Melissa Kerr

Struggling for Recognition: the Individual in Labour History

On Friday 21 November 2003, a conference entitled 'Struggling for Recognition: the Individual in Labour History' was held at the Women's College of the University of Sydney. The conference was organised by the Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies at the University of Sydney, as part of their 50^th anniversary celebrations, and in conjunction with the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History. The conference co-ordinators were Mark Hearn and Harry Knowles, both of Work and Organisational Studies, who are also the editors of a thematic section of the November 2004 edition of Labour History which will carry peer-reviewed papers based on the conference presentations.	1
The purpose of the conference was to explore the role of the individual in labour history, focusing on working class lives, labour movement activists and intellectuals. The individuals' relationship with the labour movement and society was examined in a number of contexts: the struggles by labour movement activists for recognition of working-class claims to political and economic justice; the role of labour movement intellectuals in stimulating or defining those struggles; through individuals claiming leadership roles within the labour movement and in politics; analysing working-class individuals in the network of class, labour movement or elite interaction; individuals struggling to construct a meaningful social and personal identity; through individual experience of working life.	2
The conference speakers included John Shepherd, Mark Hearn, Kate Deverall, Joy Damousi, Harry Knowles, Terry Irving, Ron Sharpe, Gaynor MacDonald, Judith Godden, John Shields, Peter Love, Suzanne Jamieson and Paul Strangio. As might have been expected, given the reputation of many of the speakers, the papers were of an impressive standard as each speaker demonstrated how biography as a methodological device can play an insightful role in understanding historical events. The conference was composed of four sessions, all of which were generally followed by vigorous discussion.	3
The keynote address was delivered by John Shepherd, a senior research associate in History at the Anglia Polytechnic University, Cambridge, and author of a new biography of British Labour Leader, George Landsbury. In his address Shepherd provided us with a brief, though engaging and amusing account of Landsbury's often stormy and turbulent political career from his humble beginnings as Gladstonian Liberal Party agent to his leadership of the British Labour Party during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Shepherd's biographical account of Landsbury's political life enabled him to re-interpret the origins of the British Labour Party.	4
In the first session, Mark Hearn employed a biographical approach of Rose Summerfield to examine the expression of radical discontent in Sydney during the 1890's. Kate Deverall also adopted a biographical approach of the experience of the Golding sisters to examine women's quest for legitimacy within the overwhelmingly male-dominated NSW Australian Labor Party during the first decades of the twentieth century. Joy Damousi's biography of a female factory inspector highlighted the ability of an individual activist to pursue working-class claims to political and economic justice.	5
In the second session, attention turned to the struggle by individuals for recognition within political institutions and political disillusionment. Harry Knowles presented a fascinating account of Arthur Rae, one of the first NSW Labor members who, despite being eventually marginalised by mainstream labour institutions, remained an ardent activist for the plight of the working class. Terry Irving employed a comparative biological analysis of two communist intellectuals of the 1920s and 1930s to identify what was biographically unique in the process and what was general in the intellectual work of the communists. Ron Sharpe presented an interesting account of his research into the Australian Socialist Party 1911–30. Through personal letters he was able to shed new light on the factors that led to the organisation's split.	6
The third session of the day commenced after lunch. Gaynor MacDonald employed a biographical approach to examine the significance of work in the pastoral and agricultural industry from an aboriginal perspective. Judith Godden demonstrated how in a biographical account of a working-class individual, Matron Bathsheba Ghost, she discovered the workings of a major pre-industrial institution, the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary from 1852–66. John Shields emphasised the suitability of collective biography for addressing one of the core concerns of labour history, that of acknowledging simultaneously the agency of the individual within the collective as well as the influence of the collective on the individual.	7
Following afternoon tea the conference reconvened for the final session of the day. Peter Love departed from his intended paper on his biographical account of Frank Anstey, which he stated was available for all to read on the Working Lives website [www.econ.usyd.edu.au/wos/workinglives/], and instead spoke of how he overcame the challenges he faced in researching the early and undocumented years of Anstey. Suzanne Jamieson presented an interesting account of the challenges she is facing while supervising Arthur Gietzelt as he writes his autobiography. In particular she spoke of the Gietzelt's tendency to interpret his actions in terms of the collective rather than the individual. Paul Strangio employed a biographical approach to examine the early political campaigns of Michael Standish Keon during his term as secretary of the Victorian Public Service Association 1939–49.	8
Overall the conference certainly highlighted the importance that the individual can make in labour history.	9

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