The Origins of Australian Workshop Organisation, 1918 to 1950

Abstract

There is a long tradition of shop committee organisation in Australian industry. This paper traces the origins of workshop organisation to debates upon industrial unionism that followed the First World War and then examines subsequent developments up to 1950. While three different types of shop committee are distinguished, the article is primarily concerned with those ternied 'rank-and-file shop committees' and with the combine committees that have linked some of them. Shop committees of this kind have engaged in both industrial and political activities. In this paper it is argued that the establishment of permanent shop committees depended upon their ability to regulate industrial conditions outside the influence or interests of trade unions and the Labor Party, although the support of these parties has usually proved a condition for shop committee success. The onset of cold-war factionalism within the Australian labour movement led to the partial withdrawal of official support for shop committees. with adverse consequences upon the extent and authority of the shop committee movement. The revival of Australian workshop organisation in the 1960s depended more upon trade union patronage than the autonomous rank-and-file initiatives which had characterised the earlier movements between 1926 and 1947.

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