The Milan Meeting of the Societies for the Study of Labour History

Abstract

The meeting took place at the Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli in Milan on 6 and 7 June of this year. Its object was to 'focus some problems concerning the development of the WORLD ASSOCIATION (OF RESEARCH CENTRES AND INSTITUTES FOR LABOUR HISTORY AND ITS PROBLEMS), and to discuss the opportunities of co-ordinating the work of the Regional European Bureau with the activity of the WORLD ASSOCIATION . . .' and 'to examine the scientific problems that arise at present in our research, from a historical point of view and with regard to the new demands put by the con temporary situation'. As Australian delegate I was instructed to 'Use your own judgement in any decisions you have to make if difficulties arise as to what ought to be done in international organisations. Whilst you would have to say that you could not bind the Society in advance we would rely on you to speak for us as fully as possible.' Luckily I had read Eric Fry's report on the Mexico conference, which was also concerned broadly with a 'world association', on the train from Paris to Milan. Luckily, because there were troubles from the outset about the first item for discussion and we never really reached the second except over the vino in Signora Feltrinelli's penthouse. Of the long list of people invited only about half attended (30 out of 74) . There was an Anglo-Saxon contingent including, among others, Royden Harrison, Irene Wagner of the I.A.L.H.I. (International Associa tion of Labour History Institutions), Miriam Daly of the Irish Labour History Society, Dr. Josef Schleifstein of the Institut fur Marxistische Studien und Forschung, Dr. de Jong from the Amsterdam Institute for Social History, Theo Pinkus from Switzerland and Dr. Rudolf Neck of the Internationale Tagung der Historiker der Arbeiterbewegung. (If you are surprised to find the Irish and Germans among 'the anglo-saxons', please treat it as a label of convenience. The reasons will become obvious later.) Then there was an Eastern European group representing most of the organisations in the peoples' republics, among whom Professor Timour Timofeev of the U.S.S.R. and Professor Laszlo of Hungary were to be most vocal. Then there were a large contingent of Italians together with two delegates from the new Centre for Marxist Researches in Athens, Dr. Enrique Suarez Gaona of Mexico, who, I understand, hosted the Mexico meeting, and finally two Japanese, one of whom was studying at Warwick with Royden Harrison and one, formerly a metal-worker, who had come from Japan. The welcoming address by Giuseppe del Bo, director of the Feltrinelli Foundation, explained the origins of the meeting: