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  • Labour and the Politics of Empire. Britain and Australia, 1900 to the Present by Neville Kirk
  • Raymond Markey
Labour and the Politics of Empire. Britain and Australia, 1900 to the Present. By Neville Kirk (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011. xiv plus 319 pp.).

One of the abiding failures of the left internationally has been its attempt to transcend race and nation through its focus on class. Perhaps for this reason labor historiography has paid far less attention to race and nation than it has the politics and industrial relations of class. Of course, the three spheres are inextricably linked, as Neville Kirk demonstrates in this book. He examines the impact of race and nation on the labor movements in Britain and Australia and their relationship, within imperial and post-colonial contexts. He concludes that “the neglected forces of nation, empire and race exerted a far more profound influence upon Labour politics in Britain and Australia between 1900 and 2010 than is suggested in the relevant literature” (299).

The exercise is both comparative and transnational. The labor movements in each country shared similar structures, cultures and legal environments. Even in the post-colonial era, they also shared experiences, expertise and personnel. As the leading exponent of comparative and transnational labor history for some of the main Anglo-Saxon countries, Australia, Britain and the USA, Neville Kirk is well qualified to undertake this exercise.

Kirk’s thesis is qualified in two ways. First, the nature and degree of the impact of nation, empire and race on Labour politics varied in different periods. The book examines the details of this differential impact in four periods: for the Labour Parties’ formative years up to the end of the First World War, the inter-war years, from the Second World War to “the 1970s class war,” and from 1980–2010. Second, Kirk acknowledges and analyses the causes for a generally more pronounced impact of nation, empire and race on Labour politics in Australia than Britain. The main explanation for this difference is attributed to the “imprint” of Britain as the imperial metropolis on Australia’s construction of its policies and attitudes, as well as Australia’s geopolitical context, whereas the British Labour Party’s outlook was determined far more by domestic influences of a “bread and butter” kind.

Nation, empire and race were critical in the formation of the new Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, and remained so through to 1917. The process of federation of the Australian colonies inevitably highlighted the nature of the imperial relationship with Britain whose approval was required. Concepts of nationalism were also based to a large extent on race, as expressed in the White Australia policy. The Australian Labor Party (ALP) a major player in the formation of the Commonwealth as a result of its early success built in large part upon its vigorous promotion of White Australia and a radical Australian nationalism, including a substantial republican element. The ALP formed a minority national government in 1904, and a majority national government in 1910, the first in the world. However, their achievements were brought to an end by the split in the ALP over conscription during the First World War, and nationalism and imperial relationships were central to these events. Kirk concludes from this period that nation took precedence over class in the consolidation of the ALP, which differs somewhat from Robin Gollan and Russell Ward’s earlier argument regarding the class basis of radical and egalitarian Australian nationalism. [End Page 222]

In the interwar years the issues of extremism and loyalty to nation and empire became central tenets of Australian politics in the context of industrial militancy and the growth of international communism. The ALP fared badly at this time on a national level as a result of a successful conservative strategy of “tarring” it as disloyal, although Kirk notes generally that loyalty politics was not always as successful in excluding the ALP from power at a State level. Only once did the ALP gain national government, in 1929–31, and it proved to be a disaster because of the depression. However, this experience and its aftermath, including splits to the right and left over economic...

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