Working for the Class: the Praxis of the Wollongong out of Workers’ Union
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Working for the Class: The Praxis of the Wollongong Out of Workers’ Union Honours thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree BACHELOR OF ARTS (HONOURS) from UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG By NICHOLAS SOUTHALL SCHOOL OF HISTORY AND POLITICS AND SOCIOLOGY PROGRAM 2006 Synopsis In Wollongong during the 1980s unemployment sky-rocketed as capitalist crisis brought about mass sackings and a huge rise in youth joblessness. As part of a significant fight- back by the labour movement in Wollongong against unemployment and its effects, unemployed people in the Illawarra formed the Wollongong Out of Workers’ Union (WOW). This thesis explores and analyses the praxis of this union and the use of work as a form of class power. An important part of this thesis involves the use of Autonomist theories and concepts to examine class as a political project and class struggle as a diversity of praxi that can challenge capital and create alternative ways of working and living. Using an Autonomist Marxist theoretical framework, I have explored concepts such as class composition and self-valorisation and have provided a consideration and critique of previous research on work, unemployment, class, the right to work and work refusal. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with nine former WOW members, this study focuses on how WOW’s membership combined practices of work refusal with struggles for the right to work. Further I examine if these practices reflected and effected working class composition. The thesis also explores the relations between WOW’s members and trade unions, political parties, the state and capital and emphasises the culture of rebellion and resistance that was most clearly evident in the union’s connection to punk subculture. Findings from this study suggest that the praxis of WOW involved both individual and collective work refusal and struggles for the right to work and that the work of WOW’s membership reflected and effected working class composition. These struggles for the right to work and to refuse work can both be considered struggles against capitalism that helped to recompose the working class. CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE – CLASS STRUGGLE AND CRISIS……………………….. Page 1 International capitalist crisis and the rise of neo-liberalism…………………….. Page 4 Wollongong workers fight back………………………………………………….Page 6 No future?...............................................................................................................Page 9 Unemployed people - stepping into history………………………………………Page 11 The CPA - stepping out of history………………………………………………..Page 12 CHAPER TWO – WORKING IN COLLABORATION………………………...Page 13 Making choices…………………………………………………………………...Page 15 Inside out; Outside in……………………………………………………………..Page 16 Biographies of interviewees……………………………………………………....Page 20 CHAPTER THREE – THEORIES OF WORK AND ITS REFUSAL…………...Page 21 Autonomy, class and class composition…………………………………………..Page 22 What is work?..........................................................................................................Page 24 The unemployed…………………………………………………………………..Page 27 Work refusal………………………………………………………………………Page 28 The right to work………………………………………………………………….Page 33 CHAPTER FOUR – FORMATION, ORGANISATION AND STRUGGLE………………………………………………………………...Page 38 Formation………………………………………………………………………….Page 39 Log of claims……………………………………………………………………....Page 42 Campaigns and services…………………………………………………………...Page 43 Membership benefits……………………………………………………………....Page 44 Relationship with trade unions…………………………………………………….Page 45 Relationship with employed workers……………………………………………...Page 47 Organisation of the working class?..........................................................................Page 49 The Right to Work………………………………………………………………....Page 50 Work refusal……………………………………………………………………….Page 52 CHAPTER FIVE – WORK REFUSAL, THE RIGHT TO WORK AND CLASS COMPOSITION………………………………………………….Page 56 WOW and work refusal………………………………………………………….Page 57 WOW and the right to work…………………………………………………......Page 61 WOW – the right to work and work refusal……………………………………..Page 65 WOW and the labour movement………………………………………………...Page 67 WOW and class composition…………………………………………………….Page 70 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….Page 74 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………..Page 79 APPENDIX List of Interview Questions……………………………………………………....Page 97 Acknowledgements This thesis is dedicated to those who died, suffered and never recovered from the social impact of mass unemployment during the 1980s. While this thesis emphasises the continuing struggles and power of Wollongong’s working class I feel that it is important to remember the people whose lives have been devastated and lost. It is also important that I acknowledge that I could not have written this thesis without the labours of the working class. The Wollongong Out of Workers’ Union and its achievements were based on the activity of hundreds of the Union’s members and supporters and the accomplishments of the working class as a whole. As is this thesis. I would like to thank both of my supervisors. Dr. Mike Donaldson has assisted me greatly by spending much time sharing his skills and knowledge and providing me with the support and encouragement needed to complete this thesis. His intellectual rigour has also helped me to sharpen the arguments in this thesis. I also received valuable assistance from Dr. Steve Reglar whose interesting discussions and guidance helped me focus and think more clearly about my analysis. I am greatly indebted to Peter Cockcroft, Craig Donarski, Leanne Lindsay, George McIlroy, Lucy Pepolim, Gillian Pope, Sharon Pusell, Warren Smith and Richard Southall who agreed to be interviewed, made themselves available and openly shared with me their experiences and insights. These interviews helped deepen my understanding of all areas of this study and the interviewees’ enthusiasm significantly helped to sustain my own. I have also relied on the support and expertise of my brother Richard Southall and my close friend Dave Eden who encouraged me to do Honours and gave me advice about how to deal with the ups and downs of completing a Thesis. I am also grateful to Rachel Cathcart for offering to read my work and for her constructive feedback and Dr. Anthony Ashbolt for showing an interest in my work and sharing some of his insights with me. I must also thank Peter Cockcroft and Ben Bartlett for reading some of my work, offering their constructive criticisms and giving me the benefit of their experience and understanding of working class struggle. Thanks also to Alexander and Caitlin for their continuing support and their love and commitment to those we care about and for whom they are always there when needed. And to all the comrades I have worked with, without whom I would have learnt little and achieved even less. This thesis would never have been completed without the continuing encouragement, support and assistance I have received from my mother Nina Southall and my father, Raymond Southall. Thanks also to Michael Peterson for loving and helping to look after my daughter Ella, giving me more peace of mind and more time and space to complete this work. But my most important and heartfelt thanks go to my partner Sharon and my daughters Ella and Cali who have put up with me and been incredibly understanding about the fact that I have had very little time to spend with them. It is their support and love more than anything else that has enabled me to continue commodifying some of my labour, when I very often wanted to refuse to, and still have the time, energy and enthusiasm to complete this thesis. Sharon has been the crucial source of intellectual and emotional support for all of my work and by continuing to take on extra work she has given me the freedom to do my Honours year and made finishing this thesis so much easier. Thanks also to her for the four photographs used in the thesis. Working for the Class: The Praxis of the Wollongong Out of Workers’ Union The 1982 Right to Work March from Wollongong to Sydney. Interviewee Sharon Pusell is third from the right. Chapter One – Class Struggle and Crisis Don't be told what you want Don't be told what you need There's no future There's no future There's no future for you. (‘God Save the Queen’, Sex Pistols, 1977) For many years my friends have suggested I ‘write something’ about the Wollongong Out of Workers Union (WOW). I was a founding member and one of the convenors of WOW during most of its existence. Up until now I have had little chance to do this, but after much consideration, I decided that writing this thesis provided me with a good opportunity to clarify the praxis of WOW and to interrogate theoretical positions on work and work refusal. The thesis is specifically concerned to investigate strategies for freeing labour from the domination of capital and in particular to question whether work refusal and right to work struggles are contradictory or complementary to each other. My intention is to understand how WOW, the union and its members, sought individually and collectively to refuse and challenge commodified labour, while simultaneously fighting for the right to work. I will argue that the struggles of WOW members to refuse work and for the right to work were complementary and together helped politically to recompose the working class. This thesis builds on the work of others to contribute to a better understanding of the proletarian struggles of the 1980s. It utilises Autonomist Marxist theoretical