Feminism and representations of union identity in Australian Union Banners of the 1980s and early 1990s

Labour History

Volumn , Issue 79, 2000, Pages 92-112

  Muir, Kathie ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 85171689055     PISSN: 00236942     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3828/27516731     Document Type: Article

References (124)

1. See for example J. Hughes Film Work (video) Melbourne, 1982
2. K. Harper, The Useful Theatre: The New Theatre Movement in Sydney and Melbourne 1935-1983', Meanjin, vol. 1,1984, pp.56-71
3. A. Reeves, A Tapestry of Australia: The Sydney Wharfies Mural, Waterside Workers Federation, Sydney Port, Sydney, 1992.
4. Visual arts historian Sandy Kirby and (the late) artist, art theorist and unionist Ian Burn are two notable exceptions who have written about the history of labour cultural projects, the cultural history of the labour movement and the context provided by that history. S. Kirby and I. Burn, 'Historical Sketch' in I. Burn (ed.), Working Art: A Survey of Art in the Australian Labour Movement in the 1980's, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1985
5. S. Kirby, Artists and Unions: A Critical Tradition, Australia Council, Redfern, 1992.
6. K. Muir, 'Difference or Deficiency: Gender, Representation and Meaning in Unions,' in B. Pocock (ed.), Strife: Sex and Politics in Labour Unions, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1997, p.173.
7. I. Burn, 'Artists in the Labour Movement,' in I. Burn, Dialogue: Writings in Art History, Allen and Unwin, North Sydney, 1991, p.142.
8. S. Garton, 'What have we Done? Labour History, Social History, Cultural History', in T. Irving (ed.), Challenges to Labour History, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 1994, p.56.
9. M. Lake, The Constitution of Political Subjectivity and the Writing of Labour History' in Irving, ibid., pp 75-97. Also J. Damousi, 'Gendered Meanings and Actions in Left-Wing Movements,' pp.150-168 in same volume. For a discussion of the situation of non-English speaking background workers see, for example, S. Bertone and G. Griffin, Immigrant Workers and Trade Unions, AGPS, Canberra, 1992.
10. Lake, The Constitution', p.77
11. Burn, 'Artists in the Labour Movement', pp.140-151
12. G. Hawkins, From Nimbin to Mardi Gras: Constructing Community Arts Practice, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1993, p.96.
13. Lake, The Constitution', p.85.
14. Also I. Burn 'Foreword', in Kirby, Artists and Unions, pp.3-4.
15. Hawkins, From Nimbin to Mardi Gras, pp.133-155.
16. Hawkins argues that this is how the Art and Working Life program was sold to trade unions (see p.97).
17. Examples of the capacity of unions to develop structures which utilise diversity as strength in relation to organising and coalition building strategies have been discussed in a number of recent United States labour publications. See, for example, K. Bronfenbrenner et al. (eds), Organizing to Win: New Research on Union Strategies, ILR Press, Ithaca, 1998
18. G. Mantsios, A New Labor Movement for the New Century, Monthly Review Press, New York, 1998
19. M. Ngai, 'Who is an American Worker? Asian Immigrants, Race, and the National Boundaries of Class', in S. Fraser and J. Freeman (eds), Audacious Democracy: Labor, Intellectuals, and the Social Reconstruction of America, Mariner, Boston 1997, pp.172-185
20. and J. Mort (ed.), Not Your Father's Union Movement: Inside the AFL-CIO, Verso, London and New York, 1998.
21. For a discussion of women's domestic needlework as potentially subversive see R. Parker, The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine, Women's Press, London, 1983. For a discussion of Australian feminist artists' re-discovery of needlework, see S. Kirby, Sight Lines: Women's Art and Feminist Perspectives in Australia, Craftsman House, East Roseville, 1992, pp.9-25.
22. For example, P. Berry, Can Unions Survive?, BWIU, Canberra 1989
23. ACTU, Australia Reconstructed, ACTU, Melbourne, 1987
24. Evatt Foundation, Labour Movement Strategies for 21st Century, Evatt Foundation, Sydney, 1991
25. M. Crosby and M. Easson (eds), What Should Unions Do? Pluto Press, Sydney, 1992.
26. A. Carey, The Ideological Management Industry^ in T. Wheelwright and K. Buckley (eds), Communications and the Media in Australia, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1987, pp.156-179.
27. S. Scalmer and T. Irving, The Rise of the Modern Labour Technocrat: Intellectual Labour and the Transformation of the Amalgamated Metal Workers' Union, 1973-85', Labour History, no. 77,1999, pp.64-82. Artists perhaps could be seen to be a version of a specialist officer or 'technocrat'.
28. See biographical information about Max Ogden as a member of the ACTU's Arts and Creative Recreation Committee in D. Mills, Art and Working Life, ACTU/Community Arts Board, Sydney, 1983, p.19. The other members of the committee at this time were the ACTU's Arts officer, J. McLean, P. Bloch, L. Carmichael, P. Clancy, M. Crosby, D. Cushion and A. Morgan.
29. For further discussion of this change in attitude and the AMWU's key role in developing the Accord see, for example, F. Stillwell, The Accord .. and Beyond: The Political Economy of the Labor Government, Pluto Press, Sydney 1986
30. P. Ewer et ah, Politics and the Accord, Pluto Press, Sydney, 1991.
31. Unions who had significant reservations about the Accord included the Australian Teachers Federation and the New South Wales Nurses Association which voted against it at the ACTU's Special unions conference in February 1983. See B. Norington, Jennie George, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1998, pp.130-2.
32. Mills, Art and Working Life. At this time about 40 per cent of the Australian workforce were trade union members which made the case that unions were the most logical vehicle to increase the access of workers to the arts a more convincing argument than it would be today. For a discussion of the political and institutional context inside the Australia Council at the time this policy was introduced, see Hawkins, From Nimbin to Mardi Gras, pp.91-115. The Art and Working Life program was one of three incentive programs established by Council at that time. The other two were the Multicultural Arts Program and the Youth Arts Program.
33. ACTU, The Arts and Creative Recreation Policy, ACTU, Melbourne, adopted 1981 and revised in 1985, p.l.
34. Ibid.
35. Australia Council's Art and Working Life policy quoted in Mills, Art and Working Life, p.16.
36. UTLC Arts Policy, adopted in 1984 and revised in 1987, Adelaide. Hawkins notes that there were significant tensions Ijetween notions of difference and disadvantage' within projects themselves and the various papers published promoting the program to different audiences. See Hawkins, From Nimbin to Mardi Gras, p.115.
37. R. Markey, 'Marginal Workers in the Big Picture: Unionization of Visual Artists', Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 38, no. 1,1996, pp.22-41.
38. For a discussion of the challenges of organising strategies for diverse memberships see, for example, B. Ellem, 'Organising Strategies for the 1990s-Targeting Particular Groups: Women, Migrants Youth', in Crosby and Easson, What Should Unions Do?, pp.347-361, and J. Shaw, M. Walton and C. Walton, 'A Decline in Union Membership: Some Ideas for Trade Unions in the 1990s', Evatt Foundation, Labour Movement Strategies, pp.93-104.
39. Bertone and Griffin, Immigrant Workers, p.99.
40. Examples of some of the strategies developed through grant funded projects and the work of such committees include the 1988 establishment and support of the National Unions Coalition with Aboriginal Movement (NUCAM) and the funding for Aboriginal officers based at several peak councils; and the 1996 decision by the ACTU to establish targeted positions for Women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members on the ACTU Council. Examples of projects include the UTLC and Working Women's Centre 1989 arts project with childcare workers, Not Minders Not Mothers Not Martyrs. This project produced a touring exhibition to promote understanding of the skills of childcare workers, the nature of their work and their need for higher wages and better conditions. Examples of reports produced which drew attention to policy issues and made recommendations for change include L. Gatica, Ethnic Minorities and Employment Issues: A Trade Union Perspective, Trades and Labor Council of Western Australia, Perth, 1988
41. ACTU, Migrants and Unions, Trade Union Information Kit 9, ACTU, Melbourne, 1985
42. M. Nightingale, Facing the Challenge: Women in Victorian Unions, VTHC, Melbourne, 1991.
43. For some insight into the nature of the Waste Watch attacks and the trade union response, see Art Work, (video) UTLC, Adelaide, 1989.
44. For example, the South Australian United Trades and Labour Council (UTLC) had a regular staff of over 20 during the latter years of the 1980s with several additional short term project staff. In 2000 its staff includes two full time elected officials and three administrative workers with occasional support from short term project staff. These changes reflect the drop in trade union membership, the loss of grant funding and the reduction in affiliation by some unions that no longer regard support to state peak councils as a priority. Such a reduction in staff has significantly changed the broader social, cultural and political roles played by the UTLC and its capacity to initiate or support projects.
45. A. Stephens and A. Reeves, Badges of Labour, Badges of Pride: Aspects of Working-Class Celebration, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, p.2.
46. Lake, The Constitution', p.85
47. Burn, 'Artists in the Labour Movement', p.4.
48. See, for example, C. Cockburn, Brothers: Male Dominance and Technological Change, Pluto Press, London, 1983
49. C. Cockburn, In the Way of Women: Men's Resistance to Sex Equality in Organizations, Macmillan, London, 1991
50. D.S. Cobble, Women and Unions: Forging a Partnership, ILR Press, Ithaca, 1993
51. Nightingale, Facing the Challenge
52. C. Shute, 'Unequal Partners: Women. Power and Trade Union Movement', in N. Grieve and A. Burns, Australian Women; Contemporary Feminist Thought, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1994; and various chapters in Pocock (ed.), Strife: Sex and Politics in Labour Unions.
53. Kirby and Burn, 'Historical Sketch'.
54. J. Gorman, Banner Bright, Allen Lane, London, 1973.
55. A. Stephens and A. Reeves, Badges of Labour, pp.3-4
56. A. Reeves, Another Day, Another Dollar: Working Lives in Australian History, McCulloch Publishing, Melbourne, 1988, p.83.
57. J. Damousi, Women Come Rally: Socialism, Communism and Gender in Australia 1890-1955, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1994
58. Damousi 'Gendered Meanings', pp.150-168. An example of the worker as liberator can be seen in the New South Wales Liquor Trades Employees Union Banner reproduced on the cover of Stephens and Reeves', Badges of Labour.
59. Stephens and Reeves, Badges of Labour, 'Introduction', no page number.
60. Ibid.
61. A. Mancini, 'Union Art-Past, Present and Future', in Artwork: Recent Art of the Victorian Trades Hall Council Arts Workshop, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, 1989.
62. Women's needlework has been used by activists in earlier generations to express anti-slavery messages in the United States, suffrage messages in Britain and calls for peace and disarmament in Australia. See Parker, The Subversive Stitch
63. L. T?ckner, The Spectacle of Women: Imagery of the Suffrage Campaign, Chatto and Windus, London, 1987
64. J. Isaacs, The Gentle Arts: 200 Years of Australian Women's Domestic and Decorative Arts, Lansdowne Press, Sydney, 1987.
65. There is an extensive literature on the development of feminist arts practices including the employment of domestic needlework (see especially Parker, The Subversive Stitch) and the influence of French feminist theory on feminist artists. For example, see G. Pollock, Vision and Difference: Femininity, Feminism and the Histories of Art, Routledge, London, 1988
66. L. Nochlin, Women, Art and Power and Other Essays, Thames and Hudson, London, 1989. R. Parker and G. Pollock (eds), Framing Feminism: Art and the Women's Movement 1970-1985, Pandora, London, 1987. For an Australian perspective on these developments, see C. Moore (ed.), Dissonance: Feminism and the Arts, 1970-90, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1994.
67. For example, The Lovely Motherhood Show7 and 'Quantum Leaps' in Adelaide and the 'IToyley show' in New South Wales.
68. K. Muir, The Banner Tradition', in Modern Trade Union Banners, Catalogue, UTLC, Adelaide, 1987, no page number. The UTLC secured grants from both the Crafts Board of the Australia Council and the South Australian Jubilee 150 Board initially to make 15 new banners. Additional funds were obtained from the Australia Council's International Year of Peace fund for the design and production of five separate peace banners. Together with contributions from unions, the UTLC was able to assist in the production of over 26 new banners, some of which were actually pairs that could be hung separately or used as double sided banners on marches.
69. Burn, 'Foreword', in Kirby, Artists and Unions.
70. See Bertone and Griffin, Immigrant Workers
71. Nightingale, Facing the Challenge
72. B. Pocock, Women Count: Women in South Australian Trade Unions, UTLC and Centre for Labour Studies, Adelaide, 1992
73. B. Pocock, Raising our Voices: Activism amongst Women and Men in South Australian Unions, Centre for Labour Studies, Adelaide, 1994
74. S. Mezinec, The Slow Road to Fairer Unionism: Changes in Gender Representation in South Australian Unions 1991-1998, Centre for Labour Research, paper no. 10, Adelaide, 1999.
75. Burn, 'Foreword', in Kirby, Artists and Unions, p.4.
76. P. Berry, Can Unions Survive?
77. Bertone and Griffin, Immigrant Workers
78. Pocock, Women Count and Raising Our Voices
79. Cobble, Women and Unions
80. J. White, Sisters and Solidarity, Thompson Educational Publishing, Toronto, 1993.
81. Examples of women in such roles can be found in B. Hansen's banners for the Newcastle Building Trades group of unions, the Printing and Kindred Industries (New South Wales) union banner and the Builders Labourers Federation (Tasmania)
82. M. Evans' Operative Painters and Decorators Union (Victoria) banner, J. Croft's Australian Meat Industries Employees Union (Western Australian) banner. In contrast, several of the banners by male artists for similar unions do not include women. See, for example, those of G. Hogg for the Building Workers Industrial Union (Victoria) and the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners (Victoria)
83. A. Hill's Australian Timber Workers Union (South Australia) banner)
84. and B. McKay's banner for the Seamen's Union of Australia (Western Australia). Instead, the design of these banners reinforces the male dominated nature of the industries and the heroic male worker tradition. I wish to emphasise here that banner designs were negotiated between the artist and the union and these comments should not be seen to imply that the responsibility for these choices by with the artist alone.
85. See, for example, C. Merewether, Contemporary Visual Arts in the Art and Working Life Program, unpublished report, Visual Arts Board, Australia Council, Sydney, 1987.
86. Burn, Dialogue: Writings in Art History, p.143.
87. Muir, The Banner Tradition'.
88. See Burn, 'Foreword', in Kirby, Artists and Unions, p.4. The slowness of this process and the important role of symbols and culture in transforming organisations would seem to be recognised in point 8 of the UTLC Arts Policy discussed above.
89. Discussion of the practicalities of achieving such change can be found in White, Sisters and Solidarity
90. Crosby and Easson, What Should Unions Do?
91. B. Pocock and J. Wishart, Organising Our Future, Centre for Labour Research, research paper no 9, Adelaide, 1999
92. and ACTU, Unions? Work, ACTU, Melbourne, 1999.
93. V. Binns, 'Introduction', in V. Binns (ed.), Community and the Arts: History, Theory, Practice, Pluto Press, Sydney, 1991, p.12.
94. Markey, 'Marginal Workers'.
95. Burn, 'Artists in the Labour Movement', p.145.
96. Markey, 'Marginal Workers'
97. Burn, 'Artists in the Labour Movement'
98. Wiseman quoted in R. Healy, Process and Practice-Evaluation of Artist in the Community Job Creation Scheme, Victorian Ministry for the Arts, Melbourne 1984, p.121.
99. Healy, ibid. It should be noted that Wiseman, who had been a member of the Women's Art Movement in Adelaide, made a banner for the Victorian Branch of the BLF in 1983, and that as a result of that successful collaboration designed and executed a huge public art project with the BLF in 1985. It was seven storey mural From the Hod to the Favco on the side of the Rialto building whilst it was under construction. The mural represented the work of the BLF members. This mural was one of the examples subsequently criticised by the Waste Watch committee.
100. D. Stitt, personal communication to author, 1987.
101. For example, the Seamen's Union Peace Banner (South Australia) and the Australian Nursing Federation's (South Australia) banner. The West Australian TLC Women's Banner, although not 'pieced', is made in such a way that several distinct sections, that can also hang separately, come together as a whole for marches. The New South Wales Teachers' Federation banner is a patchwork of smaller knitted and sewn images.
102. This is in stark contrast to the design of traditional historical banners which was very formal and generally utilised a more sombre palette. The traditional banners communicated the seriousness of the business of unionism and commanded respect for their authority as institutions. Many contemporary banner makers have shaken up this image of unionism 62. Other banners to utilise colour and texture in this way include: M. McMahon and N. Taylor's banner for the AMWU
103. D. Stitt's banners for the BWIU and AMWU (both in South Australia)
104. K. Muir's banners for the Food Preserver's Union and the Australian Nursing Federation (both in South Australia)
105. D. Humphrys' banners for the Northern Territory Public Sector Union and Communication Workers Union, and E. Gallegos' banner for the Electrical Trades Union (Tasmania).
106. I am very grateful to Julie Montgarret for providing me, at short notice, a copy of her original artist statement and the detailed information on which this section draws.
107. J. Montgarret, personal communication to author, 2000.
108. V. Rigney, Banners of the World: The Contemporary Art of Banner Making, exhibition catalogue, Glasgow Museums, Glasgow, 1992, no page number.
109. Lawrence was an Adelaide-based feminist artist whose primary practice was as a tapestry weaver. She had coordinated a number of high profile and local community tapestry projects and commissions (including the Parliament House Embroidery project 1983-88) as well as other textile projects. She was also an occasional lecturer at the South Australian School of Art. Gardner was a quilter who had first commenced work on community textile projects in 1984. She had worked on both tapestry and quilting projects. Both of these artists have subsequently continued their involvement in community projects together with maintaining their individual practice.
110. Banners, both painted and needlework, were a feature of the women's suffrage struggles particularly in Britain (see T?ckner, The Spectacle of Women).
111. These are not the words most commonly associated with the formal rhetoric and structures of unionism. They offer another example of Lake's point about the turn to promoting the idea of 'friendly' unions as a source of support for women in hard times 'substituting the values of friendship for power and care for control' (Lake, The Constitution', p.85).
112. See Endnote 11.
113. W. Cahn, Lawrence 1912: The Bread and Roses Strike, Pilgrim Press, New York, 1977.
114. See C. Conde, M. Hynes and C. McLeod, 'Bread and Roses Across the Pacific', Hecate, forthcoming November, 2000.
115. M. Hogan, personal communication to author, 2000.
116. The Federated Miscellaneous Workers Union (Northern Territory) banner produced in the mid 1980s was another which attempted to acknowledge Aboriginal union membership both in its imagery and in its border of T?wi design.
117. The TWU in the Northern Territory also covers workers in a number of 'eco-Tourism' ventures and shares coverage of national parks with the LHMWU as well as covering workers in the conventional transport industries.
118. J. Barrkman, Transport Workers Union Banner', unpublished artist's statement in possession of the author, Darwin, 1996.
119. In the years immediately preceding the banner's production, one of the Northern Territory's TWU's full time officials was Aboriginal. The TWU has played a supportive role in peak council solidarity campaigns in support of both Aboriginal workers and wider ATSI campaigns such as land rights in both South Australia and the Territory. The union has also attempted to pursue the issue of special leave for cultural purpose without success. It has not implemented, however, some of the other suggested strategies to address the issues facing indigenous workers, such as dedicated positions on the union governing body, a separate union committee on indigenous issues or a sub-branch of indigenous members. This information comes from conversations between the author and TWU (South Australia) secretary B. Heffernan and Industrial Officer S. Key during the time that funding for the banner was being sought from the Australia Council.
120. K. Muir, 'Difference or Deficiency' in Pocock (ed.), Strife: Sex and Politics in Labour Unions, pp.188-9.
121. For discussion of these strategies see, for example, International Labour Organisation, 'Women's Participation in Trade Unions', Labour Education, no. 90,1993
122. also White, Sisters and Solidarity.
123. Muir, 'Difference or Deficiency', p.180.
124. It is also a valuable historical body of work that was, in part, produced due to a particular institutional convergence, the ACTU's adoption of its 'Arts and Creative Recreation Policy' in 1980 and the Australia Council's adoption of its 'Art and Working Life Program' in 1982.