For 150 years, ambivalence, disagreement and controversy have marked debate about the Eureka Stockade. Even today, not all the facts are agreed on: causes, casualties, consequences. This week’s celebrations in Victoria are an opportunity to reflect on the significance of what happened on December 3, 1854, and why it remains relevant today.
The defection of Seanator Jim Jeffords from the US Republican Party (to caucus with the Democrats) and the observation that many American politicians have ‘party hopped’ raises the question of whether there might be any comparable fluidity of personal, political alignments in Australia.
There has never been a Labor Council Secretary like Michael Costa. Even though his term was the shortest of living memory, his impact is such that Michael is arguably one of the most successful Secretaries ever. Lest this be regarded as farewell hyperbole, let me outline my case.
James Denis Kenny (1906-1967), glassworker and trade union official, was born on 27 November 1906 at Waterloo, Sydney, fourth child of native-born parents James Kenny, wagon driver, and his wife Margaret, née Rowley.
John Archibald McCallum (1892-1973), politician and schoolteacher, was born on 31 July 1892 at Mittagong, New South Wales, second child of Archibald Duncan McCallum, a coach-builder from Scotland, and his Welsh-born wife Catherine Margaret, née Protheroe.
Usually nice things are said at farewells. Apart from the notably ungracious comments by Peter Reith, Bill Kelty’s departure announcement mostly received warm and generous praise from friends, allies and foes. Privately, views are more mixed. Over time a more considered assessment can be distilled.
After the devastating drubbing that Labor received at the 1996 election, few expected it would bounce back so close to government so soon. Consequently, within the ALP there is a satisfied, warm inner glow about recent events (matched by the cooling white fury of Mark Latham over the editing of his education policy).
Albert Shanker, union leader, intellectual, social democrat and raconteur was one of the greatest American labour leaders of his time. As President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) from 1974 until his death, he was at times both militant unionist and adviser to US Presidents ranging from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
This rambling, indiscrete, self-centred, intermittently hilarious and frequently tedious, 600 plus page book lives up to its sub-title: ‘Night Thoughts of a Labor Outsider’. This is so in two respects.
It is unlikely that The Fixer will be on display at ALP fundraising stalls. This is a different work to Graham Freudenberg’s A Certain Grandeur, the masterful, unashamed hagiography to Gough Whitlam. As a portrait of a major player in the ALP over the last decade, Marion Wilkinson’s book is a fierce critique. But is it accurate and fair?