Join us in person or online for a seminar with Dr Liam Byrne.
Writing Union History: Challenges and Opportunities
No Power Greater: A History of Union Action in Australia is the first general history of the Australian union movement in four decades. The book makes two fundamental arguments on how to best understand the union movement that sharply differentiate it from the traditional writing of such general histories. First, it argues that unionism has been consistently guided by a humanising mission to decommodify labour. Secondly, it argues that unions are not just institutions, but ‘emotional communities’ defined by both inclusion and exclusion. Together, these arguments are intended to present a history of the human experience of unionism, one that explicitly foregrounds the struggles of workers historically excluded from such general histories as central to the union story: women workers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers, migrant and culturally diverse workers, LGBTIQA+ workers. The talk will explore the significance of these arguments for understanding the union movement today.
16 September 2026, 11am AEST
Burwood: C2.05.01
Waurn Ponds: IC1.108
Zoom: Click here.
Liam Byrne is an historian and researcher in political economy. Liam’s book on Australian union history, No Power Greater: A History of Union Action in Australia was released in 2025 by Melbourne University Publishing.
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