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THE MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE OF INDUSTRIAL. AND POLITICAL LA£OR IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA Essay by Ly1a E11iott* *Third Year Student, Edith Cowan University, 1994 THE MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE OF INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL LABOR IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA It was two o'clock in the afternoon on 11th April 1899, in Pearce's Athletic Hall in Bayley Street, C091gardie. -- Mr. Hugh De Largie, presi?ent of the Amalgamated Workers' Association, called to order the 21 delegates who had assembled for the First West Australian Trades Union and Labor Congress. It was appropriate that he chair the Congress as it had been convened on his initiative "to bring all into line for common action." (1) In addition to union delegates there were, among others, also delegates from the Kalgoorlie, Boulder and District Trades and Labor Council and the Perth Trades and Labor Council, which had been established earlier in the decade. The Congress sat for five days. The location of the Congress reflected th~ strength of the Trade Union Movement on the Goldfields. The miners, attracted to the area following the discovery of gold, were both numerous and active unionists. In the Great Strikes of 1890 to 1894 the attempts of the trade unions to achieve justice for workers through industrial action had been defeated by the backing of employers by the Colonial Governments using the machinery of the State : the police, troops and the Courts. They came to the conclusion that if they were to be successful they would have to put their own representatives in Parliament. To achieve this they needed firstly a united Labor Movement and secondly to organise politically. - 2 - It was this thinking that led to the Coolgardie Congress. Chairman De Largie delivered what was described as a "terse and graphic speech" emphasising the importance of the task that lay ahead of them. (3) The Congress adopted a platform covering electoral, industrial and taxation reform, mining and land legislation. It called for direct Labor representation by Labor men, a - , pledge from members ~o vote as the majority in Caucus assembled shall decide, and support for affiliation with the Australian Labor Federation. It agreed to a three-point fighting platform payment of members of Parliament, redistribution of seats on a population basis and a compulsory 'Arbitration Act, similar to that of New Zealand. On the adoption of a motion "That this Congress advocates the national ownership of all means of production and distribution for the equal benefit of all" the new President De Largie called for "Three cheers for socialism", which were heartily and enthusiastically given. (4) The first major victory for the new Labor organisation was the passage of the first Conciliation and Arbitration legislation in Australia in December, 1900, along the lines of the New Zealand legislation. The Premier, Sir John Forrest, was facing a no-confidence motion by the Leader of the Opposition, Illingworth,at the time representatives of the Labor Movement had met him seeking such legislation. He promised to accede to their request if they could get the motion defeated, which they did, and he kept his word. (5) The Second Trades Union and Labor Congress was held in Jacoby's Bohemia Hotel in Perth in 1900, the Third at the Trades Hall Kalgoorlie in 1901, and the Fourth at the Literary Institute Fremantle in 1902. The Fourth Congress dealt extensively with selection, endorsement and principles governing Labor Members of Parliament. - 3 - In a speech to the Congress, Henry Daglish, M.L.A., rejected its right to discipline Labor M.P.'s who he said were only answerable to electors. (6) However, the Congress decided that liAs the Parliamentary Labor Party is the outcome of organised Labor and Congress a duly constituted gathering of Union representatives, that it be a request to the P.L.P. to furnish through their leader a summary report of their proceedings from Congress to Congress." (7) By 1904 political-Labor had been so successful that the first Labor Government was elected to office headed by Henry Daglish. The Ministry contained men who had played a part in the early Trades Union and Labor Congresses ­ Robert Hastie, W.D. Johnson, J.B. "Holman, T.H. Bath and P.J. Lynch. What was to become known as "Labourism" was now under way in Western Australia : a movement of strong trade unions backed by political representatives who would achieve their objectives through parliamentary action. Unfortunately, Daglish and his Ministry proved to be a great disappointment. Daglish resigned after only a year in office and subsequently served in the Wilson Liberal Ministry. However, a comprehensive constitution for the Labor Movement in W.A. evolved over several Congresses, including the Fifth in 1905, the month before Daglish's resignation. At the Sixth Congress held in Kalgoorlie in 1907 a constitution was adopted which was to provide the basic framework for the Movement for over half a century, subsuming the existing T.L.C.'s. The supreme policymaking body was to be the General Council to meet triennially, an administrative Central Executive to meet monthly and seven (later nine) District Councils which were to play an important role in both political and industrial issues. Although the administration became political-industrial - 4 - compared to the original industrial-political emphasis, all bodies were dominated by the affiliated trade unions. This meant union control of policy and selection of candidates for Parliament. The objects of the new organisation were : (a) To strengthen and consolidate the Labor Organisations throughout the state; (b) To confer upon all matters of general concern to wage earners; and (c) To promote and extend such legislative reforms as will sec~re justi~e to all. The organisation was give!"! the name liThe West Australian Division of the Australian Labor Federation. 1I (8). IIFederation ll was changed to IIParty ll at the Fourth General Council in 1919. (9) Western Australia was the only state in which the Trade Union Movement chose to operate through a combined political and industrial organisation. By 1907 most of the other states had Trades and Labor Councils functioning separately from political Labor. The Tasmanian Council was established two years later. It was in 1907, too, that the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) clubs were formed by the Socialist Labor Party of N.S.W. The early socialists were opposed to Labourism and industrial arbitration, seeing both as impeding the struggle for socialism. They wanted instead direct action through the industrial movement to attain the new socialist society. This was to be accomplished through the establishment of One Big Union (O.B.U.) as the parliament of the working class" and the use of general strikes. (10) The socialists' 'direct action' policies of that time failed to attract much support from unionists, the great majority of them preferring the concept of reform through Parliament rather than revolution. The appeal of socialism was to come later in the early 1920's. By 1913 the mood of the Labor Movement in W.A. was happy, optimistic and united. Labor had been elected to office two years earlier. The Premier, John (Jack) Scaddan,had opened its new headquarters, the original Perth Trades Hall, the year before, and the war clouds of 1914 had not yet gathered. - 5 - The Official Report of the General Council held that year records : "Labor's Triennial Parliament assembled on Tuesday, July 1 under the happiest of auspices. The weather was ideal and the large gathering of Laborites from all parts of the state was naturally in the best of spirits. The gathering was undoubtedly the most important of its kind yet held in the state, the number of delegates present dwarfing the records of previous conferences •••• " - One hundred and ninety eight organisations representing 30,000 members sent delegates. The General Secretary, Alex McCallum, in his introduction to the Report, drew attention to the broad representative nature of the conference "On this occasion almost every line of industry was represented from city mechanics of every trade to the 'dauntless pioneers' represented by the prospector and miner of the outback, the sturdy timberworker and the roving homeless shearer, the station hand and the boundary rider, the farmer and his labourer, the clerk and the shop assistant, the small businessman struggling against the power of the Trust, all classes of railway employees, and the unskilled toiler in almost every branch of indust~y. These comprised a formidable array of deadly earnest men bent upon doing their best for the uplifting of humanity. "Congress had amongst its delegates the ardent single taxer, the land nationalist, the Temperance advocate and all classes of social reformers who realise that their one and only hope of bettering the conditions of the masses lies in the great Labor Movement••• " (11) The years following the 1913 conference were not as happy as those preceding it. Within a year Australia was involved in the First World War. In 1916 Jack Scaddan resigned as Premier, later turning his back on Labor to serve in the Nationalist Mitchell Ministry. In 1917 a Special Conference was called to deal with the conscription issue which split the Party. Men who had been involved in the early formation of the Labor Movement had now placed themselves outside the Labor Party by joining W.M. (Billy) Hughes pro-conscription breakaway group. 6 - These included George Pearce, Hugh De Largie and P.J. Lynch. (12) The Fourth General Council held in 1919, as usual dealt with many industrial issues. Some of the items debated were compulsory arbitration, equal pay for the sexes, 40 hour week, women's hours, a minimum wage, holidays, superannuation and workers compensation, all of which although industrial required the attention of government.

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