Product Description
In the 1890s the trade union movement in New South Wales began a serious attempt to create something quite new – what we now recognise as a modern political party.
Labor Pains is the documentary story of the early years of the Australian Labor Party, a developing and detailed narrative told from contemporary press reports.
The debate on the party’s shape and future direction is uninhibited as leaders argue diverse points of view. Internal democracy ensures a remarkably consensual resolution of issues.
The great political issues resonate a century later: racial stereotyping and immigration policy; free trade and protection; Australia’s role in imperial wars.
Many of the debating topics have a similar, familiar, modern ring: branch stacking; rivalry between branch members and trade union delegates; tension between members of parliament and the extra-parliamentary party; clashes between idealism and political expediency.
Labor Pains climaxes in 1905 when the Australian Labor Party becomes the main opposition party in the New South Wales Parliament.
See Labor Pains Series link, to the right, for details of other Volumes.
A NSW Sesquicentenary of Responsible Government publication.
The Birth of a Modern Political Party
Labor Electoral – League Platform and Rules
Labor Electoral League of New South Wales – First Annual Conference, 26-30 January 1892
Labor Electoral League of New South Wales – Second Annual Conference, 27-28 January 1893
Labor Electoral League of New South Wales Special Conference, 9 November 1893
Labor Electoral League of New South Wales Annual Conference, 10-15 March 1894
Labor Electoral League of New South Wales Annual Conference, 25-29 January 1895
Political Labor League of New South Wales Special LEL Conference and Inaugural PLL Convention, Sydney, 24-25 May 1895
Political Labour League of New South Wales Annual Conference, 25-29 January 1896
Political and Labor League of New South Wales Annual Conference, 25-27 January 1897
The Political Labor League of NSW Annual Conference, Newcastle, 26-27 January 1898
Political Labor League of New South Wales Annual Conference, Bulli/Woonona, 31 March 1899
Political Labor League of NSW Special Conference, Sydney, 28-29 July 1899
Federal Labor Party Inaugural Interstate Conference Sydney, 24-25 January 1900
Political Labor League Sydney, Annual Conference, 26-27 January 1900
Political Labor League Annual Conference 26 January – 1 February 1901
Political Labor League of New South Wales Annual Conference, 27 January-4 February 1902
Political Labor League of New South Wales Annual Conference, 26 January-4 February 1903
Political Labor League of New South Wales Annual Conference, 26 January-3 February 1904
Political Labor League of New South Wales Annual Conference, 30 January-6 February 1905
