BOOK REVIEW
WEEVILS IN THE FLOUR: AN ORAL RECORD OF THE 1930S DEPRESSION IN AUSTRALIA
BY WENDY LOWENSTEIN

This book is of people's voices, of those who lived in the Great Depression. More than two hundred people provide their stories, especially those whom suffered the most. During this period insult and humiliation was the rule for the unemployed. People were prisoners of poverty and of the economic system. Unemployed workers 'were chased off the streets by police, bashed by the batons of a nervous state, arrested, convicted and goaled to reappear shouting their message, to demand the right of the streets, the right to be heard.'

This folk history provides us with stories of struggle, of activism, of organising and of human dignity. It also tells the story of power and of the lesser side of humanity where periods of extreme stress, creates ugly situations and behaviour. It also provides insight into the politicisation of the downcast, of their attempts to maintain human dignity and to develop their autonomy and self-respect. It is worth reading for insight into people and activism in periods of adversity.

Importantly such literature makes our present political classes look the fools that they are. To describe the aspirational class, Howard's battlers, is stretching the imagination towards absurdity. It is purely a creed of greed and denigrates not only the disadvantaged who are battling but those who passed before us and rose with dignity above the human crisis of their times.

I first read this book as an unemployed youth. It helped me through the lean and mean years of the Fraser period, where youth unemployment was at 40 - 45%. We were called dole bludgers by that government and it is surprising how little, things have changed. Part of the human tragedy is that an understanding of our past would make life better as the games that politicians play have impacts on the disadvantaged and an awareness of this would place us all above the politics of downward envy.

On the Steps of the Dole Office Door: Oral Images of the Great Depression in Australia

This album contains the words of people who experienced what was probably the darkest decade of Australia's history, the Great Depression of the 1930's. It documents a variety of musical and poetic responses to the depression, reflecting the hardships, frustrations and the humor of people battling an unprecedented social and economic dilemma.

Halleluja I'm a bum. With all the dignity that it entails.

-Gary