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RecorderOfficial organ of the Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History Issue No. 268—December 2010 IN THIS EDITION: • Annual General Meeting, Melbourne Labour History, p. 1 • The Darebin Council election of 1998, Lyle Allan, p. 4 • Launch of the National Museum of Labour, Peter Love, p. 1 • ASSLH Announcements, p. 5 • 90th Anniversary of the CPA, Peter Love, p. 2 • NAA OWE rules, p. 6 • Now and Then Magazine (NML), p. 4 • Notices, p. 6 • Vale Kenneth Shaw Wreidt, Brian Smiddy, p. 4 • Melbourne Branch ASSLH contacts, p. 6 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Thursday 9 December 2010 5:30 – 6:30 pm at Trades Hall upstairs, Eva Room, enter from Lygon Street

Agenda Reports: Pres. Sec. Treasurer Elecon of office bearers

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF LABOUR that sit very comfortably next to those of the ASSLH, one of its fraternal organisations. They are: Launched in Canberra 11 November 2010 By Peter Love • To develop a new project of national significance in In 2008, a group of activists, led by UnionsACT, began the form of a museum to provide a permanent planning for the establishment of a national museum on exhibition of industrial labour history; the edge of Lake Burley Griffin to complement the other • To be a place for central exhibition, education and national institutions that grace its shores. Inspired, in display rather than a centralised repository; part, by the People’s History Museum in Manchester, • To bring together all sources of labour history for UK, they began the public campaign to set it up in 2009 public exposition; and have now officially launched it. • To allow Australia's rich labour and industrial history to be seen and our stories to be told; and • To provide a broad range of public access including: • static and dynamic displays; audio visual presentations and re-enactments; public education campaigns; travelling exhibitions; electronic and digital preservation and access to the on-line virtual museum.

Senator John Faulkner is the Museum Patron and the Board of Directors comprises:

Kim Sattler, UnionsACT (Chair); Peter Gordon, Slater & Gordon, principal sponsor; Brian Boyd, Victorian Trades Hall Council; Karen Banton, Bernie Banton Foundation; Martin O’Malley, CFMEU, SA; Eva Scheerlinck, consultant to the National Museum of Labour, and Glenn Hart, auditor and accountant; Karen Banton, Board member (Peter Love) Kevin Court, AWU, Qld; Simone McGurk, UnionsWA; As readers can see on the NML website at http:// Neale Towart, UnionsNSW; and www.nml.net.au/ the Museum has a set of objectives Nick Martin, Australian Labor Party.

Recorder No. 268 RECORDER The official launch took place in the Museum’s home 90th ANNIVERSARY OF THE COMMUNIST base, the Fitters’ Workshop at 11 Wentworth Avenue, PARTY OF AUSTRALIA Kingston, ACT at 1.00 pm on 11 November. The large open space was festooned with banners and posters, (1920-1991 version) thanks to the prodigious labours of Bill Pirie and Neale 7 November 2010 Towart, in complete disregard for the span of hours in By Peter Love their EBA! Kim Sattler welcomed the approximately 200 guests and introduced Ged Kearney, President of the As Recorder readers well know, attending birthday ACTU, who spoke with elegant conviction about how parties can be a perilous thing. While we do our best to important it was to have an institution that cover as many labour history events as we can, acknowledged and commemorated the labours of the occasionally we find ourselves in danger of factional many who had built the most significant and enduring cross-fire – something we’ve studiously avoided since movement in Australian history. we were founded in the early 1960s. When we were invited to attend the CPA’s 90th birthday, camera in hand, we accepted the invitation to record yet another significant event in Australian labour history. Little did we know, there was another, simultaneous, celebration planned by the current Communist Party of Australia. We would have liked to cover both, but only heard about one. We understand there has been a spirited email exchange over the issue. For the historical record, we hope copies survive!

Members of the Search Foundation, one of the heirs and successors of the old CPA, organised the birthday party at the AMWU’s Melbourne offices on Sunday 7 November. About 100 people attended to celebrate the role the CPA has played in advancing the socialist cause in Australia since 1920. In a press release and his speech Ged Kearney launches the National Museum of Labour (Peter Love) as MC on the day, Rob Durbridge talked about the She was followed by Dr Norman Abjorensen who Party’s achievements in fighting for causes, which, in offered a labour historian’s perspective on why it was their time, were often unpopular. He referred to its important to recognise the role of the movement in rejection of Stalinism in 1968, but tactfully said nothing resisting the arbitrary and capricious exercise of power about its earlier devotion to the Soviet regime. We were in the workplace, politics and social life. Anna Booth reminded of how Jack Mundey and his BLF comrades spoke on behalf of the principal sponsor, Slater and pioneered the Green Bans movement in , of the Gordon, and used the occasion to reminisce on the CPA’s tireless organising in the anti-Vietnam War challenges that confronted her when she led the demonstrations, and the role of Party members like clothing workers union. Gai Brodtmann, the newly- Eddie Mabo in agitating for land rights. In elected MHR for Canberra talked about the work that acknowledging the high membership turn-over, he led up to the foundation of the Museum and its referred to the old joke that ex-Communists were importance for the Canberra region, not only the wider Australia’s largest political party, although he did note in labour movement. Mike Kelly, MHR for Eden-Monaro, passing that the ALP was currently mounting a serious agreed with all that had been said so far, but claimed a challenge for that title. He also recalled, wryly, that special interest in the place, his father having worked in while the Australian electorate had declined to vote the the very building that houses the Museum. Before Kim CPA out of existence in 1951, the Party had voluntarily Sattler thanked all involved in organising the Museum done so in 1991. and its formal launch, the proceedings ended with two rousing songs from John Warner. Nobody was surprised Betty Oke was one of the veterans who were introduced when his final song addressed both the audience and to the guests. She spoke of her long-term engagement the banners hanging proudly on the walls. with the Party, beginning as a munitions worker during the Second World War, her activity with both the CPA Anyone interested in supporting the Museum can go to and the Communist Party of Australia Marxist-Leninist, the website to get more details, sign on as a member or and the comradeship she’d enjoyed over the years. simply bookmark the site to follow developments. As a George Edson, a 96 year old retired metal worker, supporting Society, the ASSLH recommends that apologised to Louise Connor, one of the organisers, that everyone sharing our interest in the movement and its ‘I haven’t been able to do much since I turned ninety.’ history give the National Museum of Labour whatever Nevertheless, he looked pretty spritely on the day. help they can to grow and prosper.

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Morag Loh (Peter Love) The speeches were a timely reminder that, despite the public denunciations of the Party over the years and some egregious political errors, it had been an extremely effective force for progressive, democratic change across a range of policy domains in Australia.

The celebrations were enlivened by a set of customary socialist songs performed by the Victorian Trade Union Choir, ending with a rousing version of the Internationale, for which the assembled comrades stood Betty Oke (Peter Love) and joined in lusty chorus. Michael Evans, the last full-time organiser in Melbourne, spoke of his association with the Party and paid tribute to the fellow members he’d worked with and admired over the years. ‘The best thing for me about the Communist Party was that sense of a common analysis about how the world works, and a shared vision about, and commitment to, what to do about it.’ He remembered with affection Alvie Booth, Thelma Prior, Leila Mullet, Ila Buchanan, Jack Hutson, Joan Goodwin, Taffy Jones, Lloyd Edmonds and especially the redoubtable Olga Silver who was present among the veterans, and who joined with them to cut the birthday cake. In thinking about the CPA’s legacy, he suggested that looking back to 19th or 20th century solutions was not really appropriate in our present circumstances. Rather than a disciplined party on the Leninist model, Cavell Zangalis, Louise Connor and Carmel Shute (Peter Love) the way forward was to build broad coalitions of After formal thanks to Cavell Zangalis, Carmel Shute, progressive forces to address the problems we face in Louise Connor, Rob Durbridge and Roger Wilson for the 21st century. At the moment, he reckoned that ‘… organising the function, guests cheerfully returned to the Greens are the “biggest game in town” for the left their food, drink and reminiscences. In all, it was a day of today’. generous spirited comradeship and commemorative good cheer. Morag Loh talked about the remarkable work of the Union of Australian Women, a significant number of More photographs from this event, and from the launch of the whom were CPA members. She provided an impressive National Museum of Labour, can be found on our facebook page. account of how they had worked tirelessly, often at local Type in Labour History Melbourne to find us. level, to establish and support community facilities such as child care centres, schools, hospitals and health care centres. Their quiet, unassuming labours have left a very tangible legacy for all, as has their wider agitation for equal pay and peace.

3 Recorder No. 268 RECORDER Now and Then Magazine (NML) Dummy candidates and the end of Labor endorsements. The Darebin Council The National Museum of Labour’s magazine Now and election of 1998 Then is looking for articles for its next issue. The deadline is 30 January 2011. By Lyle Allan Democracy returned to Darebin, Melbourne’s largely The first issue coincided with the museum launch in working class municipality based on the areas of Fairfield, Canberra on 11 November. Northcote, Preston, and Reservoir, with the election by The first edition featured articles on Bill Mellor, Percy postal ballot of a new municipal Council during Brookfield and Norman Brown, along with an item on September 1998. Darebin then had nine single-councillor the ASSLH itself. wards, and ALP member candidates were successful in all Short informative articles wards at that election, as they were at all Darebin (750 words) with pictures are welcomed. elections held between 1996 and 2005. Council elections in Darebin are a contest between rival ALP factions. If interested in contributing an article, please contact the editor Peter Galvin at [email protected] The fact that elections were held at all in 1998 represented a political decision by Victoria’s Liberal A Moderate in a Confronting Era: Government. The previous Darebin Council was Kenneth Shaw Wreidt suspended by Victoria’s Local Government Minister, Robert Roy Cameron Maclellan, after a Board of Inquiry 11 July 1927 – 18 October 2010 into the Council during 1997. Mr Maclellan supported By Brian Smiddy findings by Mr Elsum, who conducted the Inquiry that With the death of Ken Weidt, a Darebin Council could not operate effectively because of Minister in the Whitlam Labor interference from factions within the ALP. Government, the end of a great era in Australian Labor politics is The ALP is a faction-based party. It consists of competing fast approaching. groups (or parties within the party) competing for the spoils of office, for party positions and for endorsement Ken Wriedt was elected to the as candidates for parliamentary and municipal office. A Senate in 1967 representing ‘deal’ between the factions usually (but not always) Tasmania, retiring in 1980. He results in candidates being chosen for public office from held the portfolios of Primary the various factions in proportion to the strength of Industry, Agriculture and factions within the party. The ALP endorsed candidates in Minerals & Energy and was 1996. It did not do so in 1998. Nor did it do so at any Labor leader in the Senate. elections subsequently. The various factions competed against each other for the spoils of Council office. Following his retirement from the Senate, he stood for the House of Representative seat of Denison but lost. In The biggest loser in the election of 1998 was the ALP 1982, he switched to state politics and was a Minister for a Socialist Left (SL) faction. No candidate belonging to that short while in the ALP/Greens Accord years and State faction was successful. The principal reason for the SL loss Opposition leader. He retired in 1990. was the use of so called “dummy” candidates by all other ALP factions. Daniel Moloney, in an article in The In the early part of his life he was a music-loving seaman, Melbourne Times (26 August 1998, p.9) claimed, citing working as a navigation officer on bulk carriers and oil unnamed local critics, that almost half of the 72 tankers. He told an ABC reporter that ‘only ships and fools candidates in the Darebin Council elections were ‘dummy go to sea. There is a certain “lone-ness” about going to nominees.’ sea. Not loneliness. It tends to make people self sufficient.’ It is not unusual that candidates who are the beneficiary of dummy preferences, like typical dummy candidates Wreidt regarded himself as never enough of a bastard to themselves, are not of great calibre. Voters need to assess make it to the top. However, he made a great carefully the policy statements and personal qualities of contribution to Labor Governments and he was highly all candidates. It is probably wishful thinking to expect a respected by all sides of politics. He was a man of majority of voters to do so. compassion and he warned of ‘breeding grounds of political violence and unrest’ in poor nations and railed Please direct any comments to [email protected] against the futile and shameful Vietnam War.

To his family we offer our deepest sympathies at the passing of a great politician.

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Australian Society for the Study of Labour action when they entered History Announcements the ‘Ladies’ Gallery’ of the House of Commons. With vision into, and out of, the Gallery obscured by an iron grille, Matters and Fox chained themselves to the grille, a symbol of the restrictions placed on women’s involvement in politics. They interrupted parliament by throwing handbills (with the aid of supporters in the Strangers’ Gallery) and calling out ‘Votes for Women’. Quickly removed, she was subsequently arrested and sentenced to one month’s gaol. Matters went on to do much more, but the incident provides an entry point into her life. A ‘Grille Exhibition’, with the grille on loan from Westminster, is being held in Parliament House to commemorate the 102nd anniversary of the protest.

Anyone interested in Muriel’s life can contact the Muriel Matters Society by email [email protected] or visit their webpage: www.murielmatterssociety.com.au They can also make contact with the Adelaide Branch of ASSLH: Kevin Kaeding [email protected] or Gary Greg Patmore Lockwood [email protected]

At its editorial board meeting held on 26 November, the Photograph from the Muriel Matters Society webpage. board farewelled Greg Patmore who is standing down **** after 11 years as editor of the journal Labour History. The Canberra Branch has released a call for papers for Greg has played a key role in ensuring the success and the 12th Biennial Labour History Conference ‘Labour survival of the journal. Its independence in the digital History & Its People’. The conference is being run in age, first secured with its association with the History association with the National Centre of Biography, Cooperative, and in the future with the non profit Research School of Social Sciences, ANU. It will be held organisation JSTOR, due to the Co-op’s unfortunate at the Manning Clark Centre, ANU in Canberra: 15-17 demise, is very much due to the work that Greg has September 2011. done. The Melbourne Branch extends its appreciation to Greg for his stewardship of the journal and for his Contributions (papers, themed discussion panels, audio/ friendship. The journal will be staying at the University visual presentations and performances) are invited. An of Sydney with John Shields as editor and Nikki Balnave abstract of less than 500 words should be sent to the as deputy editor. May 2011 marks the 100th edition of convenor by 1 February 2011. Papers for formal the journal, and the 50th anniversary of the Australian referring need to be in by 1 March 2011. All papers Society for the Study of Labour History (Melbourne’s should follow the Labour History Style Guide and be 50th is in 2012). **** limited to 5,000 words. Non-refereed papers, which will be distributed at the conference, need to be submitted The Adelaide Branch of the Society, under the by 1 August 2011. Conference papers will be available at presidency of Gary Lockwood, has been involved in the the conference and a book of selected papers will be Why Muriel Matters campaign. Born in South Australia, published in 2012. Muriel Matters travelled to in 1905 where she joined up with campaigns for women’s suffrage. Muriel Contact the Conference Convenor, Professor Melanie went on to join the Women’s Freedom League and Nolan, Director of the National Centre of Biography, for became a formidable activist and galvanising orator. She further details and to submit abstracts: travelled on the Votes for Women Caravan Tour in 1908. [email protected] and visit the ASSLH website In that same year Muriel, along with Helen Fox and for updates: www.asslh.org.au Violet Tillard, were involved in another high profile

5 Recorder No. 268 RECORDER National Archives of Australia OWE Rules Notices Recorder readers should be aware that the NAA has changed the way that it processes records with an Open Congratulations to Grace Karskens, winner With Exception (OWE) status. In a recent trip to the of the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Canberra reading rooms we were surprised to find that nonfiction, for her book The Colony: A records with an OWE decision made prior to 2008 need History of Early Sydney. The book is to be reexamined prior to access. This is a process that published by Allen & Unwin. can take some time and you will almost certainly not **** have immediate access to these records. Please be Hundreds of people crowded into the Bella aware of this when you are next planning to access OWE Union Bar at Trades Hall for the launch of records. On the positive side, a request to open records Michael Hyde’s latest book All Along the that have been designated as closed can made if they Watchtower: Memoir of a Sixties revolutionary. are over 30 years old. See their Fact Sheet #11. In his speech, Humphrey McQueen hit both humorous and controversial notes, Notices suggesting that ASIO files, in their moral WOMEN, LEADERSHIP AND DEMOCRACY IN illegality, should be destroyed. It is AUSTRALIA published by The Vulgar Press. 1-2 December 2011 **** Old Parliament House, Canberra HISTORIES OF LABOUR: National and International Perspectives, is edited by Joan A national conference hosted by The University of Allen, Alan Campbell & John McIlroy. It Melbourne and the Museum of Australian Democracy at provides ‘a survey of the global trajectory Old Parliament House. of labour history’. Contributors include Eric Papers are invited from researchers, activists, Hobsbawm and Greg Patmore. It has been politicians, community, business and civic leaders, and produced by Fernwood Publishers. others interested in the history and future of women’s **** leadership in Australia. In September this year Federation Press This national conference aims to bring together a released a new book, The Right to Strike in diverse range of people interested in women’s history, Australia, by Shae McCrystal. According to Indigenous studies, gender studies, political history, the publishers, the ‘book examines whether political science, democracy, and industrial relations in there is a right to strike in Australia through Australia. The conference is being conducted as part of a detailed study of the laws which impact the ARC Linkage project Women and Leadership in a on the capacity ... to take industrial action.’ Century of Australian Democracy, and the proceedings will be published as part of the project’s outcomes. Melbourne Branch ASSLH Contacts The conference will showcase the diversity of research on women’s leadership in Australian society since 1900. President It will reveal new understandings of women’s civic and Peter Love, 51 Blanche Street, St Kilda 3182. political leadership, from the neighbourhood to the Tel: 9534 2445 international level, and uncover the experiences of Secretary women who performed significant leadership roles at Brian Smiddy, 7 The Crest, Watsonia 3087. the community level including consumer, political and Tel: 9435 5145 environmental movements, as well as in Indigenous, Treasurer migrant and rural communities. It will also explore the Phillip Deery, 85 Little Page Street, Albert Park 3206. extent to which Australian women have provided Tel: 9690 2184 leadership in multilateral organisations concerned with global democracy, such as the League of Nations, the Website: http://www.asslh.org.au/melbourne International Labor Organization and the United Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Labour- Nations, as well as through regional and international History-Melbourne/113041018756202 advocacy networks. (or just type in ‘Labour History Melbourne’) ABSTRACTS Recorder is published four times a year. The opinions of Please submit an abstract (maximum 500 words) the contributors are their own and not necessarily those including the title and scope of your 20 minute paper to of the Editor or Executive of the ASSLH, Melbourne Dr Mary Tomsic at [email protected] by 5 Branch. Send all contributions and queries to the editor, March 2011. Any other inquiries may also be directed to Julie Kimber ([email protected]) this email address.

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