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Book Review
| Beverley Symons and Rowan Cahill (eds), A Turbulent Decade: Social Protest Movements and the Labour Movement, 1965–1975, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Sydney Branch, 2005. pp. x + 94. $20.00 paper.Greg Mallory, Uncharted Waters: Social Responsibility in Australian Trade Unions, Boolarong Press, Brisbane, 2005. pp. xx + 242. $35.00 paper.
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| A respected tradition within labour history seeks to record and celebrate the struggles of yester-year. Two recent books honour and extend that tradition. Self-published (whether by the Sydney branch of the Labour History Society or by the author), their impulse is commemorative; their spirit rebellious; their intent not only to understand the past, but also to reconstruct the present. |
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A Turbulent Decade contemplates the connections between the labour movement and the wider struggle for social change during Australia's '60s' (technically, the decade beginning in 1965). The book is a product of a conference held in Sydney in September 2001. It records the wry, wise and often amusing reflections of radical, mostly Sydney-based veterans who spoke at this event. |
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The scope of the collection is impressive. In eight chapters, the many sides of 60s ferment are captured: anti-Vietnam and anti-conscription; student, new Left and counter-culture; women's liberation; gay and lesbian rights; Aboriginal land rights and civil rights; anti-apartheid; trade unions; the changing ALP. The diversity within these campaigns is also well represented, with a balance of moderates and radicals, and a generous attempt to cross once bitter organisational boundaries. |
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Contemplating the volume as an historian of the 60s, I was struck by the economy and breadth of participant accounts. The book will be a useful source for researchers and teachers. Indeed, it not only tells the story of the 60s, it also raises a series of fresh and surprising insights. A number of established verities are successfully challenged: that the 60s was simply a 'youth' movement (it was actually cross-generational); that it was easy to become a radical (it was usually a complicated and sometimes a painful process); and that Australian activists were simply derivative of overseas exemplars (they invariably remade and reshaped the methods used in other lands). In addition, a series of new emphases are also marked out: the prevalence of disruption and state surveillance; the role of drugs; the importance of particular spaces (such as the much-used building at 67 Glebe Pt Road); and the infectious, interconnected nature of radical dissent. |
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Students of social movements will gain further inspiration. Contemplated as a whole, the collection helps to document the forging of radical activists, giving special attention to the initial role of accidents and personal networks, and to the later contribution of radical participation and state repression (particularly imprisonment). The volume also records the interrupted process of political learning and the genesis of new organisations and tactics. In sum, A Turbulent Decade is a diverting and instructive read and a fine initiative by the Sydney branch of the Society. |
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Greg Mallory's Uncharted Waters is a more ambitious work. Mallory excavates the history of Australian trade unionism, seeking to establish a tradition of radical practice. His specific concern is with unions that exercise 'social responsibility'. This is thought to consist of three elements: concern with the end product of labour; orientation towards independent trade union action (rather than subordination to a working-class party); and concern with democratic and local decision-making. The author locates such concerns in two institutions: the Port Kembla Branch of the Waterside Workers Federation (WWF) and the NSW branch of the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF). |
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The book has a number of virtues. First, it provides a theorised discussion of trade union history. The idea of 'social responsibility' is clearly and creatively developed. This is a welcome departure from the procession of dates and factional alignments that organise many union histories. |
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Second, the book also faithfully reconstructs a number of campaigns that have expressed a commitment to 'social responsibility'. Mallory's account of the green bans of the BLF is largely familiar, but he provides additional material on BLF campaigns for worker control. His close study of the 1938 Dalfram dispute, in which WWF members at Port Kembla refused to load pig iron bound for an imperialist Japan, is a more absorbing, original, and instructive read. |
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Third, Uncharted Waters is also a vigorous political intervention. Mallory's intention is not only to describe trade union struggle, but also to contribute to it. His book successfully challenges the assumption that the BLF and the WWF sought to disrupt society simply for their own ends. Instead, he discovers principled moral behaviour and orientation to the social good. He also notes that these successful social campaigns were always prefigured by successful industrial struggle – first the full belly, and later the grand ambition. And the opposition that union radicals faced from business, governments and conservative unions is openly acknowledged, too. |
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Australian workers can be proud of many aspects of union history. Labour historians can be proud of contemporary practitioners who have sought to document past achievements, contemplate lessons learnt, and, through self-publication and voluntary effort, kept the flame of rebellion flickering still. |
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| University of Melbourne |
SEAN SCALMER | |
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