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In the state-run prison that was early New South Wales, pockets of capitalism sprang up like sturdy weeds. with them came wage labour and class struggle. Australian workers were organisiing well before the gold rushes, and later a mass labour movement confronted the employers across the continent, opening the way for bitter confrontations.Controversy surrounds the colonial labour movement because of its racism and sexism, but this book sheets home the main blame for both reactionary ideologies to the ruling class. And despite many criticism, the author renews pioneering labour historian Brian Fitzpatrick's argument that 'the effort of the organised working class...was an effort to achieve social justice'.

By the time the left-wing government of Syriza was elected in January 2015, Greece had been in crisis for half a decade. Industrial production had collapsed, the country was mired in debt, and creditors were demanding crippling austerity as a condition for further loans. Yet there was hope among Greek workers that the new government would stand up for them. The country's diverse far left was split on how to orient to the situation, which was both dire and an opportunity. These articles, written in Athens by Colleen Bolger, capture the spirit and the political debates of the time. They are complemented by a retrospective interview with Panos Petrou, a longstanding member of Greece's revolutionary left.

The mining industry in Australia is central to the country's image and economy. But how much do we really know about its environmental and social consequences? In this revealing and disturbing travelogue, Lindsay Fitzclarence visits seven mining sites in regional and remote areas of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia, describing the industry's damaging effects on the environment, workers and local communities, and how it vandalises Aboriginal land rights. Fitzclarence also visits various places in between the mining sites, where the notion of terra nullius has provided cover for appalling state-sanctioned activities. The book poses challenging questions about mining's future, about whether the extraction of 'clean' critical minerals will cause similar damage, and about possible alternatives.

Knocking The Top Off: A People's History of Alcohol in Australia explores the changing nature of drinking in Australia and the role it has played in social and economic life over several generations. From the early days of colonisation through to the contemporary moment this heavily illustrated collection chronicles the ways in which alcohol consumption has impacted on, and been shaped by, changing patterns and notions of class, sexuality, gender, race, and culture. Stripping back dated stereotypes and defying received ideas, more than 20 contributors provide histories, essays and memoirs offering insights into the role of alcohol in creating, and at times derailing, contestation and change. Via short expositions and deep dives into incidents, periods, groups and individuals Knocking The Top Off looks at developments in Australian history from the vantage point of workers and marginalised communities, the exploited and oppressed. Alcohol's often contradictory place as a method of recreation, a means of social control, a symbol of equality and liberation, and a sharp point of debate concerning morality, commerce and health is explored. Similarly, the role of pubs, clubs and other alcohol based venues in fostering trends in music, art, and politics is uncovered, as well as their role as places in which exploitation and discrimination has been both reinforced and challenged. In exploring the who, what, where and why of intoxication this collection delivers an inclusive and incisive alternative history of Australia.

Sitting down in a series of interviews with 27 men aged between 74 and 95, David Gould discovered lives - now rapidly being lost to history - that were lived under the shadow of homophobic prejudice. Their stories reveal how these men made sense of their lives and desires, how they responded to social expectations around family and marriage, and found sex at a time when it was proscribed by law, condemned by society, and luridly sensationalised by the media. Many of them suffered terribly, but what also emerged are stories of resilience, sometimes joy, and the foundations of our contemporary communities.

It's 1975, and the Liberal Party's Malcolm Fraser makes a ruthless grab for power. Workers resist, opening up seven years of bitter class conflict. Years of Rage analyses the crisis into which Australia plunged under Whitlam. It outlines the actions of politicians, capitalists, oppressed people and above all the organized working class. From the upheavals of the Constitutional Crisis through to the strikes in defence of universal health care and on to the 1981 "wage push", Tom O'Lincoln traces the industrial and political struggles. O'Lincoln's accounts of the social movements against oppression, unemployment, environmental ruin and war complement the story. Originally written in 1993, Years of Rage remains the key work on the Fraser years from the point of view of those who did maintain their rage. It demythologizes the standard beliefs about the Whitlam and Fraser governments. The book argues that the exhaustion of the two sides enabled the rise of the neo-liberal governments of Hawke and Keating. This is a partisan and Marxist history. The author's sympathies lie with the militants and activists fighting for a better world.

Stuff the Accord! Pay Up! Workers' resistance to the ALP-ACTU Accord deals with the 1983-1996 ALP-ACTU Accord and outlines how workers fought back against the attacks on their wages and conditions, their jobs, their unions and their rights.The Accord was a landmark program of restructuring Australian capitalism, a social contract between the union peak body, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the social democratic Australian Labor Party. Earlier the metal workers union leader Laurie Carmichael proclaimed that the Accord was ';the pathway to socialism'. It was far from that. It pitched worker against worker, destroyed two unions, oversaw one of the greatest transfers of wealth from workers to employers, gutted union membership and the gains of previous decades.While the Accord is generally portrayed as being welcomed by workers, in truth it was an agreement between the union leadership and the ALP, and many workers angrily resisted the many attacks on them. This story of resistance, from the left and workers' point of view, has not been told in full before. Ross' book, a left wing take on the Accord years, will link the many struggles and the real impact of the Accord on the Australian working class, as well as an analysis of the trade union leadership's role.

Without Bosses gives a fascinating insight into radical currents that developed in Australian trade unionism during the 1970s. In those years of radicalism and social movements, rank-and-file trade unionists pushed the boundaries of action, in some cases setting global precedents. Trail-blazing actions include the mass strike action against the penal powers in 1969, and the famous green bans of the Builders Labourers' Federation in the following years. The book also details less well known but fascinating experiments with self-management and workers' control. At factories, coal mines, and building sites across the country, workers ';sacked' their managers and supervisors, took over their workplaces and ran them without bosses. These actions were a radical departure from the traditionally recognised activities of trade unions. Without Bosses draws on a wealth of archival material and individual interviews. It overflows with incredible and inspiring stories from a critically important period in Australian history. For anyone interested in labour history, left-wing ideas, and the power of unions, it is required reading.

The horrors of 20th century capitalism threw up numerous challenges by workers and peasants, who rose up in their millions to fight the system. Inspired by the successful 1917 Russian Revolution, they repeatedly created their own institutions of collective power and in doing so demonstrated not just how to organise their struggles in the present but also how to build a world free of capitalists, landlords and generals. But these revolutionary movements quickly confronted counter-revolutionary forces, both in the repressive machinery of the state and in the workers' movement itself - trade union and political leaders with no interest in seeing workers take power. Defeating such forces required that at least the leading militants be organised in revolutionary parties dedicated to seeing the struggle through. The victorious Russian revolution brought hundreds of thousands of working class militants together in new Communist parties dedicated to working class emancipation, but tragically the revolution's defeat at the hands of the dictator Joseph Stalin turned these parties into vehicles for betrayal.From Britain to China, from Hungary to Australia, this book tells the story of these inspiring working class struggles and uprisings and recounts the fights within the workers movement over strategies and tactics to take the struggles forward.

Ranging from the convict settlement of Port Arthur, to the social heights of colonial Tasmanian Society, the goldrush towns of Ballarat and Bendigo, and the ballrooms of Marvellous Melbourne in the 1880s, this stranger-than-fiction book recounts the strange-but-true story of JL Irvine (1847-?). Banker, sporting champion, bon vivant, clubman, committee member, and friend to the colonial elites of Tasmania and Victoria, he was also a man with a secret; a secret that would occasionally lead him into the half-light of the Victorian underworld, and a secret that would ultimately lead to his downfall, disgrace, and disappearance.Meticulously researched, written in a lively and engaging manner and lavishly illustrated, this is the story of colonial Australian society, both its glittering heights and its shadowy depths.

Imperialism has long been the subject of sharp debates. Now Tom O'Lincoln offers an original study of Australia's ruthless participation in the imperialist system. Left analysts have often accused Australia's rulers of being 'lapdogs' for the great powers, notably the US and the UK. O'Lincoln's analysis of Australia's 'boutique imperialism' gives us a very different portrayal: of a ruling class out to extract maximum benefits for itself from calculated interventions into the conflicts wracking global capitalism.This new edition has been issued as part of the Tom O'Lincoln Legacy Project, which aims to publish revised editions of all Tom O'Lincoln's books with modern designs and available on print-on-demand.

'I am nearly insane .... I cannot take much more.' Dennis O'Donnell enlisted when he was balloted into National Service in 1967, but, like others, was sickened by the training. When his application for exemption as a conscientious objector was rejected he went absent without leave, was arrested, court martialled and imprisoned. Treatment of military prisoners included solitary confinement, and deprivation of sleep, light, food and bathing facilities. Another resister, Simon Townsend, was detained in a tiny cell and woken by guards every half hour. What crimes did Simon and Dennis commit? They did not want to be trained to kill people with whom they had no quarrel. Their experiences sparked questions in federal parliament about the treatment of military prisoners, and helped the change the law. Using court transcripts, private correspondence and other unpublished records, Hell no! We won't go! records the stories of many young men and their supporters who opposed military conscription in Australia during two National Service schemes: 1950 to 1959 and 1964 to 1972. While resistance to military conscription during Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War is better known, the 1950s scheme also had many opponents. Hundreds of young men applied for exemption as conscientious objectors. While some were successful, others experienced similar treatment to O'Donnell and Townsend when they refused to enlist.Some stories feature household names: Bill White, a teacher, who was dragged from his home by police; the Mowbray triplets, who were not balloted in but chose to make a stand on behalf of others; Michael Matteson who remained underground for 14 months while 'making a monkey out of cops' with public appearances on TV and at university campuses. Others were almost unknown. They had many different reasons for their resistance, but they all had one thing in common: they refused to be conscripted, whether or not Australia was involved in a war. Ultimately, their resistance, culminating in massive protests during the Vietnam War, changed public opinion and changed Australia forever.

Mary Fullerton (1868-1946) and Mabel Singleton (1877-1965) met in Melbourne as suffrage and peace activists in Vida Goldstein's Women's Political Association. They remained together for thirty-five years as loving friends, raising Mabel's son born in 1911. Through her literary friendship with Miles Franklin (1879-1954), Mary Fullerton's last two volumes of poetry were published in the 1940s. Rescued from near destruction, a box of Mary's manuscripts eventually made its way to the Mitchell Library. It contained poems she never sent to Miles Franklin. These poignant poems, many dedicated to Mabel, trace a love story that sheds light on how women of the early twentieth century may have understood their love for each other.

This second volume of The History of the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance covers the exciting and turbulent 20-year period that opened with the election of the Whitlam government in 1972. It was a time of change and struggle: ';Kerr's coup' sacking the Labor government Battles between the Fraser government and unions trying to protect wages against surging inflation The ALP's Prices and Incomes Accord The Hawke government's deregistration of the militant BLF and airline pilots' union The rise of anti-uranium and environmental campaignsThroughout this period, the late John Percy was a central leader of the Socialist Workers Party as it became a party based in the industrial working class, developed and modified its political understanding and grew to surpass the Communist Party as Australia's largest socialist organisation.This is not an academic history, but an insight into the successes and mistakes of twenty years of campaigning for socialism. It will be of value to everyone struggling today.

Tom Freeman was a lifelong revolutionary and a member of the International Socialist Tendency for nearly 30 years. His work stands as a valuable contribution to what can be considered the field of ';Lenin Studies' that has been blossoming over the past decade, taking its place with the varied, important contributions of Lars Lih, Antonio Negri, Alan Shandro, Tams Krausz, August Nimtz, and others.His clear and meticulous research reveals a continuity between Lenin's revolutionary organisational perspectives of the early 1900s with those advanced during the revolutionary mass upsurge of 1905 and this in a way that can be useful for revolutionary activists of today and tomorrow. Freeman highlights the dynamic interplay of theory and practice, of Marxism and mass struggle, of intellectual activists and radicalising workers and mass insurgencies that shaped the past and are the hope of the future.

';In doing what is normal for any trade union activist today recruiting, arguing and organising my comrades and I were made to suffer persecution, imprisonment and death'This inspiring memoir tells how young Japanese print and publishing workers maintained links and sustained organisation between workers during the height of Japanese military aggression before and during World War II. It destroys the myth that all Japanese people supported the war, and provides a thrilling account of worker organising in conditions of repression that has lessons for up-and-coming unionists of today.

When the Government Railway Workshops at Midland closed on 4 March 1994, Western Australia lost a major trainer and employer of skilled tradespeople and much of its heavy industry. Former workers feared that their history of industrial achievements on the factory floor and through union action would also be lost. Despite expending considerable resources and promising to honour a ';proud history' and create an ';exciting future', the development authorities have done little to redevelop the site. A Natural Battleground is the story of the fight to save the buildings from demolition and dedicate space in them for a rail heritage centre to preserve the Workshops' history. The first aim was achieved, the second is merely a hope. As the author says, ';Somewhere in these buildings, decency dictates, there must be space to tell the whole story of what happened here, including what happened to those workers whose lives were irrevocably changed by their closure.' Whether you are interested in the history of trade unions, heritage or railways this book will engage and inspire you.

Here are stories that challenge the conventional views of working class women and their struggles. Strikes and demonstrations throughout the 20th century shatter traditional images of women as passive victims. From the women of Broken Hill, who fought strike-breakers with axes and broom handles in the early part of the century through the 1930s Depression and World War II through to the postwar period, women played an important role in strikes and unemployed movements.Rebel Women also challenges those accounts which see the enemy as 'patriarchy' rather than capitalism, or which deny the relevance of the class altogether. These women fought their oppression alongside working men, as participants in - and leaders of - the class struggle. Frequently they had to confront opposition from middle class or upper class women. Many were sustained by a socialist vision.First published in 1999, this new enhanced edition makes these inspiring stories available to new generations.

Contrary to reports at the time, Marxism and socialism did not die in 1991. While some on the left succumbed to demoralisation, the Democratic Socialist Party saw the new situation as both a setback and an opportunity. The reports in this volume document the DSP’s efforts over a decade to expand and rejuvenate revolutionary socialism in Australia and internationally.For more than four decades, including the period related in this volume, John Percy was a central leader of Resistance and the Democratic Socialist Party. Over many years, his widely varied political activity included work on an intended three-volume History of the DSP and Resistance. Volume 1, covering 1965-72, was published in 2005. Volume 2, 1972-92, was not totally complete when John died in August 2015, but most sections were finished, and the others contained sufficient indication of John’s intentions to allow them to be filled out and the volume published in 2017.*No comparable manuscript existed for Volume 3. However, throughout the period 1992-2002, John regularly gave organisational reports to meetings of the National Committee and/or the DSP’s decision-making or educational conferences. Most of these reports and talks were subsequently published in the Activist, the DSP’s internal discussion and information bulletin. Based on extensive selections from those reports and talks, Volume 3 is a documentary history.As the world confronts intensifying environmental, economic and social crises, this is a record from whose successes and failures activists today can draw lessons for their struggles.

On a small stretch of sand in north-eastern Sri Lanka 2009, the armed forces slaughtered tens of thousands of Tamils. The Tamil Tigers, who had waged a three-decade-long war of national liberation, were militarily defeated. But some of their ranks survived. Santhia was one. After the war, she and her infant son tried to reach Australia but were stranded in Indonesia. Santhia died in a Jakarta hospital in October 2017 aged just forty-two.Sponsored by the Tamil Refugee Council, Ben Hillier travelled to Indonesia and Sri Lanka after Santhia's death to piece together her life. In this essay, she appears as an individual expression of a nationals fight for liberation. The essay is paired with a seminal document, Liberation Tigers and Tamil Eelam freedom struggle, written in 1983 by Anton Balasingham on behalf of the Tigers' political committee.