Foot Soldiers for Capital: the Influence of RSL Racism on Interwar Industrial Relations in Kalgoorlie and Broken Hill
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i Foot Soldiers for Capital: the influence of RSL racism on interwar industrial relations in Kalgoorlie and Broken Hill by Sarah Gregson B. A. (Hons) A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Industrial Relations and Organisational Behaviour Faculty of Commerce and Economics University of New South Wales 2003 ii SYNOPSIS The historiography of Australian racism has principally ‘blamed’ the labour movement for the existence of the White Australia policy and racist responses to the presence of migrant workers. This study argues that the motivations behind ruling class agitation for the White Australia policy have never been satisfactorily analysed. To address this omission, the role of the Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) in race relations is examined. As an elite-dominated, cross-class organisation with links to every section of society, it is argued that the RSL was a significant agitator for migrant exclusion and white unity in the interwar period. The thesis employs case studies, oral history and qualitative assessment of various written sources, such as newspapers, archival records and secondary material, in order to plot the dynamics of racist ideology in two major mining centres in the interwar period. The results suggest that, although labour organisations were influenced by racist ideas and frequently protested against the presence of migrant workers, it was also true that mining employers had a material interest in sowing racial division in the workplaces they controlled. The study concludes that labour movement responses to migrant labour incorporated a range of different strategies, from demands for racist exclusion to moves towards international solidarity. It also reveals examples of local and migrant workers living, working, playing and striking together in ways that contradict the dominant view of perpetual tension between workers of different nationalities. Lastly, the case studies demonstrate that local employers actively encouraged racial division in the workplace as a bulwark against industrial militancy. iii CONTENTS Abbreviations iv Acknowledgements v Introduction Foot Soldiers for Capital: Why focus on the RSL? 1 Chapter One Workers, Racism and the RSL: a review of the literature 16 Chapter Two Plotting the Ebb and Flow of Racist Ideology: a discussion of theory and methodology 45 Chapter Three ‘Australia’s Picked Citizens’: the RSL in the interwar years 87 Chapter Four Kalgoorlie in Context 117 Chapter Five Kalgoorlie between the Wars: a mine of racism? 151 Chapter Six Broken Hill in Context 199 Chapter Seven Broken Hill between the Wars: the RSL in a ‘union town’ 246 Conclusion Racist Ideology: the end of history? 292 Bibliography 303 Appendixes 334 iv Abbreviations ACTU Australian Council of Trade Unions AIF Australian Imperial Force ALF Australian Labor Federation ALP Australian Labor Party AMA Amalgamated Miners’ Association AWU Australian Workers’ Union BDAALP Barrier District Assembly of the Australian Labor Party BDT Barrier Daily Truth BEL Barrier Empire League BHP Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited BIA Barrier Industrial Association BIC Barrier Industrial Council BWA Barrier Workers’ Association CPA Communist Party of Australia CTA Country Traders’ Association DCM Distinguished Conduct Medal FEDFA Federated Engine-Drivers’ and Firemen’s Association FMU Coolgardie Federated Miners Union HRH His Royal Highness IWW Industrial Workers of the World or the ‘Wobblies’ MC Military Cross MEU Municipal Employees Union MHR Member of the House of Representatives MLA Member of the Legislative Assembly MLC Member of the Legislative Council MMA Mining Managers Association MMM Militant Minority Movement MUA Maritime Union of Australia NCA National Citizens’ Association NSWPD New South Wales Parliamentary Debates OBU One Big Union PM Prime Minister PPTUS/M Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat/Movement PSI Italian Socialist Party RSL Returned Soldiers’ Association Returned Soldiers’ League Returned Sailors and Soldiers’ Imperial League of Australia T&TL Trades and Trades Labourers’ Union VC Victoria Cross WIUA Workers Industrial Union of Australia v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the reference staff at all the institutions that hold sources used in this thesis. May you continue to do so. Despite the continual funding cuts and staff reductions that seemingly haunt all such publicly-funded organisations nowadays, you went placidly amid my noise and haste, providing invaluable assistance and never baulking at my strange inquiries. Special thanks go to the much-put-upon workers at the Noel Butlin Archives Centre – it is my sincere wish that your morning teas remain a haven in a heartless world for travelling historians. In addition, I confess to overworking staff at the NSW State Reference Library and the Mitchell Library in Sydney, the Battye Library in Perth, the Mortlock Library in Adelaide, the William Grundt Library in Kalgoorlie, the Charles Rasp Library in Broken Hill, the National Library of Australia and the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, the National Archives of Australia offices in Melbourne, Canberra, Perth and Sydney, the Melbourne University Archives and the UNSW Library. At the fearful risk of omitting important debts of gratitude, I would like to express appreciation for the individual assistance given by John Terrell, Victor Oates at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, and Wendy Carter at the Eastern Goldfields Historical Society. They were enormously helpful and generous with their time. When it comes to acknowledging supervisory help, things get a bit tricky. Of my supervisors four, Michael Quinlan was there at the kick-off. John Shields suggested the case study approach, sharing his own enthusiasm for Broken Hill history, while simultaneously sparking my transformation into a Kalgoorlie-phile. Peter Gahan made me write – no small task. However, special thanks go to Lucy Taksa, who exhibited unique staying power to be there at full-time, offering encouragement, useful advice and continual exhortations not to write in the passive voice. In addition, Phil Griffiths provided unofficial, but not unappreciated, guidance, inspiration, debate and red wine. Diane Fieldes and Sigrid McCausland were meticulous proofreaders, exhibiting friendship and good humour above and beyond the call. To all of you go my many thanks and a sincere hope that you think the final result was worth your collective efforts. Its shortcomings are not your fault. vi When I started university as a mature-age student in 1990, I had never even heard of ‘doing Honours’ and had certainly never imagined that I would take such a path and eventually enter upon PhD research. From start to finish, my family and friends provided constant support and, despite all evidence to the contrary, faithfully believed that I could pull if off. To Ian, the Gregson Five, Sue, Mel, Michael, and all at the Sydney Trade Union Choir – I am, somewhat uniquely, speechless in my infinite gratitude. Lastly, to my cat, Toby, who thinks lizards and rats are infinitely more interesting than PhDs – thanks for the reality check, moggy. INTRODUCTION Foot Soldiers for Capital: why focus on the RSL?1 [W]hat is significant to realise now is how every corner of that little suburban house must have been impregnated for years with the very essence of some gigantic and sombre experience that had taken place thousands of miles away … There was no corner of the house … that was not inhabited by the jetsam that the Somme and the Marne and the salient at Ypres and the Gallipoli beaches had thrown up. George Johnston, My Brother Jack George Johnston’s description of the tiny suburban Melbourne cottage in which David and Jack Meredith grew up evokes a fitting allegory of Australia in the aftermath of World War One, where the repercussions of overseas military involvement were clearly palpable for decades after the last shot was fired.2 The stark absence of so many young men who had left in a blaze of national pride and were now never to return; the disturbing presence of those who had come back with manifest signs of the ordeal through which they had suffered; the terrible poverty into which many soldiers slid as pre-war promises became post-war repudiations; all were jarring reminders of a ‘debt’ for which the home front could, or would, never adequately compensate. It was just as Mickey Flynn, Boer War veteran and boxing troupe manager, had warned his employees. ‘Don’t any of you go taking any notice of the Government’s promises’, he said, because ‘[t]hey will tell you anything to get you in but when you “do your bit” as they call it, you will soon be forgotten and so will the promises.’3 1 Returned service organisations throughout Australia have had a plethora of names and name changes. To avoid confusion with other, sometimes more radical, returned soldier organisations, the acronym ‘RSL’ is used throughout this thesis to denote State branches and sub-branches of the federally recognised Returned Sailors and Soldiers’ Imperial League of Australia, established in 1916. See L. Hills, The Returned Sailors & Soldiers’ Imperial League of Australia: Its Origin, History, Achievements and Ideals, part 1, Southland, Melbourne, 1938. 2 G. Johnston, My Brother Jack, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1995 (first published 1964), pp. 11-12. 3 A. B. Facey, A Fortunate Life, Penguin, Ringwood, 1981, p. 235. Introduction In a bid to capitalise on the collective potential of returned men and to win working class soldiers away