Start Date
3-10-1999 11:00 AM
End Date
3-10-1999 11:30 AM
Description
In 1931 the Moss Vale Municipal Council convinced the State Cabinet and the New South Wales Department of Labour and Industry to trial a new scheme for the provision of relief work for the unemployed. This scheme involved Council using the State Government's food relief money, commonly called the dole, for wages to employ men in relief work. Although it was to set the pattern of unemployment assistance throughout New South Wales for the remainder of the decade, the scheme was not designed to solve the economic problems of the State and the Commonwealth. It was designed to meet the needs of the people of Moss Vale and the surrounding district. In the establishment and operation of this scheme an active sense of community can be seen in the town at that time. This scheme is an example of people acting through and because of local community ties, loyalties and values. This approach to helping the unemployed men of the town was found in the memory of the community, not in the bureaucracy of state government, and was motivated by a community ideology which involved the right to work. The operation of the scheme also demonstrates that the apparently powerless unemployed had both social power and an active political role derived from their involvement in, and membership of, their local community.
The Moss Vale Unemployment Relief Scheme: A Community in Operation
In 1931 the Moss Vale Municipal Council convinced the State Cabinet and the New South Wales Department of Labour and Industry to trial a new scheme for the provision of relief work for the unemployed. This scheme involved Council using the State Government's food relief money, commonly called the dole, for wages to employ men in relief work. Although it was to set the pattern of unemployment assistance throughout New South Wales for the remainder of the decade, the scheme was not designed to solve the economic problems of the State and the Commonwealth. It was designed to meet the needs of the people of Moss Vale and the surrounding district. In the establishment and operation of this scheme an active sense of community can be seen in the town at that time. This scheme is an example of people acting through and because of local community ties, loyalties and values. This approach to helping the unemployed men of the town was found in the memory of the community, not in the bureaucracy of state government, and was motivated by a community ideology which involved the right to work. The operation of the scheme also demonstrates that the apparently powerless unemployed had both social power and an active political role derived from their involvement in, and membership of, their local community.