ABSTRACT Closer Unity in the Queensland Trades Union
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ABSTRACT Closer Unity in the Queensland Trades Union Movement 1900-1922 is a descriptive and analytic account of the evolution and develop ment of the structural forms of Queensland trades union organisations in the first two decades of the twentieth century. While the thesis concentrates mainly on the formation of a stable, widely acceptable form of central organisation for the whole state, it also analyses and delineates the re-organisation of newly formed and already es tablished unions on a more closely-knit and more centralised basis. The central theme of the thesis explores the phenomenal growth in union membership and the number of unions, the major social, indust rial, economic and political crises in Queensland (but in some in stances such as World War 1 on a broader scale) and their relation ship to the amount of and type of experimentation in form and structure in the Queensland trades union movement. The first chapter is concerned with the fundamental doctrine of closer unity that '^unity is strength*', the origins and trends of this phenomenon in Great Britain and the United States of America and the development of these trends in the Queensland context. Particular emphasis is given to the influence of crises during times of union expansion on the amount of experimentation with new union structures. This "crisis growth" theory is applied to the circumstances of the Queensland movement during the first two decades of the twentieth century. The close relationship between the advocates of closer unity and the Queensland Parliamentary Labor Party is discussed as a unique factor influencing the trends within the Queensland closer unity movement. The criteria for designating unions as being militant or non-militant are re-defined in terms of the perceptions of the contemporary trades union movement. In the first decade and a half of the twentieth century, particularly, trades unionists perceived militancy in different terms to those used by some later historians of the Australian trades union movement. Chapters two, three and four trace the revival of tmionism which occurred in Queensland and the parallel attempt to achieve a max imization of the strength of the expanding linion movement by uni fying trades unions under the unbrella of the Atistra,lian Labour Fed eration, The culmination of these attonpts was the staging in 1910 and 1911 of the first trades and labour congresses to be held in Queensland, There is a re-interpretation of the causes of the union revival and the rapid re-growth of trade unionism in the state during these two decades. In accotmting for the rate and extent of the xmion revival, much greater significance is placed on the influence of the 1905-7 split in the PLP and the role of professional union officials, especially during the first decade. The expansion and influence in the union movement of the Amal gamated Workers Association of Queensland and the consequent donise of the AIF are described and analysed in chapters five and six, A major concern of chapter six is the significance of the 1911 sugar strike and the 1912 tramway strike in deciding what direction the closer unity movement would take in the second decade. Chapter seven continues to analyse the importance of the AWA in the Queens land union movement. Consequently, it traces and analyses the sig nificance of the MA's amalgamation with the Australian Workers Union in 1913 and the new amalgamation's attempts to become the One Big Union, Chapter eight is concerned with the influence on the Queensland closer unity movement, of the first world war and the social, polit ical , economic and industrial crises which occurred in Australia as a result of the war. It accounts for Queensland's rejection of the OBU as a suitable structural form for achieving closer unity and em phasises Queensland's preference for the Labour Council structure. The lead given to the Queensland trades union movement by the Brisbane trades unions in achieving closer unity is outlined in the last chapter. In describing the development of the movement that lead in 1922 to the re-establishment of the Brisbane Trades and Labour Council, the basic divisions that developed within the Queens land union movement and in the total labour movement in the state are revealed. The trades union movement is shown to be divided on the basis of a new definition of militancy based, chiefly, on align ment or non-aligrmient v/ith the Queensland Labor Party. Finally, in the conclusion an evaluation is made of the significance of the developments and experimentation of the period 1900-1922 in establishing the future patterns of trades union structure and organisation in Queensland, CLOSER UNITY IN THE QUEENSLAND TRADIS UNION MOVEMENT 1900-1922 A thesis submitted to the Queensland University for the degree of Master of Arts by John Brian Armstror^ by John Brian Armstrong March 1975 CONTENTS Abbreviations Introduction page i Chapter 1 Closer Unity page 1 Chapter 2 Union Revival 1900-1907 page 19 Chapter 3 A New Direction page 43 Chapter 4 **The Key to Industrial Democracy** page 75 Chapter 5 •*A Broader Spirit of Unionism** page 102 Chapter 6 The End of an Era page 130 Chapter 7 Araal gamat i on page 154 Chapter 8 The Brisbane Industrial Council page 188 and the One Big Union Movement Chapter 9 Pattern for the Future page 230 Conclusion page 256 Appendix A page 200 Appendix B page 261 Appendix C page 261 a, b Bibliography page 262 ABBREVIATIOKS ABIEU Australian Building Industry Employees Union ABTEF Australian Boot Trade Employees Federation AJPH Australian Journal of Politics and History ALF Australian Labour Federation AmalWU Amalgamated Workers Union of Queensland AQIEU Australian Meat Industry Employees Union ANU Australian National University AP&6U Atistiralian Plumbers and Gasfitters Union ARU Australian Railway Union ASE Australian Society of Engineers ASP Austxullan Socialist Party ASPA Australian Sugar Producers Association Asm Australian Sugar Workers Union Amalgamated Workers Association AWU Australian Workers Union BDC Brisbane District Council (of the AWA) BIG Brisbane Industrial Council CPE Central Political Executive C&SE Austxulian Coal and Shale il^ployees Union CSR Colonial Sugar Refining Company Limited cue C^nbined Union Committee GWU General Workers Union HSANZ Historical Studies of Australia and New Zealand IPA Industrial Peace Act IWW Indxistrial Workers of tke World LDCC Labotir Day Celebrations Committee NPiaWEA Non-political Mine and Works Employees Association OBU One Big Union PLP Parliamentary Labor Party QCE Queensland Central Executive QGG Queensland Government Gazette QF& Queensland Parliamentary Debates QPP Queensland Parliamentary Papers QRU Queensland Railway Union QfTA Queensland Typographical Association QTLUC Queensland Trades and Labour Union Congress BWU Rural Workers Union THC Trades Hall Council TLC Trades and Labour Council TUC Trades Union Congress ULA United Labourers Association WIIUA Workers International Industrial Union of Australia WIUA Workers Industrial Union of Australia WPO Workers Political Organization INTRODUCTION From 1889 onwards, significant groups within the Queensland trades union movement attempted to establish a central organisation to bring closer iinity to the industrial wing of the labour movement. Until the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, the focus for the hopes of closer unity advocates was the Austra.lia.n Labour Feder ation, The years after the end of that decade were marked by much ex perimentation in forms of central organisation in an attempt to find the • form that would satisfactorily meet the needs peculiar to the Queensland trades union movement. This was evident both within the structure of individual imions and within the whole industrial movement of the state. The major fonas of structure experimented with by individual unions were the traditional craft union, the **new model" craft union of the style of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, the industrial union which embraced all unionists in an industry, skilled or unskilled, within the one framework, mass unions organised either in a loose regional structure or controlled closely by one central executive, and state-wide and nation wide federations or amalgamations of kindred unions. At an inter-xinion level, the main forms ¥/hich were experimented with were the traditional trades and laboxor council, the loosely organised federation, the tightly- knit amalgamation, and the highly-centralised One Big Union structure with its emphasis on the organisation of unions into industrial groups. This XX was a period fertile in ideas and theories of union structure. Ex perimentation to find the most stable and most acceptable form was a persistent feature of industrial development and growth in the era. Despite the interest of nineteenth century and early twentieth century unionists in closer unity, Queensland historians, with few exceptions, have concentrated their research and their publications on other aspects of trade union development, most notably the major strikes, the growth in size and organisation of individual unions and the unions* relationship with the political wing of the local labour movement. There have been analyses and descriptive accounts of the structure and organ isation of the political labour movement and how it evolved but the de velopment of the structure and organisation of the industrial wing has received far too little attention. This thesis provides the first descriptive accotint and analysis of the evolution and development of the present structural forms most of which can trace their initiation back to the first few decades of the twentieth centiiry and, for a few, beyond that time. While the thesis concentrates mainly on the formation of a stable, widely acceptable form of central oi'ganisation for the whole state, it, at the same time, anal yses and accounts for the consequent re-organisation on more closely-knit and more centra.lised lines of the already established and the newly formed unions.