Trades Hall Council and the Press: Contesting Freedom and Narrative
by Emma Randles
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When surveying the potential of Trades Halls across the world for UNESCO heritage status, Ludwigsen noted in his report that these establishments have lost significance in the modern age, due to changing patterns in meeting habits and technology.1 By examining how the Trades Hall Council interacted with the press in the first half of the 20th century during times of crisis, one can see how important media was to representing the labour movement. Trades Hall Council is a peak union, a “union of unions” and it represents the collective ambitions of the broader union consciousness.2 The “central body” for the union movement in Victoria, the Trades Hall Council, had to ensure that the interests of each of its members were reflected, but also had to translate the aims of the broader labour movement to a wider audience.3 During the First World War, the Great Depression, the Second World War and the Australian Labor Party split, the Trades Hall Council had to ensure the affiliated unions it represented had the right to their individual free speech, but it had to produce a collaborative narrative of the overall labour movement for broader consumption.
During the First World War, the Trades Hall Council protected its individual union’s rights to freedom from censorship, but had to regulate their differences to make a narrative of anti-conscription. As Brigden writes, the peak union has to “seek power for affiliates and members collectively,” and the Trades Hall Council had to protect affiliated unions, but also seek power through presenting unified ideas the public.4 On behalf of its trade unions, the Trades Hall Council protested against the War Precautions Act (1914) that threatened the ability to mobilise for industrial and political action in periods of war.5 In order to protect the rights of its individual unions the Trades Hall Council disputed against the censorship of any of its member’s publications.6 Under the Act, the Federal Government could sanction any actions that threatened “the public safety and the defence of the Commonwealth,” with the specific aim “to prevent the spread of reports likely to cause disaffection or alarm about the campaign in the First World War.7 The Government, through censoring industrial and political writings, hindered the ability of individual trade unions to mobilise. The Trades Hall Council objected: when the August 4 1916 edition of Socialist magazine was censored, the Trades Hall Council moved that, “This Council protests against the unwarranted seizure,” and called on the Labor Party to exert political pressure.8 The Trades Hall Council acted as a peak body by defending the rights of the individual union to publish Socialist, indicating their commitment to protect its affiliates. Alongside the need to act in the interests of its individual unions, however, the Trades Hall Council had to create a singular narrative to gain authority for the labour movement. The media possesses “cultural power” that peak unions can use to express their concerns to a broader audience.9 Brigden comments that in order to make those gains, “a peak union must exert power over affiliates,” and the Trades Hall Council sought to control the output of unions on the conscription issue.10 The Council did not support conscription due to a fear that women or immigrants would replace conscripted men at work and wanted to present a narrative of anticonscription to influence the Government and the public in referenda.11 In October 1916, the Council attempted to pass, “That this Council declare all printing matter black that it is in favour of Conscription.”12 While the motion did fail, it indicates an underlying desire of the Trades Hall Council to stop other views of conscription within affiliate unions. During meetings, the Council allowed reading of letters from the No Conscription Congress, pamphlets from the Anti-Conscription League to be given out, and later formed an Anti-Conscription Campaign run by the Executive.13 A 1916 pamphlet stated, “The Conscript cannot be a Unionist,” a viewpoint the Council endorsed through the propaganda they allowed in meetings.14 As a peak union, the Trades Hall Council wanted to control the narrative of the labour movement to be anti-conscription to best represent its collective goals, but it also acted on behalf of individual unions to have free speech. Throughout the First World War, a time of crisis, the Trades Hall Council supported individual rights for free speech, but had to create a stance of anti-conscription to gain public support.
During the Great Depression, the Trades Hall Council protected its individual viewpoints of union members, but created a single narrative of non-militancy to be able to influence public opinion and policy. Ellem and Franks write, “The importance of the State [based unions] was particularly strong at times of crisis,” and the Stock Market crash forced Australia into chaos.15 Reporting trade unions in Australia had a peak percentage of unemployment of 26.5% in 1932, with unemployed masses gathering at the front of Trades Hall to seek help or try to attend meetings.16 Consistently, the Council protected the rights of its individual unions, protesting against any form of censorship. In 1930 the Council moved that “any ban on literature is a retrograde step,” as it could effect the ability of unions to receive and produce material.17 In their calls for freedom of speech, they invoked the rhetoric of the hardship of the Depression, stating that the censoring of overseas publications in Australia was “part of a plan to stifle the voice of the working class raised in protest against the brutal attacks upon the standards of life.”18 Particularly important for individual trade unions was self-improvement of members through education, so protection of literature and freedom of the press was fundamental to the cause of the individual trade unions.19 However, they also had to translate a view on how to solve the economic crisis. As Louis notes, most trade unions did support Socialisation, but there was no widely accepted body of socialist doctrine among the Victorian movement.20 The Trades Hall Council faced increasing militancy among members and a growing Communist influence.21 Dissident elements were common, with the Trades Hall Council moving in 1931 that a splinter group of the Engineer Driver’s and Firemen’s movement was “deemed disruptive of the solidarity of the Trade Union Movement and deserves the strongest condemnation of this Council.”22 This does not seem out of place as disaffiliation is an important discipline tool for peak unions, but they also passed the clause that: “That the representatives of the Press be requested not to report the discussion on this matter.”23 The Trades Hall Council had appointed a Press Correspondent in 1930, so supressing the media coverage of disputes would omit any threat to their image as a united front during the chaos of the Depression.24 Again in 1932, the Trades Hall Council had to dissociate with disruptive elements to present an image of unity within the labour movement. During a meeting on May 1, 1932 at the Yarra Bank, members of the Communist Party and other unions were disruptive during speeches on wage regulation, with the Council stating: “THAT this Council resents and condemns on behalf of the Industrial Movement the premeditated vicious attack… and declares that such methods establish the Communist Party and its subsidiary groups as obstacles to the progress of the working-class and as such must be treated as opponents of the Labor Movement.”25 The dissociation of the Trades Hall Council from disruptive actions shows the desire for the peak union to create a cohesive and coherent narrative for the broader public: disruptive elements were deemed not part of the labour movement. Militancy was not the method to achieve power, rather, there was a commitment to arbitration and political discussion during this time.26 In order to satisfy their individual unions, the Trades Hall Council had to affirm their right to free speech, but to gain power within the broader public sphere, they had to regulate their image. The Trades Hall Council protected its affiliate unions as the peak body, but also created a single narrative of non-militancy in order to present their solution to the Great Depression.
The beginning of the Second World War was a time of crisis where the Trades Hall Council protected the rights of freedom of speech from censorship, but had to regulate the output of information to create a unified ideological stance on the War. The implementation of the National Security Act (1940) provided “regulations making provision for requiring persons to place themselves, their services and their property at the disposal of the Commonwealth," in order to protect the security and defence of the nation, during and after wartime.27 The unions dissented at what they deemed “industrial conscription.”28 The Trades Hall Council protested against the legislation, upholding a statement by the Australian Council of Trade Unions that: “The Commonwealth and State Governments are using the War situation to make unjustified attacks on civil liberties.”29 Under this Act censorship regulated the non- Government information the public received about the war, with Trades Hall Council’s Radio Station, 3KZ, under threat as a broadcasting service. The Industrial Printing and Publicity Company owned it officially, but broadcasters could only be union members.30 The Trades Hall Council moved in 1941 for the abolishment of censoring broadcasts and stated that “claims that freedom of opinion be permitted by speech, on platform, in the Press, and through the medium of broadcasting.”31 Only two months later, 3KZ among with two other radio stations were “temporarily” taken off the air due to revealing information regarding the H.M.A.S Sydney, the hiatus threatening the labour movement’s ability to spread information to wider society.32 They even extended their protest to the Labour Day parade, with a float representing their opposition to the “National Security Act”.33 Brigden noted that the Eight Hour Day demonstrations were a “symbolic spatial representation of the working class,” and here, it indicates how the Trades Hall Council wanted to affirm to a wider audience of unionists their rights to freedom of speech.34 At the same time, it had to present a cohesive ideological stance on the developments of the war in order to maintain the “cultural power” of the movement.35 For example, the Trades Hall Council moved a motion indicating that the invasion of Finland by Russia should be condemned, with debate slowed by communist factions opposed to the criticism of the Soviet Union.36 It was reported in the Worker in Brisbane that the President of the Council warned, “that disciplinary action would be taken against any interjector or disturber,” as the “friends and apologists for Russia” were disruptive within the chamber.37 After the front had opened in the Pacific, the Trades Hall Council moved a motion that: “We believe that the whole future of the working class depends on the defeat of the Nazis, the protection of the Soviet Union and the retention of democratic liberty for the workers throughout the world.”38 An amendment was made that the labour movement could only progress through the establishment of Socialism, with the debate extended eight times before the amendment was defeated by a division.39 By omitting the controversial elements of pro-Soviet Union rhetoric and encouragement for the overthrow of capitalism, the peak union could present a united front in the midst of turmoil. While there was debate within the chamber, the Trades Hall Council’s motion had to reflect the broader purpose of the labour movement in order to translate their conception of the progress of the war to the public. 40 Voicing militant strains denouncing the Capitalism and the imperialism of the war would destabilise the capacity of the movement to achieve power.41 While they did affirm the right of each union of freedom from censorship, they had to present a cohesive narrative about the developments of Second World War.
The Australian Labor Party split of 1955 re-affirmed the importance of protecting for individual unions affiliated to the Trades Hall Council, but emphasised that the Trades Hall as a peak body should regulate a collaborative narrative of the unions. The Federal Australian Labor Party had formed in 1900 as the political arm of the industrial trade movement, with the Party using Trades Hall as the headquarters of the Victorian branch until 1972.42 In 1955, the Party split over the role of Catholicism and Communism, coming to a head when leader H.V. Evatt denounced “the attitude of the small minority group of members,” referring to rival B.A. Santamaria and his Movement.43 Santamaria later formed the Democratic Labor Party and the Trades Hall Council had a “conflictual relationship” with the Australian Labor Party during the split.44 3KZ broadcasts affirmed the right of individuals to their own political views and speech but defended the right of peak bodies to create broader narratives for the union movement. J.V. Stout was the radio broadcaster of the period, former Secretary of the Trades Hall Council and the author of the 1947 pamphlet, A Brief History of Unionism in England and Australia, an early example of a unionist’s history of the union movement.45 He reaffirmed the right of individual unions to participate freely within the broader labour movement, both in the political (Labor) and industrial (union) arms:
“The Labor Party says: “If a Union wants a group of its members to do this or that it may please itself.” The Trade Union Movement says: “A Union must not interfere with another Union.”46 He emphasises that unions have a right to their individual opinions, as long as they do not disrupt the labour movement as a whole, affirming freedom of speech. He also states that the Trades Hall Council has “no legal power” through which they can enforce decisions on their members, but does note that challenges are hardly ever made.47 Trade unions have the individual right to freedom of speech as long as they do not conflict with the wider union movement’s attempt to gain power and legitimacy. He comments that the Trade Unionist should realise “that he must accept direction and abide by…decisions made by his own union executive.”48 After the Australian Labor Party Split, broadcasts re-assured individual unions that they could still have the right to their own publications and opinions without threat of being disaffiliated, as long as they were in solidarity with the broader union movement. In addressing the split in a broadcast, Stout read the Executive Report of the Trades Hall Council: “It calls on all affiliated Unions to regard the comments of the ex-Labor men who split off from the party as being an insult to Unionism… It asks the Unions to assist to defeat this anti-Labor, anti-union attitude of rebels who have broken their pledge to belief of Labor’s views.”49 He affirms the narrative that unions and the broader audience should support Evatt, as a unionist should always follow the decisions of the collaborative executive body to which they are affiliated. The association with the political wing of the movement adds an “ideological and strategic dimension” to the narrative, as Stout could link the political crisis to the importance of Unions staying within the narrative of the peak union body.50 Stout’s broadcasts during the Australian Labor Party split indicate that individual unions can have the right to their own opinions, but in a time of crisis the peak union body should have control of producing the overall narrative: in this case, the support of Evatt.
Viewing the Trades Hall Council through the social process of media offers a way to combine academia and culture in labour history to see how the Council interacted with its affiliate unions, but also with wider society.51 As a peak union body, the Trades Hall Council had to affirm the individuality of the various unions it represented, but it also had to present a cohesive narrative to gain power for the broader union movement. Perhaps at this time of the decline of Trades Hall establishments globally, the media can be a way for the Trades Hall Council to restore its status as a peak union body within society, in the same way that historical crises were navigated to appease the affiliated unions and to project the cohesive viewpoint of the labour movement. The Trades Hall Council during the First World War, the Great Depression, the beginning of the Second World War and the Australian Labor Party split acted to ensure individual trade unions could speak freely, but emphasised their control over the narrative of the labour movement for the broader public.
References
[1] Peter Ludwigsen, “Worker’s Monuments: Workers’ Assembly Halls and UNESCO’s World Heritage,” in Melbourne Trades Hall Building Up For Heritage Listing: Initial Report to Trades Hall Literary Institute Trustees and Committee of Management VTHC Executive Council, ed. Brian Boyd and David Cragg (Melbourne: Victorian Trades Hall Council, 2011), 2.
[2] A trade union defined as “continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment,” in Ian Turner, In Union is Strength: A History of Trade Unions in Australia, 1488-1978, second edition (Melbourne: Thomas Nelson, 1978), 8; Cathy Brigden, “Analysing Internal Power Dynamics in Peak Unions: A Conceptual Framework,” Journal of Industrial Relations 49 (2007): 448-449.
[3] Carlotta Kellaway, Melbourne Trades Hall – Lygon Street –Carlton: The Workingman’s Parliament (Carlton: Trades Hall Council, 1988): 1.
[4] Brigden, “Analysing Internal Power Dynamics in Peak Unions,” 488.
[5] Turner, In Union is Strength, 64.
[6] Bradom Ellem, “Peak Union Campaigning: Fighting for Rights at Work in Australia,” British Journal of Industrial Relations 51 (2013): 266.
[7] “War Precautions Act 1914”, Australian Government ComLaw, last accessed 4 October, https://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C1914A00010.
[8] Trades Hall Council Meeting Minutes, 17/8/16, Minute Book, 350, 1978-0082-0010, Trades Hall Council, University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[9] Paul Walton and Howard Doris, “Bad News for Trade Unionists“ in Trade Unions and the Media, eds. Peter Beharrel and Greg Phillo (London: MacMillan Press, 1977), 122.
[10] Brigden, “Analysing Internal Power Dynamics in Peak Unions,” 489.
[11] Turner, In Union is Strength, 64.
[12] Trades Hall Council Meeting Minutes, 19/10/16, Minute Book, 359, 1978-0082-0010, Trades Hall Council, Trades Hall Council, University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[13] Trades Hall Council Meeting Minutes, 4/11/15, Minute Book, 294, 1978-0082-0010, Trades Hall Council, University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne; Trades Hall Council Meeting Minutes, 6/7/16, Minute Book, 341, 1978-0082-0010, Trades Hall Council, University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne; Trades Hall Council Meeting Minutes, 18/8/16, Minute Book, 350, 1978-0082-0010, Trades Hall Council, University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne; Trades Hall Meeting Minutes, 8/11/1917, Minute Book, 426, 1978-0082-0010, Trades Hall Council, University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[14] “1916 Anti-Conscription Pamphlet,” in Australian Trade Unionism in Documents, ed. Jim Hagan (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1986), 28.
[15] Bradon Ellem and Peter Frames, “Trade Union Structure and Politics in Australia and New Zealand,” Labour History 95 (2008): 45.
[16] Employment Council of Victoria Report for the Quarter Ended 31st December 1940, “Appendix G: Comparative Statement of Yearly Average or Quarterly Average Percentages of Unemployment in Reporting Trade Unions in Australia 1929-1939”, 1941, 15, 1994. 0055.0000.0059, Victorian Trades Hall Council, University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne; Marcella Peace, Melbourne Trades Hall Memories (Carlton: Victorian Trades Hall Council, 1997), 19.
[17] Trades Hall Council Meeting Minutes, 22/5/30, Minute Book, 96-97, 1978-0082-0013, Trades Hall Council. University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[18] Trades Hall Council Meeting Minutes, 10/3/32, Minute Book, 466, 1978-0082-0013, Trades Hall Council. University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[19] Kellaway, Melbourne Trades Hall, 1.
[20] L.J. Louis, Trade Unions and the Depression: A Study of Victoria 1930-1932 (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1968), 6.
[21] Andrew Reeves and Simon Booth, “Trade Unions,” The Encyclopaedia of Melbourne, published July 2008, http://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM01507b.htm.
[22] Trades Hall Council Meeting Minutes, 10/12/31, Minute Book, 439, 1978-0082-0013, Trades Hall Council. University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[23] Brigden, “Analysing Internal Power Dynamics in Peak Unions,” 489; Ibid.
[24] Trades Hall Council Meeting Minutes, 22/5/30, Minute Book, 98, 1978-0082-0013, Trades Hall Council. University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[25] Trades Hall Council Meeting Minutes, 21/1/32, Minute Book, 448, 1978-0082-0013, Trades Hall Council. University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[26] Louis, Trade Unions and the Depression, 9.
[27] “National Security Act 1940”, Australian Government ComLaw, last accessed 5 October, https://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C1940A00044.
[28] Turner, In Union We Have Strength, 92.
[29] Trades Hall Council Meeting Minutes, 1/8/40, Minute Book, 78, 1978-0082-0017, Trades Hall Council. University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[30] Trades Hall Council Meeting Minutes, 21/5/31, Minute Book, 322, 1978-0082-0013, Trades Hall Council. University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[31] Trades Hall Council Meeting Minutes, 22/10/42, Minute Book, 489, 1978-0082-0017, Trades Hall Council. University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[33] Trades Hall Council Meeting Minutes, 30/1/41, Minute Book, 157, 1978-0082-0017, Trades Hall Council, University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[34] Cathy Brigden, “Creating Labour’s Space: The Case of the Melbourne Trades Hall,” Labour History 89 (2005): 137.
[35] Walton and Doris, “Bad News for Trade Unionists,” 122.
[36] Trades Hall Council Meeting Minutes, 14/12/39, Minute Book, 466, 1978-0082-0016, Trades Hall Council. University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[37] “Attack on Finland Condemned: Melbourne Trades Hall Council Resolution,” Worker, January 9, 1940. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71369429.
[38] Trades Hall Council Meeting Minutes, Meeting Minutes, 27/11/41, Minute Book, 313, 1978-0082-0017, Trades Hall Council. University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[39] Ibid.
[40] Ellem, “Peak Union Campaigning,” 65.
[41] Greg Patmore, Australian Labour History (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1991),88.
[42] Turner, In Union Is Strength, 59; Patmore, Australian Labour History, 79.
[43] Robert Murray, The Split: Australian Labor in the Fifties (Melbourne: Cheshire, 1970), 179-181.
[44] Brigden, “Analysing Internal Power Dynamics in Peak Unions,” 493.
[45] J.V. Stout, A Brief History of Unionism in England and Australia, (Carlton: The Industrial Printing and Publicity Co, 1947), 16; Eric Fry, “The Writing of Labour History in Australia,” in Common Cause: Essays in Australian and New Zealand Labour History, ed. Eric Fry (North Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1986), 145.
[46] J.V Stout 3KZ Broadcasts, “No. 102: Labor Party – Trade Unions- And Communism,” 5/7/1955, 1994.0055.0000.0023, Trades Hall Council, University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[47] J.V Stout 3KZ Broadcasts, “No. 77: Functions of Trades Hall Council,” 10/5/1955, 1994.0055.0000.0023, Trades Hall Council, University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[48] J.V Stout 3KZ Broadcasts, “Untitled,” 5/9/1955, 1994.0055.0000.0023, Trades Hall Council, University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[49] J.V Stout 3KZ Broadcasts, “No. 70: Internal Political Dispute in the A.L.P.,” 22/4/1955, 1994.0055.0000.0023, Trades Hall Council, University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne.
[50] Brigden, “Analysing Internal Power Dynamics in Peak Unions,” 493.
[51] Fry, “The Writing of Labour History in Australia,”155.