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DianneHall

Asthenewsofthe1916DublinrisingbrokeinAustralia,labour newspapers carried stories that claimed therebellionwasledbysocialistJamesConnolly.TheirfocusonConnollymadesense,hiswritingswerewellknowninsocialist and labour circles in Australia and the UnitedStates,sohis leadershipwasassumed.Whiletheyweremistaken in thinking Connolly was leading a socialistrevolution inDublin, their focus on the internationalistConnolly rather than shadowy figures from the IrishRepublican Brotherhood or teachers and poets of thecultural revival is understandable. In Ireland in theturbulentyearssince1916,Connolly’ssocialismandtheinvolvement of trade unionists and labour activiststhrough the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) were oftensubsumed in a broad brush stroke nationalist andrepublican narrative that foregrounded the heroicsacrifice and cultural nationalism of Padraig Pearserather than the socialism of Connolly or ConstanceMarkievicz.

Though the Rising itself was a failure, leading to theexecutionofsixteenoftheleadersandimprisonmentofthousands, it dramatically shifted Irish public opinionand led directly to war between Irish republicans andBritishforcesin1919andthentoindependencefor26ofthe 32 counties of Ireland in 1921. The 1916Rising isthus marked as the beginning of Irish independencefromBritishrule.Itisaneventthatisrememberedbyallsections of Irish nationalist traditions,with both of themajor political parties in the Republic of Ireland andrepublicans in bothNorthern Ireland and the Republictracing their political origins to 1916. CommemoratingtheRisingitselfavoidsthestarkdivisionsthatfollowed:the Partition of the Republic and Northern Ireland in1921, the tragediesof the IrishCivilWarof1921-1923andtheTroublesinNorthernIrelandafter1968.

SIPTU Liberty Hall Building showing temporary mural of events of 1916,includingexcerptsoftheProclamation,andapanelshowingwomen.(D.Hall).

AsIrelandmarkedthecentenaryofthe1916risingthisyear, there were many narratives woven together,sometimesuneasily.Thisyearstrandsofthepicturethathadbeenneglectedwereallowedtoshineinunexpectedways. The presence of women and civilians in theexhibitions, media articles, speeches and social mediawasverywelcomeandreflectedagenuine interventioninto the official script from women writers, historians

IssueNo.286—July2016

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INTHISEDITION:

• April2016–ExhibitionsandcommemorationsofJamesConnollyandthecentenaryoftheDublinEasterRising,DianneHall,pp.1-2

• ValeLynnBeaton(1946-2016),PeterLove,p.3• 15thBiennialLabourHistoryConference,p.3• CentenaryofAnti-ConscriptionCongress,PeterLove,p.4• Launch:ArtandSocialChange,Dust:ACaseStudy,SusanneProvis,p.4• Review:WhispersfromtheBush,LouiseProwse,pp.5-6

• CongratulationstoEllenSmiddyOAM,p.6• ValeGwenGoedecke,p.6• Metaphors,rebellion,andsocialistdreaming,RowanCahill,pp.7-8• Review:Trotsky:DownfallofaRevolutionary,JamieDoughney,p.9• TheDictationTest,newNLAdeposit,p.9• 888BadgesandRibbons,PeterLove,p.10• Indefenceofpartisanhistory,JohnTully,pp.10-11• HonouringJohnEllis,PeterLove,p.12• Noticeboard&Branchcontacts,p.12

JamesConnollyandthecentenaryoftheDublinEasterRising

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andlocalcommunities.GenerousfundingfromtheIrishgovernmenttolocalcommunitiesandorganisationsalsomeant that local commemorations were foregroundedandwereabletohighlightmorepeoplethanthefamousleaders.OnmyfrequenttripsinAprilandMaythisyearthrough Summerhill in Dublin’s inner city, the smallstreets and terrace houses flew commemorative streetsignsaswellas tricoloursandgreen,orangeandwhitebunting. As each street flashed past, there were signswith lists of names, many with the same surnames,remembering whole families and small communitieswho marched down the hill to the GPO and othergarrisons to fight for a future different from the grimpresentoftenementlifeinDublin.

JamesConnollyand the ICAwerealsomoreprominentthis year than they had been in past histories of theRising.OnepartofthiswasthroughthecleveruseoftheratherungainlytowerofSIPTU’sLibertyHallasacanvasto showcase Connolly, ICA and the trade unionmovement. SIPTU (Services, Industrial, Profession andTechnical Union) is the direct successor of the IrishTransport and General Workers’ Union led during theRisingbyConnolly.Thepresentbuildingwaserectedonthe siteof theoriginalLibertyHall fromwhich the ICAmarchedtotheGeneralPostOfficeinnearbyO’ConnellStonEasterMonday1916.Thisyearitstoweriscoveredintemporary murals depicting scenes of the ICA duringEaster week 1916, including a prominent picture ofConnolly’sexecutionstrappedtoachairbeforethefiringsquad,aswellasexcerptsfromthefamousProclamationofIndependencethatpromiseequality.

SIPTULibertyHalltemporarymuralshowingdeathofConnolly.(D.Hall).

TheofficialgovernmentsponsoredcommemorationsoftheRisingwereheld this year, as inpreviousyears, onEaster Monday. As Easter was early in 2016, this wasnearlyamonthbefore24April, thedate in1916whenPearse read out the Proclamation before the GPO. Thedifferentdatesmeantthatcommemorationswerespreadover many weeks and the streets of Dublin were

enlivened with groups in uniform re-creating variousactions andmarches throughout theseweeks. Iwas infrontoftheGPOat12middayonthe24thAprilamongalargecrowd,listeningtoareadingoftheProclamationasa group of uniformed men and women arrived fromLiberty Hall, wearing re-creations of ICA uniformsmarching to thedoorsof thePostOffice to loudcheersfrom the crowd. As they marched, speeches from theplatform made clear the links between the ideals ofConnolly and the present political situation in Irelandwithitsproblemsofausterityandlackofrepresentationprominent.

In the week after the 24th April I visited some of themany1916exhibitionsinDublin,includingtheNationalMuseum of Ireland and the GPO exhibitions. Both ofthesemajornewexhibitionsincludedConnolly,socialismand theTransportWorkersUnionprominently in theirdisplays.Thenewpermanentexhibition“GPOWitnessto1916”exploresmanydifferentaspectsoftheRisingandits aftermath using traditional displays of letters, guns,clothes and documents as well as new technology—inparticularanimmersivewidescreengivinga‘bird’seye’viewofDublin,swoopingoverthestreetsandstoppingondifferentgarrisonstofocusontheaction,withvoiceovers readingdescriptions from rank and filemen andwomenofwhattheyweredoing.OneoftheseisfromaratherlaconicWinifredCarney,suffragist,tradeunionistand secretary to James Connolly who remained in theGPO until the end, describing writing despatches andattempting to interject some practical suggestions intothedebatesbetweentheleadersintheGPO.

In this exhibition there are also booths where visitorscouldlistentohistoriansdebatedifferentinterpretationsofdetailsof theRisingand itsaftermath,allowingforamoredetailedexplorationofsomeofthecomplexitiesofthe events thanmore traditionalmuseum displays cangive.Connolly,theITGWUandtheICAareallrepresentedinthesedisplays,asisanicelyarrangeddisplayaimedatchildrenwhichcontraststhelivingconditionsofachildof the nearby Dublin tenements with a prosperousmiddle-upper class child. A highlight for me when Ivisited this exhibition was the presence of a group ofelderlymen obviously from inner city Dublin excitedlypointingoutfamiliarstreetsandlandmarksonthemapsandpicturesoftenements,tellingsnippetsoftheirownfamilystoriesoftheRisingtoeachother,oblivioustothecrowdsofAmericanvisitorsaroundthem.

TheothermajorexhibitionontheRisingisattheCollinsBarracksbuildingoftheNationalMuseumofIreland.TheNMIhasthelargestcollectionofmaterialrelatedtotheRising and a great deal of it is now displayed in thisexhibition.Dominatingthelargespaceisthecollectionofflags, includingthesurvivingtricolour flags that flewinvarious locations throughout Dublin. The large flagPlough and Stars symbol of the ITGWU and the ICAfeatures prominently. This, combined with displaysrelatedtoITGWUandtheICA,meansthatConnollyandhisinternationalistsocialistideaswerefirmlywithinthenationalnarrativeoftheRisingandthedevelopmentofIrishrepublicanismandindependence.

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PeterLove

(ThistributeparaphrasesAndyBlunden’seulogy)

Lynn Beaton, née Ingham, socialist, feminist, labourhistorianandallroundradicalenergiserdiedon19June.Shewas farewelledby a large crowdofmournerswhopackedouttheBrunswickTownHallonSaturday9Julywhere the tributeswere interspersedwith someof themusicshelovedsomuch.

LynBeaton.PicbyPeterLove.

Her family moved from Northcote to rural NSW toLondon in 1960 where Lynn spent her teenage years,returning toMelbourne in1966.SheandGerryBeatonwere married in 1968 and went to live in Montrosewhere their twodaughters, Lucy andChloewereborn.Lynn studied at Monash University from where shegraduated with an honours degree in History andPhilosophy. She also immersed herself in left politics,passingthroughALP,MaoistandTrotskyistoutfits,allofwhichshefoundbothineffectualandsexist.

In 1976 the family moved back to Northcote but themarriage did not last. In 1978 Lyn joined theWorkingWomen’sCentreasaresearcher,editingWomenatWork,writingaboutwomenatworkduringWorldWarII(fromher honours thesis) and drafting policy on equal pay,whicharguedforComparableWorth.ShewenttotheUK

in1984inthemidstofthedisastrousMiners’Strikeandspent a year in a Nottinghamshire mining communitywhere she chronicled the transformation of workingclasswomen’slivesduringthedispute.Thebook,ShiftingHorizons, sharpenedherpolitical focusonthestrugglesofworkingclasspeople,especiallywomen.

BackinMelbourneLynnworkedonpolicyandcampaignco-ordination in the Kennett years for the State PublicServiceFederationandthenasaresearcheratJobWatch.Allthewhileshewasdriftingtowardslabourhistoryasavocation.HerPartoftheFurniturecovered150yearsofthe Federated Furnishing Trades Association. This wasfollowed by a history of the asbestos plant in Railton,Tasmania and a short historyofUniSuper. In2013 shewrote a reflection on the longer-term significance offeminism, especially its second wave achievements. Atthe time of her death Lynn was working on a PhD atFederationUniversityonahistoryoftheBallaratTradesandLabourCouncil.

Lynn Beaton died not long after her 70th birthday,mournedbyherfamily,amultitudeoffriendsandawidecircleofadmirerswhocelebratedhersignificantpartinthe fight for women’s rights at work and in the tradeunionmovement.Shewilllongberemembered.

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23–25September2017

The 15th Biennial Labour History Conference is beingheld at Emmanuel College within the grounds of theUniversity of Queensland. The conference theme isWorkersoftheWorld.

TheBrisbaneBranch invitespapers frombothactivistsandacademicsthataddressanumberofbroadthemes.These include the massive challenges globalisation isposing for the labour movement; reflections on theimpactoftheRussianRevolutiononboththeAustralianlabour movement and labour movements around theworld; and the related issues of internationalism,globalism,andtransnationalism.

As well as seeking the input from scholars in relatedfields, such as Indigenous history, migration studies,politics, international political economy, sociology,geography,areastudiesetc.,theBrisbaneBranchinvitespresentations,formalpapersandproposalsforpanelsonthetraditionalconcernsoflabourhistory.Presentationsbylabourandsocialmovementactivistsareparticularlyinvited. LabourHistory has always benefitted from theinteractionbetweentheacademyandthemovement.

Peoplearealsowelcometoproposepanelsthataddressdebates within Labour History or any related field,includingthefutureofLabourHistoryasacoherentfieldof study. Full conference details are available fromhttp://asslh.org.au/branches/brisbane/15th-biennial-labour-history-conference/

ValeLynnBeaton(1946-2016)

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PeterLove

VictorianTradesHallCouncil’sDavidCragg joinedwithmetointroduceandpresenta20-minutevideoclipofadocumentary on the 1916-17 Anti-ConscriptionCampaigns.Theoccasionwasthecentenaryofthe11-12May1916All-AustralianTradeUnionCongressthatmetintheMelbourneTradesHallCouncilChamber.

Representativesofabout300,000tradeunionists,alongwith some fraternal bodies such as the Socialist PartyandtheIWW,votedtoresolutelyopposeanyattempttointroducemilitaryconscriptionandtocampaignagainstpoliticians,especiallyALPones,whosupported it.Theyconsidered, but declined to call for a general strikeshould Prime Minister Hughes, as expected, proposeconscriptionforoverseasmilitaryservice.Itwasaclearindication of how the trade union movement put itsweight behind the individuals and small radicalorganisationsthathadbeenopposingthewar fromthebeginning. It was also a decisive earlymoment in thatprocesswhichsaw, inmostofthebelligerentcountries,the transition from a war between nations to a warbetweenclasses.

David Cragg welcomed the good audience to the veryroomwheretheCongresswasheldandemphasisedthecentral role of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council inarranging the event andhosting thedelegates. I gave asummary outline of the Congress’s deliberations. Afterthe documentary video was shown there was a livelydiscussion of the issue by the very engaged audience.Theeveningconcludedwithsomefurtherdiscussionoftheupcomingeventstocommemoratethedefeatoftheconscriptionplebiscitesin1916-17.

IwillagainbespeakingatthenexteventbeingrunbytheBrunswick Coburg Anti Conscription CommemorationCampaign on Frank Anstey, a leader of the successfulcampaignagainstconscriptionduringWorldWarI,andafirmopponentofthewar.AnsteywasalsoaLaborMPinboth State and Federal parliaments, tramways unionPresident,andamemberoftheBrunswickFootballClub(seepage12fordetails).Readerscanfollowforthcomingevents by checking Labour History’s web site orFacebookpageandtheTradesHallHistorypageontheTradesHallBuildingtabatvthc.org.au

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SusanneProvis

On 19 June 2016 Donna Jackson’s new book waslaunched as the minal event of the WilliamstownLiterary Festival. As you would expect from thisentrepreneurialandpoliticalcreativedirectoroflargescaleartsprojectsthelaunchwasmorethanlisteningtovapid(orinteresting)speecheswithaglassofwinein your hand.Donna crafted an enthralling, engagingand enjoyable event that told the story of how thescript and musical score for the community theatrepiece Dust grew into a textbook for youngpractitioners who want to make large scale excitingtheatre, using theatre for social change and acurriculumresource.

Arts stalwart Robyn Archer compered and spokeaboutartineverydaylives.MarkSeymoursangasongfromDust and Robyn asked why and how he wrotesongs for the show – researching, listening to thoseaffected by asbestos and minding story lines thatillustratebiggerissues.Donnaspokeaboutthegenesisand development of the show, of grappling with theinjustice,sorrowandpainoftheaffectsofasbestosinaway thatwould honour yet be lively, engaging andexciting for an audience. She found a way throughhumour, charm and the resilience of those withasbestosisormesotheliomaandtheirfamilies.

Donna read excerpts from the book and then the 60strong choir with singers from the Victorian TradeUnionChoir,WillinWomenandNewportCommunityChoir sang This Darkened Room, written forDust byVTUC’s Mary Caruana. More short speeches,interviews and remlections punctuated by songs fromMarkandthechoir.

Photobyhttps://amomentintimeblog.com

The event celebratedDust in all its incarnations – ashowworkingwithfabulouspeoplealloverAustralia,touringtosevencommunitiesandnowabook.ArtandSocial Change, Dust: A Case Study means the storiesand ideas in Dust will carry on in schools andcommunity groups who can use the book to createtheirownperformances.

CentenaryofAnti-ConscriptionCongress ArtandSocialChange,Dust:ACaseStudy

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LouiseProwse

SkyeSaunders,WhispersfromtheBush:TheWorkplaceSexual Harassment of Australian Rural Women(Federation Press: Annandale, 2015) 240pp.Paperback,$55.00.

The cultural legacy of the bushtradition weighs heavily on theincidenceof sexualandgender-basedharassment in rural Australianworkplaces today. Being tough,resilient and hard-working in thebush are generally considered to bepositive traits in both men andwomen. However, as Skye Saunders’rigorousresearchhasfound,thereare

moresubversiveelementsatworktoo.Theserelatetopower in the rural workplace and can generally beidentimied along gender lines. Saunders’ originalresearch minds thatmale-dominatedruralworkplacescontinuetoplacewomenas‘outsiders’inthebush.

Whispers from the Bush: The Workplace SexualHarassment of Australian RuralWomen addresses anoverlookedaspect in thestudiesof ruralwomen: theworkplace.Saundersrecordsthepersonalandprivateexperiences of 107 people – employees andemployers,andwomenandmen–workinginvaryingdegrees of remoteness in rural Australia, althoughpar t i c ipants were predominant ly women .Underpinning Saunders’ research are two keyquestions. Firstly, has Australia’s bush traditioninmluenced theway sexual harassment occurs, and inmany ways tolerated, in rural Australia? And this inturn raises her second question: how does poweroperateinthecontemporaryruralworkplace?

This bookhas immensemultidisciplinary value. Givenherlegalandacademicbackground,Saundersisabletotranscend legal, historical and cultural frameworks inher research and inmaking sense of the vast body ofdata she has collected. The rich personal experiencesshe has recorded are powerful. Gaining the trust ofthosesheinterviewed,whilediscussingsuchadelicateand difficult issue is challenging, and Saunders hasobviously been successful in building such a positiverapport. The abundance of incidences related by theparticipants,andSaunders’discussionof these,meansthe reader cannot do what often happens whenworkplacesexualharassmentoccurs:ignoreit.

TheparametersofSaunders’studyareimportanttoo.The masculine tradition of rural Australia, with itsreverence for the cultural stereotypeof the itinerant,hard-working male, highlights the unique plight offemale employees and employers dealing with ruralworkplace sexual harassment and discrimination.Women have traditionally been outnumbered. AsDavidMorrison’s(FormerChiefoftheAustralianArmy)

foreword observes, the othering of women intraditionallymaleworkplaces cannot be dismissed asisolatedincidentsperpetratedbya‘fewbadapples’.Theentrenched culture of the sexual discrimination andharassment of women working in traditionallymasculine environments needs to be addressed.Whispers from the Bush answers this call. Her studyemphasises women’s resilience, and keen sense ofbelonging and commitment to survive in the bush,challengingtheideathatitislargelyamasculineplace.

IfoundSaunders’deminitionofwhatconstitutes‘rural’to be both robust and deminitive. She acknowledgedthe ‘slippery’natureofdeminingaplacesotenuousinthe imaginative mind of the nation, yet gavegeographical perimeters and population migures toovercome this elasticity. Inmluenced no doubt by herown regional upbringing in Orange, NSW, herdeminition opens up and confronts the historicalblurrinessoftheAustralianrurallandscape.

At first, I wondered whether Saunders’ detailedexplanationofpersonalsafetyissuesinconductingtheinterviews was necessary (Chapter 2). But I came toappreciate the parallels between these issues ofpersonal safety as a female arranging interviews inremote areas of Western Australia and New SouthWales and the experiences of those she interviewed.Saunders’discussionoftheethical,safetyandpersonalcomfort considerations in which the interviews tookplace,wereconnectedtochippingawayatthe‘invisiblebarriers’ that prevent so many rural women fromreportingharassment.Inthisway,thedetailedlogisticalandmethodologicaldiscussionskilfullymirroredsomeof the broader themes of Saunders’ research and thechallengesthatherrespondentsfaced.

Photofromhttp://www.wlaact.org.au/news/2016/3/22/book-launc

Saunders’ carefully crafted questionswere revealing:some prompted answers, others avoidance. Oneexamplewaswhetherthepresenceofpornographyinthe workplace constituted sexual harassment, towhich two-thirds of participants did not respond(146). It was disturbing then to see thatworkplaceswhere pornography was present were much morelikely to involve incidentsofpacksexualharassment.The majority of Australian rural women (73%)

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interviewed by Saunders reported experiencingunwantedsexualisedbehaviourwhileworking (170).Thismigurewasevenhigherinparticularlinesofwork,such as the agricultural and horticultural industry(93%) (170). Verbal harassment, obscene acts, thepresence of pornographicmaterial, physical gesturesorsexualassaultallservetoconstantlyremindfemaleemployers and employees of their sex, that they arebeing sexualised, and therefore, of their vulnerableplaceintheruralworkplacepowerhierarchy.

A significant value of Saunders’ research is its applieduseforthefutureofruralworkplaces.Thisbookcloseswith a number of recommendations addressing theproblemsidentifiedbySaundersinpreventing,reportinganddealingwithworkplacesexualharassment(Chapter10). These strategies bring a combined application ofhistorical, legal and cultural frameworks and convergearound the call for the re-education of the ruralworkplace.Saundersdemonstratesconclusivelythattheworkplace sexual harassment of women in ruralAustralia shouldbeunderstoodasa ‘culturalepidemic’,notnecessarilyageographicalone.

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We are delighted to report that Ellen Smiddy wasacknowledged in the Australia Day Honours List for2016.AwardedtheOAM,theaward listedsomeof themanyrolesthatEllenhastakenon:

“Secretary,Norparrin Centre for Childrenwith SpecialNeeds, 1999-2013; Foundation member, RegionalGroup,JohnWallisFoundation,since2011;CommitteeMember, Diamond Valley Community Support,1972-1984 and volunteer, 1984-2008 and Foundingmember, 1972-2008 and Life member. Lay leader ofliturgy, St Mary's Catholic Parish, Greensborough,current and Deputy Co-ordinator, Catechist Program,current and Co-ordinator, Hotham Mission AsylumSeeker Program, current and Social Justice Group Co-ordinator,current.”

EllenSmiddyandPeterLoveatthe2015LabourHistoryConference

Ellen’s generosity and commitment to social justice issecondtonone.Toourverydearandvaluedfriendweofferoursincerecongratulations.

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Gwen Goedecke, life-long activist, andmember of theLabourHistorySocietydiedinMaythisyear.

In2009,thestategovernment inductedGwenintotheVictorianHonourRoll forWomen for her outstandingcontributions to the community. Gwenwas tireless inher activism to improve the lot of women, andespeciallywomeninthewest.ShewasamemberoftheUnion of Australian Women (since 1955), a foundingmember of the Footscray Centre forWorkingWomen(since1974),anda foundingmemberof theSunshineInternationalWomen’sCommittee(since1975).

In1975Gwen,andfifteenotherwomen,“doorknocked600homes…tofindoutwhatwomenurgentlyneededin the western suburbs” (Speroulla Christodoulou,2016).WomenoftheWest:asurveyreportoftheneedsof Sunshine women and their families, undertaken aspartoftheInternationalWomen'syear,whichdrewontheseresponses,waspublishedinthatsameyear.

PhotographbyLucyAulich

Gwen served on the Sunshine City Council between1984and1987,becomingonlythesecondwomantodoso, and she was a member of the Footscray LocalGovernance Association. She also served on theWesternRegionCommissionBoardbetween1987and1995. In2001Gwenwas a recipient of theCentenaryMedal for her service to the community, and in 2006shewasnamedastheDamePhyllisFrostWomanoftheYear. In 2013, Janet Matton spoke of Gwen’sachievements at the launch of the ShillingWall panel(QueenVictoriaWomen’sCentre).

Gwen’s career included work at the Victorian PeaceCouncil, the Trade Union Clinic, the Catholic FamilyWelfareBureauandasJimCairns’electoratesecretary.Gwen was also a member of the Campaign forInternational Co-operation and Disarmament, and aparticipant at numerous United Nations InternationalYear of Women Conferences. Gwen believed thatactivism that improved the social and environmentalfabric of society gave both “purpose” and collective“dignity”. Hers was a life well lived, and a life thatimprovedthelivesofcountlessothers.

CongratulationstoEllenSmiddyOAM

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RowanCahill

AdiscussionofPeterLinebaugh,TheIncomplete,True,Authentic,andWonderfulHistoryofMayDay(Oakland:PMPress,2016).192pp.Paperback$15.95US.

Writing in 1896, not long before hisdeath, indefatigable socialist thought-maker and dreamer William Morriswrote thatMayDay is “aboveall daysoftheyearfittingfortheprotestofthedisinherited against the system ofrobbery that shuts the door betwixtthem and a decent life”. That systemwas capitalism. The previous year hepublished a letter trenchantly

criticising ‘experts’ and their plans to cull, tame and‘manage’ the remnants of Epping Forest. This letterreflected an ecological awareness well ahead of thetime,Morriscognisantofthecomplexunitiesofnature,the need to protect rare and threatened species, thesubtle relationships between species, tall growths,undergrowths, thickets and space, the mutuallysupportive roles of different species for the life of thewhole.InMorris,theRedandtheGreenwereone.

SowhybeginadiscussionofPeterLinebaugh’s latestbook,The Incomplete, True, Authentic, andWonderfulHistory of May Day, here? Simply, and humour me,because I’ve recently revisited Morris’ writings, inparticular travelled with Guest through News FromNowhere, and JackLindsay’s minebiographyofMorris(1975). Linebaugh writes in the tradition of Morris’May Day, against the same system Morris railedagainst. Reading his book is like taking a radicalramble with Morris through the Epping Forest hesought todefend, ifwithahuge imaginative leap the‘Forest’ is recast metaphorically as the vast humanhistory of protest by thedisinherited.Asked in 1991by his wife, Dorothy Thompson, if he still describedhimself as the Marxist he once was, historian E. P.Thompsonunhesitatinglyreplied“thathepreferredtocall himself ‘a Morrisist’”. Linebaugh studied underThompson, and this book is a wonderful blend ofmany things, resonating with echoes of Marx andMorrisandThompson.

For readers unacquainted with Linebaugh, somebackgroundisrelevant.Bornin1943,heisdescribedin biographical notes as “a child of empire”,with theUK,US,Germany, andPakistan sitesofhis schooling;this isnotunimportant,asa featureofhisscholarly/historical work is an internationalist/transnationalawarenessandperspective.As Imentioned,hewasastudent of E. P. Thompson, hence the signimicantThompsonian inmluence in his work, and he hasprimarilytaughtinAmericanuniversities.Variouslyasauthor, co-author, editor, he has produced mivesubstantial studies of British and Atlantic socialhistoryinthe‘historyfrombelow’genre,notablyThe

London Hanged (1992), a groundbreaking study of18thcenturyEngland,crimeandpunishmentandthedevelopment of capitalism, and the game-changingstudy of Atlantic/Caribbean maritime rebellion, andradicalpolitical thoughtandaction in the late18th/early 19th centuries, The Many-Headed Hydra (withMarcusRediker,2000).

Linebaugh’s style of writing is accessible, and hisbooks reach audiences beyond niche academia. Aradicalhistorian,heaimstowritewithsocialpurposeandasapoliticalact,hisscholarshipalertingreadersto the possibilities for action in their own time andsituations.Agreatdealofhisworkhasbeenpublishedin freelyavailablenon-academic journals,online,andinpamphlet form,oftenhavingmulti-platform/outletpublication.Thisisascholarlyhistorianwhowantstoberead,andwhomakeshimselfavailable toreaders,at home in the academy and on the barricades.Overall, Linebaugh’s writings range widely acrosssources and disciplines, ignoring/defying thetendency for neoliberalised academia to stay withinnarrowandhighlyspecialised intellectualenclosures.If in his life andwork one discerns echoes of ThomasPaine andWilliamMorris, it is not coincidental, for hehaswrittenauthoritativelyandsympatheticallyonboth.

May 1, 1928. A Communist \loat during a May Day parade. Hyde Park,London.IMAGE:HAYNESARCHIVE/POPPERFOTO/GETTYIMAGES

Those coming to Linebaugh’s Incomplete… history ofMayDayexpectingsomesortoflinear‘total’narrativehistoryofMayDaywillbedisappointed.For it isnotthis sort of history. Sure, the history ofMayDay is aconstant presence in the book, but the word’incomplete’ in the title is an accurate description ofthe contents. For this is not a total/completehistory,and‘incomplete’isalsoLinebaugh’swayofsayingthatMay Day is a work in progress and, as originally afestival celebrating the start of Spring and attendantrebirth, is constantly being reshaped, recast,reimagined, reborn. Linebaugh simply and robustlyputs it thus in his introductory chapter: “May Day isabout affirmation, the love of life, and the start ofspring,soithastobeaboutthebeginningoftheendofthecapitalistsystemofexploitation,oppression,misery,toil,andmoil.BesidesfullaffirmationMayDayrequires

Metaphors,rebellion,andsocialistdreaming

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denunciation: the denunciation of capitalism, ofpatriarchy,ofhomophobia,ofwhitesupremacy,ofwar”.

Morris in his end-days wrote of May Day as ametaphoric/symbolicoccasionforthecelebrationandrenewalof anti-capitalist resistanceand struggle, theopportunity to bring the past, present, and futuretogether in focus and to rebirth/recharge anti-capitalist fervour,determination, organisation. So toodoesLinebaughinthis ‘incomplete’history,withMayDay the focus for ruminations on anti-capitalistradicalism,andsocialistimaginings.

A short book (192 pages), Incomplete compriseseleven essays/ruminations authored by Linebaughover the last thirty years, drawing on his immensescholarship, and salted with autobiographicalintellectual/political fragments. Aside from theintroductory chapter, these were written inassociationwithpublicevents/occasions,themajoritypublished in the American online magazineCounterPunch, some published and distributed aspamphlets. The concluding chapter is his retirementspeech from theUniversityofToledo inOhio (2014),remlecting on radical history and being a radical/activist historian, and railing against the capitalistcontrol of universities under which “universities aredying as commons of knowledge, as sites of socialregeneration,evenasplacestoreadabook”.

Itisdifmiculttosummarisethisbooksimply,becauseitis about the radical/revolutionary spirit andexperience,populatedwithpeopleandcrowdedwithevents, the focus both sides of the Atlantic, butgloballytoo,thetime-framespansthepresentbacktoearlygeologicaltimesinadiscussionoftheagencyofanarchistquarryworkers in19th/early20th centuryVermont. Ambitious yes, but Linebaugh has thescholarship, background, ability, spirit and wit toconmidently, and joyously, traverse the terrain,exploring patterns and inmluences within diversities.Linebaugh brings the likes, for example, of WilliamMorris,Marx,MalcolmX,theShelleys,JoeHill,WilliamBlake,W.E.B.DuBoistogether,alongsidestrugglesasdiverseasthoseagainsttheenclosureofthecommonsinEuropeandthoseof therecentOccupyMovement,andmovementsdiverseastheMauMauandSDS.Itisatourdeforceunderliningandendorsingtherighttorebel against capitalism, and the imperatives toimagineandtoworkforsocialistalternatives.

TheartofLinebaugh is theability to lookbackwardsacrossdiversitiesanddetectandtracemlowsofradicalthought, legacies of radical actions, and unexpectedinmluences.Hisachievement is thedevelopmentofanecology of protest/dissent/rebellion, teasing out anddemonstrating relationships and links and inmluencesover time and across geographies, spaces, anddiversities,betweeneventsandideasandpeople inawayakintotheecologicalunderstandingofnature.Itis , in his hands, a political and historicalunderstanding enabling one to see hope andachievement and worth whenmore rigid teleologies

might only see inadequacies, shortfalls, and failures.Further, and importantly, he privileges that radical/socialist past, in effectmounting a counter-attack onhegemonicattemptsbythecurrentneoliberalstageofcapitalism to render that past irrelevant anduseless,to“silencealternatives”asLinebaughputsit.

Onecanreadhistoryand thepast inanostalgicway,as a catalogue of what has been lost—the commonsenclosed, the eight-hour day disappearing or neverhaving appeared in the mirst place, the cancerousgrowth globally of repressive legislations, themilitarisation of contemporary democracies erodinglong held rights and freedoms—or one can read thepast and take heart from it, and through solidarity,collectivity, and cooperationwork for a betterworldandfuture.

If heart is taken, then renewed struggle, Linebaughinsists, has to be anti-capitalist, and Red and Green:Red, the socialist anti-capitalist struggle; Green theenvironmental struggle, because capitalism is a two-faced system, not only about the exploitation ofhuman beings, but also about the exploitation ofnature.Thewayforward,Linebaughargues,isthroughsolidarityforgedincollectivity,ofalliances,coalitions,themovementofmovements,amongstpeopledeminedby, and aware of, their lack of control/power in thecapitalist system,metaphorically “all toilers, not justthehandsatanymomentgrippingtheplough”,andbydissolvingthe“‘I’intothe‘We’”.

PeterLinebaugh.PhotographphotographbyJeffClark

No doubt each reader will take something differentfrom this book, but for me it is important fordemonstrating a number of things: how a radicalhistoriancanwriteinascholarly,enjoyablepublicwaywithout dumbing down either erudition orscholarship; how a radical scholarly/academichistoriancanengage,andhaveagency,outsideof theacademy. It is also a demonstration of how to writehistorythatisalive,andhowtoremlectonthepast,andlearn and adapt from it. In short, Linebaugh goes along way towards encouraging and fanning radicalsocialist dreaming and scheming in the present,dreaming not as escape but as opening a door topossibilities, and creating a light on the hill for thefuture.

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JamieDoughney

Bertrand M Patenaude, Trotsky: Downfall of aRevolutionary (New York: Harper Collins, 2009). 370pp.Paperback$15.99US.

The 2010 UK Faber pr in t o fPatenaude’s scholarly and objectivebiographyhasadifferenttitle:Stalin’sNemesis:TheExileandMurderofLeonTrotsky. Both titles tell the story.Because the work is rigorous, it alsomanagestotellasympatheticbutsadstoryofTrotsky’slifefrom1929untilhisassassination in1940.Thosewitha scholarly interest will find it

valuable, far more valuable than Robert Service’sscrappy Trotsky: A Biography (Macmillan, 2010).Thosewith a political interest in Trotskywill find itdeflating.

Trotsky was still an international figure whocommanded attention, but his life and politicalworkduring his final yearswere colouredmore by pathosthan they were by their power to affect events.Patenaudepresentstousapersonlittledifferentfromthepersona(ifthatistherightword)thatcomestousthrough his writings. To reverse the epithet mademore famous in our own time: the political Trotskywasthepersonal.Weseethecourageoftheman,bothpoliticallyand,inthefaceoftheslaughterofalmostallhis immediate and extended family during Stalin’spurges, personally. However, we also see a Trotskywho is less the ‘prophet’ of Isaac Deutscher’smagisterial trilogy than, it painsme to say, he is theKingCanute,aproudrevolutionaryassailingtherisingtideofhistorywithdeclarations.

Patenaude devotesmost of his attention to Trotsky’stime in Mexico from 1937. He covers the personalrelationshipsofnote:DeigoRivera,FridaKahlo,AndreBretonandsoon.HisaccountofNataliaSedova’sandTrotsky’s reaction to the death of their son, LeonSedov, is deeplymoving. Patenaude is a rare scholar.He writes well. Without necessarily meaning to,Patenaude also conveys to the reader just howprecariouswasTrotsky’slifeinexile.Everything,fromsecurity to household shopping budgets, teetered onthe edge. For all the efforts of his US and Mexicansupporters,wesee,thankstoPatenaude,aramshackleexistence.Weperceivehowluckywerethehouseholdandstafftosurviveaporousprotectivesystemduetothebumbling,butnotintheleasthumorous,violenceof the Mexican Stalinists. That is, until RamonMercaderaccomplishedhisfoulmissionin1940.

Ofcourse,notallbiographiesarepoliticalbiographies,or they are not political biographies to the sameextent. A political biography is not so much abiographyof thepolitical figureas it isanaccountof

the figure’s political ideas. Patenaude traversesTrotsky’sideas,oftenwithgreatfacility.However,thisis not the book’s forte or, to be fair, its purpose. YetideasareTrotsky’sgreatlegacy;analysisofthe1930stumult and, in particular, the fate of the Russianrevolution under Stalin’s iron-heeled thugocracy. Forallthesadness,thiscontributionwaspriceless,aswasTrotsky’sundiminishedintegrity.

NataliaSedova,FridaKahlo,Trotsy,andDeigoRivera.Photographerunknown.

A postscript on integrity. One cannot be too harsh inblaming those who do not know, even if they have nottried to discover the facts. Some people, however, werewitness to Stalin’s crimes.Moreover, theywerenotheldbyhistorturers,andnorweretheirfamilies.Somepeopleknew intimately the monstrous lies told about Trotsky.Yet, theybuckled.Somenotonlybuckledbut,moreover,sang paeans to Stalin. Rivera finally stood side by sidewiththeStalinistwould-beassassinDavidSiqueiros.Theincomplete portrait of Stalin onKahlo’s easelwhen shediedin1954isenoughtomakeoneweep.

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Barry York has deposited 23 folders of researchmaterial on the Dictation Test, compiled in the mid1990s, with the National Library of Australia. Thematerial is unrestricted. The folders, submitted inthreeboxes,werecollated fora researchproject thatBarryisnolongerworkingon.Thecontents–subjectto NLA curation – have been set out by Barry anddescriptionsareavailableonrequest.

Tribune,28September1955,11.

Trotsky:DownfallofaRevolutionary

TheDictationTest

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PeterLove

The Ephemera Society of Australia has mounted anexhibitionof collectors’ enthusiasms for suchdiversethings as dance cards, biscuit tins, snow domes,fireworks,andsoon.OneEphemeraSocietymember,an accountant, has an abiding interest in strikes andthewiderstruggleforworkers’rights.

Exhibit8hasanexcellentcollectionof888badgesandribbons. Most of them were produced for particularunions in specific years, usually to beworn on EightHour s o r L abour Day p ro ce s s i on s . Theycommemorate, celebrate and proclaim the centralityofthe ‘EightHoursSystem’tothe labourmovement’scollectiveidentity.

Althoughtheformatremainedsimilarthestyleofthebadgesandribbonsvariedaccordingtotheperiodandtheleadingissuesofthetime.Whilemosthavean888motif,someurgeactiononthemovement’sclaimfora44-hourweek.Theribbonstypicallyhavetheirunion’stradesymbolandname tobewornwithprideat themarch.

PhotographbyPeterLove

At the centre of the display case is a baton,presumablyforaband-leader,thatcelebratesthe50thanniversaryofthe8HoursProcession.Inthecorneroftheexhibitthereisoneoftheflagsdesignedespeciallyforthe150thanniversaryin2006.

In addition to our field of interest, the astoundingrangeofthecollectors’obsessionsisworthavisit.TheRHSV’s headquarters is close to the Queen VictoriaMarket so you cannip in for a pleasant diversiononyournextshoppingtrip.

Theexhibition isonat theRoyalHistoricalSocietyofVictoria, 239 A’Beckett Street, Melbourne, until 22August.

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JohnTully

ThisisanextractfromalongerpapergiveninFebruary2015attheSydneyTradesHall,co-sponsoredbyUnionsNew South Wales and the Australian Society for theStudy of LabourHistory. You can read it in full in theMonthly Review h t tp ://monthlyrev iew.org/2016/01/01/the-silvertown-strike/

There is a tendency to view the events [in Britain]from1889onasagradualprocessthatresultedintheconsolidation of the unions and their creation of theLabour Party. Partly this is due to the distortions ofhindsight, but more importantly it stems from theideology of gradualism. In fact, the 1890s were aperiod of economic depression and bitter classwarfare, inwhich theemployersalmostsucceeded incrushingmilitant tradeunionism.Thepivotpoint forclass war was the Silvertown struggle, in which theunionwasdefeated after abitter three-month strike.Thestrikerswerestarvedbacktowork,which, ifnotGray’s original intention, quickly became so. Thestrike activists were blacklisted and some of themnever worked again. The very existence of theSilvertown branch of the National Union ofGasworkersandGeneralLaborers,forinstance,wasindoubt formuch of the decade. And yet, as the strikecommitteerealised,theirstrugglewas“anearnestforthe future.”And so itwas, forWestHambecame thebirthplace of the political labour movement and aunionbastion.Asiswellknown,intheyearsafterthestrike, West Ham elected the mirst socialist MP, KeirHardie, and the mirst socialist borough council. TheSilvertown struggle, however, was almost forgotten;hencemybook.

Not surprisingly, my approach has irked somehistorians. Inmy preface to Silvertown, I record that“Conservatives have attacked some of my previouswork as being partisan.” In fact I am totallyunapologetic about it! I always knew from my earlychildhood that society was rent by huge dividesbetweenrichandpoor,betweenthepowerfulandthepowerless. Born in a coal mining village—mygrandmotherthelocalschoolcleaner,mygrandfathera merchant seaman, my mother a “factory girl,” andmy father a mitter who became a convenor of shopstewards—I also knew that just about anythingworking-class people had, they had won throughcombinationandstruggle.

Later, I came to understand that these socialdifferences were not accidental or random, but thatthey mlowed from the structures and imperatives ofcapitalism. There were, as Marx argued, two greatclasses in capitalist society—workers and capitalists—and society, government, and the state wereordered in the interests of the latter. Indubitably, therelationship between “economic base” and“superstructure” is seldom crudely mechanical. As

888BadgesandRibbons InDefenceofPartisanHistory

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Antonio Gramsci argued in his theory of “culturalhegemony,”itismorecomplexandnuancedthanthat.Thebourgeoisiedoesnot ruleby forcealone; itdoessoby inculcating its ideasandvalues—its ideology—into the population at large. It follows, then, as theGMB’sJohnCallowarguesinhisprefacetoSilvertown,that “history, like politics … is a miercely contestedideological space.” Historians who claim to beimpartial and “value-free” are not to be trusted—ortheyaresimple.

My school history teacher, who I will call Old Harry,wouldbeshockedbymySilvertownbook,andbymyfrank admission that it is partisan. For him, as forThomas Carlyle, “the history of the world is but thebiography of great men.” In a nineteenth-centuryBritishhistoryclass,Harry instructedus towritenotabout social conditions, but to focus on the “greatmen” of the Victorian era. The word “imperialism”neversulliedhis lips, theunwashedmasseswerenotworthy of comment, and when trade unions orsocialism had to be mentioned—as in the Taff Valejudgement—a faintmoue of distaste mlickered acrosshislips.Tothebestofmyknowledge,OldHarryneverpublishedasentence,buthewasadedicatedproductof theorthodox school of historiography, andhewasquitesurethathisrolewasto inculcate its ideas intoour heads. History was a discipline that viewedhistorical development strictly “from above”: it wasthebiographyofgreatmensuchasWilliamGladstoneand Benjamin Disraeli—and perhaps of one greatwoman by the name of Victoria. If he had heard ofMary Wollstonecraft or Eleanor Marx, he nevermentionedthem.

WomenworkersatDunlopRubber'sMontaguefactory,Melbourne,c.1920shttps://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/48352

Left to orthodox historians likeHarry, labour history—and perhaps even broader social history—mayneverhavebeenborn.Labourhistoryhasnecessarilybeenpartisan.AsthegreatEricHobsbawmputit,thepartisan approach was “a necessary tin opener withwhichtoopenacanofworms.”Icangiveaveryclearexample of this. In 1993, Geoffrey Blainey—JohnHoward’s favourite historian and the doyen of the“black armband” school—published a history of thePacimic Dunlop rubber company called Jumping Over

theWheel.Itisanelegantlywrittentract,asyoumightexpect,butformeitsmostinterestingfeatureiswhatit does not discuss. In its 336 pages, itmentions therubber workers’ union once, and that in a smug,patronisingway.IamremindedofthetitleofRichardFlanagan’s book The Sound of One Hand Clapping:somethingmassivelyimportantismissinginBlainey’sbook.Read it, andyou learnnothingof the lives andstruggles of the mirm’s workers, among them thewomen and their union at Dunlop’s Sydney RubberWorks,whowere among the unsung pioneers of thestruggleforequalpay.[1]

In recent times, labour history has gone somewhatintodecline. It isoldhat,wearetold. It isonlyaboutwhitemaleworkers.Othersocialcategories—gender,race,andethnicity—aremoreimportant,orsowearetold. And some contemporary labour historians haveretreated into a vapid and soulless “value-free”approach.Tome,allofthisisaremlectionofthespiritof the age—of the rampant domination of theneoliberal ideologyof the ruling class. Ironically, it ishappening at a time when the working class, on aworld scale, has never been larger than it is today, apointmade eloquently in Terry Eagleton’s bookWhyMarxWasRight. “Class”mightbeadirtyword today,butit isstilltheelephantinthesociologicalroom.Asthe late LaurieAarons argued in his bookCasinoOz:Winners and Losers in Global Capitalism, it is prettypoor sociology to categorise white-collar and otherserviceworkers asmiddle-class rather than aswageworkers. Labour history, too, need not be just aboutwhitemales,anditisastrawmanargumenttoclaimitis.Andnowmorethanever,withthegapbetweenrichand poor yawning ever wider, at a time when thelabourmovement is a shadowofwhat itwas, labourhistory has an important role in the might againstforgetting—such as in the case of the Silvertownstrike.

And that means being partisan, taking a stance—which is not to say that we should twist, distort, orignore inconvenient facts,orcaricature the ideasandbehavior of those with whom we disagree.Scholarship, as Hobsbawm reminded us, is distinctfrom propaganda, although there is a place for both.Let me minish with a quotation from Gramsci’spamphlet“TheCityoftheFuture”:

I hate the indifferent. I believe…that “to livemeans totake sides.”…Thosewho really live cannot help being acitizen and a partisan. Indifference and apathy areparasitism, perversion, not life. That iswhy I hate theindifferent.Indifferenceisthedeadweightofhistory.[2]

References

1.Foradiscussionofthosestruggles,seemy“‘NothingbutRebels’:UnionSistersattheSydneyRubberWorks,1918–1942,”LabourHistory103(2012):59–82.

2. Antonio Gramsci,La città futura 1917–1918, ed. S.Caprioglio(Turin:Einaudi,1982).

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PeterLove

OnSunday3ApriltheCampaignforInternationalCo-operationandDisarmament(CICD)arrangedaspecialoccasionwhereitpaidtributetotheworkofJohnEllisascampaignactivistandphotographerinthecauseofpeace. CICD expressed that special regard byconferring Life Membership on him. John Speight,Executive Chair of CICD welcomed guests andintroduced the speakers, beginning with RominaBeitseen,SecretaryofCICD,whothankedJohnforhisstalwartworkforpeacesincethe1970s.Shehadbothenjoyedworkingwith him and been very impressedwithhiscapacity tobeeffectivelyactive in thecause.Peter Love remindedpeople that John’s photographywas not only a window onto the past but one thatserved the same fundamental purpose as morefamous photographers such as those in theMagnumagency.Hehasprovidedlinksofvisualcontinuitythatinvite us to contemplate enduring questions aboutpeaceandjustice.

TheVictorianTradeUnionChoir, ofwhich Johnwasalong-termmember, sang two brackets of three songs;BanksofMarble,BringOuttheBanners,IHaveaMillionNightingales,Power inaUnion,SolidarityForever, and,as everybody stood up in the customary manner, theInternationale. Sarah Brown, librarian, fellow activistand long-term friend of John spoke very fondly of hisqualitiesasacampaigner,organiser,photographerandutterly engaging comrade. Sue Fairbanks, DeputyArchivist at the University of Melbourne Archives,spokeabout thehugecollectionof John’sphotographslocated in the Archives. She acknowledged hisprodigious labours in cataloguing them all and theconstructively congenial spirit he brought to thedauntingtask.Suehadarrangedtheimpressivedisplayofphotosthatlinedthreesidesoftheroom.

TohonourJohn’sworkLilaHeimann,amemberoftheMelbourneUkuleleKollectiveand longstanding friend,sang a song for John that she had composed aboutrefugees.ShaneHoustein, John’sstepson, launchedthewebsite that displays several of John’s photographycollections and links visitors to the University ofMelbourneArchivespagewheresomanyofhisphotosareaccessible.Itisat:http://johnbrantellis.weebly.com

Unlike some honoured guests, John did not speak atlength when he was given the ‘right of reply’ to thetributes. He skipped lightly over many of thesignimicant times in his long life of deeply engagedactivismandpaidgeneroustributetothosewhowerehis comrades and especially to Dianne, his partner.The event ended with the Choir singing the secondbracket of songs, concludingwith the Internationale.Intheusualway,comradesandfriendsthensetaboutthedrinksandsnacksinthesideroomtoroundoffathoroughly satisfactory day with congenial chattingandfriendlycatching-up.(Photosareonourwebsite).

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Photographof“Chif’sChair”takenbyMaryElizabethCalwellatthelaunchofRememberingBenChifleybySueMartin.MaryElizabeth’sspeechgivenatthelaunchwillbeinthenexteditionofRecorder.

� President:PeterLoveSecretary:BrianSmiddy

Treasurer:PhillipDeeryWebsite:hcp://www.asslh.org.au/branches/melbourne

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Recorderispublishedthreefmesayear.TheopinionsofthecontributorsaretheirownandnotnecessarilythoseoftheeditororexecufveoftheASSLH,MelbourneBranch.Sendallcontribufonsandqueriestotheeditor,JulieKimber(jkimber@swin.edu.au).Commentarynotacributedtoanauthoriswricenbytheeditor.RecorderispublishedwiththegeneroushelpofEllen

andBrianSmiddyandKevinDavis.

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