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PeterLove

Asmany readerswill recall,MelbourneTradesHallwasallocated$10mundertheLivingHeritageprograminthe2016VictorianBudget.Tothecasualobserver,itappearsthatnotmuchhashappenedsincethen.ThereistheworkgoingonintheLygonStreetfoyertopreserveandrestorethe commemorative details of the victories in defeatingHughes in the Conscription plebiscites of 1916-17. Asrepairstothatsectionwereurgent,theywereundertakenas a separate project. The action on the LivingHeritageproject has, so far, been in the architectural andengineeringplanningstages.

The main work planned for the ground floor is theinstallationofadisabilityliftwhichwilltransformaccesstothefirstfloorformanypeoplewhohavesofarhadtomakedowiththeratherinadequateliftinthe1960swingoftheHall.Somenew‘conveniences/amenities’aswellaskitchenfacilitieswillbeaddedupstairstoenablegreaterpublic use of all themeeting rooms.The steps from theVictoriaStreetHallwillberepaired,althoughitisnotclearhow the balance between heritage wear and tear andcurrentsafetyrequirementswillberesolved.

The substantial restoration works will be to the OldCouncilChamber,theOldBallroom(currentlyBellaUnion)and the New Ballroom. The New Council Chamber(currentone)wasconsideredtobesubstantiallybeyondthescopeofheritagerestorationbecausemostofitwasa1960srebuildafterthedisastrousfire.Therewillonlybefundingforrepairoftheoriginalhonourrollsonthenorthsideofthatchamber.We,theunionmovement,willhaveto find the funds for the transformation of, what manyagree,isaless-than-idealspace!Plansforhowthatwillbedonearecurrentlyunderdiscussion.

Work is to begin in June-July and be completed inFebruary-March2018.Thoseofuswhohaveexperienceof

heritage restorationwork canonlywish theTradesHallandLiteraryInstituteCommitteegoodluckwiththattime-table. If theOldCouncilChamber istobereturnedto itslate19th century splendour, asweall hope, thework issure to be meticulous and time-consuming. No matterhowbriskortardytheprogress,wecanexpecttobekeptup-to-date and, when different stages of the work havebeen finished, be invited to inspect and rejoice in therestorationofourHall.

VictorianTradesHall.PhotographbyPeterLove.

IssueNo.288—March2017

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INTHISEDITION:

• TradesHall:LivingHeritageRestoration,PeterLove,p.1• KenInglisinHistory:ALaconicColloquium,FrankBongiorno,pp.2-3• OfLabourandLiberty(RaceMathews),p.3• DannySpooner,MargaretWalters,p.4• HotMetal:MaterialCultureandTangibleLabour,DianeKirkbyp.5• NoWayButThis(JeffSparrow),p.5• DemocraticOppositiontoWar,MichaelHamel-Green,p.6

• JohnCurtinResearchCentreLaunch,PeterLove,p.6• LaborandSantamaria,MichaelEasson,p.7• DLPUnionsandthe1985StateALPConference,BrianBoyd,p.7-8• WartimeMunitionsMillGainsRecognition,KevinDavis,p.8• RememberingBenChifley,MaryElizabethCalwell,pp.9-10• Hinterland:AMemoir,JohnMyrtle,pp.10-11• KarlMarx:GreatnessandIllusion,AllanPatience,pp.11-12• ValeMaryOwen,p.12

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FrankBongiorno

MonashUniversity,CaulfieldCampus,24-25November2016

Ken Inglis isoneof thegiantsofAustralianhistory,aleading member of that generation of scholars whoentered university soon after the end of the SecondWorldWaranddidsomuchtoshapetheprofessioninthedecadesthatfollowed.Whilehisworkhasmainlybeen in the broader _ield of social history, he hasstronglinkstolabourhistory.HisOxforddoctorateonthe churches and the working classes in VictorianEngland was supervised by the guild socialist G.D.H.Coleand, informally (andmoresubstantially),byAsaBriggs, thespiritual founderof theAustralianSocietyfortheStudyofLabourHistory.Inglisalsosupervisedseveralthesesinthe_ieldoflabourhistory,including–with the late Barry Smith – my own on the earlyhistoryoftheVictorianLaborParty.

The recent conference – or, rather, ‘LaconicColloquium’ – hosted by Monash University in hishonour, touched on most of the major aspects andphasesofhislonganddistinguishedcareer.Ken’sownpresenceat theconference,andhisoccasional timelyinterventions and recollections, were among theoccasion’shighlights.

Several ofKen’s closest friends and colleagues in theprofession were among the speakers. Bill Gammage,one of the colloquium’s conveners, openedproceedings. Gammage taught with Inglis at theUniversityofPapuaNewGuineaandastheauthorofTheBrokenYears (1974),was instrumentalwithhimin reviving interest in the history of Australia in theFirst World War. As in so many of the otherpresentations,Ken’sroleasanencouragerandmentorwas in evidence; he had done much to give thistalentedcountryboyastartinacademia.Inglis’ssisterShirleyLindenbaum,aprofessorofanthropologywhopursuedhercareerintheUnitedStates,thenprovidedanaccountofInglis’sengagementwiththatdisciplinewhich gave fresh insights into the academic roots ofhiscareer-longinterestinritual–mostfamouslyinhisdistinguishedworkonAnzac.

The remainder of the _irst day followedKen’s careermore or less chronologically, with an entertaining(and occasional ly rol l icking) col lect ion ofreminiscencesfromthePaci_ichistorianGavanDaws–read by Judy Turner – recalling those lively times atthe University of Melbourne in the post-war years;Stuart Macintyre taking us through Inglis’s earliestjournalistic writings and studies at Melbourne andOxford; and Peter Browne picking up on Inglis’scontributions to Tom Fitzgerald’s Nation. We thenfollowed Inglis around Australia and beyond: to theUniversityofAdelaidewithRobertDare, toCanberraand the Australian National University with DiLangmore,andthenofftoPapuaNewGuineawithIan

Maddocks, a medical academic who worked at thatinstitution alongside Inglis.We encounter Inglis as ayouthful vice-chancellor of the still young Universityof Papua New Guinea in the 1970s. Inglis, we learn,was good at this job and respected by staff andstudents, but university administration was not hisvocation.Still,PNGhadaprofoundimpact;Inglisoncetoldmethatforyearsaftertheirtimethere,heandhiswifeAmirah, iftoldbysomebodythatsomethingwasso,wereinthehabitofaskingthemselves:woulditbesoinPNG?

ThefearsofJohnLaNauzethatPortMoresbymightbethe end of Inglis as a historian proved unfounded.Ingliswould return to theANU in 1975, this time tothe Research School of Social Sciences, where hewould spend the remainder of his career apart fromoccasionalvisitingpostsoverseas.Oneachstepoftheway, he was accompanied by Amirah, a formidablehistorian and author in her own right. Judith Keenediscussedtheirpartnershipattheendofthe_irstday,shortly before many of those present made thejourney fromCaul_ield to Carlton to celebratewith adinnerinInglis’shonourathisalmamater,MelbourneUniversity.The _ilmsofKenbeing interviewedbyhisgrandchildren will long be remembered by thosepresent, as will the Inglis family sing-along; all withoriginalKenIngliswords(Atalentedlyricist,Kenwasoncekindenoughtoproduceastanzaonme,whenIwas one of his PhD students, which rhymed ‘laughwarmandraucous’with‘pledgeandcaucus’.Iwas,ofcourse,workingontheLaborParty.)

FrankBongiornoandPhillipDeeryatthecolloquium.PhotobyJulieKimber

The second day was more thematically organised:JanetMcCalmanexploredKen’searliestbooks:oneonthe Royal Melbourne Hospital – a commission thatdoubled as Inglis’smaster’s thesis – and the book ofhisOxforddoctoraldissertation,on theChurchesandtheWorkingClasses inVictorianEngland (1963).BobWallace, an economist who worked with Inglis atAdelaide and was active with him in progressivepolitical causes there in the 1950s, surveyed Inglis’srole in and writings on the Stuart Affair, the caseinvolving the Aboriginal circus-worker Rupert MaxStuart who was sentenced to hang for the rape andmurderofanine-year-oldgirl.TheWallacesrevealed

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that Ingliswas evenmore involved in the day-to-daycampaigntosaveStuart’slifethanatleastsomeofusimagined;hisfamousbookonthecasewasverymuchaparticipanthistory.TheWallaces’accountofInglis’smuchlatermeetingwithStuart,bywhichtimehewasarespectedArrernteelder,wasparticularlystriking.

Inglis is nowprobably best known, both inAustraliaandinternationally,asahistorianofwarandmemory.The session that followed included a paper byBruceScates, the leading historian of Australian battle_ieldpilgrimage, that took us back to Inglis’s part in, andwritings on, the 1965 ‘return’ to Gallipoli by FirstWorldWarveterans. ScatesbasedhispapernotonlyonInglis’spublishedwritingsofthetrip,suchasthosein the Canberra Times (Ken was of_icially theircorrespondent),butalsoonunpublishedmanuscriptsin Inglis’s papers. Annette Becker, a distinguishedFrenchhistorianoftheFirstWorldWar,thenre_lectedon Inglis’s famous work on war memorials, whichculminated in Sacred Places (1998), and its place intheinternationalcontextofworkonthatsubject.Thissession, appropriately enough, was followed by aperformanceofthe_irstmovementof‘Gallipoli’bytheAustraliansolider-composer,FrederickSeptimusKelly.

The_inalafternoonoftheconferenceproducedinmethatfeelingyousometimesgetwhenconfrontedwiththe achievements of a historian of Inglis’s eminenceandproductivity:whendidhesleep?TherewasGlynDavis, Melbourne University vice-chancellor andhimself the author of a major study of the ABC, onInglis’s work as an historian of the national publicbroadcaster – not just the _irst time round, as thecommissioned author ofThis is the ABC (1982)withaccess to its internalarchives,but lateras theauthorofWhoseABC?(2006),whereInglistookupthestoryfrom 1983 from the public record. Davis explainedhow Inglis’s interest in the subject came out of hisown engagement, from childhood onwards, with anorganisationwhose lifespan(born1932)verycloselymatcheshisown(born1929).Wewerealsoremindedthat Inglis had to endure the threat of legal actionfrom Charles Moses, the long-serving ABC generalmanager, who hadn’t liked something or other thatappearedinThisistheABC.

KenInglis.PhotographbyJulieKimber

Seumas Spark,who coordinated the gathering and iscurrently collaboratingwith Inglis, reported on theirwork-in-progress about the experiences of, andimpact on Australian life, of the Dunera migrants.Another of the gathering’s organisers, Jay Winter, adistinguished cultural historian of World War I andfrequent visitor to Australia, then paid tribute to hisfriend’s literary gifts. Inglis’s prose has always beenopen and inclusive, as if welcoming a friend into aconversation, and Winter captured these qualitiesvividly.Inthe_inalsession,JoyDamousidiscussedherexperienceofInglisasaPhDsupervisor,whileGraemeDavisonrecalledtwoimportantIngliscontributionstoAustralianhistoriographyandpublic life: his addressata1964conferenceheldattheANUthatgaverisetohis ground-breaking Meanjin article, ‘The AnzacTradition’ (1965); and his role in the conception,leadership and execution of the multi-volumeAustralians: A Historical Library (1987), with itsinnovative ‘slice’ method of focussing on particularyears(1838,1888,1938)–anInglisidea.

Conferencesofthiskind,orevenlaconiccolloquia,arepart retrospective,part tribute,part family reunion–thefamily,inthiscase,beingliterallyKen’sown–whohadcometogetherfromaroundtheworld–aswellasthe ‘family’ of scholars, historians and writers thatinevitablycoalescesovertheyearsaroundagreatandrespectedelder.I’vebeentoquiteafewofthesekindsofoccasionsovertheyears,andthisonewasaswarmandenjoyableasanyofthem.Theobvioussuccessofthe event hadmuch to dowith the esteem inwhichInglisisheldbysomanypeopleforhisachievements,modesty and generosity, as well as his owncontributionoverthetwodays.RaeFrances,theDeanofArtsatMonashUniversity,deservesthegratitudeofthe historical profession for her support of theoccasion, and Bill Gammage, JayWinter and SeumasSpark are to be congratulated for bringing everyonetogether with just the right balance of organisationandspontaneitytomakeitallwork.

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RaceMathews’ newbookOf Labourand Liberty: Distributism in Victoria1891-1966 followsonfromhis2009publicationJobsofOurOwn:Buildinga Stakeholder Society, which locatedthe origins of distributism in thesocial movements of England, andexplained its application in theworker co-operatives in Spain. Awide ranging text, Of Labour andLiberty revisits the question andconsiders whether it is possible to

‘reshape economics along democratic lines in a waythat genuinely serves the interests of the community’.Published by Monash University Publishing, it isavailableforpurchasefor$34.95AU.Gotoh t tp ://www.publ ish ing .monash .edu/books/oll-9781925495331.html

OfLabourandLiberty

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MargaretWalters

DannySpooner(16December1936–3March2017)wasanarchetypaltroubadour,singingarichvarietyofsongs from the folk traditions of the British Isles,NorthAmericaandAustraliaandtravellingtheworldsharing these songs with anecdotes illuminating thesocialhistorybehindthem.Hesangwithrarewarmth,winning the hearts and imaginations of his audiencewith his humour and conviction. Through his ownworkandlifeexperiencesDannywasdrawntosongsthat illuminatedworking-classandsocialhistoryandhewas a popular _igure at rallieswith his chorus of"BringOutTheBanners",inspiringaudiencememberstoproudlywavehightheirunionmembershipcards.

Born into a working-class family in the East End ofLondonbeforeWorldWarII,Dannygrewupwiththetraditions, music and folklore of a typical Cockneyfamily, singingmusichall and traditionalEnglishandIrishsongsroundthepiano.

DannySpooner.PhotographbyPeterLove.

His working life began at 13 on various crafts on theThames,pickingupaneducationviathelibrariesenrouteandviaCaptainBobRobertswholaterbecameknownintheEnglishfolksceneasagreatsourceofsongs.

DannymigratedtoSydneyin1962doinglabouringworkandstarting tosingregularly in theburgeoningSydneyfolk scene where he met Declan Affley. He moved toMelbournein1963andwasaregularatFrankTraynor’sjazz/folk club, singing along with performers: MartynWyndham-Read,BrianMooney,DavidLumsden,TrevorLucas and Margret RoadKnight. From social historiansandfolkloristsWendyLowensteinandGwendaDavey,helearnedtheimportanceofthesocialcontextofthesongsandproperattribution.

Thankstohisprodigiousmemoryandawillingnesstolearn about his craft, Danny quickly developed intoone of the best singers of British folksongs inAustralia. He also developed into an academic and

teacher, researching, writing, performing andpresenting programs for ABC national radio and TVusing folk songs as source material. From 1968 heheldappointmentsatsecondarycolleges(GeelongandMowbray)andatDeakinandMelbourneUniversities.Heretiredfromteachingin2002.

Over 50 years involvement in the folk scene, Dannypresented nearly 50 workshops delving into theorigins of British or Australian folk songs on manytopics andhe produced over 20 LPs andCDs.DannyperformedregularlyatfolkfestivalsattheNationalinCanberra andPort Fairy inVictoria and at dozens ofregionalfestivals.Onceheretired,healternatedtoursto Europe and the British Isles (2002-08) andNorthAmerica(2003-15)becomingahugefavouriteamongthestrongmaritime/folkcommunityinNewEngland.The National Library has released the cataloguerecordforDanny's4-houroralhistoryinterviewmadewith Rob Willis in May 2016: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-287236132/listen

Danny’swebsitehasagreatdealofinformationabouthis life, his songs, and his recorded output. In duecoursethewebsitewillberevampedandallhisworkwill be available to download. Meanwhile, there areseveral linksonYouTubewhereyoucanlistentothisinimitablesinger.

MargaretWalterswithDannySpoonerinFebruarythisyear.PhotobyPeterHicks.

Inthelastmonthsofhislife,Dannyrecordedanalbumof Australian traditional and bush songs poignantlytitled Now I’m Home, which starts with Eric Bogle’ssong Shelter, and endswith anothermoving song byEric,TheGiftofYears.Thealbumwillbe_inalisedmid-year.Ifyouwouldliketobeadvisedwhenitbecomesavailable,pleaseemail:kilmaley@mmnet.com.auwiththesubjectline:PleaseaddtomailinglistrenewCD.

Danny’shealthdeclinedmarkedlyinthelast4monthsduetolungcancerandhediedearlyinMarchaged80,less than a week after giving a remarkableperformance at the Cobargo Folk Festival. OurcondolencestoDanny’swife,GaelShannon,whowasawonderful balance for Danny with her strength andgrace.Agiantofaman–weshan’tseehislikeagain.

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DianeKirkby

Review of Jesse Adams Stein, HotMetal:MaterialCultureandTangibleLabour (University of ManchesterPress,2016),pp.+214.

Thisbook isawelcomeadditiontostudiesofAustralianlabourhistory.The subject is the process andimpactofdeindustrialisationontheworkers employed at the NSWGovernment Printing Of_ice. This

was a workplace with a long and important history.Establishedin1840itwasoneoftheoldestindustrialworkplaces in Australia and one which also held aparticular place as an institution of government. Itre_lected the relationship between print culture andauthoritythatisnowrapidlydisappearing.The analysis starts with that particular moment in1989 when the Greiner government decided to shutdown its printing of_icewith just fourweeks’ notice.Despite its apparent suddenness the decision was alonger time coming in the processes of economic,technological and workplace change. The bookconcentrates on the thirty years leading up to thatevent,andreconstructsthemeaningofthosechangesforthepeopleonwhomthedecisionimpacted.Astheauthor says, in a memorable sentence, ‘signi_icanttechnological shifts do not just happen with a bang.They are gradual creeping sequences that weunwittingly prepare for in advance through’ [whatLewis Mumford wrote of in 1934 of as] “our will toorder”andourconnectionwithmachines.’

This is a book about the connection tomachines – thematerial culture– theobjectof the labourprocess thathasbeenthesubjectofmuchlabourhistoryliterature.Ittakesthatfocusfurtherasitbridgesdifferentfields,thatofdesign/materialculturestudies,andthatoflabourandworking-classhistory. It setsout to retain thevoicesoftheworkerswhile simultaneouslyattending to the roleof objects and spatial design. A constant threadthroughoutisthatpoliticsunderpinsitall.

Asan interdisciplinarystudy, it isnot justtechnologyhistory,itisalsooralhistoryandarchitecturalhistory,engaging with workers’ recollections of the buildingand drawing on its spatial factors to constructmeaning. ‘The institution and the bulky modernistbuildingthathouseditwereoneandthesame’whilethey worked there and continue to be so in theworkers’memories.Andshemakesvery fullusealsoof visual photographic sources. These she integratesinto the interviews not as memory triggers in theserviceoftheoralhistory,buttoopenupnewwaysofspeaking about the past. She demonstrates thedissonance between the institutional or of_icialphotographsandthestoriestheworkershadof their

workplace. The visual and the oral sometimesreinforce each other, sometimes collide, all suggestmeaning. It is also gender history. Technologicalchangeforcraftworkerscannotbedisassociatedfromgender,fromthemasculinitywhereidentityandsocialstatusweretiedtotechnology,toolsandmanualskill.This has beenwell-established in previous literaturegoingbackdecades,butthisstudybringsnewinsightstoenrichthetextureofthestory.

Steinstartswiththepropositionthattheworldofworkisinextricablyboundupwiththings,likethehotmetalofthetitle(whichcomesfromtheoldcraftskillofsettinglinotype), and that the experience of the workplace istightly interwovenwithmaterial objects so that designhas an important role in shaping workplaceenvironments, cultures and identities. Understandinghowweinteractwiththoseobjectsaffectsknowinghowtoadapttochangingenvironments.

The author asks the important question: must labourhistory (i.e. the politics and culture ofworking life) bedisassociated from material culture and design whichhas become depoliticised as innovation andconsumption?And she emphatically answers no – thatlabour history and the focus on material culture andtechnologyarepartofthesamepiece,allaresocialandpolitical.

It’s an ambitious work. Printers, and the printingtrades have been the subject of quite a lot ofscholarship over a long time, which produced sometruly classic works. Yet in this book the author hasfoundawaytobringanewapproachtocontributetoa well ploughed _ield. She succeeds admirably. Shetakes a workplace which is a building, with a singleemployer,askilledworkforce,aninstitutionalidentitywhich extends beyond the work, and a long history,and gives us a cohesive and compelling account ofworkinglife.

Itisatonceastudyofpeopleandtheirrelationshiptotechnology,andarecordofaperiodofhistorythat isusually treated from quite different perspectives. Itshows us how labour history can lead the way thathistory is written. In that, it is pathbreaking andimportant.Thisaterri_icstory.Itisacriticalre_lectionon the mistakes of economic rationalism, and thelossesfromdeindustrialisationwithoutbecomingonlya story of loss with nostalgia for a golden era. Its_indingsaresalutary.

� Published by Scribe,No Way But This: InSearchofPaulRobesontakesusonajourneywith Jeff Sparrow as he walks in thefootstepsofPaulRobeson.Itwaslaunchedat Trades Hall on 16 March. https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/no-way-but-this We will carry areviewofthebookintheJulyedition.

HotMetal:MaterialCultureandTangibleLabour

NoWayButThis

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MichaelHamel-Green

2017 will mark the 100 year anniversary of thesecond of the two 1916-1917 WWI conscriptionplebiscites.Duringthe1917plebiscite,inthemidstofthe war, Australian anti-conscription campaignerssucceeded in defeating the introduction ofconscription by an even greater margin. This was auniqueexampleofpopularoppositiontoconscriptionin the countries engaged in the war yet appears tohavereceivedrelativelylittleattentionandanalysisincurrentof_icialANZACWWIcommemorations.

A one-day conference, jointly sponsored by theBrunswick-Coburg Anti-Conscription CommemorationCampaign (BCACCC) Melbourne Labour History Society,VictorianTradesHallCouncilandsupportedbyMorelandCouncil,willbeheldon20May2017,9.00am-4.30pmatthe Siteworks in Saxon St, Brunswick. The conferencetheme is: ‘Democratic Opposition to War: the 1916-17Anti-Conscription Campaigns, Impacts and Legacies’. Itwillexaminetheroleofspecificstrandsandfigureswithintheanti-conscriptionmovement, includingTradeUnions,Labor Party, Socialists, IWW, Women’s groups, IrishCatholics,Quakers,andpacifistandconscientiousobjectorgroups.Particularkeyfigures,suchasJohnCurtin,FrankAnstey, Doris and Maurice Blackburn, Frank Hyett, andBellaGuerin(allofwhomlivedorwereclosely linkedtoBrunswick), as well as Adela Pankhurst, Vida GoldsteinandDanielMannix,willbediscussed.

Theconferencewill furtherexploresomeof the impactsand implications of the referenda in Australia’ssubsequenthistory,aswellascontinuingissuesassociatedwithconscriptionduringtheVietnamandcurrentpoliciesrelatingtowar-makingpowersinAustralia.

Speakers:ProfessorBarryJones(openingspeaker),ProfessorMurray Goot (Macquarie University), Professor StuartMacintyre (Melbourne University), Assoc.Professor BobbieOliver(CurtinUniversity),ProfessorJoyDamousi(MelbourneUniversity),DrValNoone,DrCarolynRasmussen,KateLaing,DrRossMcMullin,DrPeterLove,DrAnn-MariJordens,PaulBarratt (former Secretary, Department of Defence), & DrJennifer Grounds (MAPW). For further details contact:anticonscription1916@gmail.com

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PeterLove

BillShortenlaunchedtheCurtinResearchCentrewithafinely crafted speech pitched to the Party faithful butwith resonances for those who hope for a return to amore equitable and civilised political community. HespokeofLabor’slegacyofnation-buildingreformsintheearlytwentiethcentury,ofthegreatvisionembeddedinthe Post-War Reconstruction planning during Curtin’stime and the great programs bequeathed by theWhitlam,HawkeandKeatinggovernments.Despiteset-backs, significant improvements have grown out ofrecentLaborgovernments’works.Butthedominanceofneoliberalideasinthepublicsphereandtheevangelicalzeal of their apostles in Coalition governments havewrought deep and enduring damage on the ordinarycitizenrywhoneedclear-sighted,intelligentalternativesadvocated by an energetic and purposeful Labor Party.Anticipatingthe‘FairWork’cuttopenaltyratesShortencommitted theALP to resolutely oppose it. ‘This is notthecountryJohnCurtinknew,it’snottheAustraliaLaborbuilt–andit’snotafuturewewillacceptforthenationwelove.’

NickDyrenfurth,HenryPinskierandBillShorten.PhotobyPeterLove.

OurveryownNickDyrenfurth,prolificwriteronlabourhistoryandcontemporarypolitics, is to leadtheCentrein developing ideas to support and strengthen thecampaign to return Australia to some of the civilisingvaluesthatcharacterisedgreatLaborleaderslikeCurtin.

The first of the Centre’s events was Kosmos Samarasspeakingabout ‘TheRe-AwakeningoftheWorkingClass’onWednesday22March.HispointwastosuggestthattheLabor Party needs to re-engage with its working classfoundationsif it istobuildaviablefuturefor itself inanincreasingly cynical political community. In the light ofrecent risible behaviour by Labor MLAs, the need forrobust policy development and associated politicaldiscipline is manifest. The latter is in the hands of theParty,buttheCurtinResearchCentrecanplayaveryactiveroleintheformer.WeareconfidentthatNickDyrenfurthhasthetalentandenergytoleadtheCentreindoingjustthat.RecorderwishesNickandtheCentrewell.

DemocraticOppositiontoWar JohnCurtinResearchCentreLaunch,Melbourne–Wednesday25January2017

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MichaelEasson

RobertMurray,LaborandSantamaria(Melbourne: Australian ScholarlyPublishing,2016),pp.+100.$24.95.

As Australian labour history goes,RobertMurray'sTheSplit (1970)onthe tumultuous splits in themid-1950s, is only rivalled by H.V.Evatt’s Australian Labour Leader(1942),asympatheticaccountofthelife, disillusionment and failures of

one of themovement’s pioneers, one-time NSW LaborPremierWilliamArthurHolmanwhorattedontheALPin 1917. Both books are connected to another greattragicLaborfigure,"Doc"Evatt,whoarguablydidmorethanR.G.MenziestokeepLaboroutofofficefor23years.

In this short 100-page booklet, part crib of the original,memoir,updateandreconsideredassessment,MurrayinLaborandSantamariaprovidesaclear,absorbingaccount.Thebook'schaptertitlessignaltoanynewcomerthestoryofwhathappenedover60yearsago:After'Chif',TheALP,1954, Bob Santamaria, The Split in NSW, The Split inQueensland, The Rise of Whitlam, After Half a Century,Memory Lane. In part, the book conveys the sense thatwithoutthereformingzealofWhitlam,thesorrydisasterof The Split had decades left to unfoldwithout nationalpartyinterventionintheVictorianBranchin1970-71.

AtthelaunchofthebookattheMelbourneTradesHallinMarch 2017, two former Victorian Premiers, John CainandSteveBracks,urgedallnewpartymemberstoreadthe book. There was much lamenting that not enoughVictorian Labor history has been written. What isstrikinginthisaccount,isthecalm,soberassessmentsofpersonalitiesandideologiesthatchallengeconventionalopinion–suchasthemyththattheSplitrepresentedthestrugglebetweenprogressivesandreactionariesforthesoulofthelabourmovement.Thisisinmarkedcontrastto the traditional Labor view that has emphasised theideological at the expense of the accidental, therationalisationsaheadofthepersonalitiesandchaosthatcapture better what really happened. In his study,Murray complements the insight of the late BritishpoliticaltheoristHenryDrucker,himselfagreatadmirerof The Split, that there's too much doctrine and notenough ethos in the telling of labour history. Oneimportant conclusion of Drucker's UK study, Doctrineand Ethos in the Labour Party (1979), is that if thenarrative is clear and ideologically coherent, besuspicious. Murray argues that the Split was a powerstruggleandnotparticularlyideological:

‘Themostrevealingdiscoverytomewashowlittlemostpeople involved thought about ideology … [I]deologyhardly arose at all in the innumerable interviews andinformalconversationsIhad;andifitdid[it]wasusually

in the context of being dismissed as unimportant. Thepoliticsathandwasthegame’.

Murrayhasaninsider'sgraspoftheworkingsoftheALPandanovelist's ability to capture theessenceofperson,situation and context. One example: ‘Santamaria was aflawedleaderwhosuccumbedtohubrisintheheydayofthe Groups, with the smell of power over public policywhilestillyoungandadmiredbythebishops,clergyandmany laity. Religion and politics can be an intoxicating,unstablemix,riskingmisjudgmentsduetoover-confidentbeliefthatoneisdoingGod'swork.’AsSantamariamovedonfromhisconcernwithindustrialandunionissues,fromthelate1960sonwards,heseemedtoact ‘likeashrewd,typically autocratic small businessman, cultivating newmarketsforhisfirmasoldonesweakened.’

Thisfrank,sad,compellingstoryopensuptherichnessoflabourhistoryincluding,notwithstandingthedownplayingof ideology, the significance and compatibility of Catholicsocial thinking to Labor theory. The Victorians, asSantamaria and Murray saw, were trying to pioneersomethingnew.WasCatholicsocialandpoliticalphilosophycompatiblewith Labor values, something better than thecrudenotionofabigfamilyoneveryacre,asanti-Grouperpropaganda later presented? There are indications inMurray’sbookaboutthemissedopportunitiesforLabortorenew its reforming agenda, as the Split furies blewthemselves out. Some issues, the formulation of a reformagendaforone,areneverendingandrequireamasteryofcontemporarychallenges.Perhapsthisbookwill inspireanewBobMurraytodojustthat.

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BrianBoyd

An interesting political and industrial event in VictorianhistorywastheApril1985VictorianALPStateConferenceheldattheCoburgTownHall.TheApril1985Conferencewas tobe an amazing left/right clash thatpittedpeoplewho knew each other reasonably well around theVictoriantradeunionmovementagainsteachother.IntheleaduptotheConferencetheSocialistLeftheldmeetingsand discussions about the push by PM BobHawke andotherstohavetheVictorianALPre-admitthefourright-wing(DLPaligned)unions:FCU,ASC&J,SDAandFIA.

Themajorityofthe‘Left’,especiallymostoftheleftALPaffiliated unions, strongly opposed their readmission.Thescarsofthe1950sSplit,theramificationsofwhichcontinued into the 1960s, 1970s and into the 1980s,werestillraw,becauseoftheDLP’spreferencingtotheconservativesateveryelection. Inadditiontherewereno illusions that Hawke and co were hoping theinfusion of right-wing influence into the VictorianBranch would help dilute the dominant Socialist Leftfaction.Inhisbiography,JohnCainYears:power,partiesandpolitics(MUP,1995),JohnCainJnrwrote:

‘Hawkewasaplayerinthereadmissionplanningforthefour [right-wing] unions… [He] regarded the actions of

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theLeftinVictoriaontheCombeissueandonuraniumasbetraying the federal government. Hewantedme to tryand arrange for the Independents to support the LaborUnity group to ensure that the Left was crushed in thecouncilsoftheparty.’

The ‘tomato’ Weekend: On Saturday 20 April 1985protesterswithlargebannersassembledinforceoutsidetheCoburgTownHallopposingthemotionthatwouldseethefourunionsreadmitted.TheSecretaryoftheMusiciansUnion, Alex Hutchinson, played the Last Post on hisclarinet. Inside, the vote was carefully managed despitethetension,yellingandgeneralturmoil.Ofgreatnotewasthe intention of the large left-wing AMWU delegation.Theymetinabighuddleatthebackofthehalljustbeforethevotewas taken.Thedelegationwas ledbySecretaryJohnHalfpenny.Theword spread fast.TheAMWUweregoingtobreakfromtheleftandvoteforreadmission.

ThemoredeterminedSocialistLeftunionsandrankandfileriledagainstthevote.Itcamedowntoanarrowwinfor readmission. Halfpenny came in for heavy criticism.Manyknew theAMWUVicSecretarywasafteraSenateseat in1987. (Ironically, the core ‘tomato’unions, ledbyBill Hartley and the Food PreserversUnion,would laterthwart Halfpenny’s Senate bid with their short livedIndependentLaborPartypreferencingagainsthim).

PhotographsuppliedbyBrianBoyd.

The next day, the delegations of the four unionsassembledatthebottomofthedrivewayoftheCoburgTownHall. On a signal, they filed up as a block to thefrontdoorofthehall.Skirmishesbrokeoutandtomatoeswere thrown. Eventually the four right-wing uniondelegatessigned inamongstchaosand loudexchanges.They took their seats on the floor of conference. BillHartley and others spoke passionately from the floormicrophoneagainsttheanti-left‘insertion’,tonoavail.

Thewiderpoliticalenvironmentofthetimeneedstobetakenintoaccount,besidestheColdWarwoundsofpastdecades. Itwas the first coupleof yearsof theHawke/Keating/Kelty Accord experiment. Not all ‘Left’ unionswere on board. Hard-nosed politicians well knew theyhad to strike while the iron was hot, with electoralsuccessatanalltimehigh.AnotherchapterinALPandtradeunionhistoryhadoccurred.

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KevinDavisThe Albion Explosives Factory, which was situated on thefarming plains of Deer Park from 1939 to 1986, wasrememberedinFebruarybytheawardingofanEngineeringHeritageNationalMarkertotheonlyremainingbuildingonthesite,theBlackPowderMill.Atitspeakproductiontime,during World War II, the facility comprised about 400buildings and covered approximately 500 hectares. Itemployed over 1,500workers. After thewar, it still had aworkforceofabout350.Thefactorywaspartofacomplexofmunitions factories in the western suburbs of Melbourne,vital to thewar effort.After thewar, the factory continuedmakingexplosivesforpeacefulpurposessuchasminingandengineeringprojectsuntil1986,whenencroachinghousingdevelopment necessitated a move to Mulwala. The areabecamethenewsuburbofCairnlea.

Asthefactorybuildingswerebeingdemolished,agroupoflocalcitizensdeterminedtosavewhattheycouldasareminder of the area’s history. In the event, the onlybuildingthatcouldbesavedwasasmallmillusedtomixandgrindtheingredientsforgunpowder,calledtheBlackPowder Mill. A feature of the mill’s operation was theextreme concentration on safety, with design andregulationinsistingonarigorousregimeofpracticestoeliminate any danger. However, on 18 May 1944 anaccident was recorded in the mill when an explosioninjured two workers, with one, Robert Taylor, sadlypassingawayinhospitalafterextensiveburns.

With theassistanceof theBrimbankCityCouncil (whohavestronglysupportedtheprojectandmadeaseriesoffinancial grants), Heritage Victoria and the NationalTrust,thegroup,calledtheFriendsoftheBlackPowderMill, worked to restore the mill, which had ceased tooperateattheendofthewarandbeenneglectedsince.The mill was in a very dilapidated condition, andrequiredrestoration,butwaseventually returned to itsoriginalfullyworkingconditionandnowconductsopendays,talksanddemonstrationstointerestedgroups.

TheBlackPowderMilltoday.Photographerunknown.

EngineeringAustralia,whichmadetheaward,said thattheBlackPowderMillisofsocial,scientificandhistoricalsignificancetoAustraliaastheonlysurvivingcomponentofagunpowdermanufacturingfacilityonitsoriginalsite.It represents a phase in Australian defencewhen localmanufactureofmaterialwasanabsolutenecessity,andactsasatributetothe25,000orsopeoplewhoworkedin the munitions industry in Melbourne’s westernsuburbsduringWorldWarII.

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MaryElizabethCalwell

This is an edited extract from a speech given by DrCalwell at the launch ofRemembering Ben Chifley, inCanberralastyear.Itisreproducedherewithpermission.

Joseph Benedict Chi_ley was born in Bathurst on 22September 1885 and grew up in an Australianpioneeringcommunity in_luencedbyhisCatholicandIrishheritages.Thisenvironment imbuedhimwithastrongsenseoftheimportanceofsocialjusticeandhelearnt to discern between the roles of church andstate.

Chi_leyenrolledinanightschool,studiedfournightsaweek for 15 years and later lectured at theRailwaysInstitute.HebecametheyoungestNSWrailwaydriverat the age of 26 and a prominent unionist. Chi_leyplayedasigni_icantroleinthe1917railwaystrikethatspreadtomanyunionsandotherStates.Itresultedinhishumiliation,hisperseveranceandvindication.Herecoveredhispositionin1925.

In1928,Chi_leywonMacquarieand in1931becameMinister for Defence in the Scullin Federal ALPGovernment. He lost Macquarie in the Government’sdefeat partly caused by a hostile Governor of theCommonwealth Bank. Two English economistsrecommended policies agreed to by Premiers in thePremiers’ Plan. The ALP Federal Executive, includingArthur Calwell, strongly opposed the decision toreduce government salaries and payments. TheFederal President ruled that ALP Federal Memberscould decidewhether to support The Premiers’ Planand Chi_ley did so. The Victorian President, Calwellruled in favour of of_icial ALP policy. AMinisterwasexpelled and following a State Election, the formerPremieranda formerMinisterwereexpelled.Chi_leybecamePresidentof theNSWBranchof theALPandunsuccessfully challenged Lang in his State seat.CalwellandChi_leyenduredLang’shatred.When I first visited Canberra with my parents andbrotherin1941,Laborhadincreaseditsrepresentationin the 1940 Federal Election. This resulted in ChifleyregaininghisseatafternineyearsandBertEvattandmyfatherenteringtheHouseofRepresentatives.Therewerenine past, present and future Prime Ministers in theHouseand,forALPMembers,politicswasavocationforlife.CalwellandChifleywouldhavemetby1930whenCalwellwasamemberoftheALPFederalExecutive.

Most Labor Members and Senators stayed at theKurrajong Hotel with a few UAP (later Liberal Partyand Country Party) parliamentarians while mostConservativesandafewLaborMembersandSenatorsstayedattheCanberraHotel.Atbreakfast,MrChi_leysatattheheadofaLabortablenearthecentraldoorofthediningroomwithmyfatheronhisright.Whenmymotherwas thereshe joined themandwhenour

familycameinschoolholidays,wesatatanadjoiningtable.Severalpublicservantslivedthereandsattotheright of the Parliamentarians’ tableswith secretariesonthe far leftwhilea ladycalledMayallocatedseatsandruled thediningroom.Fromearlychildhood,weattended Question Time with our mother but someparliamentarywives,not interested indebates, spentmostoftheirtimeintheloungeroomknitting,playingcards and observing the activities of everyone whocame through the lounge. It was unthinkable andimpossibleforanyonetoindulgeinanyimpropriety.

Chi_leyspenteverysecondweekendinCanberra,andinschoolholidayswegenerallydinedwithhim.OnaSunday, he would walk to the 7am Mass at StChristopher’sChurchinManuka,thenhavearestandwewoulddine together in the evening.On theotherweekend,hereturnedhome,stoodonthestepsofthelocal newspaper of_ice where anyone could talk tohim, went to his church and took his wife to herchurch. Canberra had a population of about 20,000people. My parents and Mr Chi_ley shared values, aloveofAustraliaandasenseofhumour.

All ALP Members were committed to the SocialistObjectivethatpromotedgovernmentownershipofthemeansofproduction,distributionandexchangewhereexploitation existed. When the Curtin ALPGovernment took of_ice in 1941, Chi_ley becameTreasurer and promoted Keynesian economics. Hewasamemberof the1935RoyalCommissionon theMonetaryandBankingSystems.Thecontrolofincometax was transferred to the Federal Government. In1945,twobankingactsestablishedaCentralBankingDepartment in the Commonwealth Bank, continuedwar-time controls of private banks and returnedcontrol to a Governor and Board. The FederalGovernment promoted full employment andestablished a free Commonwealth EmploymentServicein1945rati_iedbyILOConvention88in1949.It also introduced unemployment bene_its aswell aswidows’pensions,ensuringastableeconomyinwar-timeandthetransitiontopeace-time.

In 1943 my father became Minister for InformationandPrimeMinisterJohnCurtintransferredtheroleofcensorship to him. When Chi_ley became PrimeMinister in July 1945 he continued as Treasurer. Heagreed to Calwell’s suggestion that a Department ofImmigration should be established with Calwell asMinister so that he had two portfolios. In his _irstspeechasMinisterforImmigration,Calwellstatedthatallpeoplewereeligiblewithinourexistinglegislation,andhewasthe_irstpersontoamendtheImmigrationRestrictionAct1901inMarch1947.

Inearly1946,ourfamily_lewtoTasmaniaandcalledatEaglehawkNeckwhereChi_leywashaving a quietholiday.HewasanardentreaderandLiberalMemberPercy Spender and his wife were also there. MrsSpender wrote detective stories and Chi_ley wasenjoyingreadingthedraftofherlatestbook.Whenmy

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brotherwasseriouslyillChi_leysentatelegramforhisbirthday–Artdiedthreeweekslater.

The1946Referendumresultedinseveralnewwelfarebenefits.TheALPGovernmentintroducedthe40-hourweek, established the Australian National University,ASIO, TAA, the Snowy Mountains Scheme, theAustralianShippingBoard,thetake-overofQantasandCommonwealth Scholarships. The Department ofInformationsupportedservicepersonneloverseasandthen promoted Australian culture and the arts in 50countries.JohnDedmaninitiatedextensiveschemesforreturned service personnel. Dr Evatt, External AffairsMinister, became President of the United Nations andplayed a major role in the recognition of Israel. Twoelectorates were called after women. Chifley led agovernmentofequalswithexperience,knowledgeanddedicationtoLaborpolicies.

By late 1949, over 150,000 assisted migrants hadarrived as well as many thousands of sponsoredmigrants,despiteashippingshortage.Theterm,‘NewAustralian’ was introduced to make new arrivalswelcome, GoodNeighbour Councilswere establishedand the words ‘assimilation’ and ‘integration’ wereusedinterchangeablytomeanawillingnesstobepartof our societywhile respectingpeoples’ heritages.Atthe_irstNaturalisationCeremony,myfatherpresentedthe _irst Certi_icate to Mr Chi_ley and at the _irstImmigration Convention, Chi_ley said there wassomethingGod-likeaboutimmigrationpolicy.

Until the late 1960s, Federal Members attackedpoliciesof their opponents inParliament.Theyoftenhad a cup of tea or drink afterwards. I rememberChi_ley and Robert Menzies, who had recentlydefeatedhim,sittingatthebackoftheHousetogether.

MrChi_leyhadhislastmealwithmyparentsanddieda fewhours later.Mymotherstayedupconsolinghissecretary, PhyllisDonnelly. Sue [Martin] quoted frommymother’stribute.Shealsowrotethathecamefromthepeoplewhohadnotreasurebuthope.‘Hewasnotdismayedwhenelectedtothehighestpostintheland…Hetriedtoplace...“thislandofthedawning”…aloft…assuredofitsdestiny’.AtBathurstcemetery,onthe10th anniversary of Chi_ley’s death, my fatherdeclared that Chi_ley had the modesty and thesimplicity of thosewho possess innate greatness.HestoodaboveallforPartyunity.HereadhisBibleninetimes. Calwell said that it was his privilege to haveknowntwogreatTreasurers,TheodoreandChi_ley,arare and exquisite privilege. My father declared thatweshalleverrememberChi_leyforhisintegrityinhispublicandprivatelife.Heconcludedwiththewordsofthe Irishpoet, JohnKelly Ingram: ‘And truemen, likeyoumen,rememberhimwithpride’.

RememberingBenChi^ley,bySueMartinisavailableinhardcopyorasanebookandcanbepurchasedfromhttp://www.inspiringbookshop.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=342

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JohnMyrtle

Chris Mullin, Hinterland: A Memoir(London: Profile Books, 2016), pp.271.£20cloth

There is something unusual about apolitician who when preselected forparliament would be described as ‘acertifiablelunatic’byhispartyleader;and who some years later would belabelled by Rupert Murdoch’s Sunnewspaper as a ‘loonyMP’; andwho

aftermore than twenty years of parliamentary servicewould publish widely acclaimed political diaries. AllthesethingsapplytoChrisMullin,authorofHinterland:AMemoir. Mullin, a Labour Party member of the Britishparliament from 1987 to 2010, has had a remarkablecareer as a journalist, writer, political activist,parliamentarian,governmentministeranddiarist.

MullingrewupinaCatholicfamily;hismother’sfamilycame from Ireland and his father was a Scot. He wassickly child; at school he failed the crucial eleven-plusexamandasaconsequencehemissedoutonaplaceatthe local grammar school. Instead, he was sent to aCatholic boarding school (‘amixture of inspiration andterror’),runbytheDeLaSalleBrothers.Hestudiedlawat university but spent more time working for thestudent newspaper and was therefore drawn tojournalism,ratherthanthelaw.

In1971MullinvisitedChinainapartyofyoungpeopleina tour organised by the Society for Anglo-ChineseUnderstanding. He wrote that this was one of theseminalmomentsinhislife,awakeningalifelonginterestinAsia.Inthefollowingyearheboughtaone-wayticketto the Far East, initially visiting Laos, and then ‘eightmonths bumming around’, including visits to Burma,Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan.Many years later, in April 1985, he visited Vietnam,escortingagroupofBritish tourists.During the triphemet and fell in love with Nguyen Thi Ngoc who wasworkingforthestate-ownedSaigontouristorganisation.TheywereeventuallymarriedinHoChiMinhCityon14April1987;hewas37andshewas30.TwomonthslaterMullin was elected MP for Sunderland South in thegeneralelection;hewastoholdtheseatfor23years.

The late 1970s and early 1980s had been a period ofconsiderable upheaval for the Labour Party in BritainandMullinwascloselyinvolvedasanactivist, includingtheCampaignforLabourPartyDemocracy,focussingonthe selection and re-selection ofMPs and demands forreformsinthemethodofselectionoftheparty’s leaderby MPs, trade unions and party members. During thistime (from 1978) Mullin had been working as ajournalist forTribune, theweekly journalof theLabourleft. He was elected editor in May 1982 and waspitchforked into considerable upheaval as he and the

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journal’s staff battled to maintain their independenceandtosustaintheviabilityofthejournal.

As a politician and parliamentarian Chris Mullin willchiefly be remembered for two aspects of his politicallife; firstly, his campaigns to publicise miscarriages ofjustice;andsecondly,publicationofhispoliticaldiaries.

On 21November 1974 bombings in Birmingham pubsresulted in21peoplekilledand182others injured.SixIrishmen were sentenced to life imprisonment for thebombings. These men, who became known as theBirminghamSix,alwaysmaintainedtheirinnocenceandinsistedthattheyhadbeencoercedbypoliceintosigningfalse confessions through severe physical andpsychologicalabuse.Intheyearspriortohiselectiontoparliament (and after) Chris Mullin emerged as anindefatigablecampaigner to free these innocentpeople.Part of his campaign involved publication of a detailedstudyof the issues,Errorof Judgement: the truthabouttheBirminghambombings.ThemorethatMullinexposedshortcomingsintheprosecutionoftheBirminghamSix,themore hewas subjected to hatemail and abuse. InJanuary1988themostbizarrewasafront-pageheadlinein Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun; ‘Loony MP Backs BombGang’, published following a fresh consideration of thecaseintheCourtofAppeal.Inspiteofthisunsuccessfulappeal,pressureforreviewofthecaseincreased.Amongother shortcomings, police evidence was shown to befabricatedandon14March1991 the convictionswerequashed and the Birmingham Six were released. ChrisMullin’s investigative journalism had played a criticalroleinachievingthereleaseoftheBirminghamSix.Hismemoirs quote the author Robert Harris: ‘Whoeverplanted the bombs in Birmingham … also planted abombundertheBritishlegalestablishment.’

Onceelected toparliament,Mullin soughtappointmentto the Home Affairs Select Committee as a means ofcontinuing to investigate miscarriages of justice andinadequacies in the legal system. Among issues ofimportance to Mullin were increases in the prisonpopulation; accountability of the security service;fundingofpoliticalparties; appointmentof judges; guncontrol; and the role of Freemasons in the criminaljustice system. Initially therewas resistance toMullin’sappointment to the Committee but once appointed hewas an energetic and effective member and served asChairman for four years during his time in Parliament.Mullin’s campaigns and successes with the Committeearedescribed insomedetail inHinterland.ChrisMullinutilisedhisskillandexperienceasajournalistandwriter,andhisinvolvementinthepoliticallifeofLondonandthenorth of England, to produce a remarkable series ofdiaries of his life as anMP. Therewere three volumespublished,commencingin1994withthedeathofpartyleaderJohnSmithandthelaunchofNewLabourunderTonyBlair,andendingwiththegeneralelectionof2010,the defeat of the Labour Party andMullin’s retirementfrom Parliament. The three volumes (not published inchronological order) are A Walk-On Part: diaries1994-1999; A View From the Foothills [covering July1999-May2005];andDeclineandFall:diaries2005-2010.The diaries have beenwidely acclaimed and provide a

valuable recordof life for akeenlyengagedmemberofparliament. It isasignificantshortcoming inHinterlandthatMullinprovideslittleinformationonhismotivationsformaintaining the diary for such an extended period.Clearly, there is a range of issues involved in such aprojectthatcouldhavebeenexplained,suchashowhefound time to write a diary (work trips to and fromSunderland and London?); when to reveal his diarywritingtocolleaguesandfriends;andtheprocedureforgaining government clearance to publish the diary fortheperiodinwhichhewasajuniorminister.

Overall, Hinterland is a most engaging memoir; funny,moving, inspiring and a valuable record of a period ofconsiderableupheavalinBritishpolitics.

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AllanPatience

Gareth Stedman Jones, Karl Marx:Greatness and Illusion (CambridgeMA: The Belknap Press, 2016), pp.i-750.

ComparedtoMaxWeberandEmileDurkheim,KarlMarxisperhapsthemost misused and abused of thistrinityofearlyandmostoriginalofsocial and political theorists ofmod e r n i t y. A l l t h r e e we re

profoundly disturbed by the emerging trajectories ofcapitalism.Allthreeweredeeplypessimisticaboutitsfuture(inWeber’scasetothepointofabjectdespair).Butofthethreeit isMarx’svoluminouswritingsthathave been the most crudely plagiarised, reductivelymisinterpreted and ideologically distorted bythousands,ifnotmillions,ofself-proclaimedfollowersof bad faith on the one hand and critics of a similarcharacter on the other. So much so in fact that theplagiarists, reductionists and ideologues havecontinuously and comprehensively white-anted theenormousmoralandpoliticalphilosophyprojectthatMarx struggled throughout his life to bring togetherintoacoherentopus.Thetragedy,ofcourse,isthatheneversucceededincompletinghisproject.

The political and intellectual distorters of his workprovided copious ammunition forMarx’s enemies todeploy in attacking the entirety of his thinking.HereonethinksespeciallyofLenin,Stalin,Mao,Che,Fidel,and others of this ugly ilk. And of course we havemyriadcommunistpartiesaroundtheglobe,pastandpresent,whichhave laiddiverseandmostlyspuriousclaims to a Marxist legacy. Their ravaging of Marx’swork was aided and abetted by self-proclaimedwould-be “true” Marxists like Louis Althusser andNicos Poulantzas and postmodern or “neo-Marxists”like Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida who allcrudely misused Marx to advance their ownnarcissisticandmalevolentagendas.

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These recondite _iguresprovideddeadly ammunitionforMarx’s enemies – and for sure those enemies arelegion. These include the usual suspects in theWestern media. Acting as a kind of Cold War Greekchorus,Westernwriters – such as Irving Kristol andDanielBellintheUnitedStates,KarlPopperintheUK,andRaymondAroninFrance–all tiltedwildlyatthevarious totalitarianwindmills they calledMarxism inorder to reject it absolutely. Their ideologicalsuccesses – despite the palpable falsity of theirinterpretations of Marx – far out-weighed theirintellectual failings. This is despite the immenselymore scholarly approaches to Marx taken by greatintellectuals likeE.P.Thompson,RalphMilibandandLeszekKolakowski.Howeverthesehonourable_iguresweredrownedoutby thecacophonyofanti-Marxismthat swamped theWest’s political culture during theColdWar, closing down somany alternative ways ofseeingandunderstandingaworldthatrightnowisingravestdangerofheadingtohellinahandbasket.

Marx was alarmed by the capitalism he saw comingintobeing inWesternEuropeandAmerica.Herailedagainst the inhumaneconditionsworkerswerebeingsubjected to by their regimentation in factories, bytheirlongworkinghoursandshockingconditions,thehorrorof child labour (whichwasa formof slavery),andthevenalityoftheirpaymasters.Hewasscathinginhiscritiquesofthesel_ishnessandcrueltyoffactorybosses and their owners and shareholders. He wasappalled by the ideological false-consciousness – thelies (“post-truths”) – purveyed by the media as itcollaborated unconscionably with the owners ofcapitalandtheirbankerbackers.Andheidenti_iedthedeeppsycho-emotional(orspiritual)malaisethatwassetting class against class, gender against gender,ethnicgroupagainstethnicgroup,andsoon.Thishelabelled as “alienation.” His analysis has never beensurpassedin itsdeepknowledgeofhowthingsreallyareinwhatWeberdescribedasmodernity’s“ironcageofrationality.”

The grimmest fact of the twenty-_irst century is thatthe capitalism Marx prophesied has well and trulyarrived across the globe. As Thomas Picketty hasshown, thedividebetween theownersof capitalandthenon-ownershaswidenedtoanhistoricalextreme.Ithasadvancedfromitspost-warrelativelyretrainedform of welfare capitalism through predatorycapitalism to itspresent formofneo-liberal parasiticcapitalism.IthasproducedtheGlobalFinancialCrisisand populist revolts in all the Western so-calleddemocracies delivering toxic victories to thecampaigners for Brexit and Donald Trump whileplunging the Eurozone into crisis. And the economiccatastropheof2007/8isundoubtedlyarelativelymildforerunner to further and bigger global _inancialcrises.

Criticise him all you like for what you think is hismaterialism, his historicism, or his economicdeterminism.Accusehimof layingthefoundationsofStalinism.Attackhimforbeingafermentorofbloody

revolutionasmuchasyoulike.Butthisallcompletelymisses the point. As Gareth Stedman Jones has soscrupulouslydocumentedinthismajorwork,tryingtopinanyoftheselabelsonMarxisacynicalexerciseinscholarlyduplicityandpoliticaldeceit.Ashenotesatthe outset, his aim “is to put Marx back in hisnineteenth-century surroundings, before all of [the]posthumous elaborations of his character andachievements were constructed.” The intellectualbiography that he unveils portrays an extremelycomplex and often vulnerable man, an intellectualoutsider, amanofunfathomablephysicalandmentalpassions actively seeking to make sense of theextraordinarilycomplextimesinwhichhewasliving,responding to those times by drawing on a host ofphilosophical, literary and other super-structuralrealities that ebbed and _lowed and occasionallyerupted in _lashes of amazing clarity in his mightyimagination.

TheMarx that Stedman Jones has revealed to us sethimself a many-dimensioned challenge that noordinarymortal could hope to surmount. ThatMarxalmostdidsurmountitmarkshimoutasperhapsthegreatest giant ever in understanding capitalism’simminent denouement. Others have swarmed acrosshisshoulderseversincebutnonehaseverseenwhatMarx saw with such apprehensive clarity and moraloutrage. And what he saw was a capitalism whoseendgame was inevitable. His prophesies – in arabbinical tradition going way back in the OldTestament and before – are today being ful_illed asneo-liberalism’s parasitic capitalism wreaks itsterrible destruction across the globe. It is time toreturn to Marx – to _ind a deeper, richerunderstanding of what he was analysing andpredicting,freeofthehyperboleandbadfaiththathehasbeenmetwithforfartoolong.

Stedman Jones has opened the great door that willenable us to return toMarx, to fully grasp the oftenHegelian, frequently poetic, and profoundlyphilosophicalmoralisingthatremainsattheverycoreof Marx’s immense project. This book is compellingreading and must become a major reference foranyoneconcernedaboutrevivinghope inachievingacivilisedanddecentworld–anewsocialdemocracy–inwhichwewill all, howandwheneverwewish, beable to hunt in the morning, _ish in the afternoon,breed cattle in the evening and criticise at night,“without,”inthewordsofTheGermanIdeology,“everbecoming a hunter, a _isherman, a cattle breeder orcritic.”

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We notewith sadness the death ofMaryOwen, founding Coordinator of TheWorkingWomen'sCentreMelbourne,andmuch else. Our condolences to Mary’sfamily.AfullobituaryofMary’sremarkablelifewillappearintheJulyedition.

MaryOwen(1921-2017)

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