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BLF - WE BUILT THIS COUNTRY - REVIEW - CREMERS |
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We Built This Country - Review Review
by Jan Cremers, AIAS CLR
News 4/2011, pp. 85-6. In
almost twenty years of existence CLR-News
has only rarely reviewed books that tell the history of the building
workers’ trade unions. Humphrey McQueen’s book We
Built this Country is an exception. The reason why we have picked it
up is rather simple. McQueen, who calls himself a Canberra-based
activist and freelance historian, has written a remarkable book that
covers more than 200 years of building workers’ experiences and thus
opens ‘a window into the
making of the Australian working class’. Although the research and
writing were commissioned by the Construction Division of the Australian
CFMEU (the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, the
successor organisation of the Australian Building Labourers’
Federation), the financing of its publication owes nothing to the union. The
building labourers entered the CFMEU in 1994 but it took a while before
this unofficial history that wants to be ‘sympathetic to the union’s
difficulties but not apologetic for their failures’ could come on the
table. One of the reasons was that the twenty-five years before the
merger had been a period of bitterness, with media-highlighted
de-registration, criminal convictions and internal conflict. McQueen’s
book includes defeats as well as victories because
‘nothing is gained by recounting only the good side ́.
Some of his used concepts are extremely topical. For instance, the
notion that the expansion of capital depends on the disciplining of
labour-time or that re-skilling around concrete gave the labourers the
chance to lift themselves from the bottom of the labour market. The book
is rich in stories and case studies. Therefore, a review is an
incredible challenge; it is easier to recommend reading. Nevertheless, I
want to highlight a few parts. In
the early days of British colonialism tradesmen landed with ideas about
who should do what on a building site and found out that it was
impossible to maintain these rules in a society where the demand for
craftsmen outran the supply. Assistants learned how to manage the job
alongside the tradesmen and started chasing contracts. Subcontracting increased
sweating. Changes in materials and methods in the late 1890s opened more
pathways for labourers. However, the temporary and mobile nature of the
work on building sites and the fluctuations in urban development with
‘men following for two weeks at the job’ and labourers shifting
between industries and trades remained the key characteristics of the
building sector. The history of the ABLF, created in 1910, and the
preceding organisations and initiatives, therefore, was a history of
‘ups and downs’ and sometimes of ‘stumble and fall’. An
interesting chapter is dedicated to the appearance of ‘weird mobs’
(named after They’re a Weird Mob,
a popular book in the 1950s about an Italian journalist moving to
Australia and finishing up laying bricks). If Australia was a country of
migrants, than construction was the main industry for people to end up
in. For ABLF officials building labouring was the work available to men
at the bottom of the heap, irrespective of colour. Therefore, they took
pains to make sure that the newcomers got their right money under decent
conditions. In 1966 ABLF leaflets on the Sydney opera house site were in
English, Spanish, Greek and Italian. Notwithstanding this basic
principle of equal treatment, there were also times, most often
coinciding with a downturn in the economy, with rumours about foreigners
on sites. For reasons of space McQueen has posted longer extracts from the words of workers and detailed accounts of several matters on his website. Here also information can be found of his other book Framework of Flesh (see the report in CLR- News 2-2008). Visit: http://home.alphalink.com.au/~loge27/
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