At the end of World War One in November 1918 the Labour Party emerged as a strong political Party. Prior to this it was the Liberal Party that was expected to be the main opposition to the Conservatives, with Labour as a party who used the popularity of the Liberals to become noticed. However, it soon became apparent that the Liberals were a weak and flagging party who were unable to unite as one to make decisions. It is evident that the First World War may have been an important factor in the growth of Labour and the decline of the Liberals.
The role of the minor parties within the Australian political system can be as their title suggests, quite minor. On the other hand, a minor party can influence the political proceedings of this country in more ways than one. Minor parties can highlight socio-economic problems that quite often fly under the radar of the larger political parties, or simply can broaden electoral debate. Often spawning from a social, or in the case of the Greens, an environmental movement, minor parties tend to only last through one election, due to a lack of support and relevance in the mainstream social fabric. The minor parties can become crucial players come election time, due to Australia’s law of Compulsory preferential voting. Jaensch (1983, p.21)
Labor unions have existed in one way or another since the birth of our country in 1776. They were created in an effort to protect the working population from abuses such as sweatshops and unsafe working conditions. From the start of our Nation there were a few unions organized unions in a scattered fashion, but many were disbanded after they had achieved their goals, such as when the printers and shoemakers briefly unionized in Philadelphia and New York City in 1778 to conduct the first recorded strike for higher wages. Three years later in 1971 the first successful strike happened, when Philadelphia carpenters campaigned for a ten-hour workday. This caused the need for skilled and unskilled laborers to skyrocket during the Industrial Revolution and the Civil War and also got the ball rolling with Labor unions. At this point in our Country, there had been nothing done yet for workers’ rights, conditions, pay, and so on. People at this time saw that they could come together and do something to make their lives better for themselves and their families. Many of these dates were important in shaping our country’s labor policies into what they are today. In 1847 New Hampshire enacts as the first state to enforce a 10-hour workday law. In 1909 the International Ladies’ Garment workers’ Union calls a strike in New York, demanding a 20-percent raise and a 52-hour workweek. Within two days, more than 20,000 workers from 500 factories walk off the job. This largely successful uprising
Question: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples have since colonization been politically active. Discuss drawing from readings and research about various forms of political engagement.
“ there are two classes in society, one incessantly striving to obtain the labor of the other class for as little as possible, and to obtain the largest amount or number of hours of labor”. The United States of America by the dawn of the 20th century was the home of opportunity and economic prosperity to people around the world, a place where the average person could with hard work and dedication rise above his socio economic status. While the united states may have been perceived as the land of opportunity to foreigner’s, people actually living in the united states might have not seen it in that light. By the late 19th century economic difficulties increased for the working class people of the united states such as industrial workers and farmers. With politicians constantly failing their constituents and turning a blind eye to corruption in order to expand their pockets, a new political party arises that promises hope and change to an American population wary of the same politicians. political parties such as the populist party arise along with other historical figures who helped shape and reform this country.
TOPIC – The major issue today facing the Australian trade union movement has been the decline in union density. What have been the causes, and how have the unions responded to the challenge.
To help bring about congressional change, the National Labor Union was created in 1866 “to pressure Congress to make labor law reforms” (Library of Congress). It was composed of “national associations of unions” with “trade-printers, machinists, stone cutters” and others (American Federationist).
Labor union were crucial in the late 1800’s when the workers were working long hours, doing hard work, without any extra pay. Job security (could be fired at any given time) and safety precautions did not exist in this era, jobs in this day was typically a threat to the workers due to the bad working conditions. When the union was formed in 1866 it was not easy, but if the workers understood how it would benefit them it would have been a greater successes. Due to lack of education, the communication between the union and the works was broken. Some of the religious beliefs created a hardship on getting the union passed. One of the unions called the AFL (American Federation of Labor) was created in 1881 that would try to fight for workers’ rights.
57). In December 1886, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was formed in Columbus, Ohio. The AFL was originally named the Federated Organization of Trades and Labor Union back in 1881. The AFL was a “national union made up of affiliated, individual craft unions” (Boone, 1996, p. 288). The first president of the AFL was Samuel Gompers. On the contrary to the Knights of Labor, Gompers’ focus was to raise day-to-day wages, and continue to improve the working conditions (Dessler, 1997). After the formation of the AFL, the period included significant developments. In the early 1890’s, the United Mine Workers was formed, becoming the first major United States industrialized union (Robinson, 1985). In addition, a significant defeat occurred in organized labor. The defeat is known as the strike at Homestead, Pennsylvania. The “Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers was eliminated from the steel industry” (Robinson, 1985, p. 58). History from 1905 to 1920. In 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) challenged the AFL, prior to the depression of the 1930’s. The IWW invited the unskilled and semiskilled workers that the AFL had denied and was a success from 1910 to 1915 (Encyclopedia, 1996). The results of this had decreased the AFL membership for a short period of time, but they fought back by bringing
Unions were formed to protect and improve the rights of workers. Their first order of business was to establish the eight-hour workday and in 1866, the national labor union was formed. Labor movements were around before 1866, but few organized up until this point. Unions created an environment for workers with difficult tasks, creating better pay, safer work conditions, and sanitary work conditions. Unions made life better for many Americans in the private sector. Collective bargaining became the way in which employers and a group of employees reached agreements, coming to a common consensus. From 1866 to the early 1900’s Unions continued to make headways increasing membership and power. The real gains started in 1933 after several pieces of legislature, which saved banks, plantations, and farmers. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) proposed an important, and controversial, amendment to the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933. It insisted that language from the pro-labor Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932 be added to the simple declaration of the right to collective bargaining. The setbacks the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) suffered in Little Steel and textiles in the latter half of 1937, and in Congress from 1938 to 1940, despite the gains made by the AFL, by 1940 the amendment had stalled. WWII created a rapid buildup within the industrial complex, creating more work for women and African Americans, overshadowing the union’s inability to project their power
For a while now I have seen myself as citizen of a global community that begins in Australia but is reflective of, and permeable to the influence of outside cultures. There is little doubt that English speaking countries have more influence on Australians like me, however as LDC’s (lower developed countries) technologically advance, interactions and familiarity with outside cultures will instill confidence in the world’s people, ultimately leading to a global civil society (Rourke 2012) – at least that is what the idealist in me believes. Throughout this unit I have been able to identify with liberalism and determine where I sit on the realism verses idealism spectrum. In Liberalisms Inevitability, Jeff Manza writes “… Liberals do not understand
The political system used within Australia should be that of an aristocracy. This is superior to that of the democratic society we live. Today I shall be discussing what an aristocracy is and why it is superior to other political systems. Some issues being addressed are the values of equality, despite the classes within an aristocracy and the rights for the upper class or rulers of their society to be just and uphold the idea of society as a whole opposed to that of a democracy where individuals are favoured. This is followed by the cons of the other political systems and lastly the military and defence, which is presented in an aristocratic society.
Gough Whitlam remains one of Australia’s few leaders who can be truly said to have changed Australia, even for the brief period of his time in government. Elected on December 5th 1972 his government brought upon a vast range of reforms in the 1071 days it held office (Thompson, 2014). Within the first year alone, Labor passed 203 bills, which is the most bills passed than any other federal government had passed in a single year (Betts, 2015). The three bills that will be presented through this essay are the Education system, with what it was like before and after the Whitlam Government came into power, what Health care was like before and after the Whitlam Government and what the Indigenous Australians went through before and after the Whitlam Government.
The importance of woman and there role and contribution to Australia has not always been the same as it is now in the present. In the 1800s woman were not involved in participating in writing a vote for a prime minister and state leaders of their choice and they were also not allowed to join a parliament house and become a leader. The goals of Vida Goldstein and Rose Scott were to have equal rights of men and women in all needs of life like parliament, some of these woman are called feminists (people that want equality of sexes).
The split in the Labour party resulting in the formation of the Social Democratic Party in 1981 and their subsequent electoral alliance with the liberal party looks to the casual eye as a hugely significant factor that enabled Thatcher election victories in 1983 and 1987. This view is attested by Jenkins who argued that “the schism of 1981 in the Labour ranks had meant that in so far as there could be said to exist an anti-Thatcher majority in the land its forces were divided between Labour and the SDP-Liberal alliance” .significance not a united force In 1983 the British election study published that only 8.1% of the respondents perceived Labour as united as a direct result of the 1981 split , which only discouraged voters. It has been shown