Liam Byrne, the Australian union movement’s historian

FROM THE POINT, TERM 4 2023 EDITION

‘Without our history, how do we know who we are?’ asks Dr Liam Byrne, who has been the ACTU Historian since 2019.

‘Our values and identity have been inherited from the generations of struggle that came before us. Throughout Australia’s history workers have come together, created unions, and taken collective action through our unions to make transformative change. This change has made Australia a fairer and more decent country (though we still have a way to go!)

‘History acts as our northern star – it can help guide us and orient us as we face the major challenges of our time. It is how we know who we are.’

Such words remind us how important it is for all organisations, but especially schools and unions, to engage with their stories and embrace their history, good and bad.

Liam says we can’t return to the past (and we shouldn’t try to) but we can learn important lessons from it. Those lessons include things we got right, but also our mistakes.

‘If we ignore our history we will be constantly trying to remake the wheel, ignorant that we have a store of knowledge and experience to build upon.

‘One of the most important messages from our history is a simple, but fundamental, one: change is possible. It can inspire us to act today knowing we can make change, as many generations of unionists before us have done.’

Liam had been a union member and activist for many years, and participated in a range of progressive campaigns, before completing a PhD in labour movement history and working as a casual academic. In 2018, he was appointed the ACTU’s National Activist Organiser, which he calls a ‘massive privilege’.

‘After the 2019 election I was asked if I would be willing to stay on and work as the ACTU Historian. I still pinch myself – it is hard to believe that I actually get to work in such an amazing role.’

His main tasks are to ensure the union movement captures its history and to spread awareness about union accomplishments and values.

Dr Liam Byrne

‘Having been a teacher at university, I am particularly passionate about finding ways to communicate this history with younger people who haven’t had extensive engagement with the union movement,’ Liam says.

There have been historians of the ACTU before who have been commissioned to write specific histories, and there are other historians who work in the movement such as Neale Towart who works as the Heritage Officer and Librarian at Unions NSW, but Liam is the first ongoing member of ACTU staff to work as a dedicated Historian.

He says history is also important to the union movement because it is a ‘record for us to stand on’.

‘We have around two centuries worth of examples of workers coming together in their unions and taking collective action to win improvements in their rights and conditions.

‘When we are explaining the benefits of unionism to our workmates who haven’t joined yet, having such a long and proud record to draw upon can be a great way to enhance our credibility.’

He says if we don’t know our history, we can’t properly assess what does and doesn’t work in a modern campaign.

‘We all are learning from past experiences even while adapting and innovating for our own time. So much union campaigning is based on techniques and tactics that have been passed down to us. Knowing what has been tried before, what has worked and what hasn’t (and why this is) can be really powerful in determining how to approach campaigning today.’

Liam says unions should be preserving ‘everything’.

‘I am an historian, so obviously I am going to say that.

‘But personally I think the most important thing to capture is stories. Unionists have taken action and made history. The full scale of the change unionists have made is simply extraordinary: change in workplaces and change in broader society.

‘But so many of these stories can be lost. Working people make history, but this isn’t always captured in the history books. If we don’t take the time to record and capture these stories we risk losing them. A lot of unions are doing fantastic work with interviews and podcasts and oral histories and other ways of capturing the stories of our movement’s elders. The more of this we do the better.’

Liam’s current work integrates history and historical narratives into ACTU social media, its education and training programs, and events. He also engages with universities through history courses and develops materials that tell the union story, such as the monthly history newsletter ‘Rebel Chorus’.

‘I also work across ACTU campaigns to continue to contribute to supporting the activism of union members. I think it is so important that our history does not become passive but is actively incorporated into the history making union members are doing right now!’