Irving, Terence H & Sean Scalmer
‘Labour intellectuals in Australia: modes, traditions, generations, transformations‘, International Review of Social History, 50, 1, 2005, pp. 1-26
The labour movement has been replete with educators, readers, advocates, stirrers, brokers, editors, writers, painters, theorists, leaders, and thinkers. How should these varied members of the labour movement be understood? We argue that they are intellectuals of a special kind: ‘‘labour intellectuals’’. (p. 2)
Starting from a broadly Marxist perspective, the article describes types of labour intellectual then examines the role of various individuals and the Labor and Communist parties, with an emphasis on events before 1950 but some consideration of more recent history.