Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Turning Seventy, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

The author's ruminations on the occasion of him reaching the age of 70 years old.

Denis Kevans: Poet, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

A brief account of the poetry of Australian social movement poet Denis Kevans (1939-2005).

Groomed For War, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

An account of Australia's preparations for war before 1914, with the focus on the system of compulsory military training for boys and youths introduced in 1911.

Revisiting A Struggle: Port Kembla, 1938, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

A review and discussion of the 2015 documentary film 'Pig Iron Bob' (Producer/Director Sandra Pires). The focus of this film is the dramatic 2-month long boycott by Australian waterside workers in Port Kembla (NSW), 1938/39, of a cargo of Australian pig-iron bound for Japan. The workers took their action in protest against Japanese militarism and the Sino-Japanese War. The boycott enraged the conservative Australian government of the day which pulled out all stops to maintain its policy of appeasement towards Japan.

Mullen's Choices, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Obituary/biographical note concerning Geoff Mullen (1947-2014), and his anti-conscription activities (1967-1972) in Australia during the Vietnam War.

Deterring The ‘Boat People’: Explaining The Australian Government's People Swap Response To Asylum Seekers, Jaffa Mckenzie, Reza Hasmath

Reza Hasmath

"Never Neutral": On Labour History / Radical History, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Eric Fry, one of the founders of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (ASSLH), wrote about radical history in the ‘Introduction’ to his neglected Rebels & Radicals (1983). The book is not listed in Greg Patmore’s comprehensive listing of labour history publications (1991), rates no mention in the 1992 tribute to Fry’s work edited by Jim Hagan and Andrew Wells, and receives only brief mentions in the Labour History tribute issue to Eric Fry and fellow ASSLH pioneer Bob Gollan (2008). Arguably with good reason, since the book was exploring a different way of writing dissident history, …

Review - Michael Tubbs, Asio: The Enemy Within, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

ASIO: The Enemy Within is a combative book. Based on his research and experience, Michael Tubbs argues that the Australian Intelligence Security Organisation (ASIO) has no place in Australia’s democracy. According to Tubbs ASIO has, since its formation in 1949, acted as a partisan political secret police force, ridden roughshod over civil liberties, engaged in illegal activities, all with the aim of creating and managing a docile, tranquil public.

Review: People And Politics In Regional New South Wales, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Histories of Australian towns and local areas abound, usually the work of enthusiastic local residents distributed through community based museum and historical society networks. Aimed at local audiences, these histories tend to be triumphalist, cataloguing ‘progress’ in terms of population changes and infrastructure growth. There is little in the way of explanation or analysis; local identities appear as a ‘cast of characters’ rather than as flesh and blood historical agents; politics is noticeably absent. For one state, the two volume People & Politics in Regional New South Wales, 1856 to 2006, addresses this political absence. Given the huge size of …

Review - Pete Thomas, And Greg Mallory (Editor), The Coalminers Of Queensland: A Narrative History Of The Queensland Colliery Employees Union, Volume 2: The Pete Thomas Essays, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

In 1986 journalist Pete Thomas published the first volume of his proposed two-volume narrative history of the Queensland Colliery Employees Union, The Coalminers of Queensland. But he died before completing the task. With the support of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), Mining and Energy Division (Queensland District Branch), labour historian Greg Mallory has edited Volume 2 from Pete’s unpublished manuscripts.

On Winning The 40 Hour Week, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

The 40-hour week was approved by the Commonwealth Arbitration Court on 8 September 1947, to take effect from 1 January 1948. The 40-hour campaign, the 35-hour campaign that followed in the late 1950s, the 44-hour campaign that preceded these, and union attempts between all three to fix the working week at either 30 or 33 hours, were parts of a long movement for the codification and reduction of Australian working hours that began in the mid 1850s with struggles by workers to establish the principle of the 8-hour day. Stonemasons in Sydney and Melbourne gained the first successes during 1855 …

Immigrant Tales, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Review of two autobiographical accounts of migrant encounters with, and experiences in, Australia: Ken Buckley, 'Buckley's! Ken Buckley: historian, author and civil libertarian' (2008) and Mamdouh Habib, 'My Story: the tale of a terrorist who wasn't' (2009).

'On The Technique Of Working-Class Journalism', Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

This article examines some of the views of prominent Australian left journalist Rupert Lockwood (1908-1997) on the role and nature of working class journalism.

Len Fox, 1905-2004, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Obituary on the life of Australian author, journalist, historian, and Left activist Len Fox.

The Battle Of Sydney, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Account of the wartime strike by Australian troops in Sydney, 1916, in defence of their working conditions. This action involved thousands of soldiers, mutiny, and a march through the streets of Sydney culminating in violence and bloodshed. The strike tends to be either absent from, or misrepresented in, Australian martial histories.

Vietnam Reading, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

During Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, the author was prominent in the anti-war movement, and a conscientious objector to the system of compulsory military service in place at the time. In this article he accounts for the intellectual development which shaped his politics. The focus of the article is the reading he did during the 1960s.

Military Madness, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

A brief historical overview of the use of military, and ex-military, personnel, against Australian trade unionists, 1890-1997.

75th Anniversary Of The Foundation Of The Communist Party Of Australia, 1995, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

The 75th Anniversay of the foundation of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) was commemorated in Sydney in 1995. Although the Party voluntarily wound up in 1991, its impact and legacy on the nation was, and is, an ongoing subject of scholarly interest and debate. This article is Cahill's report of the commemoration event, and his ruminations on the significance of the Party on Australia's history and culture.

Another View Of The Sixties, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

A contribution to ongoing discussion about the 1960s, in which author Cahill challenges the idea popular at the time of writing, that being a radical during the period was simply an adolescent/youth role one fashionably and easily slipped into.

The Cold War And Beyond, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Review article centred on Ann Curthoys and John Merritt, editors, 'Australia's First Cold War, 1945-1953, Volume 1: Society, Communism and Culture' (Allen and Unwin, 1984) in which Cahill discusses Australian Cold War historiography, and reflects autobiographically about growing up as a 'Cold War' youth.

A 'Potted History' Of The Seamen's Union Of Australia, 1872-1972: Articles From 'The Seamen's Journal', 1972, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

This is a collection of brief articles covering the century of history of the militant Seamen's Union of Australia (SUA), 1872-1972. The articles were published over nine-months in the SUA journal 'The Seamen's Journal' as part of the union's commemoration of a century of organisation in 1972. The articles are of historiographical interest in that they were ahead of the time in some respects, discussing 'racism' in the union, and attempting to redress the historical neglect of the sea and maritime workers in Australian history, a neglect described and documented later by historian Frank Broeze in his acclaimed study 'Island …

Student Power, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Contemporary account by a participant-observer of the upsurge in 1968 of student activism on Australian university campuses, with particular emphasis on the concepts of 'student power' and 'democratisation'. The article is both a background piece, and a critique of the Australian university system and its operation at the time.

The Student Mood: Sydney University, Rowan Cahill, Terry Irving

Rowan Cahill

A discussion published in 1968 by Cahill and Irving about student unrest in the universities of Australia, with specific reference to the situation existing at the time in Sydney University. At the time, Cahill was a prominent student radical completing his BA (Honours) degree and Irving was an activist-academic.

The Lost Ideal, Rowan Cahill, R Connell, B Freeman, T Irving, B Scribner

Rowan Cahill

Authored alphabetically by R. Cahill, R. Connell, B. Freeman, T. Irving, and B. Scribner, “The Lost Ideal” was published in the Sydney University student newspaper 'honi soit' on Tuesday, 3 October 1967. It was the foundation manifesto of what was to become known as the Free U, initially operating out of rented premises in Redfern (Sydney) before moving to premises in nearby suburbs. The first Free U courses commenced in December 1967, and early in the new year involved 150 people. At its peak, during the summer of 1968-1969, over 300 people were involved in courses. The Sydney experiment, which …