(Introduction)
'Unionism has been declining for three decades in Australia. Today trade union membership is about 14 per cent of all Australian workers, having peaked in the 1970s. Young workers are less likely to be union members now than older ones. Even so, unions still play a vital role in the Australian workplace, such as successfully winning a recent minimum wage guarantee for workers picking produce.' (Introduction)
'In 1961, fed up with being ignored, poet Gwen Harwood sent two acrostic sonnets to The Bulletin under a male pseudonym, spelling out: “so long bulletin”, “fuck all editors”. The scandal made headlines – not only because The Bulletin was duped, but because a woman dared to use such an obscenity. Harwood’s recollection that one friend declared her “cut off from decent motherhood” inspired Edwina Preston’s latest novel, Bad Art Mother.' (Introduction)
