CONFERENCE REPORT

Trans-Tasman Labour History: Comparative or Transnational?

Peter Franks

Three glorious summer days and the hospitality of the Auckland University of Technology provided an ideal environment for the first ever trans-Tasman Labour History Conference. Held at the Auckland University of Technology from 30 January to 1 February, 2007 the conference was attended by historians from inside and outside of universities, postgraduate students, and local labour movement activists. They listened to, and debated, over 30 stimulating papers by Australian and New Zealand speakers.	1
The conference opened with a Powhiri in which local Maori representatives welcomed conference participants to the University marae. The following morning the proceedings began with a stimulating paper by Ann Curthoys and John Docker who took up arguments from their recent book to examine whether Labour History is Fact or Fiction. The lively discussion that followed revealed a refreshing interest in the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides.	2
The conference organisers commissioned Australian and New Zealand historians to work on parallel papers which would result in joint papers on a variety of topics to be published in Labour History in 2008. This will follow the Australian-Canadian and Australian-British comparisons published in previous issues of Labour History.	3
Bradon Ellem examined four crucial periods in the history of Australian unions while I discussed turning-points in New Zealand union history. A common theme was that, more than in other market economies, Australasian unions have been shaped by the state.	4
Ray Markey found much in common between the Australian and New Zealand Labo(u)r parties and asked whether they could be regarded as an antipodean phenomenon. Kerry Taylor considered whether the Communist Party of Australia had played the role of big brother to its fraternal party across the Tasman. Greg Patmore examined the development of Rochdale consumer co-operatives in Australia and New Zealand.	5
Ray Markey, Conference convenor Photographer: Belinda Nash, AUT Media Unit
Michael Quinlan discussed the role of the state and the regulation of work in Australia while Gordon Anderson traced the equally significant role of the state in New Zealand industrial relations. Melanie Nolan presented a joint paper with Rae Frances and argued that New Zealand and Australia are natural subjects for a transnational study of gendered labour relations because of the similarity of their social institutions and political legislation. Erik Olssen gave a lively summary of recent research on class and labour in New Zealand.	6
Other papers offered a wide range of topics and approaches. Carina Hickey examined the colourful New Zealand Labour cabinet minister Bob Semple's complex relationship with his native country, Australia. Rory O'Malley discussed differences in trans-Tasman shearing culture and unionism. Sarah Gregson challenged the view that the labour movement was decisive in establishing the White Australia policy. Diana Covell compared organised efforts by groups of women in Wollongong, NSW, and Hamilton, Ontario, to get jobs in the steel industry.	7
Mark Derby discussed the influence of radical and socialist literature, particularly that published by the Chicago-based Charles H. Kerr and Co., on militants in early twentieth century New Zealand. Lisa Sacksen traced the splintering of the Communist Party of New Zealand from 1960 to 1980 as it switched allegiances from the Soviet Union to China to Albania. Nicholas Dyrenfurth used the 1886 Melbourne Wharf Labourers' strike to show how, in the language of Australian labour, benign 'employers' became villainous 'capitalists'. David Baker argued that the local relationships between union officials and police were significant in limiting violence on the picket lines in the 1992 APPM (Associated Pulp and Paper Mills Ltd) dispute at Burnie, Tasmania, and in the 1999 waterfront dispute at Lyttelton in New Zealand's South Island.	8
Several papers presented an explicitly transnational analysis. James Bennett reflected on the challenges he faced in researching his 2004 book, 'Rats and Revolutionaries': The Labour Movement in Australia and New Zealand 1890–1940. Shelley Harford showed how transnational ties between Australian and New Zealand peak union organisations led to support for local and regional unionism in the Pacific. Heather Goodall highlighted the little known role of Indian seamen in the Australian strike against Dutch shipping in the late 1940s and questioned the internationalism of Australian unionists.	9
Fotu Fisi'iahi, keynote speaker and leader of the PSA strike in Tonga in 2005 Photographer: Belinda Nash, AUT Media Unit
The highlight of the conference for me was the keynote address on 'Trade Unionism and the Struggle for Democracy in Tonga' by Fotu Fisi'iahi, a senior public servant and a leader of the Tongan Public Service Association (PSA) and the political reform movement. His low-key, humorous presentation belied the seriousness of his subject. Fotu's analysis of the public servants' peaceful strike in August/September 2005 – which led to wage increases of 8 to 60 per cent – was a primer in union organising. While acknowledging the support of New Zealand and Australian unions, he showed that the Tongan unionists' success owed a lot to their ability to win support from all sections of society. Fotu concluded on a sombre note. The torching and looting of Nuku'alofa's central business district in November 2006 resulted in over 1,000 arrests and a crackdown against the pro-democracy movement.	10
One of the main themes that emerged from the conference presentations was that the similarities between the histories, traditions and institutions of the Australian and New Zealand labour movements are stronger than the differences. The first Australian Labor Prime Minister, John Christian Watson, spent his early years in New Zealand where he learnt his craft as a typesetter. New Zealand's first Labour Prime Minister, Michael Joseph Savage, was a miner from Benalla, Victoria. Both countries have the unique heritage of the male wage earner welfare state, founded on industrial conciliation and arbitration, labourism and the marginalisation of women and indigenous people.	11
Given the common experiences of the two labour movements, it is a pity that it has taken until 2007 for a conference dedicated to trans-Tasman labour history. However this conference was a good start in greater collaboration between Australian and New Zealand labour historians. The organising committee, convened by Professor Ray Markey, is to be congratulated for its initiative and its hard work in ensuring a very successful conference.	12
Peter Franks was a trade union official for over 20 years. He now works as an industrial mediator. He has published numerous articles on NZ labour history. His history of the New Zealand printing trades unions, Print and Politics, was published in 2001. <peter.franks@paradise.net.nz>

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