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Gossip/News

  • Hummer in high places: congratulations are in order to two members of the Sydney branch of the Labour History Society following the New South Wales state elections of 25 May 1991. Elected to the Legislative Council on the Labor Party ticket were both Meredith Burgmann and Jeff Shaw. Both have published articles or reviews in The Hummer and bring to their current political duties a wealth of knowledge about labour history. Jeff is shadow minister for industrial relations and local government.
  • Branch treasurer Lucy Taksa delivered a paper on reinterpreting scientific management and control of workplace culture at the ninth international labour process and organisational control conference held at Manchester in April. Hummer congratulates Lucy on acquiring an international reputation. Lucy and Bruce Grimshaw took the opportunity to visit all the usual sites, Karl Marx’s grave, the Ironbridge Gorge Museum, and so on and report that the hospitality of British labour historians was outstanding.
  • Congratulations are also due to Drew Cottle whose Ph.D thesis on the Brisbane Line has recently been passed by its examiners. Well done Comrade Cottle. Hummer looks forward to the publication in book form of this most amazing account of ruling-class treachery at the start of the Pacific War. No doubt there might be an odd ex-parliamentarian who will also be intercepted in Comrade Cottle’s findings on family history!
  • Many people in the Sydney branch have made it clear that warmest thanks are in order to our comrades in Melbourne, especially Peter Love, for the marvellous work of organisation which made our recent Labour History conference at Melbourne Trades Hall such an outstanding success. The July event was a special conference full of outstanding papers and a model for our future get togethers. Especially valuable was the way veterans and their reminiscences were incorporated alongside more academic and theoretical papers. Well done P.J. And no, Hummer will not mention the Peugeot 205GTI under any circumstances.