TOIL, STRUGGLE AND REPOSE - ORAL-HISTORY AND THE EXPLORATION OF LABORCULTURE IN AUSTRALIA

This article examines the way that oral history has extended the bound aries of traditional labour historiography to include social and cultu ral aspects of working-class life. It presents both a historiographica l survey and a case-study of the ritual attendance at out-door politic al meetings by working-class people between roughly 1900 and 1930, as a manifestation of a vibrant culture which linked work with struggle a nd leisure. In addition, I consider the use of oral history as a tool for revitalising present-day labour culture, when under taken since th e early 1980s by rank-and-file workers, trade unions, artists and hist orians as part of workplace art strategies funded by various state age ncies.