Jul-Aug 2008

Under the Hook

Under the Hook, by Wendy Lowenstein and Tom Hills, is the powerful and at times moving oral history of Melbourne's waterside workers between 1900 and 19. But the Patrick dispute left the first edition of Under the Hook a little short of the mark. So a new edition of the book now includes another chapter of Australian working class history.

The recent MUA dispute was an inspirational reminder of collective working class power. The wharfies' dispute with the Federal Government and Patrick Stevedores showed us all that we don't have to roll over when the ruling class starts to mobilise against workers.

Working Titles Press, a new group committed to publishing working class writing for a working class audience, published the updated edition of Unde r the Hook. It was launched at International Bookshop, Trades Hall, Melbourne on December 5. The new book reprints all of the out-of-print first edition and also includes a new section of interviews and other new material recorded and written throughout 1998.

Wendy Lowenstein is Australia's foremost oral historian of working class life. Weevils in the Flour, her book on the Depression, is widely acknowledged as one of the classics of Australian working class history. Under the Hook is told by rank and file workers and their families and reflect their struggles, culture and way of life. It too is one of the vita l stories in our history.

Wendy spent many weeks recording and transcribing their recollections of the crucial events of the dispute, the high drama and the grinding boredom of the picket-lines, and some of the lighter-hearted moments as well. The result is several new chapters which recapture the sweep and spirit of the first edition of Under the Hook.

Wendy recorded interviews with a wide range of people involved: rank and file workers, family members, job delegates, union officials, supporters from other unions and community members who participated in the struggle. This diversity of voices helps to recreate the tension and excitement of ke y moments of the dispute: the night when wharfies found themselves locked in at East Swanson Dock; the night when the anticipated clash with the police did not occur and the crucial point at which 2000 CFMEU workers marched to Webb Dock, helping to seal an important strategic victory.

Wendy gets her respondents to reveal their own feelings and fears and to create their own picture of these crucial moments. One of the beauties of oral history is that stories by workers get to be told in their own words. Oral history does not rely on the mainstream media to first select the topi c and then choose the way it is reported. We saw enough of that kind of media manipulation during the dispute.

Oral history by Wendy Lowenstein is about workers, their stories and the wa y they want to tell them: first to last.

Reveiwed by Ian Syson To order your copy, write to PO Box 33, Hawksburn, 3142 or phone 03 9510 8379.

Under the Hook

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