|
|
|
EDITORIAL
| This edition of Labour History commemorates the lives of Bob Gollan and Eric Fry who passed away in October last year. They played an essential role in the establishment of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History and this journal. There are obituaries, and three papers which were presented by Verity Burgmann, John Merritt and Susan Magarey at a symposium held by the Business and Labour History Group at The University of Sydney on 8 February. I thank Peter Love for organising this very special section. We greatly miss Bob and Eric and this special section will remind readers of their rich lives and their contribution to the development of the field of Australian labour history. |
1
|
|
The remainder of the issue serves as a testament to the continued vitality of Australian labour history. Two articles deal with the question of race and ethnicity, one re-addressing the neglect of the role of Indian workers in a major industrial action in support of Indonesian independence, and the other challenging the assumption of working class racism against Chinese workers. Heather Goodall investigates the boycott of Dutch shipping in Australian waters in 1945 which was called in support of the Indonesian declaration of independence. While Indian seamen played a substantial role in the implementation of the boycott, they have been ignored in the Australian accounts. Heather's article studies why this absence has arisen in histories of the strike. Phil Griffiths re-examines the life of Angus Cameron, challenging the notion that the working class pushed anti-Chinese agitation in New South Wales during the 1870s. |
2
|
|
Three other articles explore the language of class, women's activism and the question of equal pay for women. Nick Dyrenfurth scrutinises the changing language of Australian labour concerning employers in the 1880s. Employers shifted from being a relatively harmless 'employer' of Australian labour to a nasty `capitalist'. The little analysed 1885–86 Melbourne Wharf Labourers' strike is a case study for understanding this changing language. Judith Smart looks at the establishment of commune by The Women's Political Association and Peace Army to assist strikers and their families during the 1917 Wharf Labourers' strike in Melbourne. The article draws a link between guild socialism and feminism, with the organisation characterising their actions as self-help and self-relief and renaming their headquarters the `Guild Hall Commune'. Tom Sheridan and Pat Stretton also try to fill the gaps in the historiography concerning the slow progress towards equal pay for Australian women, noting that historians tend to focus on turning points such as benchmark arbitration cases and ignore the developments in between. This article focuses on the reasons for the slow progress between 1949–68, examining the role of Labor and Non-Labor. |
3
|
|
This issue also contains a number of other note-worthy contributions. Rowan Cahill has written a research report on Rupert Lockwood, a Communist journalist who was active during the 1940s to the late 1960s. Lockwood's lecture on the technique of writing working-class journalism has lessons for a wider range of authors. Meredith Burgmann, the former President of the New South Wales Legislative Council, and Yvette Andrews provide fascinating insights into the role of the Ernie Awards in fighting sexism in New South Wales. There is a generous collection of book reviews and we are grateful to the writers of these reviews and the team of book review editors. |
4
|
|
In the editorial of the November 2007 Labour History I referred to the former federal government's attempt to establish a Research Quality Framework (RQF) which tried to rank academic journals in terms of quality using measures such as the level of citations. Citation indexes pose problems for Australian journals and researchers who focus on Australian concerns. The new federal Labor Government elected in November 2007, in keeping with their election promise, abolished the RQF. They are seeking to replace it with an alternative model based on quantitative data which will recognise the Australian content of locally owned and edited journals and the contribution these journals make to understanding Australian society and public policy issues. The Society is supporting a project at the Business and Labour History Group, The University of Sydney, to analyse citations particularly in the area of labour history. It is already finding that labour historians tend to draw upon books rather than academic journals and that highly ranked labour history journals published in the US and UK have little direct impact on labour history scholarship in countries such as Australia and Canada. |
5
|
|
The three-year term of the previous editorial board of Labour History ended on 31 December 2007. The federal executive elected a new board for 2008–10. I would like to thank the previous editorial board members for their help over the last three years and welcome the new editorial board. I would also like to thank Margaret Walters and Carl Power in the Business and Labour History Group, The University of Sydney, for their outstanding efforts in keep the journal running in excellent order. Finally, the Faculty of Economics and Business, The University of Sydney, has decided to continue its contribution to the funding the journal for the term of the next editorial board. We thank them their financial support and the provision of office space at the Institute Building. The vote of confidence by the Faculty in the journal is also a vote of confidence in the pioneering work of Bob Gollan and Eric Fry. |
6
|
|
|
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|