In these photos we see Laurie Carmichael in action as a union trainer, while Assistant National Secretary of the AMWSU, at the Clyde Cameron College in 1978.

The Clyde Cameron College was the national, residential “training centre” for the Trade Union Training Authority (TUTA).

This is probably one of the first courses conducted at the CCC, which was a residential college with advanced facilities (including a seriously good library) in a modern building of its time. Carmichael was one of its great champions.

The participants in this course come from several unions including from the AMWSU, Carmichael’s own union. Jim Baird (a national organiser at the time) and Ted Wiltshire, from the union’s national research team, are there. Wiltshire was a prominent figure in the research and education work for Australia Uprooted, Australia Ripped Off, and the similar union pamphlets that followed in the next 12 years or so. He also played a prominent role in the Australia Reconstructed project in 1987.

It is likely that the material in these pamphlets, the rationale for them and the associated industrial strategy for which they were produced, was primary content in this course.

We acknowledge and thank Tribune – SEARCH Foundation for making these photos publicly available through TROVE.

In this short memoir Tony Evans reflects on Laurie Carmichael and Jim Baird. Baird and Carmichael worked closely and with other officials of the union to develop the research and bargaining strategy that would be presented to members. The research usually included information collected from shop steward meetings and surveys.

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Tony Evans is a veteran union activist, now retired, and a South Australian. Tony was (is) a multi-union and multi-industry union "mindful militant". Laurie Carmichael pushed him into union roles that involved "active research". He wanted to and was required to work with union delegates and members to produce information that could be used in consultations and confrontations with governments and employers about jobs in the manufacturing industry.