An interview with Liam Byrne, author of ‘No Power Greater: A History of Union Action in Australia’

We sat down with biographer and political historian, Liam Byrne, to discuss Liam’s new book No Power Greater: A History of Union Action in Australia which delves into Australia’s union history and the acts of rebellion and solidarity that have shaped our past and continue to inspire present-day union members.

What initially inspired you to write No Power Greater?

A few years ago, I was talking to a member of the mighty ANMF. She was a nurse coming to the end of her career, and as tends to happen, we ended up chatting about history.

She spoke to me about her granddaughter who was about to enter the workforce and expressed concern that her granddaughter and her generation did not understand what unions are and what we have achieved. She asked me if there was a book I could recommend for her to read.

There are fantastic histories of individual unions and individual union struggles out there. There have been amazing commemorations. There are incredible memoirs, autobiographies, and oral histories. But in terms of a book-length general history of unionism, we have to go back more than 40 years.

Now, a lot has happened in the last 40 years and a lot has changed in terms of how we understand union history, unionism and the nature of work and the working class.

I thought, “If there isn’t a book like that I can recommend, why don’t I write one?”

A book that aims to get to the heart of the human experience of unionism; that seeks to understand what has inspired successive generations of working people to build, maintain and pass on their own collective organisations – even amid all the extraordinary changes that have taken place in the workforce and the economy since unions were first formed. That’s the book I decided to write.

Were there any stories in the book that really surprised you? People or moments that challenged your view of union history?

This book is filled with exciting and inspiring stories of unionists from across the full diversity of the movement who have taken action and made history. I was constantly surprised and moved by the incredible tales of action, often against great odds, through which union members made positive change.

This book has a different emphasis to previous histories. It explains the massive positive contribution of unions to making Australia a fairer country. But it also grapples with the reality of the times that the union movement did not live up to the principle of solidarity, and perpetuated social exclusions.

A big part of the book focuses on how excluded workers came together, organised, took action and made their own change – often fighting for their own place within the union movement. It brings unionists previously left out of so many historical accounts back to the centre of the union story, where they belong.

Unionists like Ellen Cresswell and the Tailoresses of the 1880s, women who took strike action, formed their own union and defied the sexism of their time. Unionists like Louisa Dunkley, Muriel Heagney, Zelda D’Aprano, who campaigned for equal pay; demanding the union movement take up this vital issue.

Unionists like the Aboriginal activist and organiser Dexter Daniels, who pushed his union to campaign for wage equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers, often confronting racist attitudes along the way. Unionists like Tommy Ewe, one of the brave Christmas Island workers who, in their union’s strike against racist discrimination in 1979, was hospitalised while on hunger strike for the union cause.

These moments expand our understanding of unionism, and help us appreciate the movement in its full diversity.

What lessons do you hope today’s union members take from these stories?

No Power Greater is filled with examples of working people coming together, taking action, and transforming Australia for the better, time and time again.

These are not just stories of our past – this is the story of our future. We live in a time when the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet are finding new ways to disempower the rest of us. To strip us of control over our lives.

It is not by accident over the last few decades that unions in Australia and across the world have been under sustained attack at the same time as we have seen growing inequality, social polarisation, and the rise of reactionary mobilisations. This is because the wealthy and the powerful have learnt their history. They know that workers in our unions will never stop fighting to protect our rights; to protect our fundamental, and our common, humanity.

That is the lesson they have learned from history. This is why they have thrown everything at us that they can. And it is a lesson for us as well. 

That we are not powerless. That we are not alone. That we don’t have to accept what the rich and powerful tell us we must. That there is a collective power we have to reshape our own world for the better. A power that has made that change before. A power that is making that change right now. That is what the union movement is. 

And in that struggle to claim our better future, and to assert our fundamental humanity – there can be no power greater.

Pick up your copy of No Power Greater: A History of Union Action in Australia at various bookstores including Dymocks and Readings, and discover the powerful and inspiring history of the Australian union movement.