The politics of resistance and class

Stream convenors(s): Rick Kuhn (Australian National University) Complete list of papers

The media and politics   Federal election 2001 
Complete list of papers     

Other streams:     Australia's contribution to political studies    The disciplinary history of political science    Australasian politics    Political sociology    Health, politics and policy    Women and politics    International politics    Political theory    Environmental policy and politics

Presenters: Tom Bramble   Verity Burgmann   Drew Cottle   France Desaubin   Sergio Fiedler   Martin Hirst   Rick Kuhn   Ashley Lavelle   Helen Masterman-Smith   John Minns   Sam Pietsch   Michael Schiavone

ABSTRACTS

Tom Bramble, University of Queensland
John Minns, University of Wollongong
The anti-globalisation movement in Australia
This paper is the product of continuing research on the movement which has been variously described as anti-globalisation, anti-corporate and anti-capitalist as it has emerged in Australia. Three major mobilisations will be dealt with: 11 September 2000 (S11) in Melbourne, 1 May 2001 (M1) in major cities around the country and, although it was postponed, the preparation for demonstrations against the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Brisbane and the Commonwealth Business Forum in Melbourne in October 2001. The paper will explore the dynamics of these movements. In particular, it will discuss three questions related to their development. The first of these is the degree to which participants within them have adopted a generalised anti-systemic and anti-capitalist political framework despite having little previous experience of activism in reformist campaigns. Secondly, the paper will look at the extent to which these broad movements have contributed to other, on-going campaigns. Finally, we will examine the influence on the anti-globalisation movement of a relatively historically weak labour movement.
Email: john_minns@uow.edu.au

Verity Burgmann, University of Melbourne
The 'cancer stage of capitalism' and the politics of resistance
Until the rise of the anti-capitalist movement, lack of resistance has been a feature of the globalising world order. John McMurtry has referred to the present era as 'the cancer stage of capitalism': the host body's immune system does not respond to the cancer's advance, because the communication systems of host social bodies across the world are themselves subordinate to transnational capital and largely reject and refuse to disseminate messages that identify the source of the disease. The academic fashionability of post-Marxism is an aspect of this failure of recognition and response. So too is the quiescence of labourist or social democratic 'reformists'. Without social democracy's critique and its practical solutions to age-old capitalist contradictions-such as how to keep workers alive and well and functioning-globalising neo-liberal capitalism appears increasingly to be a threat to itself. Even aside from the potential for wholesale systemic crisis, neo-liberalism's assault on the economic security and the social rights of the workers-on whom capitalism depends-is encouraging new and deeper forms of anti-capitalist resistance that are potentially more dangerous to capitalism than the restoration of the gains of social democracy. Antonio Negri's notion of 'cycles of struggle' can be used creatively to interpret the current moment. Reformists within transnational agencies, such as the WTO and the World Bank, are now seeking to make the world safer for continuing corporate globalisation by ameliorating some of its worst effects. Such developments have been prompted only by protest movements threatening the legitimacy of unreformed globalisation and highlighting its contradictions. Without anti-capitalists to threaten revolution, global civil society would not insist upon reforms-and the cancer stage of capitalism would proceed apace. Is anti-capitalist radicalism therefore functional to capitalism?
Email: vnb@unimelb.edu.au

Drew Cottle, University of Western Sydney
Helen Masterman-Smith, University of Western Sydney
Fretilin: Resistance and survival
This paper is concerned with the East Timorese organisation Fretilin. It examines its origins and the forms of its political resistance to the Indonesian invasion and occupation, before the UN referendum. The emphasis of this paper will be on the early years of struggle and the transformation of an ill-prepared organisation, based largely around the Catholic Church, into a nationalist resistance movement. The paper considers the ideologies and actions of Fretilin during this early period, how they have managed to survive decades of colonial oppression, and the organisation's responses to the changing political and economic terrain since that time. Fretilin's role in guerilla warfare, social struggles, and later civil disobedience will be examined. This paper questions some of the substantial gaps in our understanding of the East Timorese resistance movement, from the standpoint of Fretilin's political and social history.
Email: h.masterman-smith@uws.edu.au

Martin Hirst, University of Queensland
The ties that bind: Journalists and the nation-state
A political party attempts to position itself as the one which speaks for the nation, by aligning itself with dominant groups or constituencies…Similarly, other, less formally constituted groups of interests also make their bids for temporary identification with the discursive category 'the nation'. Beer companies define their product as the 'Australian' one; petrol companies mask their foreign ownership…What is won is the capacity to speak on behalf of the nation. (Turner 1994, p.11) Throughout the 20th Century, journalists always believed they had the capacity and the right to speak on behalf of the nation. The media also seeks this capacity ? to express the emotional dialectic that constitutes a nation (Mercer 1992). This paper examines why this is the case and begins with an analysis of the dominant ideology that has historically bound Australian journalists to the nation-dtate. The following sections then document historical moments when the tension between national interest and class interest has been evident in the press and media of the time. For the purpose of analysis and discussion I have, where possible and appropriate, related this to the lives and work of individuals who embody one or another of the values under discussion. This paper demonstrates that the Australian media is and always has been, with few noteable exceptions, firmly attached to an emotional dialectic of the national interest. The exceptions, I argue, are evidence for the existence of a grey collar ideology - that is a class consciousness - among some newsworkers. Consequently I discuss how these 'ideological spectacles' (Grattan 1991) operate in relation to the coverage of significant Australian foreign policy and domestic political issues of the past decade. Throughout this paper I have applied an approach I call 'media archaeology' ? the excavation, sifting, sorting and classifying of media 'artefacts' ? as a way of illustrating my argument that Australian journalism has, for the most part, always been sympathetic to a world-view characterised by the so-called 'national interest'. That is, a position generally supportive of the emotional dialectic which informs the 'narrative' of the 'nation' ? the ideological belief that the elected government embodies the national ideals, interests, culture and consciousness on our behalf.
Email: m.hirst@uq.edu.au

Rick Kuhn, Australian National University
The tradition of Jewish anti-Zionism in the Galician socialist movement
One of Zionism's stock tactics has been to conflate Zionism and Judaism. Just as there are Jewish opponents of the racist Israeli state today, there have always been opponents of the Zionist strategy for dealing with anti-semitism. Rather than examining the largest Jewish socialist organisation in eastern Europe, the Bund in the Russian empire, this paper considers the attitude of its sister organisation in the Austrian Empire, the Jewish Social Democratic Party of Galicia (JSDP). From the its first public statements, on Mayday 1905, the JSDP emphasised its fundamental commitment to the class organisation of the Jewish workers, solidarity with the international working class and a commitment to class struggle. On the basis of this position, the Party explicity rejected Zionism. Not only in programatic terms, but also in its organisational, industrial, electoral activity the JSDP combatted the influence of Zionism and Labour Zionism. Like the Bund, the JSDP had considerable success and rapidly overtook the influence of Zionism in the Jewish working class.
Email: Rick.Kuhn@anu.edu.au

Ashley Lavelle, Griffith University
The ALP and class struggle: A case study of the Whitlam Labor Opposition's response to union unrest in the late 1960 and early 1970s
It is nowadays somewhat platitudinous to associate the Australian Labor Party with class struggle. However, history shows that dramatic increases in class struggle can impact on the ALP in important ways. This paper examines, from a Marxist perspective, the effects on the Whitlam Labor Opposition of the rise in industrial conflict in Australia in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is argued that the most notable effect of the biggest upsurge in trade union unrest since the end of WW1 was the militant, class-conscious rhetoric of many Labor MPs, who were often compelled to advocate direct action as the only, and best, option available to unions as a means by which to achieve wage and other gains. However, the effects were not simply rhetorical, with the Clarrie O'Shea strikes in 1969 producing in Labor a much tougher policy on the abolition of penal clauses. The party leadership was forced spectacularly in 1971, as a direct result of union pressure, to retreat from the policy of retaining some penalties in order to deter strikes. Similarly, the Whitlam Opposition's pledge of a shorter working week to Commonwealth public servants cannot be seen in isolation from the urgency with which the question was approached by the union movement at the time. Some commentators concluded then that, as result of all this, Whitlam had failed in his objective of ridding the party of its trade union-dominated image. The paper concludes on the question of how a major rise in class struggle would impact on today's ALP. It is proffered tentatively that, while such a development would elicit a weaker and more cautious response from a leadership arguably more removed from union activists and its working class constituents than at any time in the party's history, it would nevertheless, all things being equal, lead to a radicalisation on the part of many individuals and sections of the party, and may well induce significant policy changes.
Email: A.Lavelle@mailbox.gu.edu.au

Kyoung-Hee Moon, National Centre for Development Studies, Australian National University
Dualism of development: What has changed and what hasn't changed in terms of the pattern of female employment in the Korean apparel industry?
The apparel industry has made a significant contribution to Korean economic growth and accounted for a great deal of women's labour participation in the process of industrialisation. In the past, particularly from the 1960s through the early 1980s when the export-oriented industry was Korea's economic survival strategy, women were predominantly absorbed in the apparel industry as a major flexible low-waged labour resource, accounting for the success of the industry. However, increases in labour costs followed by engagement with Korea's political democracy and economic liberalism since the late 1980s appeared to transfer a number of labour-intensive production lines, including the apparel, to foreign countries with the availability of a lower-waged form of labour. As a consequence, the contribution of the apparel industry has weakened in terms of economic growth and workforce participation, specifically female. Meanwhile, despite such changes, the poor qualities of women's work embracing low wages and location in low-profiled jobs still remain in the contemporary Korean apparel industry. This cycle of thriving and declining life of the Korean apparel industry and the pattern of female workers' employment in the industry can be explained by the concept of the new international division of labour, referring to the world system for production both in capital-exporting countries and capital-dependent countries. Therefore, this paper examines the historical trajectory and current state of the Korean apparel industry focusing on changes in the female workers' employment pattern. In order to seek the most appropriate explanations for these changes, this paper uses an inter-disciplinary approach within the political and socio-economic context of Korea. Preliminary findings of this research have shown that the integrated theory of global capitalism and patriarchy in relation to the new international division of labour is able to provide a deep understanding on the pattern and condition of female workers' employment in the Korean apparel industry.
Email: kyoung-hee.moon@anu.edu.au

Sam Pietsch, Australian National University
Government scapegoating of Jewish refugees in the 1930s
The quota imposed by the Australian government on Jewish refugees in the late 1930s has always been controversial. Most historians have held that the policy was adopted because that Australian public was anti-Semitic, and in particular that workers objected to Jews as a source of cheap labour. The policy is thus seen as a reflection of the racism already present in the community. This explanation ignores the sizeable support that Jewish refugees had amongst the community, especially as victims of fascism. On balance the press was favorable, and the labor movement particularly anti-Semitic. The ACTU and Sydney TLC both called for increased numbers of working class refugees. Anti-Semitism did exist, but it was not dominant in the community. Rather, the situation was one of ambiguity, in which strong leadership could have an important influence on public opinion. Instead, the government deliberately reinforced racial prejudice. Repeatedly, the government stressed that they would not allow refugees to undermine work conditions, despite the fact that their own inquiries showed the refugees posed no threat to workers. Anti-Semitism was not confronted by this position, but validated, reinforcing workers' fear of refugees. Why was this racist policy adopted? It was not a response to demands by workers. Workers were also concerned about immigration from Britain and Northern Europe, which the government encouraged. In fact, scapegoating of refugees was precisely designed to aid large scale immigration. By emphasising the perceived racial differences of the Jewish refugees an object for the fear of workers was created, distracting attention from other immigrants. The refugees thus acted as a lightening rod for criticism of the government, a policy which seems to have been somewhat successful. The government therefore showed it was prepared to encourage anti-Semitism in order to fulfill the perceived needs of capitalism for an increased labour supply.
Email: sam_pietsch@yahoo.com.au

Michael Schiavone, Australian National University
Militancy and collective bargaining: The CAW and the UAW 1979-1996
This paper analyses the 1979-1984 United Auto Workers and Canadian UAW/Canadian Auto Workers collective bargaining negotiations with the Big Three (General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford) automakers and with GM in 1996. I demonstrate that the Canadian UAW/CAW consistently achieved better contracts for its members than the UAW. While the healthier state of the Canadian economy, and the role played by the Canadian and US governments did contribute to the CAW's successes and the UAW's failures during the 1979-1984 negotiations, it is a mistake to believe these were the crucial factors in explaining the differences in the contracts. It was the CAW's ideology and militancy, its us versus them mentality when it came to dealing with business, and its preparedness to not give in despite it being easier to do so, that led to the better contracts. In comparison, the UAW had a belief in labour-management partnership and refused to fight for better wages and working conditions for its members.
Email: Michael.Schiavone@anu.edu.au

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