a moment few of his former colleagues or students thought would ever come – he was always here. He came in the early 1960s as a lecturer to the new History Department at the Wollongong University College with his newly completed PhD thesis on the printers union. It later became a book, Printers and Politics. He then set about doing what a good historian should do – ask questions and get answers. Occasionally his questions meant that then Vice Chancellor of the University of New South Wales, Professor Baxter would be irritated. More importantly though it meant that his students would be irritated, enlightened, enthused and attracted to historical scholarship.

Steve Quinn: A Life

Jane Quinn — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:36:52 PDT

It’s difficult to know what areas of Steve’s life to talk about today. From my perspective, he was a devoted and loving husband, father, grandfather and friend. A seriously passionate man; passionate about family, working people, social justice, music, politics. Because others here today will speak of his work and political life I’ll concentrate on Steve the family man. He met my mother when he was only 18 – they married four years later and began a journey from a fairly austere traditional and religious upbringing to a life of a radicalism focussed on social justice and workers equity.

Steve Quinn: A Union Hero 1928–2009

Wayne Phillips — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:35:09 PDT

I want to welcome everybody here today to help celebrate the life and work of Steve Quinn. I want to pass on my personal thanks to Steve’s wife and best mate Barbara and to his children, Jane, Tony and Fiona for letting me share time with Steve not only when he was working but also during his retirement. When Steve asked me to stand here and conduct this ceremony he gave me two clear directions: 1. Don’t be late – as we know Steve was never late to any meeting or function, and 2. No tears or unhappiness.

Singing Locally; Thinking Globally: Why Community Choirs Matter

Tom Bridges — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:30:07 PDT

As a community choir director of nearly twenty years experience I frequently and inevitably come into contact with attitudes and beliefs about music as it is practised, experienced and observed in this culture held by people who regard themselves as nonmusicians. If I were to paraphrase most people’s considered description of music and its place in society, it would go something like this: Music is a commodity or service that is produced and sold by experts, to be consumed by the population when they buy concert tickets, purchase recordings, or turn on the radio or TV. These experts are skilled artisans whose craft or trade is that of a performing and/or recording musician. They are credentialed as such from a combination – in proportions that vary enormously and idiosyncratically – of a genetically bestowed ‘gift’ or ‘talent’, and specialist training, both formal and informal.

The Sixties at Wollongong: student affairs in a regional Australian university

Michael K. Organ — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:27:56 PDT

The sixties were a time of revolution – sexual, cultural, spiritual, political and musical. The Beatles rose and fell, humankind reached the moon, the horrors of the Vietnam war were exposed amidst the threat of nuclear holocaust, millions died silently in China from starvation and Mao’s Cultural Revolution, and Woodstock revealed the power of this new ‘pop’ music. The United States largely took the lead in driving western societal change, and Australia followed, though in a somewhat muted and delayed manner. A snapshot of events during the sixties at the University of Wollongong – then the Wollongong University College – highlights some of the issues which filtered down to this then small regional campus located on the outskirts of Sydney. Influenced by the world around, and by the nearby metropolis, Wollongong was somewhat isolated from many of the pressures of the time, located in a seemingly idyllic coastal setting, though swamped by the everyday harsh realities of polluting heavy industry. Residents could afford to pick and choose what they would stand up and fight for, what they would take on board, and what they would ignore. The priorities may initially have been local, but by the end of the decade they were more easily mixed in with the global. For young people it was a time of wonder, change, apprehension and excitement, and the new university campus reflected elements of this change.

1968: What If We Had Never Tried?

Peter Cockroft — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:23:28 PDT

For those who don’t know me, I come from Lancashire in the North West of England. All of my grandparents were operatives in the cotton mills. In 1966 I became the first member of my family to go to university, at Manchester, and I graduated with what must have been a long service degree in 1971. 1968 in Britain was not the milestone year that it was in France or the USA, or indeed Poland or Czechoslovakia. British troops were not in Vietnam, at least not officially, and we had no draft. No great linkage formed with the working class movement, no Chicago and thankfully, nobody dead. From an international perspective England was dull. But if you were there, it was fabulous. In fact 1968 was the prelude, in student politics terms, to 1969 when things became much warmer. Late 1968 had seen a series of occupations of university administrations and in one of these, student burglars came across a treasure trove of correspondence between various Vice Chancellors discussing their problems with left wing students. It may seem quite predictable that the authorities would be talking to each other about us, given that we were threatening to burn the place down some time soon, but, perhaps because the time was overdue, outrage grew on our campus.

"Communists and Conspiracies"

Doreen Borrow — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:20:45 PDT

Let me first thank those who organised this seminar and who invited me to speak. The eclectic mixture of those who have attended and those who have already made a contribution, the young, the not so young and the old have made for a very interesting and informative time and given me much to mull over. Many of the contributions you have heard and will hear during this seminar have a scholarly character. My education was extremely limited. I do not hold any degrees let alone a PhD. My formal schooling ended at primary school level and what education I have I obtained in the school of hard knocks and the University of Life. I am an old Bolshie, defined by some as an unreconstructed Stalinist, who has spent more than half a century working at grass roots level in an unsuccessful attempt to change this unjust and inequitable society in which most of us who inhabit Planet Earth live.