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Book Review
| Bradon Ellem, Raymond Markey and John Shields (eds), Peak Unions in Australia: Origin, Power, Purpose, Agency, Federation Press, Annandale, NSW, 2004. pp. x + 274. $49.95 paper.
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| Unions are collectives, forms of which have been with us thousands of years. The logic of collective action has been a driver of social and political change through human history. What else is there to say about the process of combining to improve the lot of fellow workers or the lot of those with similar interests? Why gather the writings of some of the leading scholars of labour history and industrial relations into one volume? The logic of extending union organisation into co-operation across unions is simply an extension of the role. Surely the histories and actions of the ACTU, the Labor Council of New South Wales and The Barrier have been turned over and examined enough? |
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That would be the 'end of history' view on this collection. You could argue also that it has all been published before in various academic journals. However the value of a review of that earlier research combined into one volume I think speaks for itself. For those of us who still read books, it provides the opportunity to think about the peak union bodies in relation to others. The editors raise the Why? question in the very first paragraph. The rest of the book sets out why it is necessary to keep looking and thinking. |
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The particularities of the Australian case are also of interest in comparison with European and US developments, whose unions developed in parallel to the Australians. The different paths of these labour and union movements, are discussed very well by Neville Kirk in Comrades and Cousins (London: Merlin Press, 2003). The peculiarities of peak council formation are in the spotlight here. The collection is well organised so that we are lead into histories of state and regional peak councils via an international overview from Chris Briggs. By starting with this piece and following it with their own review of previous studies of peak bodies and the way they have developed their own thinking on issues of regulation, authority, power, agency and influence makes the collection work through a clear structure that all the contributors have worked through. |
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Cathy Brigden has been studying the Victorian Trades Hall and the VTHC for some time, showing the importance of a place for the operation of power and influence. Place and space are again a central organising strand of this volume. The hopes of Jacob Gerrard, a Sydney Trades Hall trustee, at the official opening of that place, indicate the importance of place to activists, nation builders and budding labour bureaucrats in the nineteenth century:
The building would be a home for trades-unions; that wise counsels would prevail in all meetings assembled there from time to time; that their decisions would be conducive to the best interests, not only of the workers of NSW, but of the whole of the Australian continent (Sydney Morning Herald, 27 January 1895).
It also can be read as an indication of the restraining influence a peak body and central place could have on class politics. The unity of capital and labour was in the forefront of Gerrard's mind as federation approached. |
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Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of the collection is the drawing out of the 'forgotten' regional councils. The Labor Council of New South Wales directory from the 1960s or 1970s reveals the breadth of activity of rural and regional unionists throughout the state. Wagga Wagga, Orange, Lismore, Port Macquarie all had unionists, and these unionists felt the need to form a central body amongst the various unions in the towns. Again the overarching framework provides clarity in the examination of Wagga, the Barrier and Rockhampton. |
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We can also see the importance of particular issues in driving a collectivisation into a peak body. The eight hour day movement looms large in Australian labour history. Workers were well aware of the importance of this achievement in Australia and its example to unions elsewhere. John Kellet discusses this well in relation to Queensland, and the importance of the Eight Day Committee to the financing of the Sydney Trades Hall shows its iconic status in the period from 1890 to 1920. |
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These histories and theoretical structures may also provide a way at looking at the futures of declining movements. Is the current malaise terminal and what can a study of national, state and regional peak bodies tell us about ways forward? Can unions rethink the roles of central offices and revitalise peak regional offices as organising units? Can the regional bodies be part of a reinvention of unions to once again play a role in the social and structural development of the centres where they are located? These issues are not the focus of the collection, but as Ellem and Shields note, the Barrier played a wide-ranging role in the social regulation of Broken Hill. We don't know how important that role will be but this detailed collection of theoretical and empirical insights may help chart that future course. |
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