
Issue No 55		26 May 2000

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Review

Inconvenient History

Reviewed by Mark Hearn

In may be cold comfort to Republicans, but the vote for Federation was every bit as tempestuous as this collection of articles shows.

Will you accept a measure born out of envy, cradled in meanness, foisted up by lies? Ben Tillett in Tocsin.

Apparently yes. In 1899 a majority of Australians in a majority of states voted in a referendum to approve a draft Constitution Bill. Australia was a nation, much to Tillet's chagrin.

Labor republicans may now bemoan the fact that one hundred years later Australians failed to follow the Federation precedent and back a republic; in 1899, Labor was bitterly opposed to Federation. The Labor Party and the unions united against what they saw as an undemocratic constitution. Laborites were opposed to the imposition of a second chamber, the Senate. They believed that like the colonial upper houses, the Senate would be dominated by conservatives. Naturally, these fears proved utterly groundless. Just ask Gough Whitlam.

Contesting the Constitution, a collection of articles from the Victorian Labor newspaper Tocsin, is a reminder that Australia's past is not a bland tale of progress, with everyone breathlessly united in voting yes in 1899.

Hugh Anderson has gathered chapter and verse - literally - of the determined campaign waged by Tocsin against the Constitution bill. They did not oppose the idea of Federation: they opposed working class 'Fetteration', 'this plutocratic device to stifle the infant hegemony of labour', as Tocsin bitterly complained in July 1899, just before the yes vote in Victoria realised these fears.

Federation was a lightning rod for the social and economic tensions of the day. Working class resentment at being left out of progress - dramatised by the 1890s depression - emerged to trouble the proud march into the future, prompting Federation pioneer and later Prime Minister Alfred Deakin to promise labour inclusion through arbitration, tariff protection and a white Australia. The complicated story of Australia, with its class and racial tensions, persisted into the new century. Contesting the Constitution is an important record of how working class Australians read and wrote their own history, projecting their fears and needs into the national project.

Hugh Anderson (ed) Contesting the Constitution, Red Rooster Press 1999 $26.80 ISBN 0908247478 paperback.

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  Issue 55 contents

Interview: The University of Rupert
National Tertiary Education Union president Dr Carolyn Allport on News Corp's move into tertiary education and the Universitas 21 experiment.

International: The Unionist Who Sparked a Coup
Workers Online's Fiji expert Andrew Casey profiles one of the men at the centre of the crisis, detained PM Mahendra Chaudry

Unions: The Call to Action
The Australian Services Union is leading the push into the call centre industry. But winning these new workplaces is a major challenge.

Politics: Workplace Gladiators
Peter Reith as Russell Crowe? That's the image Labor IR spokesman Arch Bevis conjured up in a frecent address to the Industrial Relations Society.

History: How to be a Good Unionist
It's 1917, WWI rages and federal public servants are given these rules on how to dischare their responsibility as members.

Legal: The Price of Solidarity
Intimidation, threats and even murder still await many workers who attempt to organize in a number of countries around the world, says a new ILO report.

Review: Inconvenient History
In may be cold comfort to Republicans, but the vote for Federation was every bit as tempestuous as this collection of articles shows.

Satire: World Bank Caves In
In a victory for Seattle protestors, international monetarists have decreed that global utopia to begin immediately.

» Fiji Faces International Union Blockade

» Workers Return to Dump Reith's Third Wave

» Budget Raises More Questions than Answers

» Teachers Finally Achieve Satisfaction

» FairWear Campaign Targets Uniforms

» Rio Tinto Appeals for Industrial Peace

» Beer Hike Sparks Worker Concerns

» Libs Fail to Block Family Friendly Laws

» No Joy For 'Back Door' Pete

» Angry Truckies Converge on Border

» Unions Dues Test Case Looms

» Why Solidarity Messages Mean Something

» Radio Free East Timor Rocks

» The Soapbox

» Sport

» Trades Hall

» Tool Shed

» Neale's Spot On!

» Silence on the GST

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