How Labour Built Neoliberalism: Australia’s Accord, the Labour Movement and the Neoliberal Project

In this timely and controversial treatment of the Australian labour movement, Humphrys examines the role of the Labour Party and trade unions in constructing neoliberalism in Australia.

Why do we always assume it was the New Right that was at the centre of constructing neoliberalism? How might corporatism have advanced neoliberalism? And, more controversially, were the trade unions only victims of neoliberal change, or did they play a more contradictory role? In How Labour Built Neoliberalism, Elizabeth Humphrys examines the role of the Labour Party and trade unions in constructing neoliberalism in Australia, and the implications of this for understanding neoliberalism’s global advance. These questions are central to understanding the present condition of the labour movement and its prospects for the future.