| Michael Hogan, Local Labor: a History of the Labor Party in Glebe, 1891–2003, Federation Press, Sydney, 2004. pp. ix + 254. $45.00 cloth.
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| Local Labor by Michael Hogan details the history at a rank and file level of the Labor party in Glebe and the surrounding suburbs. Instead of the traditional top down approach focusing on parliamentarians the book describes itself as a 'view from below' and therefore gives a different account to most recently published histories. The book begins in 1891 when the Labor leagues in Glebe were formed out of the Trade Union movement. |
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From the first chapter the book highlights division within the party — one of the first was the debate between those who supported free trade and those who supported protectionism. Once Labor had elected parliamentary representatives, this debate about free trade verses protectionism expanded to be a debate about whether members must vote the party line or vote on free will. |
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These early divisions set a continual theme throughout the book: industry verses craft unions, free trade verses protection, pro or anti-conscription, between NSW Lang Labor and the federal Labor, between the industrial wing and the party, the anti-communist factions, and the regular party as well at the communist sympathisers. Later with the growth of the Left in the area — and the influx of the more 'trendy' environmentalists into the party in the 1970s and 1980s, the final divisions are between the industrial 'Left' and the trendy environmentalist 'Left' (as well as the continuing divisions between the Right and the Left). What is clear is that throughout the past hundred years in the Labor Party in the area there have been differences of opinion, division and the arising splinter organisations. |
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This splintering led to groups within branches forming alternate party bodies and describing themselves as the true Labor Party. In many Council elections the race was between the Labor Party and a splinter Labor Party, this is particularly highlighted in the 1935 municipal election where the Federal Labor Party unsuccessfully ran a full slate of candidates against the Lang Labor Party. |
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Although the early divisions were not based around the formal factions of today, it certainly gives insight into how the modern Labor Party is able to function while people so bitterly disagree. The other constant message is that factions are not always built on political issues but personalities. |
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The book soon shifts its focus from the formative years and the state government to the early twentieth century and the local area involvement of the Glebe Branch on the local Council and to a lesser extent State and Federal Parliament. The book highlights the slow move in the early twentieth century from the Council being the domain of wealthy property owners until the turn around in 1925 when Labor entirely dominated the Council. This includes a sub theme highlighting the continuing accusations of corruption levelled at the Labor dominated Council. |
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Hogan addresses 'Class' in the Glebe area. He follows the changing nature from the division between the middle-class and wealthy Glebe Point and the intensely working-class Parramatta Road end of Glebe in the early twentieth century, through the movement of the middle class and wealthy residents out of Glebe during the depression to the later movement to Glebe of a new class of academics and families and the more recent gentrification of the suburb. |
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The book highlights that Glebe and its Local Government representative body has been a political foot ball from its beginning — with the Glebe Council being subsumed by the city in 1948 (with very little Glebe representation) and then the transfer to Leichhardt by the State Government in 1968. This is ironic as very shortly after the book was completed Glebe again was returned to the city. |
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By far the most interesting part of the book is the description of Labor identities, some of whom spent most of their lives dedicated to political careers on the Council. The character that most stands out throughout the book is the late Dr Horace Foley (1900–89), who had a medical practice on Glebe Point road — Dr Foley first ran for Municipal elections in 1935 (after contesting the Burwood state electorate) — as a prominent Doctor in the area he was a very popular both within and outside of the conventional Labor party constituency. |
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I found the book to be non-judgemental about division in the early history. However there is a shift when addressing more recent events. At times you feel like you are reading the Branch minutes of the Glebe Branch (although the author does recognise these as a valuable resource), and there is more political comment about the differing sides in the local political sphere. |
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The book ends with the author detailing the use of branches and their relationship to a continuing Labor Party. It is important reading for anybody trying to digest a way forward for the Labor Party in the inner city, especially with the impact of the emergence of the Greens as a viable significant political force. |
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The book is a timely reminder to all of us that the Labor Party has had its ups and downs and has faced threats from all sides of politics as well as from within. However, the book proves that the Party is constantly changing and evolving to meet these challenges. It is its ability to overcome this that meant it has survived many changes and will into the future. |
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| Mayor of Leichhardt |
ALICE MURPHY | |
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