|
|
|
CONFERENCE REPORT
Labour Traditions
Donna Dwyer
Labour Traditions: The 10th National Labour History Conference, University of Melbourne, ICT Building, Carlton, Victoria, Australia, 4–6 July 2007.
|
1
|
| On a wet, winter morning in Melbourne – not that drought-weary Melbournians were complaining – a diverse crowd, a pleasing array of young and not-so-young, men and women, was given a warm welcome to the opening of the biennial 10th National Labour History Conference that this year centred on the broad theme of labour traditions. |
2
|
|
Peter Love's brief spirited address and don't-stand-on-ceremony approach set the tenor for a smorgasbord of offerings that were at once challenging and provocative: papers reworking the past and the present and forums in which activists and academics debated current controversies. For me, the conference stirred memories of the past and posed, once more, the dilemma in positioning important work/histories of so-called minorities. |
3
|
|
Among the opening sessions there were strong performances. We heard from a local young man, Jeff Sparrow, on the continuing debate on the legacy of Stalinism for socialism examined through the lives of three dissident Marxists. This was juxtaposed with Kerry Taylor's analysis of the Communist Party's positioning of itself in New Zealand political history, a reminder of the similarities and differences in Left politics across the Tasman. As with all densely packed conference sessions, however, the parallel offerings meant that it was possible to discover at morning tea, from the lively discussion that spilled over from another session, that there had been equally stimulating papers elsewhere. Fortunately these presentations appeared in the comprehensive set of papers we had been given and I marked them for future reference. |
4
|
|
| |
|
Senators John Faulkner and Robert Ray
Photo courtesy Peter Love
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
