Overview

In this timely and controversial treatment of the Australian labour movement, Humphrys examines the role of the Labour Party and trade unions in constructing neoliberalism in Australia. Why do we always assume it was the New Right that was at the centre of constructing neoliberalism? How might corporatism have advanced neoliberalism? And, more controversially, were the trade unions only victims of neoliberal change, or did they play a more contradictory role?  In How Labour Built Neoliberalism, Elizabeth Humphrys examines the role of the Labour Party and trade unions in constructing neoliberalism in Australia, and the implications of this for understanding neoliberalism's global advance. These questions are central to understanding the present condition of the labour movement and its prospects for the future.

Full Product Details

Author:   Elizabeth Humphrys
Publisher:   Haymarket Books
Imprint:   Haymarket Books
ISBN:  

9781642590685

ISBN 10:   1642590681
Pages:   268
Publication Date:   03 December 2019
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations 1 Introduction 1 The ALP & ACTU Accord 2 The Social Contract's Gala Dinner 3 Neoliberalism's Corporatist Origins 4 A Hegemonic Political Project 5 Corporatist &' involucro' 6 A Note on Method 7 Structure of the Book 2 Theorising the State-Civil Society Relationship 1 Introduction 1.1 Some Preliminary Comments 2 Marx's Critique of Hegel 3 From Critique of Politics to Critique of Political Economy 4 From Marx to Gramsci 4.1 Lo stato integrale 5 Gramsci contra Marx? The Limits of Integration 6 Conclusion 3 Corporatism in Australia 1 Introduction 2 Understanding Corporatism 3 Panitch's Approach 4 Corporatism and the Accord 5 The Context of Arbitration 6 Conclusion 4 Destabilising the Dominant Narrative 1 Introduction 1.1 Conceptual Diversity 2 The Dominant Narrative 2.1 Harvey: A Brief History of Neoliberalism 2.2 Klein: The Shock Doctrine 2.3 Peck, Theodore, Tickell and Brenner: &'Neoliberalisation' 2.4 Destabilising the Dominant Narrative 3 A Class Approach to Neoliberalism 3.1 Harvey: &'The restoration of class power' 3.2 Davidson: &'An entirely new political regime' 3.3 A Hegemonic Political Project 4 Conclusion 5 Periodising Neoliberalism 1 Introduction 2 Periodising Neoliberalism in Australia 3 Proto-neoliberal stage: 1973-1983 3.1 The Economic Crisis 3.2 The Whitlam Government 3.3 The Fraser Government 4 Vanguard Neoliberal Stage: 1983-1993 4.1 The Impasse of the 1970s 4.2 Developing the Accord 5 Piecemeal Neoliberalisation Stage: 1993-2008 5.1 Howard's Piecemeal Neoliberalism 6 Crisis stage: 2008 Onwards 7 Conclusion 6 The Disorganisation of Labour 1 Introduction 2 The Accord Agreement 3 Wages and the Accord 3.1 The First Accord (1983) 3.2 Accord Mark II (1985-1987) 3.3 Accord Mark III (1986-1987) 3.4 Accord Mark IV (1988-1989), V (1989-1990) & VI (1990-1993) 3.5 Accord Mark VII (1993) & VIII (Draft Only) 4 Wage Suppression 4.1 Labour Disorganisation 5 Conclusion 7 An Integral State 1 Introduction 2 Accord Divergences 2.1 The National Economic Summit and Communiqué 2.2 Prices 2.3 &'Big bang' and Other Neoliberal Reforms 2.4 Trade Liberalisation 3 Privatisation 4 Social Wage and Contested Understandings 4.1 Medicare 4.2 Superannuation 4.3 Worth the Cost? 5 The Concord of Neoliberalism and the Accord 5.1 A Brace against Neoliberalism? 5.2 Theorising the Corporatism-Neoliberalism Connection 5.3 An &'informal Accord'? 5.4 The Accord as involucro 6 Conclusion 8 How Labour Made Neoliberalism 1 Introduction 2 From Worker Agency to State Agency 2.1 The Shift to Support the Accord 2.2 Planning as a Solution to Crisis? 2.3 Consultation on, and Support for, the Accord 2.4 Sticking with the Accord 2.5 Industry policy and Australia Reconstructed 3 Managing Dissent and Disorganising Labour 3.1 Civil Legal Action against Labour Disputes 3.2 Deregistration of the Builders Labourers' Federation 3.3 Pilots' Dispute 4 Enterprise Bargaining and the Antinomies of the Accord 4.1 Hegemony Unravelling 5 Conclusion 9 A Return to the International 1 Introduction 2 A Brief Detour in the Antipodes 3 The British Social Contract (1974-1979) 4 The Carter Administration (1977-1981) and Prior 5 New York City Council Fiscal Crisis (1975-1981) 6 Contemporary Finland 7 Conclusion 10 Conclusion: Neoliberalism at Dusk 1 Internal Relations 2 Antinomies and Residues 3 Neoliberalism at Dusk Appendices Appendix B: Timeline of Predecessors to the AMWU References Index

Reviews

Humphry's brilliant How Labour Built Neoliberalism utterly transforms our understanding of modern Australian politics and compels us to rethink established ideas about the role of the trade union movement in the making of neoliberalism. I consider this to be a landmark work in Australian political sociology and an invaluable contribution to the literature on global neoliberalism. -Melinda Cooper, University of Sydney, Author of Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism(2017, Zone Books).

Author Information

Elizabeth Humphrys is a political economist at the University of Technology Sydney. She has published on trade union and social movement responses to crisis, including in Globalizations and Critical Sociology. She completed her Ph.D. (2016) at the University of Sydney.

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