Lucy Taksa | President's Column | Labour History, 94

PRESIDENT'S COLUMN

In my last report in November 2007 I mentioned that the Perth Branch had accepted the invitation to host the next National Labour History Conference and I also referred to the decision to undertake a constitutional review. I am now pleased to provide updates on both matters. First, the Perth Branch is powering ahead in setting up the administrative framework for the conference, which includes a Call for Papers web capacity. Second, as I will explain below a number of important decisions have been taken in relation to the constitutional review process.

Following the Federal Executive meeting held at the Melbourne Conference, the Vice President and I engaged an appropriate lawyer to provide specialist legal advice on the nature of Federal incorporation vis-a-vis Branch affiliate status and also in relation to the decision by a number of Branches to obtain separate incorporation in order to ensure legal protection. The advice provided (primarily on matters of Branch and Affiliate status, as well as other procedural matters) was tabled and discussed at the Executive meeting held on 9 October 2007, after which the Executive resolved by majority with one abstention to 'move towards a national membership for the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History'. The resolution was communicated to all Branches and subsequently put to and passed by the AGM held on 29 November 2007. The move towards a national membership for the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History will come into effect on the 1 July 2008. In the meantime discussions on logistics will continue with the Branches.

Branch Support: The Bede Nairn Fund, which was established in 2006 has been extremely effective in fulfilling the goal of cementing relations between the Federal Executive and the Society's Branches by providing support for specific projects that are of interest to the organisation as a whole. In 2007, the Perth and Illawarra Branches successfully applied for grants of $1,000 from the Fund. In 2008 applications will be called for after the new constitutional arrangements between the Federal Executive and the Branches has been finalised.

New Branches: The establishment of the new 'virtual' Branch in the Northern Rivers region of NSW is in progress and members of the Federal Executive have begun communicating with labour historians in Tasmania with the view to establishing a new Branch there.

Affiliations: The Society is affiliated with a number of organisations. One is the Australian Historical Association (AHA). During the year the Society also re-affiliated with two other organisations. One was Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS), the peak body whose mission is to promote an appreciation of the value of the humanities, arts and social sciences in Australia. The Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (ASSLH) was one of the founding members of this organisation. However, before we re-affiliated, I was asked by the Federal Executive to investigate the organisation's commitment to the support of Australian journals in relation to the Howard Government's Research Quality Framework (RQF) exercise. The Federal Executive re-affiliated after we were assured by the CHASS Director of its commitment to promoting Australian journals, particularly for their inclusion by Thomson Scientific (which ranks the impact of journals internationally). The ASSLH continued it affiliation with the International Conference of Labour Historians (ITH) based in Linz, Austria and I also sent greetings (in Russian) to the conference on the 'History of the working people of Ukraine: from everyday life to social struggle' held on March 24, 2007 at the Institute of Postgraduate Education of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, which was arranged by the organising committee of the New Left movement and attended by over 70 Ukrainian scholars, and activists of social, political, anti-fascist and the trade-union movements. This conference resulted in the establishment of the Ukrainian Labour History Society. Financial and other forms of support were also provided for the Trans-Tasman Labour History Conference, held early in 2007 and we look forward to further collaborations with our colleagues in New Zealand.

Prizes: The ASSLH supports a number of prizes in order to recognise and encourage high achievement in the field. The Gollan prize was awarded to Rory O'Malley's article on 'The eclipse of mateship: the wide comb dispute 1979–85'. The Labour History Prize, funded equally by ASSLH and Unions NSW, was awarded to both Victoria Haskins' article: 'And so we are Slave Owners', and Sandra Cockfield's article: 'Arbitration and the Workplace'.

Commemoration: Sadly, two of this country's leading labour historians and founders of our society both passed away in October last year. To commemorate Eric Fry and Bob Gollan, the ASSLH held a symposium in Sydney in early February 2008 and it will dedicate a special issue of Labour History in honour of their contribution to the field.

I would like to thank all the members of the Federal Executive for their commitment to the Society and the work they did throughout 2007 to ensure that the Society and its journal continue to make a significant contribution to scholarship and to public debate. More specifically I would like to express my gratitude to the Vice President, Greg Patmore and the Secretary, Nikki Balnave who have played a critical role in ensuring that the constitutional review progressed effectively and who have worked very hard to ensure good working relations with the Branches.

The Members of the Federal Executive for 2008, as elected by the AGM are as follows: President - Lucy Taksa; Vice President - Greg Patmore; Secretary - Nikola Balnave; Treasurer - Anthony McLaughlin. Executive members - Melanie Oppenheimer, Andrew Moore and Sigrid McCausland. The names of the Branch representatives are as follows: Illawarra - Mairi Petersen; Adelaide - Louise Miller; Brisbane - Greg Mallory; Melbourne - Peter Love; Perth - Bobbie Oliver; Canberra - Peter Ellett; Sydney - Susan Tracey (acting). Contact details are shown on the Directory page.

Finally, on behalf of the Federal Executive, I would like to acknowledge the success of the labour movement's 'Your Rights at Work campaign' against the Howard Government's Industrial Relations laws and to congratulate the Labor Party on its resounding electoral victory in 2007 and commend the unions that supported its campaign. We look forward to working with the new Federal Labor Government in 2008 and also to a more fair and just approach to industrial relations and social issues.


	*Lucy Taksa*

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