Each generation discovers reasons to support, enliven, scorn, oppose or merely tolerate unionism. An amazing array of opinions exist about unions and their role in Australian life – ranging from the dream that unions exist to build a new Jerusalem to the notion that unions are old-fashioned and expensive hindrances to an efficient economy.
The recent ratification by the Industrial Commission of the 1989 Newcastle Shipbuilding Agreement further strengthens the commitment of the union movement of NSW to win the lion’s share of the $5 billion ANZAC frigate contract for this State.
This paper will discuss the role of the trade union movement in Australia and examine what ends it seeks to realise or might confront.
This Chapter argues that even though the pro-Soviet elements of the New Zealand and Australian labor movements have devoted themselves to a major effort to win allies and neutralize opposition to their ideas in the Southwest Pacific, the degree of influence and popular support they have achieved is limited. Even so, this Chapter also proposes that there is no ground for complacency about the foothold they have gained in the region.
In the carnival atmosphere in Tiananmen Square last May one red banner fluttered defiantly and proudly. Under the banner of the Workers’ Autonomous Federation, hundreds of Chinese workers in Beijing demonstrated their support for democracy and freedom of association.
Books mirror the soul of their readers. In order to understand what drives a particular person, it can be instructive to know which books he or she reads. Which writer is now being read by the leader of the trade union movement in NSW?