Revolutionary Industrial Unionism

A history of the International Workers of the World (IWW) in Australia, this book is both lively and scholarly.

"This is the first full history of the most turbulent period in New Zealand's industrial history: the period of the "Red" Federation of Labour, from its beginnings in the coal mins of the West Coast of New Zealand. The story begins with the Blackball Strike of 1908, and finishes with the great strike of 1913, and its aftermath. The central actors in this story are the "unskilled", as they were coming to be known -- the miners, wharfies, shearers, labourers, flaxies, and seamen, without whom there would have been no Red Federation ... In his penetrating study of the period Erik Olssen focuses on the rank and file workers and their leaders, in their dramatic battle to achieve dignity and power, and the struggle over strategies. Much here is new. The author provides sensitive accounts of the world of work, vivid portraits of the revolutionaries who led the Federation, including Savage, Hickey, Fraser, Holland, Webb, and J.B. King. He explores the Australian dimension to New Zealand's labour history, describes working class life, the role of ideology, the impact of the Wobblies, and examines in detail the upheavals of 1912-1913. The result is a dramatic and thorough account of the decisive events in the making of New Zealand's working class ..."--Inside front cover.

The British Communist Party and the founding of the National Minority Movement.

Covering the role of trades unions and labour organizations in industrial relations, Industry's Democratic Revolution contains case studies from Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and USA. Each chapter is authored by a President or Secretary General of one of the largest industrial unions from that particular country, which gives an unparalleled insight into the workings of unions and their participation in the key issues of industrial relations such as: * Productivity factors * Guaranteed wages * Union participation in management decision-making * De-centralization of industrial power * Policy research