Australia/UK Comparative Labour History

By Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (ASSLH)

Australia and the UK have a common heritage amongst unions, employers and political parties. A collection of papers explores the similarities and points of departure.

In July 2003 Manchester Metropolitan University hosted a conference on various themes of the labour history experiences of Australia and the United Kingdom.

Following the event, scholars from the conference combined to develop their contributions that now make up a large part of the 88th issue of Labour History.

Neville Kirk from Manchester Metropolitan University and with Anne Morrow of the Manchester International Centre of Labour Studies and Greg Patmore from the University of Sydney one of the key organisers of the conference introduces the contributions. He sets out the aims of such a conference. Great potential is seen in developing the area of trans-national comparative labour history.

A comparative trans-national focus enables researchers to understand and explain what is unique and exceptional about local regional or national events and "histories", and also enables recognition of "customs in common".

The reasons for such comparisons are partly explained by the origins of so many Australian unions as branches of their British counterparts. The Amalgamated Society of Engineers in Australia was formed on board ship en-route to Melbourne. By 1901 it was the oldest continuously operating union in Australia. Its founder John Davies, was honoured at a smoke concert that year and the presentation was made by J C Watson, leader of the recently formed federal ALP. These two events show the close connections and also the divergent paths of unions, as the British workers resisted the formation of a political party.

Contributors to the journal include Stefan Berger and Greg Patmore, asking the question "Why Compare Labour in Australia and Britain?" They are the marginal role comparative labour history has played and emphasis the important insights it can offer.

All labour historians are aware of archives, the minutiae contained within that keeps providing secrets and uncovering old lies and alternative explanations. Alan R. Bell, Janette Martin and Sigrid McCausland, all archivists and records managers trace the origins of labour history archives in Scotland, England and Australia and the strengths and weaknesses of collections. Issues of access are discussed.

Arthur McIvor and Chris Wright look at employer approaches from a comparative perspective. The focus on the first half of the twentieth century and are struck by the strong similarities.

Phillip Deery and Neil Redfern take o the complexities of the relationships between communist parties and labour and Labor, and the intersection of national movements with the Cominform. They also go into the post-war decline of communism.

Friendly societies were the starting point for trade unions and Bob James in Australia has been the major figure in resuscitating interest in these amongst labour historians. Here he and Dan Weinbren look at the overlap between friendly societies, freemasonry and trade unions in Australia and the UK.

Voluntarism is an area that the Labour History journal has explored I recent years, and Melanie Oppenheimer continues to delve into this field here, along with Justin Davis Smith. Labour has been seen as hostile to voluntary action but they argue that this view misrepresents the labour movements relationship to voluntary action.

Politics rears its ugly head most directly in Greg Patmore and David Coates on Labour parties and the state in the UK and Australia. Hawke-Keating and Blair have been part of a rewriting of labour party attitudes to state capacity. Neo-liberalism dominates in both countries in the major parties. Their paper maps continuities and discontinuities in the theory and practice of the state displayed by labour parties in both countries since the early 1980s.

Gregory Kealey from Canada who has worked on a previous issue that looked at Canadian and Australian labour history provides a postscript from another post-colonial settler society.

Labour History no 88, May 2005