First International Conference of Centres for the Study of Labour History

Abstract

The first international conference of centres for the study of labour history was held in Mexico City in July 1975. Although some national bodies have met each other in the past, occasionally or regularly, this was the first attempt to bring together representatives of all institutions throughout the world concerned with the study of labour history. The conference was sponsored by the International Labour Organisation and arranged by the Centre for the Study of the History of the Mexican Labour Movement (C.E.H.S.M.O.), to whose initiative participants are indebted. All who attended would wish to express their thanks to C.E.H.S.M.O. for the friendship with which they were received and the generous hospitality extended to them. It was a memorable occasion personally as well as for the study of labour history. In arranging the conference C.E.H.S.M.O. contacted bodies known to it and made inquiries through embassies for other bodies in all countries. Some invited were not able to attend and others have since been identified, as a result of the conference, which were not known at the time. The participants came from: the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (Dr. Peter Cook and myself) ; the Society for the Study of Labour History of Britain; the International Association of Labour History Institutions, centred in London; the International Insti tute of Social History of Amsterdam; the Friedrich Ebert Foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany; the University of Paris; the Insti tute of the International Working Class Movement of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences; the Institute for the Study of Labour, Costa Rica; C.E.H.S.M.O. itself; representatives of Mexican universities and the Congress of Labour of Mexico. This was by no means a full roll of centres concerned with the study of labour history throughout the world. But it was a good start for a first gathering and in many ways a representative group. Those present showed how many diverse types of institutions enter into the field of labour history and how broadly an international organisation should be conceived. We in Australia should realise this range of approaches and appreciate where we stand in relation to it. The Australian Society is a private body, supported by its sub scribers. It was modelled on the British Society, with which it may be categorised, although the latter has won more effective recognition from universities and trade unions than we have done. Our most active members feel some kind, of commitment to the labour movement and its history, yet we are literally a non-political body, nor do we seek more from trade unions than to stimulate their interest in their past. We are accepted in the academic world without being part of a university or receiving public funds. On the one hand this gives independence, on the other limited resources. It is the outcome of the social, political and ideological conditions in Australia over the fifteen years since the Society was formed. But this is not the only way in which the study of labour history may be organised. The International Association of Labour History Institutions co ordinates the sources for labour history held in about fifty West 71