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BOOK REVIEW
| Michael Hogan (ed.), Labor Pains: Early Conference and Executive Reports of the Labor Party of NSW, Vol. 1, Federation Press, Annandale, NSW, 2006. pp. x + 525. $66.00 cloth.
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| Students of the early Labor Party in New South Wales will welcome the convenience of this new book. Previously the Party's early conference and executive reports were only available from the daily and labour press. They are sometimes difficult to find from these sources, which varied in the completeness of their coverage. This book brings all of the most complete reports together for the first time for the period from the platform of 1891 to the conference of 1905 inclusive, together with brief contextual introductions to each of the reports by the editor, and a longer introduction to the whole collection. The only peculiarity in presentation is the inclusion of the 1893 Executive Report to the 1893 Special Conference with the Annual Conference of 1894. |
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The reports are varied in their extent, reflecting the growth and vicissitudes of the party, initially as the Labor Electoral League (LEL), and as Political Labor League (PLL) from 1895. The reports became quite limited for 1892–99, often concerned principally with establishment of the party's rules, such as the pledge for members of parliament (MPs). Attendance also varied, from about 20 delegates in 1892 and 1899, meeting for two to three days or evenings, to over 200 delegates from 1901 to 1905, meeting for nine to ten days or evenings. Small delegations in the 1890s reflected not only the gradual development of a mass base for the party in electorates, but also the decline and slow recovery of unions as a result of the depression, as well as a number of splits. |
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Michael Hogan's introductions are extremely helpful, based on a detailed understanding of the early workings of the party. He distils the main themes of the conferences in the general introduction: control of the party, party rules, platform and policy, and internal democracy. Some inaccuracies inevitably creep into the introductory material, however, especially regarding the AWU's early role. The AWU is wrongly attributed with being the main support for J.C. Watson and the LEL Central Committee in insisting on a stronger pledge for MPs, leading to the split of 1894–95 (p. 2), when in fact the AWU supported the MPs. Hogan notes more accurately that there was 'no love lost by the Shearers [AWU] for the TLC and the Central Committee of the LEL' (p. 97) in 1894, but contradictorily for the 1892–93 conferences he exaggerates how close Watson was to the Shearers Union, when he was president of the Trades and Labour Council (TLC) and LEL. It was only after he won the rural seat of Young in 1894 that Watson came to rely on AWU electoral support and they moved closer together in the rapprochement which saw the formation of the PLL in 1895. Hogan also mistakenly refers to the Australasian Federation of Labour (AFL) at one point (p. 124), although the subsequent document and all other references in the book correctly cite the Australian Labour Federation (ALF). |
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There is major confusion regarding the non-attendance of delegates from the party's founder, the TLC, at the 1892 conference. Hogan states that the TLC 'did not even bother sending delegates to the first Conference' (p. 2), which he acknowledges requires explanation since 'the Conference must have been convened by the Central Committee of the LEL, on which the Parliamentary Committee of the TLC still had a dominant role'. He incorrectly cites Raymond Markey suggesting 'that the TLC was divided over the issue of who could be delegates to the Conference, having recently ruled one prospective delegate ineligible'. Hogan also suggests that 'perhaps another consideration was ... the TLC Executive ... did not regard the LEL Conference as of great strategic importance at the time' (p. 16). The point was that four months before the Conference the TLC's Parliamentary Committee delegates to the LEL Central Committee were outnumbered by representatives from each local League. When the Central Committee asserted its authority over the TLC by ruling one of its delegates ineligible until he joined the LEL, at the same time criticising the attendance record of TLC delegates, a major dispute erupted. The issue became one concerning the role and level of representation of the TLC's Parliamentary Committee on the Central Committee; essentially whether it was its own creature or that of the founding TLC. This dispute was not resolved before the January 1892 conference, which reduced the level of the TLC's Central Committee representation from 11 to three. |
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These comments aside, this is a laudable publication. It has been handsomely produced, with virtually no typographical errors. The book is one of a number supported by the Committee for the Sesquicentenary for Responsible Government in NSW 1856–2006. |
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| Auckland University of Technology |
RAYMOND MARKEY | |
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