NEW RESOURCES FOR LABOUR HISTORY

1998 Maritime Dispute Archive

Sarah Brown and Peter Love

Most Labour History readers will remember the 1998 Maritime Dispute as a set-piece battle in the neoliberal assault on Australian workers' ability to bargain collectively. The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), one of the most resolute defenders of collective bargaining, was the target of an elaborate strategy developed by Patrick Stevedores, the National Farmers' Federation and the Commonwealth Government to dismiss unionised waterside workers and replace them with non-union labour. The open conflict that erupted after the mass sackings on the wharves during Easter 1998, and the associated complex industrial, legal and political developments, have been well documented by Helen Trinca and Anne Davies in Waterfront.1 The long-term significance of the dispute was obvious to any serious observer from the beginning, not least the unionists and academics who decided, as the conflict dragged on, to create an archive on the dispute.	1
Activists, academics and archivists are painfully aware of how quickly important records can be lost during or soon after industrial disputes. By their nature, major disputes generate material from a diversity of sources and much of it is ephemeral. This is particularly so with material published on Internet web sites, which in this case played such an important part in mobilising international support for the MUA cause. Accordingly, at a meeting in December 1998 at the Standard Hotel in Fitzroy, a group of activists decided to establish an archive project. A Steering Committee was formed comprising unionists, retired politicians, academics and archivists. A joint appeal for funds to support the project was sent to unions from the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and the Melbourne Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (ASSLH). The first Project Officer, Leon Weigard, was appointed and commenced to identify and collect material, working out of a room made available by the Victorian Trades Hall Council. When Leon moved on to another job he was replaced by Sean Butler who completed the collecting and prepared the finding aid for the archive. In December 2001 it was formally handed over to the Australian National University (ANU) Archivist who accepted it on behalf of the Noel Butlin Archives Centre at the ANU, where the MUA and ACTU records are held. In the course of the project, the Victorian Trades Hall Council Library and the University of Melbourne Archives provided generous infrastructure support.	2
Methodology
The project aimed to document the existence and location of all types of records related to the 1998 Maritime Dispute, to collect these records where appropriate, and to make them available for research use.	3
The methodology was developed with the view that the project should have a broader scope than physically collecting, and subsequently arranging, listing and boxing, what was collected, and, importantly, that it must be in accordance with the archival principle that, in most cases, original records should not be removed from their organisational context.	4
While the creation of a physical archive was an important end in itself, particularly for ephemeral or otherwise vulnerable material which would not have survived if it had not been transferred to the Archive, the project also aimed to document, as far as possible, the existence of the vast amounts of material created by the trade unions, media organisations, politicians and activists involved in the progress and outcome of the 1998 Maritime Dispute. These records were documented during the course of the project, but remain in situ with the union, organisation or individual who created or has custody of the records.	5
For example, the Archive includes a list of files created by the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC) during the dispute. As these files form part of the VTHC's record keeping system, they remain at the VTHC office and will be subject to existing VTHC administrative policy and practice on records disposition. As is the case with many trade unions, the VTHC has an existing records transfer relationship with an archival collecting institution, in this case the University of Melbourne Archives (UMA). These files will eventually form part of the VTHC collection at the UMA and, while they are still held on site, research access can be negotiated with the VTHC.	6
Examples of records considered suitable for transfer to the Archive were identified at the commencement of the project as: Photocopies (of union circulars or correspondence); Duplicates (of dispute publicity material, photographs); Artefacts (such as T shirts produced where original is retained by the creator); In rare cases, original material not forming part of an official records keeping system or considered to be at risk of destruction; Records collected by an individual who chooses to transfer them to the project.	7
Records Documentation Form
A Records Documentation Form developed for the Project Officer and organisations and individuals contributing to the project was based on the National Library of Australia's Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts (RAAM). Part A of the form enabled recording of information about the records in a consistent format. Mandatory fields were creator, title, physical location/custody, quantity and record type. More detail on the records, such as the historical context, could be recorded as time and resources permitted.	8
Part B of the form documented project management information on the records' location, custody or ownership, transfer and accession details. This information is not released publicly.	9
The information gathered became the basis of the 1998 Maritime Dispute Finding Aid produced by the Project Officers. Arranged by series, the finding aid documents location, creator, category/form of document, date(s), access restrictions and a detailed description, which often includes valuable contextual and historical notes, of records collected or identified during the course of the project.	10
Comments on Methodology and Outcomes:
The types of records collected or documented by the project were much in accordance with the anticipated categories outlined above. There are many important series within the collection. Some unions chose to contribute duplicated sets of selected correspondence and campaign material, and a large collection of photographs assembled from various individual photographers' contributions was another bonus. Print-outs of short lived web pages and e-mail correspondence highlighted the need to actively collect records produced electronically.	11
The actual number of records documented but not taken into custody was not as great as anticipated, a perhaps not unexpected result given the limited time and funding the Project Officers had to visit organisations and list records held. Although it was hoped that contributors would submit a completed Records Documentation Form, some contributors found the form rather too detailed, and the Project Officers were called on to complete the forms. The Victorian emphasis of the collection is also due to resource restrictions.	12
The accuracy of the finding aid in the longer term may be an issue with collections not taken into custody. As with all 'union lists', accuracy and preservation relies on the cooperation of the organisations and individuals who are the current custodians of these records. However, there is no doubt that the project preserved records that may have been lost, and has gathered together a valuable resource for informing future study of the 1998 Maritime Dispute.	13
The project is a salutary reminder to activists, academics and archivists that the past does not look after itself. We need to identify and collect material as it is generated, especially in the ever-changing electronic forms in which it now appears. We need to act quickly and decisively, as so many of the new media are ephemeral. We also need to exercise an expansive, forward-looking historical imagination in an effort to anticipate the questions that future historians will ask of the events that we witnessed and tried to record. As historians, we have a duty not just to the past, but also to the future.	14
The 1998 Maritime Dispute Archive should be available for access by bona fide researchers from the middle of 2002. Researchers can check the ANU website at: http://www.archives.anu.edu.au and follow the links on the site. E-mail enquiries can be addressed to butlin.archives@anu.edu.au and telephone contact can be made on + 61 2 6125 2219.	15
Endnotes 1 Helen Trinca and Anne Davies, Waterfront: The Battle that Changed Australia, Sydney, Doubleday, 2000.

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