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Writing Labour Lives

By Harry Knowles

For many years, labour biography in Australian mirrored the rather narrow path of labour historiography. Early work was as much autobiographical as biographical. It wasn’t until the mid-1930s that labour biography came into its own and grew steadily until the 1970s when there was a proliferation of biographical work. This momentum was sustained during the last two decades of the twentieth century with biographies of Labor politicians dominating a field which, in itself, has helped to perpetuate a circumscribed historical tradition.

Most Australian labour biography falls into the province of political rather than industrial labour. There are few stand alone biographies of trade union leaders, although rank and file militants have attracted some attention. In general, the historical analysis of leadership in Australian trade unions has been neglected by labour historians. We write about union leaders in trade union histories, either in a celebrated and heroic sense or as pariahs -as class traitors . In most union histories, they enter on cue, act out their role and exit the historical stage to re-emerge at the end of the performance in a chronological list of cast credits in an appendix or as a one-line entry in the index.

We study them as individual historical actors within the limitations imposed by their historical chronology. We might even sometimes study them as leaders, particularly if they are fortunate enough to rate an individual biography, but we rarely if ever, study them within an historical context as a means of analysing the concept of trade union leadership and what that might teach us about trade unions.

However there are signs of a willingness to explore how biography as a methodological device might play a larger role in trade union history writing. Some steps in this direction have been taken already, particularly in the context of labour movement leadership. For example, one study examining leadership roles in British trade unions draws upon micro-biographical studies of a number of British trade unionists to demonstrate how the interaction between a leader’s personal disposition and context can provide a framework for analysing trade union leadership.

But as labour historians, we shouldn’t be afraid to ‘borrow’ from practitioners in other fields as well. For instance, in the study of public administration both in Britain and in the United States, researchers have employed biographical case studies. These studies examine the personal qualities, careers and achievements of top administrators to illuminate the exercise of leadership in the public sector, the sectors changing role and culture as well as the history and the study of the contemporary practice of public administration. Such research seeks to demonstrate that there are different ways in which leadership can be exercised within an institution and that it is possible to analyse the opportunities for and the constraints on leadership encouraged or imposed by the internal and external political environment of the organisation. It can also provide a framework in which qualitative evidence can be employed to assess change over time in the character and workings of the institution.

The public administration model would fit nicely in a comparative biographical case study analysis of leadership within say, the Australian Workers’ Union. An historical focus is, of course, a necessary ingredient in the methodological mix when studying an individual trade union and the ‘critical juncture’ factor employed in the public administration model would also be important here. For example, Edward Grayndler’s incumbency (1912-41) as general secretary could be usefully analysed at the time of the conscription crisis of 1916/17, the unsuccessful One Big Union campaign of 1919-23 in which the AWU was seen as the villain, and during the great depression 1931-4 where the union fought against Otto Niemeyer, Jack Lang, and a rank and file uprising. W G Spence, the union’s first president and general secretary (1894-98) would provide a study of leadership during the fledgling union’s struggle through the 1890s and its subsequent influence in the formation of federal Labor. A study of Tom Dougherty, who deposed Beecher Hay as general secretary in 1944 and occupied that position until his death in 1972, would permit the union leadership to be analysed at the critical junctures of the ALP splits of the 1950s, the 1955 shearers strike and the 1961 Mount Isa dispute. It would also provide insights into the battles between the leadership and Clyde Cameron’s ‘membership control group’ during the early 1960s.

The strength of using comparative biography as a method in this manner lies in the fact that it goes beyond the normal biographical format of the description of the life of a particular person. Comparative biography permits the use of biographies as case studies, which then facilitates attempts to link theory with practice, to generalise, and to test and evaluate theories about issues such as leadership in organisations like trade unions and provide additional insights into how trade unions developed. By the use of multiple and comparative, as opposed to individual, case studies, it is possible to overcome the objections of those who argue that because all case studies deal with the exceptional, they inevitably reduce or qualify the scope for generalisation. As recent studies of leadership in public bureaucracies has demonstrated, there is much to be gained by employing a biographical case study methodology in writing history.

Harry Knowles is researching trade union leadership in Work and Organisational Studies, University of Sydney. He is the co-author (with Mark Hearn) of One Big Union. A History of the Australian Workers Union 1886-1994, Cambridge University Press, 1996. His current research interest is the use biographical method in the writing of history, particularly in the context of trade union leadership. For more details of his research interests and publications see his WOS staff page.

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