Over the last nineteen months, working people have taken to the streets. Through marches, strikes and mobilisations of solidarity we’ve protested the worsening assaults on living and working conditions, the state crackdowns on unionism and the right to demonstrate, the genocide of Palestine and the First Nations on this continent, the growing violence against women, queers and trans folk, and more. We are organising for change, and we know the union movement is critical on all these fronts. So where do we look for the militant leadership needed for this?
Traditionally all eyes have been on the mining, construction and manufacturing unions to lead the charge for workers’ rights and set the pace for better conditions in other industries. But the trend since World War II shows a dramatic decline in the global economy’s reliance on these heavy industries. For example, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union was once the guiding force, especially its Metals Division. But the ever-changing dynamics of capitalist production, such as removing manufacturing to countries where labour is cheaper, and technological advances, like trucks driven by artificial intelligence, moved the “point of production” from factories to offices, service enterprises and computerised control centres. Female labour now steers the economy.
Understanding these shifts is crucial. For this reason, Women Workers: Sparkplugs of Labor is timely for us to explore. First published in 1990 by Radical Women Publications, it has been updated and recently re-issued. By exposing us to overlooked facts, authors Heidi Durham and Megan Cornish reset the common narrative of what workforce is most militant and capable of leading the working class in revolt. This eye-opening document explains the workings of capitalism, as most of us experience it today. We can see ourselves in it.
Durham and Cornish start with the dictionary definition of a sparkplug as “a device that produces a spark for combustion in an engine cylinder.” Then with statistical precision, they show women at computers connecting finance with every site of production and staffing service industries that now dominate the economy.
Although Sparkplugs focuses on the U.S., its analysis applies throughout the advanced capitalist world, including Australia. What it says about the predominance of the female-dominated services sector is true here. These industries, which lie outside mining, manufacturing and agriculture, have surged. Today in Australia, they constitute 63.3% of the Gross Domestic Product. They employ 88% of the workforce. Health, community and government are the biggest employers, followed by retail, supermarkets and grocery stores, public hospitals, personal welfare services and government schools.
Sparkplugs’ analysis resonates with me as a social worker in mental health for many years, a supporter for injured workers and a unionist. Australia’s restructured care sector, with the arrival of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (a system meant to provide support for people with disability) is heavily dependant upon women’s labour. Together aged and disability services constitute a huge, growing industry. The aged care system, deregulated since 1997, is 96% privately owned, heavily subsidised by public funds and highly profitable. Up to 90% of its workforce is female. Eighty-three percent work in residential services, with nearly half in personal care and half being at least 45 years old.
This workforce is largely immigrant (51%) — 36% born in Southern and Central Asian countries and 39% whose first language is not English. For some of these workers, their stay in Australia comes under specific visa conditions. Their employment is often precarious and their working conditions difficult. These workers have limited choices of employment.
This reliance on an imported workforce to fill crucial, often demanding, roles echoes historical precedents like Germany’s “Gastarbeiter” (guest worker) program from the 1960s to ‘80s. Immigrant workers were foundational to key industries, such as manufacturing and construction, often in strenuous, undesired jobs.
The crisis of aged care during COVID exposed the incompetent, profit-greedy nature of this industry and its importance to Australia’s economy. It’s a potential site of struggle not to be ignored. The rising up of this super-exploited and largely older female, migrant aged care workforce could bring their parasitic bosses to their knees. They would spark consciousness among workers of our collective power.
Cornish and Durham eloquently reveal the fault lines in the profit machine. Just as revolutionaries have spoken of “the weakest link in the imperialist chain” as the country ready to revolt, Sparkplugs shows us where to look to shatter it — women workers. We in the services, offices, banks — who handle administration, data input, money and communication and who provide education and support for the entire workforce — “run the operations of the capitalist system and can shut it down tomorrow.” And when this happens in the U.S., the imperialist chain will end up in the dustbin.
Sparkplugs arms us with clarity to build a strong movement with enormous revolutionary potential.
Marina was a longtime social worker, active in the Australian Services Union. She is a member of Australia-Asia Worker Links.
To get a copy of Sparkplugs, drop into Solidarity Salon, 113 Spring St, Reservoir Vic or email rw.aus@radicalwomen.org. For international readers, order through Radical Women’s website: www.radicalwomen.org
