| Book Review | Labour History, 88 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Jeff Sparrow and Jill Sparrow, Radical Melbourne 2: the Enemy Within, Vulgar Press, Carlton North, 2004. pp. 254. $50.00 paper.

Raymond Evans and Carole Ferrier (eds), Radical Brisbane: an Unruly History, Vulgar Press, Carlton North, 2004. pp. 335. $50.00 paper.

These two books, as did the first volume of Radical Melbourne, remind us vividly and evocatively about how academic debates about the centrality of space and place in the struggles between capital and labour are actually played out in daily life. These are stories of the claiming of space and creation of place, sometimes a short-lived thing (FOCO in the Brisbane Trades Hall, jazz at Melbourne's Eureka Hall), or through an annual celebration, as in the Labour Day marches (Radical Brisbane, pp. 231–234), but other times in an ongoing and sustaining way as in the case of Musgrave Park: 'it always will be an Aboriginal place' (Radical Brisbane, p. 309). Other claimings of space challenged societal norms: Merle Thornton and Ros Bognor chaining themselves to the bar foot rail in 1965 in protest against the exclusion of women from the masculinised space of the public bar (Radical Brisbane, p. 254). Other spaces provided much-needed meeting places, such as Val's Coffee Lounge became for gays and lesbians in the 1950s (Radical Melbourne, pp. 113–116); Women's House in Brisbane and the Women's Liberation Centre in Melbourne for women seeking their own separate space. Radical theatre and bookshops sought to provide alternatives to an increasingly American-influenced popular culture. In Melbourne, the banning of the Communist Party threatened production of publications like the Guardian and required the re-location of the printing presses. This leads to the story of the printery's move to the suburban home of two party members, where it remained until the 1970s.

Radical Melbourne 2 picks up chronologically where the first volume finished and brings the reader into the present, with its focus on the period 1940 to 2000. Radical Brisbane ambitiously traverses a longer time period from the 1820s through to the 1980s and early 1990s. While the Melbourne stories are again recounted by Jeff and Jill Sparrow, the Brisbane volume, edited by Raymond Evans and Carole Ferrier, draws on a range of contributors. Both incorporate maps to enable the reader to locate the sites, either as they remain or as they can now be re-imagined. Just as the books are full of the actions of people engaged in resistance and challenge, in small ways and large, they provide a stimulus to readers to participate in their own exploration of the geography of radical activism, both vicariously and physically by visiting the sites. We are encouraged to see past the contemporary facades or symbolism of often familiar places to reclaim their radical past. Raymond Evans' contributions particularly evoke the past through his re-creation of scenes: for instance, by inviting us to place ourselves there:

If you stand in the Mall, near its Edward Street end, try by a conscious act of will to strip away the sights and sounds of the buskers, fashion-parades and open-air eateries and reconstruct your surroundings as an early twentieth century, wood-blocked streetscape ... It is Sunday afternoon, 6 July 1913, and perhaps you are out promenading Queen Street ... But suddenly your attention is arrested by a small fracas, near the corner of Queens and Edward Streets ... What you are witnessing here is the small beginnings of something big (Radical Brisbane, pp. 150–151).

Both books create a rich and layered analysis of life in these towns, with contributions including far more detail and material than may be anticipated by the initial event or issue being examined. As the Sparrows found,

Quarrying political conflict from featureless streets entails excavations in unexpected places, and the search for Radical Melbourne takes us underground with the Cave Clan and the Dole Army ... and into cyberspace with the WANK worm ... It includes fascistic generals ... alongside marchers for peace ... and it marks the sacred ... and the profane alike (Radical Melbourne, p. 14).

In the case of Brisbane, radical Brisbane has 'subsisted uncomfortably beside conservative Brisbane and dull, boring Brisbane — and mindless, hedonistic Brisbane, and smug, self-satisfied Brisbane. But rarely has that endurance been acknowledged' (Radical Brisbane, p. 18).

The creation and role of trade union places in sustaining a sense of community for unions and their members are demonstrated by the stories of the Maritime Hall, leased by the Seamens and Wharf Labourers Unions, which was the early home of the Brisbane Trade and Labour Council in the late 1880s; the first and second Brisbane Trades Hall buildings, and the Waterside Workers' Club, 'a site of song and ceremony' in Brisbane (Radical Brisbane, p. 242). In Melbourne, Unity Hall, the Victorian branch of the Railways Union's building for over 80 years, was the place for social events as well as industrial and political meetings and gatherings.

An undercurrent of violence is palpable throughout both books with this often being initiated by the state: Baton Friday, 1912 (when Emma Miller used her hat-pin to disable the horse of the Police Commissioner who was leading the police attack on demonstrators); the Red Riots; the bashing of Fred Paterson (and, of course, the imprint of the Bjelke-Peterson government on Queensland society) to name just some Brisbane examples, and the actions taken against S11 protestors at the World Economic Forum meeting in Melbourne. With both books including entries on the 1971 Springbok tour, we can see both the parallels and differences between the two experiences, and the patterns of resistance and struggle.

The sheer breadth and scope of these two volumes inevitably means that there are omissions, a point readily acknowledged in the introduction to Radical Melbourne. Nevertheless, alongside the missing stories they highlight, I would have liked the Melbourne volume to have included the community assembly sustained day and night during the 1998 waterfront dispute, because of the sheer scale of mobilisation. But as the Sparrows reasonably point out, the 'proliferation of protest' in the years they cover produced such constraints on what or what not to include.

These books do far more than recount events of the past as they stimulate the imagination about the capacity for resistance. As such, they should be read by a wide audience. In these conservative political times, these stories serve to remind us of the long and robust nature of radical activism in Australia. It is important to recognise and remember the enduring nature of struggle and radical activism, through the telling and re-telling and recovering these stories. The next volumes in the Radical series can only be eagerly awaited.


RMIT University	CATHY BRIGDEN

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