War, Racism and Industrial Relations in an Australian Mining Town, 1916-1935‪.‬

Introduction Willingness to go to war, and hostility to immigrants at home, are often portrayed as typical Australian working class attitudes. Without doubt, many Australian military excursions overseas have generated their share of 'home front' victims: most recently, the sending of Australian troops to Afghanistan and Iraq has been accompanied by increased 'moral panic' about, and harassment of, local Middle Eastern residents (Poynting et al. 2004). On the whole, the labour movement has not joined this anti-Muslim chorus, constituting instead a significant component of antiwar protests (see, for example, Workers Online 2003). Nevertheless, statements by some of the more outspokenly nationalist union officials about the unwanted presence of 'illegal' and 'cheap' workers locally, and about the sending of Australian' jobs overseas, are a worrying indicator that the political victories won by anti-racists within the movement may be reversible (1). Therefore, an assessment of past challenges to racist ideology within the labour movement has particular contemporary relevance. It is important to challenge the dominant view, in the historiography of Australian racism, that support for migrant exclusion was a product of labour movement agitation against increased competition for jobs.