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University of Wollongong

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

Australia

2003

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Corrosive Acid Of Commercialism Has Bitten Into Our Life': Commodification And The Rise Of Popular Political Economy In Australia 1900-25, Ben Maddison Jan 2003

The Corrosive Acid Of Commercialism Has Bitten Into Our Life': Commodification And The Rise Of Popular Political Economy In Australia 1900-25, Ben Maddison

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

The term 'commercialism' started to appear in Australian popular and political discourse in the decades that spanned 1900. On one hand, its appearance reflected the qualitative change in commodity relations in Australia in that period. On the other, the use of the term was also part of the reconstucted conceptual apparatus through which working class and popular anti-capitalist stances were articulated. This popular political economy was a vernacular expression of social knowledge about the dehumanising effects of the commodification process. It also expressed popular resistance to bourgeois attempts to represent capitalist institutions such as the market as natural and inevitable.


Belated Labour Reform: Australia And The Abolition Of Asian Indenture, Julia T. Martinez Jan 2003

Belated Labour Reform: Australia And The Abolition Of Asian Indenture, Julia T. Martinez

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

The abolition of indentured labour and the rejection of so-called' coloured' labour was a central concern of the first parliament of Australia, following" Federation. An exception was made, however, for the pearl-shelling industry which continued to import Asian indents despite concerns that this undermined the ' White Australian agenda. In the 1950s Australian government support for indentured labour remained steadfast ignoring growing international criticism. The dismantling of the indenture system in the late 1960s was a belated attempt at labour reform. Government debates, however, reveal that the liberalisation of labour policy masked a continued desire to limit Asian immigration.