Oligarchy contested and interconnected: The New South Wales Labor Party and the trade unions from 1910 to 1939

Abstract

The period from 1910 to 1939 was one of the most turbulent chapters in New South Wales labour history. It was defined by intense ideological conflict, winner-take-all factional warfare, widespread accusations of corruption and multiple Labor Party splits. Intertwined within these issues were questions of democracy and oligarchy within the labour movement. To what extent should members control labour institutions? Democracy within unions and parties means control by the ordinary members and, where necessary, their accountable representatives. Oligarchy sits at the opposite end of the spectrum from democracy and entails organisational domination by a small group of leaders. This thesis examines the tensions and struggles between democracy and oligarchy within three key labour organisations. Events inside one major organisation affected what happened inside the others and my study is therefore relational and comparative, examining the Australian Workers Union (AWU), the Miners Federation and the NSW Labor Party. Both the AWU and NSW Labor Party were oligarchies and became more oligarchical over time. Conversely, the Miners Federation was highly democratic, although it too became less democratic over time. The NSW Labor Party was an interconnected oligarchy, both influencing and influenced by its affiliated trade unions. These influences were complicated and sometimes counterintuitive. At times the effects were straightforward, with organisations and leaders transposing their own methods into another organisation, but in other instances the participation of oligarchical unions and union leaders enhanced democracy within the Labor Party and vice versa. Oligarchy predominated in the AWU and NSW Labor Party but it was always contested. Countervailing tendencies against oligarchy were continuously operating in some form, even when the organisations were at their least democratic. My analytical framework comes from the sociological literature on trade union and political party democracy and I compare each organisation’s community, rules, local autonomy, rank-and-file decision-making, internal opposition, free communication and equality between officials and members. The key factor that separated the democratic Miners Federation from the oligarchical AWU and Labor Party was that the miners worked and lived within united, stable occupational communities in which the majority of union members and officials believed in democracy and worked towards its realisation. Show more