First British Commonwealth Labour History Conference

Abstract

The first conference on the labour history of the British Commonwealth was held in England in September 1981. Its success opens the way to further international meetings in which Australian labour historians will take part. About 40 papers were presented: 15 from Britain, 12 from Australia, two from New Zealand, nine from Canada, and a few others. Hence it was a major event in labour history, even in the present flourishing state of the study. In particular the substantial contributions from Australia and Canada as well as Britain made it a balanced international gathering which could explore or at least discover similarities and differences over wide areas. A conference of this size and novelty did not come about easily. The preparatory work occupied three years in three continents, beginning tenta tively, continuing hopefully, all the while constrained by the slender resources of the labour history societies. Some $8,000, for example, had to be found for the essential expenses of the meeting. Most of this came from Britain and Canada through the efforts of Professor Royden Harrison of Warwick University, Dr. Henry Katz, International Secretary of the British Society and Professor Ross McCormack, Chairman of the Committee on Canadian Labour History. From Australia we are grateful to the Herbert Vere Evatt Memorial Foundation which gave money when it was urgently needed. The organisers had to begin by designating themes and soliciting papers. Since the response could not be predicted the original themes were necessarily broad: historiography of labour; trade unionism; work groups common to all countries; labour parties, social democracy, political movements of the working class; immigrants. Most of the subjects invited attention to British origins and were familiar in that work had been done and was continuing on them. This served its purpose of eliciting a good degree of interest in both Australia and Canada and from those who first responded a sufficient number were eventually able to attend. In final form the subjects divided into eight groups: historiography; trade unionism; coal miners; other work groups; workers' control of the labour process; earlier and later social democracy; labour, racism and white settlement. In the historiography section two Australian papers were delivered on labour history and social history. The coal miners section was one of the most successful because direct comparisons arose and the British origin of the miners provided a common background. It included two papers from Australia and one from New Zealand. Australia and New Zealand were