Engaged Writing

A swag of Letters to the Editor are part of the output. During the 1970s through to the 1990s, Education, journal of the New South Wales Teachers Federation (a trade union I was a militant member of), published letters on education and industrial issues from the rank and file. The maximum length was 400 words before ’editing’ cut in. Pages were generously devoted to these letters and according to anecdotal evidence, these were the most popular and well-read parts of the newspaper formatted journal. Before the advent of electronic social media, this rank and file forum helped generate the senses of community and common cause that contributed to the industrial strength of a workforce spread widely, in many places remotely, across the vastness of NSW. 

Commitment to ‘engaged writing’ evolved out of my experiences of the 1960s and 70s. Participation in the anti-Vietnam War, anti-conscription, and student movements involved writing, proselytising, and countering powerful forces ranged against what were initially causes with small support bases. Getting the message out and about involved publishing in whatever outlets were available, and in their absence, the creation of these. The gestetner roneo machine was a time-honoured printing/publication asset. However the increasing availability of, and access to, cheap offset printing technology opened a printing and publishing floodgate.

Graduating with BA (Hons) in 1968 from Sydney University, my undergrad studies in history helped shape my commitment to ‘engaged writing’. At Sydney Uni, the history of ideas still got a run at the time, and I had an immersion in  the histories of Martin Luther and the rise of Protestantism, the English Civil War, the American Revolution, and the revolutions that variously shaped Europe during the 19th century. 

I came out of this with an understanding that whilst there were great and seminal works by great and important thinkers and writers, it was often unheralded pamphleteers and journalists who conveyed the gist and discussion of these to wide audiences beyond learned political and intellectual elites – to the grassroot audiences who made history. My purchase in May 1970 of a copy of the paperback edition (1968) of E. P. Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class , with its ‘from below’ exploration of working class politics and culture in the period 1780-1832, and in this the roles of a galaxy of writers and opinion formers excised from previous histories, was an inspiring and confirmational encounter.