The Way We Worked

English for exploring our past through industrial events in Australia

Module OverviewThrough study of the module ‘The way we worked: English for exploring our past through industrial events in Australia’ students develop understanding and proficiency in the use of language related to history and specifically, a major industrial event or period in Australia’s past. They develop knowledge, understanding and skills in comprehending and using terminology and styles of language appropriate to describing, discussing, responding to, explaining and expressing opinions about general historical issues and topics, and compose texts including reports, fact sheets and informative feature articles.

Work undertaken as part of this module supports enjoyment in and confident use and understanding of a range of texts that explain, instruct and present arguments related to significant Australian industrial innovations, projects and processes of the past. The basis of this module may have a local focus such as BHP in Newcastle or Wollongong, or may be a national project such as the Snowy Mountains Scheme.

Through a focus on a key historical event or development in Australian work or industry, students further develop their understanding of how language and other techniques are used to explore, describe and explain the relationship between the past and present. They have the opportunity to study examples of texts that make connections between specific cultural events and their larger scale cultural and social effects. Students may also consider texts showing how the broad international historical context made an impact on Australian workplaces and practices or industry at specific periods. The study also supports the development of communication skills in related senior studies.

Students also have the opportunity to experience, engage with and critique literary and other texts in both print and electronic forms that explore, through an imaginative use of language, Australian industry and work, innovation and achievement as well as the lives of individuals involved. The texts may depict a particular era of Australian history through the portrayal of an aspect of industry and work and may include longer texts, such as novels, autobiographies, biographies, films or plays. Through the study of these literary and other texts, students further extend their skills in comprehending and responding to texts and develop abilities to use language expressively and imaginatively.

Overview of Learning SequenceTask Name Complete? Value Your MarkWeek 1:Labour History IS NOT Labor History 2Industrial Events in 19th Century Australia 3‘The Fat Man in History’ Comprehension 5The Iconography of the Labour Movement 8Week 2:Modern Day ‘Fat Men’ 4Gina Rinehart – Political Cartoon Analysis 6The ‘Dalfram Dispute’ research task. 10War on the Waterfront – background information 2Week 3:War on the Waterfront – Reading & Analysis 5The Construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge 5Deaths on the Bridge 5Week 4:Opinion Piece 8Top Australian Inventions Count-down 6Speech – Inventors’ Exhibition and Fair 8Your Future of Work 5Career Map 4

Participation and Diligence in Completing Unit 15

Total Mark 100

Labour History IS NOT Labor HistoryDefine: Labour

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Define: Labor

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The distinction between Labor and Labour is important to make, as labour history is the history of ‘us’ and our working class traditions, whereas Labor history is concerned with the political history of a particular party, albeit one which aligns itself with working class interests.

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Industrial Events in 19th Century Australia1851, 1854, 1856, 1859, 1873, 1880s, 1880s, 1890s, 1890, 1894

___________ Australia becomes the first country in the world whose male workers won an 8 hour day. This was achieved through the 888 campaign.

___________ Female workers in Victoria are protected under legislation, and are granted an 8 hour working day.

___________ A depression hit which would last the entire decade. High unemployment and lower wages became the norm. Many unions led strike action against employers who tried to implement unreasonable conditions.

___________ Most blue-collar jobs in Australia had formed a union, and workers were paid high wages as there was a shortage of men in the colony.

___________ Gold Rush – offering the effect of large increase in migration, particularly from abroad. Australia became a wealthy paradise and huge growth ensued which lasted for about 40 years. This was known as The Great Boom.

___________ Maritime Union Strike

___________ Many employers tried to ‘beat’ the union by importing cheap Chinese labourers. Legislation was introduced to stop this, and this became the basis for The White Australia Policy implemented at the time of federation.

___________ Melbourne Trade Hall is opened.

___________ Eureka Stockade – miners made demands on the government, and militantly defended their rights. The government conceded, gave all men the vote and reformed laws which impacted their work.

___________ Shearers Strike

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Published in, The Monthly, June, 2012.

Any day now billionaire Clive Palmer, the Queensland mining magnate, will appear clad in spats and a morning coat, adorned with a top hat, chomping on a garishly elongated cigar. One minute our plutocratic whirling dervish is duelling with federal Treasurer Wayne Swan, the next he is claiming that the CIA is working in cahoots with the Greens in order to cripple Australia’s coal industry. His pastimes include issuing daily lawsuits and devising Titanic II.

Palmer, who once “retired” at age 29, is now officially a “national living treasure”. And he is a delight, albeit in an altogether unintended manner. Palmer, you see, appears hell-bent on breathing life into ‘Mr Fat Man’, the fin-de-siècle labour movement’s caricature of capitalism and big business as a grossly overweight, top-hatted older man lording it over the toiling masses.

Fat Man, or simply ‘Fat’, was, in large measure, the creation of radical nineteenth-century cartoonists. He made his debut in the now defunct Bulletin during the mid 1880s, courtesy of its star overseas imports, the American-born Livingstone ‘Hop’ Hopkins and the Englishman Phil May.

Fat Man actually originated in American magazines of graphic humour and political satire that same decade, notably the New York trio of Life, Puck and Judge. Drawing on biblical allusions to gluttony, Mr Fat was pictured oppressing downtrodden, powerless workers and yeoman farmers. Hop, an Ohio-born civil war veteran (and creator of the iconic ‘Little Boy from Manly’), carried this tradition to Australia.

In Australia, however, American readings were tenuous given organised labour’s strength. Thus, when radical cartoonists such as Monty Scott and Claude Marquet adorned the front covers of the Worker newspapers with images of corpulent villains, the Australian working man was depicted as a muscle-bound hero courageously confronting, and often vanquishing, a gargantuan Fat Man.

In the age of Twitter and Facebook, and the ever-shrinking world of print, we are inclined to forget that in the late nineteenth century a newspaper-based political cartoon was the perfect means of distilling quite complex messages. As Eric Hobsbawm, the British historian, noted of the European socialist iconography of the period, while representations of heroic labourers battling villainous fat

capitalists were improbable, they carried with them an entertaining and serious message of political education.

Proletarian propagandists gleefully took up Fat’s linguistic version, with Fat Man rhetoric used to illustrate free-market capitalism’s iniquity and immorality, the very raison d’être of Labor politics. When English socialist Ben Tillett addressed the Melbourne faithful in 1897, he bluntly warned: “By putting the Fat man in parliament you get no good.”

Providentially, the tendency to corpulence among the older generation of anti-Labor politicians at the end of the century also laid them open to humorous characterisation as Fat Men, including George Reid, Thomas McIlwraith and Thomas Bent, the premiers of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria respectively.

The generic figure of Fat undoubtedly carried understandings antithetical to a rigorous analysis of society’s ills. All too often, Fat Man was cloaked in anti-Semitic tropes and imagery, appearing as a hook-nosed Shylock type symbolising the ‘Money Power’, or conniving to destroy White Australia via the introduction of ‘cheap’ Asian labourers.

“The Labour Press is nothing if not extreme,” huffed the Brisbane Courier, in 1895. “How utterly weak is such writing by its very exaggeration!” Such sensitivity only encouraged the labourites. In 1894 the Hobart-based Clipper published a sardonic editorial, ‘In Defence of the Fat Man’:

The term Fat Man is an obnoxious one – to Fatmen. Still we can’t help but think that whoever coined the phrase was a genius … and deserves a statue … despite all drawbacks it is a handy phrase to describe the stupid, unreasoning hog-like attributes of capitalism … perhaps when the fatman ceases to threaten our children’s lives we will cease to tickle him up with forked figures of speech. Besides, there is nothing to prevent the rich men of the body politic referring to the aggregate poor as the Lean Man.

The Fat Man tag was never fair or realistic, but it was effective. His cultural ubiquity within Australian political rhetoric by the 1900s had no parallel in English or American discourse. Today, the stereotype should be a thing of the past. A wealthy capitalist is more likely to be a gym junkie in a tight-fitting Armani suit, whereas the worker is now typically battling the bulge. The Palmers and Andrew Forrests have wised up, too, styling themselves as larrikin nation-builders, as if they were the worker’s best friend.

The public profile of our leading fat cats, in the absence of a Labor Party intellectually able to enunciate the ills of free-market fundamentalism, or possibly of an electorate willing to hear about it, may yet mean that they serve a useful purpose. As British author Stewart Lansley argues in his penetrating new book, The Cost of Inequality, the growth of a global super-rich elite threatens the very prospect of a post-GFC economic recovery.

But don’t expect our Clive – or Gina or Twiggy for that matter – to be much fussed. In his recent Australian Story appearance, Palmer noted the former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, had once made some “fat jokes” about him. Palmer boasted that he then called upon “on all fat people to band together to throw the Prime Minister out of office. And I went off to China and I got back on Thursday and they’d done it. So fat people rock.”

The Fat Man in History – Questions.

1. When and where was ‘The Fat Man’ introduced as a political tool in the Australian mind?

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2. ‘The Fat Man’ was an American creation; what led to it being used in an Australian setting?

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3. ‘The Fat Man’ of America was usually depicted as a powerful, albeit corrupt, figure who

could not be opposed. How was this representation transformed in Australia?

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4. Why was ‘Labour’ depicted as a brawny character in Australia, but as a weak dependent

overseas?

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5. Aside from his heft, what other negative qualities were bestowed upon ‘The Fat Man’?

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6. Why does the author believe ‘The Fat Man’ label would be ineffective in Australia today?

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The Iconography of the Labour Movement

Phil May, ‘Poverty and Wealth; It all depends on the position of the bundle’, Bulletin, c. 1887.

1. How is ‘Labour’ represented in this text? What kind of a person is he? What role is he playing in this image?

2. How is ‘Capital’ or, ‘The Fat Man’, depicted in this text? What role is he playing in this image?

3. What is the message of this political cartoon?

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Livingstone Hopkin’s ‘The Labour Crisis’, The Bulletin, 16th August, 1890.

The two men stand on a narrow plank above a wide canyon, with Fat Man arrogantly proposing:

‘See here my man, one of us must either go back, or else lie down and let the other walk over him. Now, which of us shall it be?

1. How is ‘Labour’ depicted in this image? What is he doing? Physically describe him:

2. How is ‘Capital’ depicted in this image? What is he doing? Describe his attitude to ‘Labour’ based on the words in the caption:

3. What does this image suggest about the progress of the labour movement between the publishing of Phil May’s cartoon in 1887 and this cartoon in 1890?

4. What does the stand- off indicate about labour politics of the period? Analyse the image.

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Complete the profile of the three Australian below:

Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forest Clive Palmer Gina RhinehartEstimated Wealth:$ $ $

Industry:

Political Ambitions?Political Agenda?

/ 4Find a political cartoon of Gina Rhinehart to analyse.

1. Does the cartoon portray Ms Rhinehart using ‘traditional’ iconography, or does it portray her as being stood up to? Describe how she is drawn.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2. What is the effect of this portrayal? Consider how the audience would understand her.

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3. In 75-100 words describe the issue that the cartoon is exploring.

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Put cartoon here.

/ 6The Dalfram Dispute – 1938Independent Research Project:

Your task will be to research ‘The Dalfram Dispute’, which was an ongoing strike action from 1938 which brought all stevedores up the coast into a strike action against the Menzies government. Provide an overview of the dispute, the cause for the strike, how the stevedores were supported and the outcome of the strike being broken. Conclude your research by considering: Did the wharfies win the moral victory?

The following two pages will allow you to record notes, and quotations from historians and primary sources.

Start by watching a short documentary: Pig Iron Bob: The Dalfram Dispute by Why Documentaries.

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‘War on the Waterfront,’ by Betty Roland.

This play was originally published in the Communist Review, February 1939, 110–114. It was subsequently reprinted in Australian Dramatical Studies, 1986, 74–9. Betty Roland (1903–1996) was an Australian journalist, and author of books, plays, radio and movie scripts. She was a founding member of the Australian Society of Authors. During the late 1930s she was a leading contributor to the radical New Theatre in Sydney. Part of her literary output comprised short, topical, agitprop scripts which she regarded as a form of political cartooning. These scripts were regularly published in the organ of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA), Communist Review, edited by her partner of the time, Guido Baracchi, a founder of the CPA. War on the Waterfront was one of these agitprop pieces. It was intended for performance without props, utilising informal venues like the backs of trucks, factory canteens, footpaths. Hastily written early in December 1938, during the heat of the Pig-Iron dispute, it was eventually staged at the New Theatre (Sydney), and in Port Kembla. However, plans to premiere the play to an audience of 2000 in Sydney’s Domain on December 11 created drama. The performance was closed by a police contingent after the first few lines had been delivered, and the actors each fined five pounds. Undeterred, the performers decamped to Watson’s Bay and gave a public open-air performance there. Official permission from the NSW Ministry of Agriculture, which controlled the Domain, was sought for a December 15 Domain performance, but this was refused; no reasons were given. Hence reference to this being a banned play in the Communist Review title.

1. What images or attitudes does the title of the play conjure up in the minds of the audience?

2. What political philosophy is linked with the script?

3. Offer two pieces of evidence which reinforces this link:

4. What happened when the players attempted to stage their play in the Domain?

5. What do you think the effect would have been by publishing this play in a national publication?

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Access a copy of the 1939, February, Communist Review. If time is available, flick through the issue and identify what the concerns of this publication were. War on the Waterfront is printed on Pages 110-114. In a small group, or as a class, read through this script.

Publication available online: http://www.reasoninrevolt.net.au/biogs/E000175b.htm - Source documents from the State Library of Victoria.

1. Why do Bill and Joe use both slang and derogatory language throughout this piece? What is the effect of its inclusion?

2. What does Bill’s attitude to the Chinese and Japanese people suggest about racial ideology at the time? (Note the parallels of Bill’s attitude to the attitudes of the 1880s).

3. What is the relationship between Labour and Capital? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.

4. How does this text draw on the iconography of the labour movement of the 1890s?

5. Describe the typical audience who would have viewed this text:

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The Construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPQ7CzVHdMs

View the above documentary, and make a note of interesting details from the text, and safety concerns you identify for the bridge workers.

Interesting Details / Facts Safety Concerns Observed

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Deaths on the BridgeAccess the Sydney Harbour Bridge Workers’ Honour Roll, 1922-1932. On Page 61 of the document, the men who died on the construction of the bridge are listed. Fill in the table below based on the information in this text.

Name Occupation Country of Origin Age Year of Death

1. How many men lost their lives in the 10 years of the building of the bridge from 1922 to 1932?

2. How many different countries are represented by the workers in this table?

3. Who was the first man to lose his life working on the bridge?

4. Who was the last worker to die? In what year did this fatality occur?

5. What ceremony was held to honour this man? (Pylon Honour Roll p 64)

6. Which occupation appears to have been the most dangerous? Why do you think this was the case?

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Opinion PieceWrite 200 words in the space below; discussing what you think is more important: money or work environment? In your piece YOU MUST reference the Harbour Bridge worker’s situation: They were paid well above award wage, but the job had many safety risks and led to the death of 16 workers.

/ 8Aussie Inventors and their Creations

Aussies are an ingenious lot who have created many inventions which have helped improve lives in the area of Science, Technology, Lifestyle, Industry and so forth. Research Australian inventions and create a list of your own, ‘Top 10 Australian Inventions of All Time’.

Top 10 Australians Inventions of All Time

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Rank 10 Rank 9 Rank 8Image

Rank 7 Rank 6 Rank 5Image

Rank 4 Rank 3 Rank 2

Top Australian Invention

/ 6The 2016 Inventors’ Exhibition and Fair Task:You’ve been invited to present an award to the top Australian invention and its inventor at the 2016 Inventors’ Exhibition and Fair, held in New York. You are to write up a 200 word speech acknowledging the inventor and his life or professional career, and discussing the importance of his invention.

Your Future of Workhttp://www.abc.net.au/btn/story/s4126201.htmView the Behind the News feature story, ‘What will be your job in the future?’ Use this story as a starting point to consider two potential careers you may have in your future working life. Access a job search portal, www.mycareer.com.au and search for your ideal job that you would like to apply for in the future. You don’t have to currently be qualified to apply for this position.

Job Advert

What makes this your dream job? Write a 100 word response below:

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Career MapIn order to apply for your dream position, you may need to have worked in an industry for a number of years or worked towards achieving a number of qualifications. In the space below, map out what your career would need to look like in order to apply for that position.

McDonalds Checkout

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