Assoc Prof Annie Pohlman

Unionism for me is about the dignity and social goods that derive from the collective action of the working class. I think working people are all capable of analysing and transforming their material conditions, and to work collectively against the structures that exploit them. The older I get, the more I am inspired by the community programmes and political education initiatives of the Black Panthers, who emphasised how solidarity isn’t just about collective defence, it must be materially grounded in ensuring access to food, healthcare, legal aid and other forms of mutual aid organising. The works of activists like Angela Davis have also influenced how I see the role of unions, clarifying how progress towards social justice can only be sustained through organised labour.

I am also a historian of Indonesia, and over the last 25 years, have been inspired by Indonesian trade unionists and other organisers in that country. I have interviewed scores of women, for example, who set up workers’ education, childcare cooperatives, and other mutual aid programmes in the 1950s and early 1960s. When the Left was ruthlessly eradicated in Indonesia when the military took over the government in 1965, the trade union movement was also crushed. Despite this—for those who survived the massacres and mass political detention system—these trade unionists kept organising under conditions of great repression. Their histories underscore to me that the rights won through collective organisation are never something to be taken for granted; they must be built and defended by every generation.