1 WOBBLY WOLLONGONG Anti Capitalist Attitudes and Activism in the Northern Illawarra’s Coastal Mining Townships of Scarborough and Coledale 1914-1919 “They tell us that Craft Unionism’s dying But I can assure you, good people, they're lying. It's already dead, devoured its own head After killing all its brightest children.” Recent Canadian/Australian Wobbly song “The Public gets what the Public wants But I want nothing this Society’s got.” “Going Underground” Paul Weller “Stand up all victims of oppression For the tyrant fears your might.” Billy Bragg "A rule of thumb of revolutionary politics is that no matter how oppressive the ruling class may be, no matter how impossible the task of making revolution may seem, the means of making revolution are always at hand." Eldridge Cleaver “…towns like Tottenham further reinforce the point that…the Tottenhams, Cobars, Milduras, Cloncurrys and Innisfails were not backwaters inconsequential to the movement, they were the Wobbly heartland, its lifeblood.” Rowan Day 2 This work is dedicated to the “Mr Maloney” I never knew – Sydney anti eviction campaigner throughout the years 1930-1949 Variations of Local Nomenclature Within the text it should be noted that the “North Bulli Colliery and Cokeworks” was actually located in Coledale and also that the geographical area once known as “South Clifton” later came to be called Scarborough and Wombarra in the period after 1915 3 CONTENTS PART ONE “The Class War and a Leaderless Army” INTRODUCTION 8 1. SINGING THE REVOLUTION 10 2. I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY’RE NOT WOBBLIES 12 3. AN ALTERNATIVE LOCAL APPROACH TO THE OVERTHROW OF CAPITALISM 15 4. ANOTHER REASON WHY THE NORTHERN ILLAWRRA WOBBLIES HAVE BEEN HIDDEN FROM LOCAL HISTORY 17 5. THE POVERTY OF THEORY AND THE POLITICAL TRAJECTORY OF DUGALD McGHEE – A MOST RELUCTANT WOBBLY IN THE MINING TOWNSHIP OF SCARBOROUGH 19 6. ASPIRANTS FOR OFFICIAL POSITIONS IN MINING UNIONS ARE NOT ALWAYS RADICALS 26 7. SO WHAT WAS AN ‘OFFICIAL’ WOBBLY ACTUALLY SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE? 30 8. SCARBOROUGH’S JAMES POTTER SPROSTON – SO VERY VERY VERY PRESBYTERIAN 34 9. WHAT THIS BOOK IS ACTUALLY INTERESTED IN 42 10. FROM THE BOMBO QUARRIES TO THE MINES OF COLEDALE 46 11. VERE GORDON CHILDE’S KNOWLEDGE OF ANTI-CAPITALIST ATITUDES IN ILLAWARRA & ELSEWHERE. 47 12. WHEN THINGS GOT MUCH TOO EXCITING DURING THE 1917 GENERAL STRIKE IN COLEDALE— AN ACCOUNT BY JAMES POTTER SPROSTON 54 13. WATCHING THE DETECTIVES (AND THERE WERE PLENTY TO WATCH AT COLEDALE) 63 14. HOW HAD IT ALL COME TO THIS? 66 15. 1917 – THE YEAR THE WORLD CHANGED IN NORTHERN ILLAWARRA 69 16. SO DID THE IWW REALLY PREACH VIOLENCE AS THE MEANS OF OVERTHROWING CAPITALISM? 74 4 PART TWO The Antecedents of Anti-Capitalist Sabotage in Illawarra 17. ANARCHISTS WITHOUT IDEOLOGY ON THE ILLAWARRA FRONTIER 84 18. LABOURING MEN AND WIVES FOR SALE 86 19. THE HOPELESSNESS OF EARLY ILLAWARRA TRADE UNIONS & THE FEW INDIVIDUALS WHO KICKED AGAINST THE TRACES 88 20. A NASCENT WOBBLY DIRECT-ACTIONIST? 90 21. PREMIER INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS (THE FRIENDLY KIND) 94 22. THE SCABS WIN (SORT OF) AND THE MEEK INHERIT NOTHING 96 23. WHEN THE GAOL YOU FOR STRIKING, IT’S A RICH MAN’S COUNTRY YET 99 PART THREE THE PERSONAL COST OF OPPOSITION TO CAPITALISM 24. VICTIMISATION IN NORTHERN ILLAWARRA 108 25. MAKING AN EXAMPLE OF THE FEW 110 26. MICK SAWTELL BEHIND BARS 1917 112 27. DEFEATING CRAFT UNIONISM AT COLEDALE 113 28. LUDICROUS AND POINTLESS POLICE HARRASMENT OF A LOCAL MINER 116 29. HISTORICAL PRAXIS 118 30. LOCAL CONSERVATISM 119 31. IWW NUTTERS 122 PART FOUR REBELS WITHOUT A REVOLUTION 32. BOB HEFFRON – NSW PREMIER AND HIGHLY UNLIKELY FORMER REVOLUTIONARY 125 33. THE BULLI DOLE RIOT OF 1931 128 34. THE DANGEROUS IDEAS 130 5 35. PARLIAMENTARY RATS AND TRADE UNION STOOGES 135 36. THE LESSONS LEARNED BETWEEN 1890 & 1914 139 37. BOWLED OUT BY A FUTURE PRIME MINISTER 141 38. A STRIKE IN A NORTHERN TOWN 145 39. A POLICE STATE IN NORTHERN ILLAWARRA 147 40. ONCE BITTEN, TWICE BITTEN: POLICEMEN CRAMPING THE COLEDALE & SCARBOROUGH (SOUTH CLIFTON) MINERS’ STYLE 154 41. TRADE UNION MUSICAL CHAIRS 155 PART FIVE A REBEL COMMUNITY IN REVOLT 42. THE YEAR AUSTRALIA CHANGED 158 43. THERE IS SUCH A THING AS SOCIETY (IN COLEDALE AT LEAST) 159 44. IN BOOB FOR TAKING A DAY OFF WORK 161 45. A BLACK-LISTED RADICAL TURNS UP WITH HIS WIFE AND KIDS 163 46. AN XMAS MARRIAGE & THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL LIFE OF A MILITANT METHODIST FAMILY WITH THE SURNAME ROACH 166 47. THE CONDITIONS THAT MADE COLEDALE RIPE FOR REVOLUTION 174 48. GETTING WORSE: THE ARBITRATION VERSUS DIRECT ACTION DEBATE 178 49. RANK AND FILE SELF RELIANCE AT COLEDALE & SCARBOROUGH 180 50. THE BOSSES’ RESPONSE 183 51. HOW IT ALL ENDED IN COLEDALE 185 52. EXTRACTS FROM THE PERSONAL DIARY OF JACK COGAN 188 53. SO WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A DIARY LIKE COGAN’S? 194 CONCLUSION 54. THE LEGACY: WOBBLY WOLLONGONG THE BRAVE 196 APPENDICES 209 BIBLIOGRAPHY 216 INDEX 222 BACK COVER PRECIS & REVIEWS 228 6 PART ONE “The Class War and a Leaderless Army” Introduction As a young boy my father was inspired by and, to some extent, seems to have come under the influence of an Irish man whom he knew only as “Mr Maloney”. This down and outer was pretty rough apparently and my Dad – himself what he termed one of “the underprivileged of the underprivileged” - said he used to see Mr Maloney in the streets organising demonstrations whenever people were evicted from their homes, something not uncommon in the troubled years 1930-1933. Maloney would gather others about him and pile up the evictees’ humble possessions in front of the slum they once rented. Makeshift tarpaulins would be erected to try and protect from the elements whatever was of some slight value to the hapless family now on the streets. The embarrassment caused to the police, the landlord, the local Council and the NSW Government (and the evicted family themselves) was no doubt considerable. But (with a little bit of help from the luck of managing to get a photo of the hapless family in the newspaper) sometimes the sight of a pregnant wife and several small children huddled on the street in the rain was just enough to grant the hapless family a brief reprieve and their goods and chattels would be duly moved back inside the property the rent on which they had long defaulted. My Dad didn’t tell me anything about Mr Maloney’s personal history (not even his first name) – but seemed to have remained impressed by the rather odd political views the Irish rebel expounded Maloney apparently would say strange things like “fast workers die young” and “you’ve got to beat the boss at his own game”. And he’d call parsons or priests “dopepedlars” and un-unionised workers he dismissively labelled “boneheads”. My Dad said that when he ran into Mr Maloney in the streets one morning the Irish agitator said “Hello” and then asked (presumably he was a long lapsed Catholic) if my father had said his prayers last night. When my godless father said he didn’t know any prayers Mr Maloney replied, “I’ll teach you one.” “Praise Boss when morning work-bells chime Praise him for chunks of overtime Praise him whose bloody wars we love to fight Praise Him. Fat leech and parasite Amen. Aw Hell!” My guess is that my father was then probably too young to really know what to make of such things apart from liking the rhyme enough to memorise it. Yet in later life my own research revealed that the ‘prayer’ Mr Maloney had then uttered was actually 7 part of the doxology which often began get-togethers held by members and supporters of an organisation called The Industrial Workers of the World – the I.W.W. colloquially dubbed ‘The Wobblies’. I was also surprised to learn that a few more of the half-remembered song lyrics my father taught me as a child were also Australian variants of the original IWW ditties penned in America and published in the IWW Songbooks - which contained lyrics dating back as far as 1908. For the purposes of this current study I tried to find out some more about the man my father had remembered with some puzzled affection from his boyhood. I was saddened, however, to find only the following single news report – accompanied by a very poorly reproduced photo. EX-DIGGER EVICTED "FIGHT for your country and be evicted" is chalked on tarpaulins and a canvas blind covering the possessions of the Maloney family of Riley Street, Surry Hills, who were evicted on Tuesday morning from the home they had occupied for 15 years. Mr. Maloney was a Digger in the first world war and served in the Merchant Marine in the last war. Ironically, he took a leading part in the anti-eviction struggles during the last depression. For two-and-a-half years the Maloneys have vainly waited for a Housing Commission ballot to come their way. Mrs. Maloney, who left hospital only the day before the eviction, told a Tribune reporter, "Our furniture piled on the footpath is a fine advertisement for a Labor Government which promised soldiers a new order."1 Obviously Mr Maloney’s eccentric ideas about how he felt the world should operate had not done him or his family much good. Nonetheless, my father had told me that Mr Maloney had always seemed cheerful enough – despite the anger which so obviously burned behind so many of the things of which he spoke. 1 Tribune (Sydney), Saturday 9 April 1949 p. 8. 8 Whether or not this Mr Maloney was ever a card-carrying Wobbly (and whether or not he is the “Maloney” mentioned as being implicated in arson attacks against several business in Sydney in 19162) is hard to know. It is more likely I suspect that he had joined the IWW which was re-formed by Ted Dickensen and Noel Lyons when they came over from New Zealand in 1928. That they established an IWW ‘local’ in Surry Hills3 where Mr Maloney lived adds some support to such a possibility. Few self respecting Sydney IWW supporters would be expected to have been willing to enlist in WW1 and so it would be surprising if Maloney was active in the movement during the years of the first world war. Many of the words and the phrases Mr Maloney used in his conversations with my father, however, certainly seem to have been Wobbly inspired – even though the fact that the Tribune newspaper is reporting on Maloney’s 1949 eviction protest suggests Maloney may have lost his way over the years and ended up in the Communist Party. Whatever the case, Mr Maloney certainly seems to have liked singing. While sitting on the pavement patiently protesting evictions, my father said Maloney would be forever bursting into song in between political diatribes directed at which ever passer-by was willing to listen. Many of these songs were, no doubt, traditional Irish tunes – but some were stridently political. On reflection, what I think I found most intriguing most about my father’s memories of this strange anti-evection campaigner named Mr Maloney was their very vagueness. Because neither I nor my father knew Mr Maloney’s first name I think it started me wondering about all the other either anonymous (or today forgotten) radicals who once expressed ideas which were far to the left of what probably seemed acceptable to most law abiding citizens living blissful lives in an advanced capitalist democracy like Australia. More particularly, I wondered what on earth happened to such people? The only person like this I’d previously read about was the Australian artist Noel Counihan who was quoted in Nadia Wheatley’s article in "Meeting Them At The Door: Radicalism, Militancy and the Sydney Anti-Eviction Campaign Of 1931": "The first eviction I saw had a devastating effect on me and I think probably it and a few other experiences then were what finished the capitalist system as far as I was concerned."4 It was probably pretty much the same for my father. But Noel Counihan did OK in life – whereas it was not the same for most other radicals (and certainly not for my father). *** 2 Wagga Wagga Express, Saturday 14 October 1916 p 3. See P.J. Rushton, “The American influence on the Australian labour movement”, Historical Studies, November, 1952, p.272 4 Jill Roe (ed.) Twentieth century Sydney: studies in urban & social history, Hale & Iremonger, published in association with the Sydney History Group, 1980, p. 215. 3 9 SINGING THE REVOLUTION Most of Mr Maloney’s songs were probably Irish folk tunes I guess – but he seems to have sometimes embellished them with his own political lyrics. Others were betterknown revolutionary anthems such as “The Red Flag” which my father used to sing quite a bit. Much to my embarrassment, I remember the look of horror on my mother’s face when I came home from kindergarten one day and was asked, “What did you do at school today?” and replied, “We had to sing a song we knew.” So what one did you sing?” my mother sweetly asked. “The Worker’s Flag is deepest red/ It’s stained with the blood of martyrs dead….”, I sang out proudly while standing on the floor of our cosy kitchen. To this day I still have a vision of how much my mother’s jaw dropped and the words she, after a long pause, then uttered: “I think it’s best not to tell your father about this.” “But he sings it all the time, Mum?” I was truly puzzled. But such is the naivety of children – for five year old me did not even then realise that “the Red Flag” was a political song. What my Kindergarten teacher would have made of it all, however, is anyone’s guess. Today – with mandatory child protection legislation – she may well have been forced to report my performance of that little ditty to the NSW Department of Community Services so that a social worker could have been sent out to investigate the cruel and inhuman political indoctrination to which his father was then subjecting a poor kindergarten kid. Many years later, long after my father was dead, I heard an old man at his big 90th birthday celebration sing what he said was his favourite song – “Halleluiah I’m A Bum” – by which time I had learnt that song was definitely once a popular Wobbly tune. Sadly, however the said nonagenarian birthday boy was actually a highly conservative and respectable member of a local Labor Party branch with apparent complete faith in both the capitalist system and parliamentary democracy - and so was unlikely to have been caught dead singing the only genuinely Australian contribution to the Wobbly songbook (sung to tune of “Yankee Doodle”). Come listen all kind friends of mine I want to move a motion To make an Eldorado here I've got a bonza notion Chorus Bump me into parliament Bounce me any way at all Bang me into parliament 10 On next election day Some very wealthy friends I know Declare I am most clever While some can talk for an hour or so Why I can talk for ever I know the Arbitration Act As a sailor knows his riggins So if you want a small advance I'll talk to Justice Higgins I've read my bible ten times through And Jesus justifies me The man who does not vote for me By Christ he crucifies me Oh yes I am a Labor man And believe in revolution The quickest way to bring it on Is talking constitution I think the worker and the boss Should keep their present stations So I will surely pass a bill 'Industrial Relations' So bump them into parliament Bounce them any way at all Bung them into parliament Don't let the Court decay.5 These lyrics were written by an Australian named Bill Casey – and, delightfully, the song written in about 1915 already expresses complete contempt for individuals who either sought election to parliament or believed that there actually existed such a thing as a ‘parliamentary road to socialism’. *** I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY’RE NOT WOBBLIES Coincidentally, Bill Casey died in 1949 (the same year Mr Maloney was protesting his own eviction) after a long and difficult activist career taking great delight in condemning the conservative stooges who presumed they were ‘left wing’ in both the Labor and Communist Parties. He worked, intermittently, as a seaman and was secretary of the Brisbane branch of the Seamen’s Union when he died. As the Communist leader of the Seamen’s Union, Eliot V. Elliot, remarked at Casey’s funeral: Bill Casey had been secretary of the Queensland Seamen's Union Branch since 1943, and, although not a Communist Party member, consistently united with the Party in furthering the 5 "Bump me into Parliament", The Courier-Mail (Brisbane) Wednesday 17 Aug 1949 p.2 11 interests of seamen. Bill Casey asked that he be cremated "without a parson or priest" and in reading the oration, Mr. Elliott said: "Casey believed in the Workers. He believed that the workers held their destiny in their own hands." Casey placed his faith in educating workers outside political parties and, fortunately, at least one of the hacks in the Communist Party he had so resolutely refused to join seemed to have some understanding of what motivated this remarkable activist who, ironically, was even too radical to become a card carrying member of the Wobblies – even though he wrote the lyrics of their finest Australian song. Old Bill has always been a man who looked to the years ahead and aimed to overthrow the rotten system of Capitalism. Casey battled his way to the Soviet in 1921, because he believed in Communism. Casey fought against conscription in the Imperialist War of 1914- 1918. Casey always held the Arbitration Court to be against the workers and he always poured criticism on those who believed in Arbitration. Casey was a consistent fighter against Fascism and War. Casey's biting tongue and able pen was always at the service of the working-class."6 Yet Casey’s biting tongue also bit the Bolsheviks and, after seeing the abject state of the Soviet Republic in the early 1920s, he held out little hope that Lenin’s mob would liberate mankind. And Tom Walsh, the then Australian Communist Party member and leader of the Seamen’s Union in the mid 1920s (who married Adela Pankhurst the daughter of the famous Suffragette and both of whom became ultra right-wingers) actually refused to accept Bill Casey’s report on the Soviet Union because it was critical of Bolshevism. Casey’s biting words also bit bureaucratic union leaders and Casey was often at loggerheads with officialdom in his union – including the muchrevered Seamen’s Union leader, Eliot V. Elliot, himself who delivered the eulogy at his funeral.7 What is amazing to me though is that the man who wrote the most famous Australian contribution to IWW songbook was never actually a formal member of the Wobblies – or, later, of even the Communist Party of Australia.8 Why? Casey would appear to have been too radical and too much a critical thinker to be constrained by either organisation. He seemed to possess that quintessential Wobbly quality of possessing an “inherent dislike of organic restraint” which - as John G. Brooks wittily suggested - characterised the IWW. Brooks’ view is that for a movement that continually preached the need to organise, the Wobblies were very unorganised: “no one uses the word ‘organisation’ oftener or practices it less” than the IWW.9 6 Tribune (Sydney), Wednesday 2 November 1949, p 8. 7 “Bill Casey – Socialist Pioneer (Obituary)”, Western Socialist, November-December 1949, http://www.iww.org.au/node/351 (accessed 5th March 2016) Bertha Walker claims Bill Casey was a member of the Melbourne IWW but on the same page points out that many “frequently regarded [Percy Laidler] as a member of the Communist Party and other organisations, when in fact he was not” and I think she has made the same mistake in regard to Casey. See Bertha Walker, Solidarity Forever… a part story of the life and times of Percy – the first quarter of a century, The National Press, 1972, electronic version 2012, p. 151 accessed 20 March, 2016 at http://www.cpa.org.au/resources/classics/solidarityforever.pdf 9 Salvatore Salerno, Red November, Black November: Culture and Community in the Industrial Workers of the World, State University of New York, 1989, p. 25 8 12 Yet, in 1925 and 1926 Bill Casey was disciplined and organised enough to have performed extraordinarily in the High Court of Australia arguing that the deportation of the then leaders of the Seamen’s Union (including the Tom Walsh who had refused to publish Casey’s critique of the Soviet Union) was ‘ultra vires’. Even Dr. Evatt unstintedly praised Casey’s remarkable accomplishments. Many barristers at the time openly acknowledged him to be "the cleverest lay-man they ever met."10 But Casey, even though at the time holding the position of Seamen’s Union Vigilance Officer, had little success in encouraging his fellow seamen to declare all ships black until their leaders, Walsh and Johannsen, were released from gaol. Like Mr Maloney, Bill Casey, seems to have spent an entire very active lifetime having his unconventional political views largely ignored. And so what this book is interested are the northern Illawarra mining villages where such unconventional ideas as those of Bill Casey gained, even if only for a time, some serious currency. Yet, as odd and antipathetic to so many as they may appear today, many of these ideas didn’t completely die out. And even when my father joined the Seamen's Union in 1945 there were, he claimed, apparently still many who shared Bill Casey’s ultraleft militant ideas. People like Casey – and other rank and file militants in the Seamen’s Union disdained all politicians. Believing that on–the-job solidarity was all, many militants were of the view that ‘direct action’ against the bosses could solve almost any dispute. Moreover, living communally on board ship (often for months at a time) they were able to very effectively indoctrinate novice seamen like my father with their ideas. They were able to provide practical examples which inculcated the idea that on board ship the collective power of the seamen was more powerful than that of the ship owners and their representatives. Sometimes the ideas of these militant seamen may have seemed a little loopy to outsiders – such as the gambit of refusing to set sail if departure was scheduled for any Friday the Thirteenth. Whether this was a joke – or simply a serious demonstration of worker’s power - is hard to know. But, hey, it gained another day off work for the crew – so ‘what the fuck’. One of the great strengths of the IWW was its lack of bureaucratic hierarchy. It was an organisation not at all interested in political opportunism or personal advancement. Incredibly loose as its organisational structure truly was, its most persuasive exponents simply believed – like Bill Casey himself – “in the education of the workers.” And despite the fact that the IWW was hounded into illegality throughout Australia during WW1 (and appears to have ceased to exist as an organisation going by that name until 1928) the difficult thing – for the authorities at least – is that “education” is something that is very hard to take away from someone. 10 “Bill Casey – Socialist Pioneer (Obituary)”, ibid. 13 Skilled as the capitalist state is at indoctrinating its citizens to accept free enterprise as the simple and natural hegemonic order of things – and that all right-minded people should be expected to accept that profit is a good thing in itself, it nonetheless remains a somewhat more difficult task for either the state or its police to get fully inside the heads of individual workers. As Samuel Butler expressed it with some delightful sententiousness: He that complies against his will Is of his own opinion Still.11 The purpose of this book is thus, primarily, to relate the previously unknown story of how two coastal mining village in Illawarra and a handful of individuals within them went about the task of ‘educating’ workers to ignore trade union bureaucrats and Labor Party politicians and learnt to take direct on-the-job action to improve their often rather shabby lot in life during the years 1914-1919. It also attempts to show that though any propagandistic organisation which attempts to challenge the state can be quite easily crushed – the extraordinary thing is that some of the educational ideas disseminated by that propaganda are very hard to suppress. Moreover, such ideas appear to have an annoying habit of resurfacing at inopportune times and the capitalist state is then forced to come up with some very creative ways - some blunt, some subtle - of preventing their wider dissemination. *** AN ALTERNATIVE LOCAL APPROACH TO THE OVERTHROW OF CAPITALISM Despite the fact that four full sized books have been devoted to the Industrial Workers of the World in Australia (Turner12, Burgmann13, Cain14, and Day15) not one of them seems aware that what is likely the finest example of the impact of Wobbly propaganda in practice took place in the northern Illawarra coastal mining villages stretching from Woonona to Coledale and through Scarborough/Wombarra to Clifton and Helensburgh during the period 1914-1919. 11 Samuel Butler (1612-1680), Hudibras, Part iii. Canto iii. Line 547-8 Ian Turner, Sydney's Burning, Heinemann, 1967 [Rev. ed. with additional material: Alpha Books, 1969]; see also parts of Industrial labour and politics: the dynamics of the Labour movement in Eastern Australia, 1900-1921. Australian National University Press, 1965 [Rev. ed. Hale & Iremonger], Canberra 1979. 13 Verity Burgmann, Revolutionary industrial unionism : the industrial workers of the world in Australia, Cambridge University Press, 1995. 14 Frank Cain, The Wobblies at War: a history of the IWW and the Great War in Australia, Spectrum Publications, 1993. 15 Rowan Day, Murder in Tottenham: Australia's first political assassination, Anchor Books, 2015. 12 14 Not one of these authors seems aware that Coledale, in particular, was (on evidence provided in court under oath no less) a particularly militant centre for IWW activity. And even the manager of the “North Bulli Colliery” at Coledale, Alexander J. Miller, openly admitted during court proceedings held in October 1918: “I know my colliery was at one time a hot bed of I. W. Wism.”16 Nor do any of these abovementioned academic authors appear aware of the corroborating evidence of A.S. Reardon, then General Secretary of the Australian Socialist Party, who wrote that There is a goodly sprinkling of unattached rebels on the south coast, and it is to be hoped that they will link up in the near future and give the Corrimal comrades a lift in their attempt to organise the whole of that district.17 Sadly for very conservative socialists like Mr Reardon, these “unattached rebels” (particularly those at Coledale) were unlikely to be willing to offer support to anyone who was a member of the Australian Socialist Party – for the simple reason that organisation was willing to run candidates in elections and even believed that such a thing as a ‘parliamentary road to socialism’ actually existed. The more militant workers spreading propaganda further north than Corrimal in Illawarra had little time for such nonsense. Indeed so extreme was the militancy among a substantial number of miners at Coledale (and so desperate for more pliant workers now that the most conservative of miners had enlisted and gone off to war) that the aforementioned Colliery Manager, Mr Alexander J. Miller, was even willing to provide a character reference under oath for one Samuel Shepherd - a miner who was accused of stealing coal from both the company and the very Cottage Hospital which the miner’s had just established at Coledale. Staggeringly, what weighed in favour of the employee for the Coledale Mine Manager was that “The accused has been employed at the North Bulli Colliery as a miner before and since his committal…He is a good workman and is quite the opposite to the l.W.W.”18 Clearly, when an employee who steals coal is viewed as ‘a good workman’ in comparison to fellow workers who espouse IWW propaganda then relations between labour and capital would seem to have rather closely reached a fairly dramatic point of no return. How could such a state of affairs have eventuated in Illawarra and yet gone unremarked by four exceedingly conscientious academic researchers into the IWW in Australia? Several factors may have kept the northern Illawarra colliery villages at Woonona, Coledale, Scarborough (South Clifton) and Helensburgh under the radar of extensive IWW scholarship. A lack of local knowledge among Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra-based historians and, perhaps, the unfortunate misprinting of Coledale as “Colebatch’ in many contemporary newspaper reports throughout Australia are 16 Illawarra Mercury, 4 October 1918. The International Socialist (Sydney), Saturday 22 December 1917. 18 Illawarra Mercury, 4 Oct 1918 17 15 possible explanations. Moreover, there is the additional factor that there was no IWW ‘local’ at even the epicentre of Wobbly activity in Coledale and the only formal IWW “club’ set up in Illawarra was formed at Woonona in December 1915. Yet this tiny group was so poor that although they were capable of renting a room in the Princess Theatre on the highway at Woonona they experienced great difficulties in trying to pay the bill on the single electric light in the said room.19 What’s more the extent of revolutionary activity at Woonona never seems to have publicly got beyond displaying IWW and "other progressive literature" in the window of the room they rented. By 1917 when the Unlawful Associations Act was passed the Woonona IWW group seems to have already ceased to meet and so had no need to disband. Things, as you will see, were rather different in Coledale and Scarborough though. Understandably then, such fugitive and evanescent organisations like the one at Woonona (and the fact that there was actually never a formal IWW ‘local’ at Coledale) mean that they are likely to be missed by historians reliant on the historic records of more robust and bureaucratic workers' organisations such as trade unions, which often leave vast archives for academics to peruse and digest. *** ANOTHER REASON WHY THE NORTHERN ILLAWRRA WOBBLIES HAVE BEEN HIDDEN FROM LOCAL HISTORY The key reason, however, that some seriously revolutionary activity has been written out of Illawarra working class history is the fact that very few northern Illawarra individuals who appear to have embraced IWW principles in a practical way at individual colliery workplaces appear to actually have been paid-up members affiliated with the Sydney branch of the Industrial Workers of the World. So disillusioned with traditional conservative trade unions and Labor Party politicians had some of the workers in northern Illawarra become that their prime interest appears to have been “workplace education” rather than forming pointless organisations which only extract membership fees from individuals and families who could ill afford such things. The Wobblies in Illawarra are thus a particularly difficult group to study and that is no doubt the main reason that no previous study has shown much awareness that a tiny group of very militant individuals were very active in the area – and met with a surprising amount of success over a period of about four to five years. 19 Letters by Andrew Lees, Nicholson Lane, Woonona (pro tem secretary of the Woonona IWW Local), December 19, 1915 and January 17, 1916 regarding a rented room in the Princess Theatre, Woonona delivered to the Sydney IWW in the “Care of A. Welsh”, NSW Police Department, Special Investigation Department, Special Bundle, papers Concerning the International [sic] Workers of the World, Box 7/5592, State Records of NSW. 16 The historians are not alone in this, however, for even Tom Barker – one of the most prominent activists in the Sydney IWW – openly expressed the reason why it was possible for even him to be ignorant of the existence of such activism. We had many little groups amongst us who were doing various things, and those things were deadly secret and they kept them to themselves, so that you might be God Almighty in the organisation, but you wouldn’t know half a dozen things that were going on.20 And as Rowan Day has pointed out in his wonderful Ph.D thesis on the IWW Club at Tottenham NSW: Tellingly, when in 1915 Direct Action featured an article on the Local in the (now abandoned) bush town of Corinthian, the town did not feature in the same issue’s list of extant Locals. The Direct Action editors, with few resources at their disposal, were not abreast of developments in the countless small towns and farms across the continent. Until a Vandemonian wobbly wrote to Direct Action, would the Sydney editors have heard of Linda, Tasmania?21 Linda was the town supporting the North Mount Lyell Company’s mine. When North Mount Lyell was taken over by the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company in 1903, Linda was quickly reduced in significance and eventually most residents moved to Gormanston, the nearby Mount Lyell town. It does not sound a very promising place for the residents to be taking on the might of capitalism but, nonetheless, the following report had then appeared in the August 15, 1915 edition of Direct Action: In other parts of the country, in the different States solid work is being done for the O.B.U. In Innisfail, Stanthorpe, Brisbane, Apple Tree Creek in Queensland, Crib Point, Portland and Allandale in Victoria: Launceston and Linda in Tasmania; Port Augusta and the transcontinental line in S.A.; and in the mining and lumber districts of the West, the members of the organisation are getting in splendid work for the abolition of capitalism.22 But the fact that there are some OBU supporters in this Tasmanian small town does not mean they are actually yet members of the IWW – as an earlier report in Direct Action under the heading “Propaganda Work” reveals that at the close of 1914 an IWW local did not yet exist anywhere in Van Diemen’s picturesque island. Solid work is being done in Linda, Tasmania, by a fairly strong bunch of the boys. Reports, literature sales, and papers are very reassuring, and I guess that as soon as F.W. Roonan and his colleagues enlarge their numbers a little more then a local will appear in Tasmania.23 One or two militant activists clearly did not an IWW ‘local’ make – and so places like Coledale often remained off the IWW editors' radar (though not always off the radar of Government security services and the local police) until a Wobbly member or supporter fired off a report on local activities to be published in Direct Action. At least Tom Barker had actually visited Coledale and spoken in its community hall – so he is likely to have probably remembered where it was even if he was unaware of 20 Tom Barker and the IWW: oral history – recorded and edited by Eric Fry, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Canberra, 1965; republished by the IWWW Brisbane General membership Branch, 1999, p. 35. 21 Rowan Day, “The Tottenham Rebels: Radical Labour Politics in a Small Mining Town during the Great War”, Ph.D Thesis, University of Western Sydney, 2014, p.272 22 “Organisation News”, Direct Action (Sydney), 15 August 1915, p.1 23 “Propaganda Work”, Direct Action (Sydney) 15 November 1915, p.1 17 just how much propaganda was being disseminated there and how regularly the miners were engaged in independent industrial disputation in the nearby collieries.24 Paradoxically the small group established at Woonona – who provide the only formal and overtly public display of support for IWW principles in Illawarra – was (even if Tom Barker had actually read the two letters its secretary forwarded to Sydney in late 1915 and early 1916) possibly the least effective local Illawarra Wobbly intervention. What the above mentioned previous writers on the IWW in Australia (with the exception of Rowan Day) seem to have failed to grasp in their studies is that the real measure of the successful dissemination of anti-capitalist attitudes in Illawarra and elsewhere in Australia was the local practical ‘educational’ impact of individuals espousing IWW propaganda - rather than the mere nominal existence of IWW ‘locals’ or ‘clubs’ in the area. Attempting to gain some measure of the practical educational impact of IWW propaganda in Illawarra is thus the key to understanding the extent of their success or otherwise in promoting anti-capitalist attitudes in the various northern Illawarra mining communities. Those who had fully swallowed Wobbly ideas were very much aware that as long as the ruling class controlled the workplaces, the schools, the churches and the media it was going to be virtually impossible for working people to effectively think outside the intellectual box in which they were imprisoned. As a Wobbly supporter of the secretary of the Woonona IWW ‘local’ who went by the pseudonym of “Anti Bet Noir” put it (and in a much less confusingly loquacious manner than the Woonona secretary, Mr Lees, ever himself later proved capable of producing) the local IWW strategy needed to be as follows: “First, I would, take up the threads where our old friend Andrew Lees broke off, viz., a night class on economics; second, I would found a working class library as the workers don’t get the right kind of reading matter: they are doped from their cradle to their graves.”25 To this endeavour, however, “our old friend”, the Woonona IWW Secretary Andrew Lees, had tried his hand some three years earlier – and proved spectacularly unsuccessful. Part of Lees’ problem was that, on the evidence of his prose style, he was simply too bookish and too indirect in his approach to propaganda to be able to effectively penetrate the skulls of the ‘boneheads” he worked with in Old Bulli Colliery. His pseudonymous Wobbly fellow worker – “Anti Bet Noir” – seems to have been likely to have been better able to get down to a more sympathetic level with his targeted audience. Education in the abstract was all well and good but the essence of more effective northern Illawarra “I.W.Wism” was to regularly get out of Mr Lees’ 24 Barker spoke as part of the anti-conscription campaign – and even former NSW and Victorian miner, Bob Semple (who would later turn conservative and ended up a Labour Party New Zealand Minister of Public Works (1935–1941, 1942–1943) and Minister of Railways (1941–1949) travelled all the way from New Zealand to oppose conscription at Thirroul and address a “large gathering of miners from Coledale, South Clifton, Scarborough, Excelsior [Thirroul] and Clifton Tunnel mine”. Illawarra Mercury, 29 September 1916 25 “Our Roads” by “Anti Bet Noir”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 9 August 1918, p.16 18 working class night school classes and into the streets. As “Anti Bet Noir” explained, “every Sunday afternoon [I] take my little soap box along with me and hie me down to the Thirroul domain and try and hammer into the thick-skulled workers the advisability of organising into “One Big Union” (OBU), as quickly as possible, as there is likely to be some very rough roads for the workers to travel in the very-near future.”26 *** THE POVERTY OF THEORY AND THE POLITICAL TRAJECTORY OF DUGALD McGHEE – A MOST RELUCTANT WOBBLY IN THE MINING VILLAGE OF SCARBOROUGH The more practical-minded Wobblies’ solution to how to go about ending capitalism was the creation of effective propaganda - more of the deed than the word – in the mines and in the streets. A relatively small and sometimes often floating group of disparate (and sometimes desperate) individuals resident in Coledale and Scarborough during WW1 were interested in a more radical - often self-styled - emancipatory politics which tried to hit out at the bosses were it hurt them the most. The local branches of the Labor Party had little to offer them in this respect. What is most impressive about the Wobblies is that they – unlike the Bolsheviks, the proto-Fascists or even the pathetic Australian Labor party – had a genuine trust in the capability of the masses to organise their own affairs. The last thing the best of the IWW ideologues felt was needed was an elitist leadership. Individual workers would sort out their common interests and strategies to defeat the boss in individual work places – backed-up, of course, by the kind of united working class unity which viewed an injury to one as an injury to all. Believing that workers and their masters have nothing in common there were individuals in the northern Illawarra coastal colliery villages who were of the view that if workers (as Marx and Engels suggested in The Communist Manifesto) actually did have nothing to lose but their chains than who better to break them than the people most shackled by the fetters themselves? Ironically, those Illawarra individuals holding such a belief were, in effect, providing a direct challenge to the largely sacrosanct Marxist notion that the ‘ruling ideas in any age were those of the ruling class”. Yet by taking an interest in the ideas and the general intellectual life of previously completely anonymous Illawarra workers during (and a little after) the First World War one can focus not simply on trade unions and supposedly ‘left wing’ political parties but on an alternative intellectual tradition which has mostly been ignored. This present study is thus slightly different to that of other historians more interested in the kind of institutions that leave behind the kind of historical records which can be easily mined for the purposes of writing largely unread Ph.Ds. 26 ibid. 19 The following vignette devoted to one Mr Dugald McGhee provides a good example of the impact of the political milieu of Coledale and Scarborough during WW1 on the intellectual development of one such previously ignored individual worker. Clearly an intelligent individual, Dugald McGhee (as part of his on-the-job activism in the Scarborough mine) became, perhaps even a little unwillingly, caught up in the local industrial workplace maelstrom. His nascent radicalism (if it ever genuinely existed) seems to have become somewhat diluted once removed from the radical intellectual milieu exerting its impact in the northern Illawarra mining townships after 1916. On his own testimony, given under oath in a court case against a miner named Samuel Shepherd who was charged with stealing coal from the Cottage Hospital, McGhee declared: I came from Scotland. I was in New Zealand for 21 weeks and was in the North of Queensland for a time. I have worked at Kembla, Newcastle, and four years at Scarborough. I was president of the Lodge at Scarborough. The detectives did not make a search of my house in connection with the I.W.W. When pressed by local solicitor (and future barrister and NSW Attorney General) Andrew Augustus Lysaght about his connection with the IWW, McGhee made the following rather detailed and revealing remarks. Mr. Lysaght: Will you deny the detectives searched your home. Yes. What were you going to tell me. Witness: They came into my yards. Mr. Lysaght: Did they make a search to discover I.W.W. literature in your home. Witness: They did not search my house. They came to me in the yard and I invited them into the house, and they said they were perfectly satisfied. It is not a fact that the accused took an active part in fighting me and the I.W.W. element in laying the pits idle. Accused was a director of the cottage hospital. I have not been controlling the lodge all the time. His Honor called upon Mr. Lysaght to withdraw the word 'equivocation,' which he used towards the witness. Witness: I was a subscriber to the organ of the I.W.W., 'Direct Action' for six months. It is quite possible I was tho only man in Scarborough that subscribed to that organ. I do not know other people's business. I took the chair at a meeting for a lecture given by a member of the I.W.W., but the lecture was not given under the auspices of the I.W.W. Mr. Lysaght: Do you deny that after the lecture that the three collieries were thrown idle. Witness: They were idle the other day. If I was a bad man the management would have got rid of me when there was a clean up. Mr. Lysaght: Did you protest against a roll of honour being erected at Scarborough. Witness: Certainly not! Only for illness I would have been there when it was unveiled.27 27 “Alleged Stealing”, Illawarra Mercury, 4 October 1918, p.4 20 On the evidence of these statements, McGhee appears to have been an essentially conservative fellow despite his six-month subscription to Direct Action. Nonetheless, he found himself in court because by late 1918 a great deal had happened at Coledale and Scarborough since his arrival in 1914. And as you will soon see, the NSW State Government and its police force found the things that had been happening so disturbing that they felt compelled to maintain an inordinately heavy police presence in the townships until even as late as mid 1919. As McGhee’s answers to Lysaght’s questions in the case of Samuel Shepherd reveal, the initiative of local workers had led to the recent establishment of a cottage hospital at Coledale. It was an exceptional achievement and an extraordinary example of worker co-operation in a mining settlement comprised of almost equal numbers of only more or less permanent residents and other workers who regularly moved from colliery to colliery throughout NSW, interstate and even - on some occasions overseas. The Northern Illawarra Miners had also achieved the establishment of a Co-operative Store - in an effort to reduce the exploitation to which they would be exposed if the coal proprietors not only rented houses to their employees but also ran the only place where one could buy supplies. But this practice was, of course, a form of exploitation so obvious that even the most conservative worker understood it – and hence was widely supported in nearly every colliery village in Illawarra. A Cottage Hospital too was, of course, something that even conservative workers were likely to view as an essential requirement in a community in which the dangerous job of coalmining was the major industry. And that (apart from a few influential radicals) there were still plenty of working class conservatives then working as miners in Coledale and Scarborough is amply demonstrated by the fact that the same Mr Samuel Shepherd mentioned above, who though actually accused of stealing coal from the cottage hospital, still managed to have the Coledale mine manager be willing to act as a character referee because he was “a good workman and quite the opposite to the I.W.W.” Dugald McGhee, as both a Director and President of the Cottage Hospital at Coledale, was certainly in a position to know this but he too must have been puzzled as to why the Coledale mine manager was willing to support a man like Shepherd. Shepherd claims in court that McGhee was an enemy of his.”28 Part of the reason, however, is that mine workers whom the mine manger could rely upon to be “quite the opposite to the I.W.W” seemed to have been pretty thin on the ground at the time. The revelation that detectives were searching homes in Coledale for evidence of IWW literature after the extraordinary case of the Coledale shooting which took place during the 1917 state-wide General Strike provides an indication of just how exceptionally toxic the local political climate was at the time. Indeed, it may well be difficult for many alive today to quite fully appreciate how great was the alarm felt by the authorities at both the defeat of the conscription referendum and the almost constant industrial disputation which occurred in the Illawarra’s northern colliery villages throughout 1916 and 1917. 28 “Quarter Sessions”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 4 October 1918, p.4 21 The police presence in the town – as will be revealed – was truly inordinate and lasted well into 1919. Indeed, from October 1917 until at least April 1919 there is pretty strong evidence that if ever a ‘police state’ existed in Australia then Coledale may well have been its epicentre. And it was precisely this political milieu that appears to have pushed Dugald McGhee – most likely somewhat reluctantly – to at least sympathise with (if not support) some of the Wobbly views then being expressed in the town. This is evident in the way McGhee expresses himself by asserting “It is not a fact that the accused took an active part in fighting me and the I.W.W. element in laying the pits idle.” McGhee, however, is clearly here making a clear distinction between himself “and the I.W.W. element” then active in Coledale and Scarborough. He willingly admits that the coal pits in the area were often idle under his leadership of the Miner’s Lodge but also that the fact that he was not victimised by the mine management – as others later were - is a very strong indication that he was not considered amongst the most militant of local agitators. It would seem, rather, that his interest in the IWW and his subscription to Direct Action for a period of six months was more out of intellectual curiosity and, possibly, a general sense of injustice rather than passionate belief in the overthrow of capitalism. Moreover, with a significant number of IWW agitators and sympathisers active in the Scarborough Lodge, McGhee would have been foolish not to have kept abreast of IWW ideas by reading their published propaganda organ. The difficulty in determining the extent of IWW influence upon more instinctually conservative individual miners like Dugald McGhee is that the “Commonwealth Unlawful Associations Act” of 1916 - which outlawed membership of the IWW under threat of imprisonment - only “lapsed six months after the Great War ended.”29 Anyone living in Coledale or Scarborough in December 1916 would thus have been unlikely not to have known that it was illegal to be a member of the IWW. It would also have been difficult for them to be unaware that the IWW Twelve had been gaoled with staggeringly harsh sentences of up to 15 years imprisonment. In practice this situation meant that simply even suggesting that someone was sympathetic to the IWW became a handy way to blacken his or her reputation – no matter how conservative and supportive of the system that individual may actually have been. That, indeed, is precisely the tactic that the solicitor Andrew Augustus Lysaght had adopted in asking McGhee in court about whether the detectives had searched his house for evidence of IWW propaganda. The reality, however, seems to be that - despite being the elected leader of the Scarborough Miners Lodge - McGhee was no fire-breathing radical. 29 “Communist Party”, The Mercury (Hobart), 1 December 1930, p.6 22 While Both Coledale and Scarborough were mining villages that seemed to have contained a higher percentage of individuals receptive to IWW propaganda than most other places in Australia during WW1, the townships were genuinely very far from being what might ever have been termed ‘The Northern Illawarra Soviet Republic’. Despite the handful of genuine radicals sprinkled throughout the villages, there were still plenty of deluded patriotic men and women who fully supported conscription and allowed their sons and daughters to go off to be slaughtered in a colonial trade war which was none of their business and not of their making. There were also still plenty of conservative supporters of the Labor Party who kidded themselves that the more heinous exploitations of the capitalist system could be ameliorated and remained unconvinced that the philosophy argued by the IWW – that the employing class and the working class have nothing in common – was true. Indeed, even if he, perhaps, personally held slightly more progressive views than most other northern Illawarra conservative workers, McGhee (as President of the Scarborough Progress Association in 191730), would have had to adopt a rather mild and even-handed demeanour and political line in order to ensure his continued reelection to that community position. That he was still serving as Progress Association President until he left the district in March 192331 (long after it could be still said that a significant identifiable presence of IWW activists and ideologues still impacted on the town) is an indication of the political trajectory McGhee would eventually follow. Nonetheless it was certainly true that McGhee (as revealed in court in 1918) had once presided over a meeting at which a member of the IWW had spoken. Indeed, this event was duly reported by the key IWW newspaper correspondent in the area - a man who very sensibly eschewed his real name and used the Wobbly pseudonym “Bent Axle” when publishing his regular reports on IWW activism in Coledale. SCARBOROUGH, A splendid meeting was held on the beach on Sunday afternoon. 28th January. Mr. McGhee, President of the local Coal Miners' Lodge, chaired the meeting, and outlined the persecution which members of the I.W.W. were now going through. Mr. D McGhee emphasised the fact that the mere passing of resolutions were not of much benefit, unless the workers were prepared to back them up with their industrial might. F.W. West, who is at present having a spell at Scarborough, was the first speaker, and handled the subject in fine style. He contrasted the police methods of different countries with Australia, and finished with an eloquent appeal for assistance for the imprisoned men. F.W. Wilson followed, and in his old familiar style, dealt at great length on The I.W.W cases. Collection amounted to £3 3s. Things are looking well here, and the agitation goes on apace. The collection for the last fortnight at the mines amounted to £22 l6s 1d. Good luck. BENT AXLE.32 McGhee very skilfully explained in court that while he did chair this meeting at which the IWW activist “F. W. West” (who was said to be “at present having a spell at Scarborough”) was a key speaker, the meeting itself was not held under the auspices of the IWW. This fact, along with McGhee’s simultaneous leadership of the “Scarborough Progress Association”, is a further indication that he was not actually a genuine militant. Rather, McGhee appears to have unavoidably come under the 30 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 15 December 1916 p. 13 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 16 March 1923, p. 14 32 Direct Action (Sydney), Saturday 10 February 1917 p. 1 31 23 influence of IWW activists as he would have been daily subjected to their propaganda because of the union and community leadership positions he held. McGhee’s conservatism also seems evident in the fact that when Lysaght asked him in court “Did you protest against a roll of honour being erected at Scarborough” he quite vehemently replied: “Certainly not! Only for illness I would have been there when it was unveiled.” Very few self-respecting genuine Wobblies would have, one would suspect, wished to be associated in any way with support of the veritable epidemic of WW1 monument commemorations which began locally at Thirroul in 1920. The very act of serving as the President of the Progress Association is also, perhaps, the best clue to McGhee’s innate conservatism. Often in Illawarra communities gaining such a position was seen as a stepping-stone to political office and McGhee seems to have been a man – despite his leadership of a mining lodge at a time of bitter industrial warfare – who was probably not content to remain a wage slave at the coalface for the rest of his days. McGhee’s experience in the Progress Association would also have provided him with valuable experience at diplomatically handling conflicting views. Ironically, given the toxic political climate in Scarborough and Coledale at the time, heading up the Progress Association may actually have cruelled his chances of election to parliament. And, indeed, the opportunity for gaining such a position was soon duly snaffled from his grasp by Billy Davies who worked in the Scarborough pit alongside McGhee. The recently emigrated Welsh-born Methodist lay-preacher William (Billy) Davies managed, in 1917, to replace the absolutely hopeless John Barnes Nicholson as the local Labor Party representative in the NSW Legislative Assembly - and so McGhee now had next to no chance of getting an Illawarra seat in the NSW Parliament. McGhee then appears to have decided to put his nose to the grindstone and was successful in the examinations for a certificate of competency as a Mine Deputy in mid 191933 - and then left the district in 1923 to take up a Deputy’s position on the Newcastle coalfields. By 1929 any trace of northern Illawarra radicalism that may have momentarily infected Dugald McGhee had well and truly vanished – for in that year he was, “at a meeting of the Weston branch of the A.L.P.”, elected president of that ever more conservative political organisation which had succeeded in giving a better life to his fellow Scarborough miner Billy Davies. Indeed, it looks like the passing of a decade working as a deputy may have even turned our Dugald into something of a bosses' man. When in 1929 he appeared before the Coal Commission he was exposed by a former fellow Scarborough resident as telling porkies about the solicitude of the mine managers in regards to weekly meetings of the deputy, overman and undermanager on the South Maitland coalfields 33 “Mines Officials”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 27 Jun 1919, p. 18 24 - but more of that later when discussing the very peculiar politics of another resident of Scarborough at the height of IWW influence in the town. Tragically Dugald McGhee died in 1933 while riding his bicycle to work. He left a wife and three sons and two daughters to mourn him.34 Dugald McGhee (47), residing at Aberdare-street, Weston, and employed at Abermain No. 2 Colliery, was killed near tho Denman Hotel, Abermain, this morning, McGhee was riding his bicycle to work at about 5.45 a.m., and a collision occurred with a motor lorry, owned by tho Kurrl Kurrl, District Hospital.35 Quite fittingly, the man previously falsely accused by Andrew Augustus Lysaght of IWW sympathies received an obituary which paints him as the most mild mannered and respectable of men whose funeral was performed with Catholic rites by the Rev. Father M. O’Dwyer. The late Mr. Dugald McGhee was one of the outstanding men on the Maitland coalfield, and was held in esteem as a man of the highest rectitude in public and private life. Although only 47 years of age he had devoted the greater part of his life in endeavouring to serve his fellow men. He was President of the Illawarra District Hospital for a number of years, President of Coledale Miners' Lodge for many years, President of the Maitland Deputies' Association for six years, and a member of the Board of tine Kurri Kurri Co-operative Society for several years. His period of office as President of the Maitland Deputies' Association covered the period of the great strike. His leadership was characterised by a wise discretion and dominating influence.36 Born to be mild would thus seem a fair estimation of his life. Sadly, despite McGhee’s muted and rather conservative political activism and his involvement with such an abjectly conservative organisation as the Labor Party all did not end well for him or his family. Owing to amendment of the Workers Compensation Act which no longer provides for compensation in respect of a man who is killed or injured on his way to work, Mr. McGhee’s family arc left in a very unfortunate' position. The breadwinner is gone, and the widow is in indigent circumstances. In instituting a fund for the benefit of the bereaved family the deputies are endeavouring to secure for them financial assistance that will to some extent, make up for what is now denied the widow under the amended Compensation Act. The late Mr. McGhee was a very popular man, and was held in the highest esteem wherever he went. He was a prominent member of the A.L.P. movement on the coalfields, and was a director in the Kurri Kurri Cooperative society. He had held a number of official positions in the Miners' federation, on the South Coast prior to coming to this field.37 *** ASPIRANTS FOR OFFICIAL POSITIONS IN MINING UNIONS ARE NOT ALWAYS RADICALS The mining village of Coledale, Scarborough and Clifton were unusual places in Australian coal mining history. Nestled between the ocean and an Illawarra 34 “Coal Industry”, Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, 2 Dec 1929, p.2 “Cyclist Killed”, The Maitland Daily Mercury, 22 June 1933 Page 7 36 “Obituary”, Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, 29 Jun 1933, p. 3 37 “Fund to Assist Widow”, The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder, 11 July 1933, p. 2 35 25 escarpment that threatens almost to topple into the sea towards nearby Clifton, the local miners had become long accustomed to very intermittent shifts. Five days work a fortnight seems to have probably pretty much been the average for the entire period 1914-1919.38 As a consequence families learnt to be very self reliant – and sometimes almost selfsufficient. When no work was offered (or when on strike as they so often were) there were fish to catch, vegetables to grow and tender and rabbits to shoot over the back of the escarpment if times got really tough. Not every miner owned a gun but those who did would go on rabbiting expeditions during extended industrial disputes and, as rabbits were sometime in plague proportions, they could afford to extend the largesse to needy families. The Co-op and even the few private storekeepers usually felt obliged to extend credit during prolonged disputes and so a situation grew up where being on strike rarely really amounted to such an enormous change in circumstances. Families knew that when the miners downed tools it was often a matter of hoping for the employers to offer a few concessions – or doing it really tough waiting to see how long it would be before the men were starved back to work when the dispute went on far too long. Miners blacklisted at other coalmines in Illawarra and elsewhere would sometimes arrive in search of employment. And, as always, in local mining communities during this period there were individuals just passing through – such as a Pommy immigrant named Simpson who did a few shifts at Coledale pit and moved to a few other south coast mines before recklessly enlisting in the A.I.F. from Western Australia. He later gained some jingoistic fame as “the bloke with the donkey” – even though he probably didn’t actually save a single life before he himself was shot. It is even suspected that Simpson may only have enlisted in the vain hope of getting a free trip back to England if the war did not drag on for too long. Nonetheless, it comes as a great surprise that Simpson’s letters to his mum sent from Coledale provide one of the best accounts of just how bad living conditions were – and why it was really not such a big deal for miners to lose a few day’s pay. Put simply – the miners were accustomed to poor working and living conditions. And the unusual combination of bitterness and sang froid in Simpson’s letters throws quite a bit of light on what things were like for the drifters who passed through our northern Illawarra colliery townships in the years leading up to WW1. In one of John Simpson Kirkpatrick’s letters displayed at an exhibition curated by Robyn van Dyke at the Australian War Memorial in 2014,39 Simpson (signing himself “Jack Kirkpatrick”) told his mother that “when you answer this letter address it to me c/o post office Coledale New South Wales because it is only a little township and there is no postman”.40 Then, on the first day of October, Simpson again wrote to his mother explaining his unsatisfactory experiences at Coledale. 38 See Appendix 1 Quoted in Steve Meacham, “Behind the Anzac myth of John Simpson Kirkpatrick and his donkey at Gallipoli, Sydney Morning Herald, May 17, 2015 40 Letter from John Simpson to his mother, 1 July 1910; Letters from John Simpson Kirkpatrick to his Family, 1910. Collection number: 3DRL/3424, Digitised Collection. 39 26 You remember that last letter I wrote you telling you that I was going to start at Coledale well I started and it only lasted four shifts and than a gang of us was payed off for slackness I was on stonework and damned heavy work it was and from then until three weeks ago I was knocking around the best way I could until I got a start at south Bouili [Bulli] I have been there for three weeks on stonework I have 8 bob a shift for 9 hours and all nightshift it is rotten I can tell you Now Mother you will be saying he is doing well but what a mistake people at home make thinking they make good money out here, true but the what is the good of it if you have it all to pay away Now look at me for instance I work for about £ 2 2s a week and the[n] it is not constant it is very seldom the pit works the full ten shifts s fortnight if so you get about £ 4.4.0 of that I have got a pound a week to pay for lodgings you cant get them a penny cheaper and no washing done so that is 2 quid and by the time I send you something each pay you will see I have not much left I am about sick of it although it will not be too bad if anyway constant for I am always looking round for something better.41 There is no evidence at all that Simpson was some sort of political animal but this very matter-of-fact statement of affairs provides us with at least glimmer of understanding why single itinerant men considered they had very little to lose. Moreover, because such individuals might very easily become receptive to the kind of radical anti-capitalist propaganda being disseminated in the northern colliery villages during and before WW1 even a miner’s leader (and future mildly progressive ALP parliamentary stooge) like Billy Davies was forced to sound a lot more radical prior to his election than he would later become when ensconced on the comfortable leather cushioned seats of the NSW Legislative Assembly. Hilariously, during one of his 1917 election campaign rallies, Davies was forced to deny allegations made in two pamphlets circulating locally that he was a supporter of the IWW. MR. DAVIES AND I.W.W. HE DENIES STATEMENT ON CIRCULAR. Some excitement was caused in political circles yesterday [when]…The following appeared at the foot of the circular: — Question.— In supporting his motion did Mr. Davies use the following or similar words: — 'He was prepared to break every d______ law of the country to secure these [IWW] men’s release. Speaking at Thirroul last night Mr. Davies said there was a leaflet in circulation giving resolutions presented to a recent delegate board. He moved the first resolution on that circular as the delegate of the Scarborough lodge, but prior to its being put into his hands at the meeting he had never seen it, and was in no way connected with it. The second resolution on the leaflet, which was carried, purely and simply asked for a full inquiry into the whole trial. In regard to the question mark at the bottom of the leaflet, he gave it an absolute denial and was prepared to fight the question out in a court of law with any man he ever heard uttering the statement.”42 What’s more, Davies (the former Scarborough colliery worker) went on to represent Northern Illawarra in both State and Federal Parliaments for the next 40 years until his death in 1956. By 1923, Davies had already survived three elections and this fact may have forced Dugald McGhee to face up to the fact that it might be time to move on if he ever wanted to prosper under the capitalist system. With Billy Davies now https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG0000376/?image=9 Australian War Memorial, Accessed March 7, 2016 41 ibid., Letter from John Simpson to his mother, 1 October, 1910 42 Illawarra Mercury, 23 March 1917, p. 2 27 well ensconced as the local member, a south coast seat in Parliament for McGhee was now unlikely to ever be a foreseeable option. Disappointment, however, had perhaps begun to hit McGhee earlier than that. When the 1917 nominations were called for the annual election of officers in the Illawarra Australian Coal and Shale Employees Association, poor Dugald McGhee of Scarborough, running against the IWW member, Andrew Lees, was unsuccessful in seeking the position of President of the District Miner’s Union. Predictably, the more radical but excessively verbose Andrew Lees also missed out in the ballot.43 The point that needs to be made is that just because you are a miner running for a position as an official in a local union does not necessarily mean you are a progressive. Indeed, many of the candidates running for positions in the District Miner’s Union held views which were unlikely to ever pose a challenge to the capitalist system. For example, even though he may well have encountered plenty of IWW propaganda at work and in the streets, it is likely that one of the other candidates who ran in the same election, “Mr Edward Eskett Jackson of Garlick St., Coledale” (who by 1932 had become a most respectable Justice of the Peace44) was clearly a pretty conservative fellow. Similarly, fellow candidate “J. Richards” of Old Bulli colliery was also likely to have been well to the right of an IWW man like Andrew Lees and appears to have simply been a mild-mannered trade unionist conscientiously earning a first aid certificate for which the Thirroul miner owner, John Stephen Kirton, had kindly made a donation to provide part of the funds to complete the course.45 Another candidate, “Mr T. H. Marshall” (who worked in the North Bulli Colliery at Coledale and lived at Thirroul) was a member of the Thirroul Mutual Improvement Society. His main interest seems to have been tennis rather than politics.46 Mr A. Southern, who worked at South Bulli Colliery, appears to have been a little more politically serious-minded and was concerned about getting more up to date equipment at Bulli Cottage Hospital.47 “Mr. James Russell, of Thirroul Colliery, and erstwhile of Mount Kembla Colliery”, got out of mining early in 1917 just before things really started to hot up politically and was “appointed State representative of a Sydney firm dealing in the sale of explosives.”48 Mr C. Patterson of Helensburgh, on the other hand, was a strong anti-cosncriptionist49 and Mr H. Knight of Coledale’s “North Bulli” Colliery (although he lived at Thirroul) was similarly inclined.50 Both are likely to have been more receptive to IWW propaganda than Messrs Jackson, Richards and Marshall. Russell may also have been 43 Illawarra Mercury, 30 November 1917, p. 2 “J'sP. Appointed”, Illawarra Mercury, 8 July 1932, p.1 45 Illawarra Mercury, 23 November, 1916, p.6 46 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 6 October 1916, p. 20 47 Illawarra Mercury, 17 October 1919, p.5 48 Illawarra Mercury, 16 Mar 1917, p.2 49 “Liberty”, Sunday Times (Sydney), 13 Aug 1916, p.2 50 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 11 Aug 1916, p.10 44 28 more receptive than the others but was no doubt very disillusioned after being harassed for activism as a miners’ leader at the Mount Kembla Colliery.51 Whether radical or conservative, the published list of those who nominated for official positions in the Illawarra District Mining Union shows just how much more active the northern Illawarra colliers were compared to those in the south: only 5 out of the 37 miners who nominated for the various positions were working in mines south of Corrimal.52 Of the various candidates perhaps the most complex and interesting is one Mr James Sproston of Scarborough who “in the first ballot for a representative on the [Miners] Federal Council” in June 1917 got the lowest vote.53 *** SO WHAT WAS AN ‘OFFICIAL’ WOBBLY ACTUALLY SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE? The Australian IWW, as Vere Gordon Childe suggested, possibly emerged as a reaction against (and a lively alternative to) the very dull reformism and socialistically threadbare Fabian views held by the so-called left of the Labor Party and, no doubt, a large percentage of the Australian labour movement.54 Once the Chicago Wobblies supplanted the more moderate Detroit faction in Australia in the first year of WW1 the ideas of the Australian IWW were most often characterised by a thoroughgoing anti militarism55 that, as the war progressed, morphed into a very strong anti-conscriptionist and anti-patriotic stance. The IWW was also guided by a thoroughgoing anti-parliamentarianism and detestation of nearly all politicians. This was accompanied by a similarly strong antiarbitration stance that abhorred the exceedingly timid approach of small craft trade unions. Most subscribers to Wobbly doctrine pledged themselves to replace such hopeless class-collaborationist craft unions with a new form of large-scale industrial unionism. Unfortunately, exactly what practical from this ‘industrial unionism” might take remained a rather vague notion. Nonetheless, ‘left wing’ trade union agitation for the “One Big Union (OBU) in the years 1918-1919 (after the IWW had been banned) probably owed much to the persistent dissemination of OBU propaganda by that now 51 “The Case of James Russell: systematic victimization”, The International Socialist (Sydney), 23 November 1912, p.2 52 Illawarra Mercury, 10 November 1916, p. 2 53 “Illawarra Miners”, Illawarra Mercury, 29 Jun 1917, p.2 54 Vere Gordon Childe, How Labour Governs: A Study of Workers’ Representation in Australia, (2nd ed.), Melbourne University Press, Parkville, 1964 [1923], chapter X, p. 157 55 This was true even though two prominent IWW figures, Tom Barker and Tom Glynn, had both done military service – and Glynn had even enlisted for the Boer War and was mentioned in dispatches for bravery (and also later court martialled for refusing to carry out the order of a British officer to shoot a Boer child). 29 outlawed organisation over the preceding years. Most committed trade unionists undoubtedly were buoyed by the defeat of Prime Minister Hughes’ two conscription referenda but their dream of genuine social change had been mostly crushed by the humiliation of their abject failure during the General Strike of 1917. The hard liners in the IWW, however, went even further than simply arguing that arbitration sapped the will of the workers to fight the capitalist. They were also opposed to “State Ownership” of industries which more conservative individuals on the ‘left’ of the Australian labour movement often seem to have considered the sin qua non of socialism Tom Barker, however, argued that even “State Ownership” of industry was too limited a socialistic ideal. The State makes a hell for every worker employed by it, in placing its time-servers and toadies in the desirable positions of authority, by systems of pimping and espionage, while superannuation schemes and sliding wage-scales are used to sap and demoralise whatever militant spirit there may be amongst the men.56 Such views are likely to be exceedingly capable of frightening not only the horses but might also be capable of today making even the most theoretically armchair militant superannuated public servant feel a little nervous and in need of at least a glass of socialist chardonnay – if not a big gulp of communist champagne. The IWW ideologue’s hard line abhorrence of supporting political parties also stemmed from a belief in self-reliance and participatory (rather than representative) democracy. What made Direct Action, under the editorship of Tom Barker and Tom Glynn, much more pleasurable to read than the usual tedious Australian socialist tracts was that it avoided what Wobblies saw as the down-fall of Karl Marx who “lost himself and his fellows in the forests of terms he created”. Instead Direct Action, at it best (that is, before Glynn was gaoled and Barker deported) possessed a lively and witty approach and had the daring to suggest such wonderful things as “we will turn all the bosses out to work, send all the parsons to heaven, put the politicians into the Zoo, and make Parliament House into a monkeyhouse. Then we take charge of industry, tear down the slums, turn the kids and women on to the beaches and the parks, and the whole lot of us have a damned good time.”57 Better still, instead of uninspiringly stating ‘proletarian democracy’ is infinitely superior to bourgeois representative democracy’ Direct Action declared: After God made the rattlesnake, the toad, and the bug, he had some stuff left, out of which he created a scab. After he had finished the scab, he used the last rubbish in the place and created— 58 a politician. 56 Tom Barker, “Nationalisation”, Direct Action (Sydney), 15 June, 1914 p.1 Direct Action (Sydney), 25 Mar 1916, p.1 58 ibid. 57 30 Incredibly, one of the best summations of IWW philosophy and attitudes – capturing even its surprisingly progressive lack of racism and also indicating how it appeared to some others on the so-called ‘left’ - appears in the prose of a now forgotten novel entitled Trap by a now forgotten Australian author, Peter Mathers. Even more surprisingly, this novel actually won the Miles Franklin award in 1966 – although only after the future Nobel Prize winner, Patrick White, withdrew his The Solid Mandala from the competition. Before long he [Wilson] was openly associating with members of the IWW. He was arrested after a demonstration. And ambitious employee told Peters [his boss]. Wilson gave notice. Think of your wife, begged Peters. I think of Socialism, said Wilson proudly. Wilson heard that Melbourne offered better opportunities. But the city depressed them. They returned to Balmain But now even Mrs Rees felt that he should be less enthusiastic. And you can’t say, she said, that I’m one for postponing the day of equality. Wilson listened politely. It seemed to him that Mrs Rees was yet another who now regarded dark people as rather a pity, to be helped gradually. An evolutionist, like most people, not a revolutionary. The anarchy of the IWW terrified her. Give her the Labor Party any day. Rees himself now worked in an engineering shop near Mort’s Dock. He told Wilson that unless he was careful he (and his IWW) would lose the Labor movement all its gains. Arbitration is the only way. The strike’s the weapon, said Wilson. Rees smiled indulgently. He, too, had once felt the same way. Educating the workers in Socialism is the thing, said Wilson, not forgetting the superior case for industrial unionism. He paused. Craft unions, of course, are out. What’s wrong with the Labor Party? Shouted Rees. It seems as if it can only work in with the capitalist. All it does is compromise. The IWW is the only organisation for the worker. IWW – ugh! Snorted Rees. With them it’s class war. Control of land and banking, said Wilson, the breaking up of the big estates. Both the Rees now wished Wilson somewhere else. The War, Mrs Rees said, will you be going? Going to the War? He gasped in amazement. You ask me if I’m fund raising for the capitalist? Shit! That’s enough, she said coldly, and glanced at her husband. He rallied and managed to snap, Yeah that’s enough. We don’t, she said, have that sort of talk here. We have people from the Labor movement – revolutionists even, but never swearers. Her husband thought that she had perhaps gone a little too far this time. Yeah, Yeah, Wils, he said, I’ve been thinking about the War and going. Wilson stared proudly at them. He intoned, Every worker a member of an army, one tremendous army, with brigades and units and a high command in the Trades Hall [this last sentence is the only false note in Mather’s prose as many Wobblies would have baulked at anything as elitist as a “high command” but, fortuitously, it also helps reveal how vague and open to interpretation the Wobblies dream of One Big Industrial union divided into brigades and units actually was].59 It is, nonetheless, an extraordinarily accurate portrait of Australian WW1 Wobbly ideology for something written as late at the mid 1960s. Impressively, Mather even catches something of the Wobblies’ sexism. Although the Wobblies were, perhaps, slightly more feminist-minded than most of the general population, even the lyrics of Joe Hill’s famous Wobbly song “The Rebel 59 Peter Mathers, Trap, Cassell Australia, Sydney, 1966; reprinted Sydney University Press, 2003, pp.189-190 31 Girl” reveal both that patronising sexism had not been eliminated and also the fact of the rather small number of women who were ever IWW members. That's the Rebel Girl, that's the Rebel Girl! To the working class she's a precious pearl. She brings courage, pride and joy To the fighting Rebel Boy. We've had girls before, but we need some more In the Industrial Workers of the World.60 There was, however, one very extraordinary female Australian IWW member who has a strong connection with Illawarra. She was born as May Ewart (sometimes written as Hewitt), daughter of a joiner, in Manchester in 1893. She worked as a barmaid at Circular Quay but was clearly a working class intellectual and studied French and German and loved the works of Oscar Wilde – something that was discovered when a detective named Hawes raided her rented premises. She later married Jock Wilson who was born on the Isle of Mull in 1894 and arrived in Australia in 1909. May and Jock were married in Long Bay Gaol during the Great Strike of October 1917 where Jock was whiling away his time prior to deportation for opposing conscription in a speech he made in the Domain.61 The marriage was, presumably, a ploy to see if Jock’s deportation could be delayed. Unfortunately, if it was, the ploy backfired because, after the wedding ceremony at Long Bay Gaol, the authorities duly arrested May Ewart – the surely now slightly less than blushing Manchester-born bride - for an offence under the Unlawful Associations Act. May was fortunate to be out of gaol at all for she had earlier been convicted of the same offence and received a three month sentence with hard labour – but a kindly judge suspended the sentence and gave her a 12 month good behaviour bond. May had also previously been harassed by a Detective Hawes who had convinced her hotelier employer to dismiss May form her job. Despite being again given a reprieve from serving lengthy gaol time, May Ewart was nonetheless duly deported to Liverpool aboard the SS Northumberland.62 The happy couple, however, eventually returned to Australia and moved to the south coast where both Jock and May were heavily involved in the anti-Vietnam war campaign in the 1960s – and May was also heavily involved in the Nebo Miner's Womens Auxiliary. 60 First published in the March 1916 edition (ninth edition; "Joe Hill Memorial Edition") of the IWW "Little Red Songbook." The song was inspired by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn who had joined the New York City local 179 of the I. W. W. in 1906 (at age 16) and soon became the foremost woman organizer in the I.W.W. She subsequently joined the American Communist Party. 61 “IWW Prisoners: May Ewart released: permitted to marry another prisoner”, Barrier Miner (Broken Hill) 23 Oct 1917, p.2 62 No contemporary details of the deportation were supposed to be published but this fact was mentioned in the NSW parliament and reported in The Leader (Orange), 5 Oct 1917, p.6 32 The marriage of Jock Wilson and May Ewart in Long Bay Gaol on October 4, 1917 had been witnessed by prominent female IWW activist Ellen Sarah Lynch (nee Doran and usually known as “Lena” or “Eva”) who had been born at Sialkot in the northeast Punjab (then in India but now in Pakistan) in 1870. Eva Lynch was at the time awaiting trial for also being a member of an unlawful association and having “a most inflammatory nature, and likely to cause trouble.” What she had said to cause offence was the following: The authorities can arrest all our men, but they can't stop our meetings. There will be plenty of women to address meetings when I am arrested and sent to gaol." Later she was seen by witness in the I.W.W. offices in Sussex-street. He said to her, "You are a member of the I.W.W.?" She replied, "Yes, and also a Sinn Fiener." Detective Truscott said that he was at a meeting of the I.W.W. in the Domain. Lynch said, "The I.W.W. are not dead yet, and all the speakers are not in gaol, for they have not yet got me. At the present time I am busy instructing a class of girl speakers, who will attend the Domain every Sunday to keep the movement alive until the sentenced members are released.63 With both Eva Lynch and the Prison Governor as witnesses, Jock Wilson later recalled; “We [i.e. he and May Ewart] had the marriage ceremony, and I didn’t see her again until we were both on the boat on which we were being deported.”64 Jock and May seem to have remained life-long radicals – but Eva Lynch ended up a conservative member of the Labor Party – although maintaining an interest in women’s rights and issues. *** SCARBOROUGH’S JAMES POTTER SPROSTON – SO VERY VERY VERY PRESBYTERIAN Mr Sproston, on his own admittance, was once a subscriber to the IWW paper Direct Action – in 1916 just before the organisation which produced it was outlawed.65 Given the place in which he and his family were then domiciled that fact, perhaps, is unremarkable. The additional fact that Mr Sproston had also been secretary of the Scarborough Co-operative Society since at least 1913 would seem to indicate that he was, indeed, a man of at least some slightly progressive views. What is remarkable, however, is that this subscriber to the newspaper produced by the atheistic IWW was also a Presbyterian lay preacher.66 What’s more, in 1918, he attended (along with 31 others) an evening conducted by an organisation named the “Bible Success Band”. Moreover, “after this meeting there was a special congregational meeting (Presbyterian), to arrange for a welcome to Mr. Ross, who has 63 “IWW Woman Sentenced”, Gilgandra Weekly, 5 Oct 1917, p.15; “the magistrate said that as accused was the first woman to be sentenced, he would' only impose a sentence of four months' hard labour (Albury Banner and Wodonga Express (28 Sep 1917, p.34) 64 “Jock and May Wilson Papers”, previously in the possession of the late Illawarra activist, Sally Bowen, and now presumably in possession of her daughter, Margaret. 65 Truth (Sydney), December 30, 1917, p.4 66 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 8 November 1918, p.9 33 been appointed to the charge.”67 Mr Hughie Ross and James Sproston would, as coreligionists, do much work together and presumably became friends. Yet, remarkably, Hughie Ross worked as a Real Estate agent in Thirroul under the name “Ross & Tucker (R&T)” which the locals quickly dubbed ‘Robbers and Thieves’.68 Hughie Ross later went on to become a member of the ultra right wing Thirroul/Austinmer branch of the New Guard in the 1930s.69 Yet when two Scarborough miners suspected of being IWW members were framed on a trumped charge of attempted murder in 1917, our James Sproston - as will be soon revealed – published a very long, detailed and very spirited defence of the two men he regarded as gentle and compassionate individuals. He also – again as will soon be revealed in some detail – clearly possessed a very deep sense of outrage when he saw injustice in action and was not afraid to very publicly proclaim his support for two individuals most of his fellow Presbyterians would probably have regarded as beyond the pale. Indeed, so outraged at the injustice he perceived was then being practised by the Government and its agents in Illawarra’s northern coastal mining villages that he eventually (and for rather different reasons than Dugald McGhee it would seem) uprooted his family and also moved to the northern coalfields. Ironically, it would be James Sproston – then living at Kearsley (near Cessnock) who would expose the obfuscations of his former fellow Scarborough miner. In a letter to the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, James Sproston wrote the following. Sir, - In the South Maitland field your paper has a reputation second to none for fairness and impartiality, but I would like to ask you to correct a report given in last Saturday's edition regarding the evidence given by Mr. D. McGhee before the Coal Commission. Under the heading, “Vital to Efficiency," Mr. Gepp asks, "Is it the practice to hold staff meetings, including deputies, to discuss generally the operations of the pit and any method of improvement, either technical or in connection with the industrial side, and are the under-manager and overman present on these occasions." The reply given by Mr. McGhee was, "Yes." When asked if the practice was general on the Maitland field the reply was, "I can only speak for the place where I was employed. The manager goes down the pit twice a week, and has a confidential chat with the deputies on the general working of the colliery." It is here, I think, that a mistake has been made in reporting Mr. McGhee's experience at the place where he was formerly employed, namely, North Bulli Colliery. Such a practice may have been adopted there, but at Abermain No. 2 Colliery, where Mr. McGhee was employed prior to the present stoppage, such a practice has never been in existence. There has not been one conference with the manager, under-manager, overman, and deputies on the general working of the colliery during the history of the present management. I am loth to believe that Mr. McGhee would deliberately deceive the Coal Commission, as he is a very prominent citizen in Weston, connected with the A.L.P., the Kurri Kurri Co-operative Store, a member of the executive of the South Maitland Colliery Officials' Association, and a Justice of the Peace. 67 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 3 May 1918, p. 18 Arthur Donald Gray (OAM), personal oral history interview, 10 January, 2003 69 Thirroul/Austinmer New Guard Locality Members, Letter dated 21 March 1932. De Groot Papers Volume 5 Page 145, SLNSW (A 4949) 68 34 Therefore, I must logically conclude that the words, "I can only speak of the place where I worked" must refer to the North Bulli Colliery [Coledale]. Will you please make this correction on behalf of the deputies of Abermain No. 2 Colliery. J. SPROSTON. Branch Secretary. Kearsley. November 26 [1929].70 At first blush it seems a rather niggling point to make - and it might even be considered there is just a touch of unchristian personal animosity in Sproston’s decision to highlight this inaccuracy. Read more closely, however, there is a dignity in this letter – and it is likely that Sproston was only motivated by the same sense of fairness and outrage at injustice which burned so brightly in Sproston’s very public defence of two Scarborough miners falsely accused of attempted murder many years before. The letter also demonstrates that at Coledale better and safer working practices had been forced upon the owners through on-the-job militancy than were prevailing more than a decade later on the Cessnock Coalfields. IWW on-the-job direct action appears to have had some demonstrable impact on working conditions in the northern Illawarra collieries – despite the fact that the incessant withdrawal of the miners labour power (and consequent loss of wages) that made it possible would have been no easy thing for some local families to manage. Further evidence of James Sproston’s passion – and his fine prose style – will be revealed at some length a little later. The key point, to be made at this stage, however, is that there were clearly some individuals living in Illawarra’s northern coal mining townships who (though unlikely to be advocating the overthrow of capitalism) were people very much like James Sproston who were tolerant of divergent opinions and willing to judge individuals by their character and their sincerity of belief rather than condemning them outright on ideological grounds. As “BENT AXLE” (the most regularly published Coledale IWW activist) remarked after a visit of one the most famous members of the IWW, Tom Barker, to the town: “The I.W.W. propaganda is having a telling effect upon the coalies along the South Coast, and the One Big Union dope is getting hold. “Bent Axle” went on to report that “Fellow-Workers Barker and Laidler visited the Coast last week, and had an excellent meeting in the Hall at Coledale. Pertinent questions, and some good discussion terminated a highly educational night…Fortnightly lectures have been arranged, and we intend to get the best speakers on industrial subjects to address the workers. The I.W.W. is here to stay, and with a little more educational work the red card will be recognised on the job. Yours for the One Big Union, BENT AXLE.71 “The recognition of the red card” mentioned here refers to the fact that the IWW had already won the right to have their membership of the IWW considered as equivalent to membership of the Miner’s Union – as seems also to have happened at Broken Hill. How much of James Sproston’s passionate concern for justice in the abstract (along with the specific rights of colliery workers to safe employment) was the product of his 70 71 “The Coal Industry”, Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, 2 Dec 1929, p.2 Direct Action (Sydney) 26 May 1917 p. 1 35 commitment to Christianity or the influence of local IWW propaganda is very difficult to know. What can be known, however, is the immense sympathy and concern he publicly expressed for fellow miners condemned as IWW sympathisers and falsely accused of murder. Yet the extraordinary events and actions of the capitalist state and their agents – the police and their informers – in Coledale and Scarborough extending up to mid 1919 must have had their impact on Sproston’s conscience and taken their toll. It took some time - but by 1921 (even earlier than Dugald McGhee left for the northern coalfields) Sproston apparently had experienced enough of what it was like to live in the virtual police state Coledale and Scarborough became after a scab fireman received a nonfatal bullet wound as his train passed through Coledale in 1917. The scandalous events of the trial of two framed miners and the subsequent long extended police presence in the towns seems to have been enough to convince Mr Sproston that he and his family would be better off elsewhere. What Sproston probably did not then know was that Alexander Miller, the Manager of the Coledale Colliery and Cokeworks, was making regular reports to the police in Sydney. In a letter sent to the Inspector General of Police in Sydney dated November 7, 1916 (and which was acknowledged by return mail the following day) Miller stated the following. “It is freely stated in the locality that since the police raid on the IWW crowd, all of their communications are to be given to each branch by no less than six of the brotherhood, and that no printing or writing is to be made concerning their movements. I pass this on for what it is worth.”72 Sproston certainly seems to have cottoned on later though – as the reader will soon see. Some of the reports of the plain clothes detectives sent down from Sydney to spy on the agitators, however, are quite hilarious. At a “meeting addressed by Norman Rancie” at Helensburgh on the 7th January 1917 he was said to have “libelled the Prime Minister as a horse thief before entering parliament.” Detective Moore of the Criminal Investigation Bureau added that, at another meeting held on the 20th January 1917, “only 40 people were present and took little interest in what Rancie had to say.”73 And the spook was probably telling the truth for when Rancie took over editorship of Direct Action following the gaoling of Tom Barker and Tom Glynn the Wobbly journal lost a great deal of its verve and wit. Rancie may have done slightly better the following week when a local policeman discovered a handwritten poster advertising a meeting at Scarborough beach on “January 28 Sunday 2.30 p.m. sharp.” Somehow the event managed to attract “70 persons” and, of course, the police sent someone to take the following notes. 72 Letter from Coledale Mine Manger Alexander Miller (7th November, 1916) to NSW Police Department, Special Investigation Department, Special Bundle, Papers Concerning the International [sic] Workers of the World, Box 7/5592, State Records of NSW. 73 Police Special Bundles IWW (1917-1923), SRNSW 7/5596. 36 “Dugald McGhee leader of the local miners introduced West and Wilson as speakers. Wilson criticised the PM. Wilson spoke of the severe IWW sentences. Nothing said to which exception could be taken”. Wilson concluded his speech by saying, “We might as well look for hell to freeze over as for justice in the capitalist courts.” This information was sent to Inspector Anderson in Sydney and the file includes the handwritten poster which also advertised Messrs “H. Melrose (AMA Broken Hill) and “W. Rancie” of the “IWW Release Committee”.74 Such close surveillance, however, was stepped-up even further by the local police after membership of the IWW was formally outlawed and they too forwarded their information on to Sydney. On the 30th October 1917, for example, a local policeman reported that he had been “informed by reliable loyalists and ex members of the Helensburgh Workmen’s Club” that ‘no member of the club has any connection with the IWW nor is the club frequented by ex members - although there are half a dozen extreme unionists and probable IWW sympathisers – except for one who was convicted.” He also suggested that “no doubt there were members in the town, but not since the first conviction was made in Sydney.”75 As early a 10th October 1916 things were sufficiently unruly in the mines starching from South Clifton to Coledale for Detective Sergeant 3rd class J. H. Miller to report back to Sydney that “There are a number of men working at the mines who are in sympathy with the IWW movement and who are constantly causing disaffection amongst their fellow employees - some of who are in my opinion responsible for offences.”76 The hapless 3rd class Detective Sergeant got even busier next week when he hit the books and “searched the membership list of the IWW” but could not “find any name appearing who works at Corrimal colliery or anyone of that designation employed at Corrimal on the attached list of suspects provided by Mr Jones General Manager.”77 Inspector Anderson seems to have put in a tad less effort and simply “reported Damage to Property of Corrimal Balgownie Colliery” and added the note that he suspected “that only one man involved and so no information available.”78 The management of the mine, however, held a different view: “The mine authorities are satisfied that the runaway was not the result of accident, but was the outcome of the action of some person or persons desirous of interfering with and damaging the property of the company.79 74 ibid NSW Police Department, Special Investigation Department, Special Bundle. See State Records of NSW File 30278, 30 October 1917. The “reliable loyalists” were being consulted after a complaint was made by an Andrew Goodwin “re Helensburgh Workmens club having IWW members who are drinking” (SRNSW, 11 October 1917, File 275555). 76 Detective Sergeant 3rd class J. H. Miller, 10 October, 1916, Police Special Bundles IWW (19171923), SRNSW 7/5590. 77 Police Bundles IWW (1917-1923), 13 October, 1916, SRNSW 7/5590; “Sabotage”, Daily Telegraph, 18 October, 1916. 78 Police Bundles IWW (1917-1923), 13 October, 1916, SRNSW 7/5590. 79 “Fears in the coal district, Barrier Miner (Broken Hill), 18 Oct 1916, p.2 and “Sabotage: runaway mine skips”, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 October 1916 p.10 Article 75 37 The police surveillance eventually got so bad that even a likely very harmless former Illawarra public school headmaster (who had been transferred from the district way back in 1908 when the IWW was still in its infancy) was still being kept under surveillance at Willoughby in Sydney for being “suspected of being an IWW member” as late as July 1917.80 When it became pretty clear that even the eminently respectable were not beyond suspicion and might have police keeping a constant watchful eye, Mr James Potter Sproston seems to have pretty smartly set about trying to improve his circumstances and making a move. By 1918 Sproston had sat “an examination of candidates for certificates of competency as manager, under-manager, and deputy, under the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1912… at Newcastle and was successful in gaining a second class certificate.” Despite, like Dugald McGhee, now moving up a rung in the mining world, Sproston (as the 1929 letter quote above indicate) continued his trade union activities at Cessnock and died there in 1965 – and yet seems to have remained devoutly Presbyterian until his dying days. In this sort of unfailing commitment to his Christian faith, Sproston certainly appears to have been quite an unusual fellow – almost saint-like. When his wife Hannah died in 1932, aged 48, it was reported that she “formerly resided at Scarborough, on the South Coast” and “has been a resident of Kearsley for eleven years, and although a cripple for the last 25 years, was always of a cheerful and gentle disposition.” She was said to have “had a warm corner in her heart towards every religion, either 'Protestant, Catholic, Jew, or Gentile, and was a great believer in the Golden Rule. She leaves behind a husband and one son and five daughters to mourn their loss.”81 Things got even worse for Sproston later in the year 1932 when his little daughter, Ethel (aged 10) was knocked down and killed in front of his house at Kearsely and yet – at the inquest – he managed to make the following statement. Addressing the coroner from the body of the court, Mr. Sproston, father of the dead child, said there seemed to have been a combination of circumstances against the child's chances that day… Mr. Sproston, referring to the driver of the motor-cycle. ‘It is difficult to anticipate what a child will do. The children pulled against each other, and just before the moment of impact their hands are broken loose, and the thing happens. My opinion is that the whole thing was a very unfortunate accident, and one of those things we have to face in life.”82 Indeed, it certainly seems that if a merciless God ever existed then he was certainly trying to test the faith of his loyal disciple James Potter Sproston. After losing his 80 Police Special Bundles, SRNSW, 25 July 1917, File 275555). The headmaster in question was Mr. George Edwin Lyell who survived the investigation and managed to serve an extraordinary 47 years in the Education Department (19 of those at Willoughby) - eventually dying at his residence, Lord Street, Roseville, aged 65 years. (The Sydney Morning Herald, 31 Jan 1931, p.17). Lyell had been so unthreatening when he was moved from Shellharbour Public school in 1902 that he was described thus: “As a townsman he was prominent in everything that promoted the welfare of Shellharbour, and he would be missed in many ways, apart from his ability as a teacher.” (“Valedictory”, The Kiama Reporter and Illawarra Journal, 15 January 1902, p.2) 81 “Obituary”, The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder, 22 Apr 1932, p.2 82 “Sad Happening at Kearsley”, The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder, 11 Oct 1932, p.1 38 wife and daughter in 1932, just a few years later a tornado hit Kearsley and demolished every church in the town along with the veranda of James Sproston's house in Allandale Street.83 During WW2 Sproston kept up his principled worker militancy when 152 Mine Deputies were charged “under National Security Regulations” for having “absented themselves from work on September 20 [1943] without reasonable excuse.”84 He even penned an open letter to Prime Minister Curtin trying to explain, with his usual evenhandedness, the reasons for there being so much disputation on the coalfields during wartime. Under the headline “Why Men Strike on Coalfields” Sproston wrote the following. MR. Curtin has said that he does not regard the coal position as hopeless. "I believe there can come a transformation of heart by the men," he said. Will the miners have this change of heart Mr. Curtin believes they will? Can they and will they produce more coal? Why is there continual strife on the coalfields? I will try in this article to answer these questions. I have been a miner for 37 years –17 years on the coal face and for the last 20 years a deputy on the South Maitland fields. I am in a neutral position and able to see both sides of the complicated difficulties of the mine fields without prejudice. Come, then, Mr. Curtin, away from Canberra and pay a visit with me (imaginary, of course) into the lives of the miners. Come into their homes; come into the bords where they toil; listen with me to their daily conversation, then probably you will begin to understand their attitude to things which seem so trivial to you and the men of the city, but mean a lot more to us. Breakfast at 4.15 First, let us see one cause of the miner being so irritable, so easily led home by a pit-top meeting. Listen with me to the following conversation early in the morning, after a hot, muggy night in the Cessnock district: Time, 5.15 a.m.; real time, 4.15 a.m. [daylight saving was then in operation for the duration of the war] Miner's wife at breakfast table anxiously watches her husband's weary eyes as he toys with the food. "What is the matter, Jack? Aren't you hungry?" Jack-I don't feel like it. I feel more like bed. Wife--But try and eat it. I've never known you to miss your breakfast for the last 20 years. Jack-No, I have been pretty regular in my habits, Mary; but, oh, I'm all to pieces, somehow. I’m always tired. "I can't get used to this getting up an hour before you should and sneaking away to work in the dark. "Strike me pink, even the birds have more sense than us." And so to Toil Mary- I'm blessed if I know why they put the clock on at all. Jack-No, nor me. I read in the paper where they are supposed to save a bit of coal and electricity, but what they save one way they lose more in the loss of output. "God, if some of them city men could only sleep up here a night like last night, tossing and turning, hardly a breath until about 3 o'clock in the morning, when it started t cool down, then when you just feel as though you could sleep the blasted alarm goes off. "I wish they could see the heavy eyes and nodding heads that I see when I hop on the bus to go 13 miles to work. "They would not wonder why we take a day off sometimes when there is a meeting. "Heavens, Mary, it's five to 6. I must go, old girl.' Mary-Hurroo, Jack, look after yourself, won't you? Away goes the miner to his day's toil. 83 84 “Night of Anxiety”, The Newcastle Sun, 18 Jan 1937, p.8 The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder, 12 October 1943 p 3 39 No. Mr. Curtin, we have never believed that you gained any more coal by daylight saving. We could never understand, Mr. Curtin, why you stopped the broadcasting of the races in Melbourne. Not one miner in the Cessnock or Kurri district can afford, or has the desire to go to Melbourne races on a Saturday, but probably six out of every 10 may like to put their 2/ on Precept, Tranquil Star, or Phoines, just because they have grown to love a good horse, or the name of a good horse, and can see no more harm in putting 2/ on a horse than buying a couple of schooners of beer. You denied them even that small privilege. You cut out the broadcart. It seems so trivial and petty to us. Again, another thing that irritates us. The question of food. We do not say for a moment that there should not be rationing. But listen. I myself (and I am not working hard on the coal face) have had one half-pound of bacon during the last six months, and that is between four adults and one child. One half-pound! And when I unwrapped it, what do you think was stamped on the inside of the wrapper? This: "Unfit for Army consumption." It's tough for the miners, is it not, when you want more coal? Mr. J. Sproston, of Kearsley, N.S.W., coal-face miner for 17 years before he became a mine deputy, wrote this article. He presents what he believes is the case for the miner, in an attempt to make readers understand the difficulties miners have to suffer in war-time. We have published the article as he wrote it. Readers can make up their own minds.85 The progressive Presbyterian seems to have been willing to stand strong in the face of senseless war-time impositions - and it is just possible that all that Wobbly propaganda to which he was subjected back in Scarborough and Coledale may not have been in vain. Despite the tragedies of Sproston’s life, it would seem that there is a chance that the impact of his dealings with Wobblies victimised by the State in Coledale (two of whom – as you will later see – Sproston seems to have almost revered) stayed with him even into old age. For even as Secretary of the Retired Mineworkers Association Kearsley branch in the 1950s he was publishing long allegorical poems in the Cessnock newspapers which indicate he still believe that injustice should be resisted everywhere – as much in the animal as well as the human sphere: But boldly spoke Rhode Island Red She’s got a case, as she has sald They’ve got no right to fill our tins With plum stones, or tomato skins… Orange peel and egg shells too, With soup thrown in to make a stew, I’m going on strike, I've had my say. From now on I refuse to lay. Hear, hear, said little Jenny Wren, There speaks a good old Aussie hen We'll go on strike, we will not lay 'Till 3 months after Xmas Day!86 85 86 News (Adelaide) 26 Feb 1944, p.2 “It Turned Out To Be A Dream”, The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder, 16 Dec 1952 40 WHAT THIS BOOK IS ACTUALLY INTERESTED IN There are few things I actually find more tedious than traditional Labour History and, tragically, the Illawarra has contributed a good many pages to the dusty tomes written about this topic. Many of these now stand mouldering in dumpsters - awaiting transportation to land fill or delivery to op-shops where, if purchased, they are likely to remain largely unopened on the bookshelves of the ageing party faithful. Most of the tedium in the many mind-numbing theses, article and books has, I think, emerged because the focus has long been on those bone-headed trade unionists and aspiring Labor politicians unwilling to accept the notion that the working class and the employing class have nothing in common. Possibly far too much ink has also been devoted to the individual miners’ leaders who fought to establish timid trade unions which ended up going cap in hand to the bosses and so were locked out of their jobs for months, only to (if they were lucky) return to their labours under the same conditions as before. Worse still they often had to toil along side the many scabs who had taken their places for the duration of the strike. What has so often been ignored, however, are the individuals - often anonymous or, of necessity, fond of the use of pseudonyms – on the fringes of and much more to the left of the traditionally organised labour movement and the Labor Party and its often exceedingly timid and moderate ‘socialist’ offshoots. These individuals sought not a parliamentary road to socialism. Though few and far between, these Australian workers are part of a hitherto largely ignored non-party and anti conservative trade union alternative approach to the amelioration of the evils of capitalist society. But these people trusted not in the notion of a Bolshevik style revolution from above led largely by intellectuals – they believed in a more cheerful, less centralised, attack upon capitalism by an often anonymous rank and file. Even before Antonio Gramsci put pen to paper while rotting away in Mussolini’s prison cells, there were radical individuals living and working in Northern Illawarra who understood that capitalism was not just a system of economic exploitation. Rather, it was also a profound system of ideological oppression that succeeded in securing the consent of the exploited to accept their own exploitation. These individuals clearly sensed that both the parliamentary road to socialism and the so-called ‘protection’ of interests by combining to form bureaucratic trade unions was a dead end. And there were some who did more than just sense it – for they had sometimes had the chance to read the formidably clear and cogent writings of people like the today little known W.R. Winspear. Indeed, as E. J. Holloway in his pamphlet “The Australian Victory over Conscription in 1916-17” says “I still feel that the most effective single piece of propaganda for our side, which decided the votes of perhaps tens of thousands of women, was W. R. Winspear’s poem, illustrated by Claude Marquet, entitled “The Blood Vote.”87 87 Bertha Walker, Solidarity Forever… a part story of the life and times of Percy – the first quarter of a century, The National Press, 1972, electronic version 2012, p. 131 accessed 20 March, 2016 at http://www.cpa.org.au/resources/classics/solidarityforever.pdf 41 This marvellous piece of work was also reproduced from the back cover of Bertha Walker’s pamphlet “How to Defeat Conscription: a Story of the 1916 and 1917 Campaigns in Victoria”, published by the Anti Conscription Jubilee Committee in 1968. Above all, some few of these individuals were highly critical of both the Labor Party and the docile and compliant trade unions they saw as wedded to the arbitration system that emerged after the devising defeat of the unions in the 1890s. Often they were members (or at least supporters) of the IWW – particularly after 1914 when the Wobblies were the most prominent opponents not just of conscription during WW1 but of the entire capitalist trade war itself. One such individual is the “J Curtin” (to whom James Potter Sproston would later write) who is identified as secretary of the Australian Trades Union Anti-Conscription Congress at the bottom of this marvellous piece of propaganda. Before the fire breathing radical named Curtin went on to become a mild, bespectacled Labor Party Prime Minister of Australia, Johnny Curtin – as a member of the Victorian Socialist party - could write such stirring things as “'Australian defence policy was part and parcel of the international war policy played by the international gang of capitalists.” 42 Our “J Curtin”, however, sadly held simultaneous membership of the much less radical Labor Party. After a spell with the Timber Workers' Union, He then fell in with an even worse crowd in the conservative Australian Workers Union, hit the bottle and ended up editor of the Westralian Worker - far from the centre of the action during the NSW General strike of 1917. It has even been suggested that Curtin was never actually anti-war (merely an anti-conscriptionist) and had even volunteered for the Australian Imperial Force only to be rejected because of inadequate eyesight.88 More definitely, Curtin blotted his copybook with the IWW by, as John Joseph Ambrose Curtin, seeking election to parliament for the House of Representatives seat of Balaclava.89 Winspear’s 1914 pamphlet, Economic Warfare,90 identified the 1891 Maritime strike as a watershed in Australian history but condemned the response of workers in seeking to gain representation in the colonial parliaments. “Between the conduct of the Party of 1891-1894 and that of 1912-1913, there is a mighty difference, a deplorable falling off, much of which can only be credited to the influence of environment.” Labor politicians “became dulled and blunted” by a new, more comfortable life-style and social circle. In order to achieve electoral success they “had to placate both the workers and the small capitalists and shopkeepers”. Having gained a seat in parliament they “commenced to babble about representing all classes, while… playing to the ignorant of their own followers and soothing the prejudices of the bourgeoisie.” Diabolically, Winspear suggested, the capitalist system actually benefited from how these ‘Labor’ politician garnered support for policies which were inimical to the suppression of the dominance of the employing class over those they employed.91 The system of industrial relations which emerged in Australia between 1890 and 1910 meant that “the proletarian must bargain to gain a little here and forego a little there, so that the representative leader becomes the arbitrator or ‘business agent’ of the union … The union leaders have therefore used their working class as a stepping stone by which to lift themselves into a more comfortable and secure position.”92 These sentiments were echoed in Vere Gordon’s Childe’s insider’s account to How Labour Governs published in 1923. Childe was political advisor to Labor Premier John Storey and depicted The Labor Party in Government as riven with conflicting interests. The blame for this he laid squarely at the decisions to allow people who were not part of the working class to become part of the party. Unlike, the IWW who rejected any one who was self employed from membership, Childe bluntly explained that the Labor Party failed in its objectives because it “tried 88 There is, however, some controversy about this. See Geoffrey Serle, “John Curtin (1885–1945)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography, 1993, accessed online 24 April 2016 http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/curtin-john-9885/text17495 89 The Age (Melbourne), 22 August 1914, p.14 90 William Robert Winspear, Economic Warfare, The Marxian Press, Sydney, 1915. 91 William Robert Winspear, Economic Warfare, pp. 34-5 92 ibid, p.37. 43 to govern in the interests of all classes instead of standing up boldly in defence of the one class which put them in power.”93 Childe’s is a highly informed analysis and would seem, at times, to advocate something very close to the Wobbly belief that workers – not union leaders or politicians – need to take responsibility at work. But, largely because he never produced a follow-up book and moved instead to the safe pastures of academic archaeology, it is hard to know whether Chide would ever have fully embraced the position of the leading lights of the IWW. His despair with the Labor Party in Government in NSW after John Storey became Premier in 1920 is evident. But while Storey was still only in opposition Childe expressed views in the Labor Call which make it seem he still felt there was a sliver of hope that the ALP platform could be made more receptive to the ideas of workers control and democracy. This may all seem a long way from anti capitalist attitudes held by individuals within the northern Illawarra colliery townships of Scarborough and Coledale but, surprisingly, Childe chooses a local example to explain that he still, in 1919 at least, had some faith – unlike the IWW – in the ability of the State to facilitate the delivery of on-the-job control for working people: “Provided we can democratise our State industries, albeit by instalments, by pledging the [Labor] Party to such a policy and then returning them with a thumping majority at the polls, we shall have made a substantial step in the direction of abolishing wagery. A working example of an industry — eyen if it be only the Bombo quarries [near Kiama] — successfully run by its employees under the direction of the State, will go much further with the Australian temperament than endless fulminations against Capitalism in the abstract. It is only by such an objective propaganda as this that the Industrial Workers of Australia can be roused from a slumber of remote ideals or an aimless militancy to a resolute and definite effort to take and hold the means of production.”94 Childe’s critique of “remote ideals” and “aimless militancy” may well be a shaft aimed at the IWW – and there is no doubt some truth that the patient propaganda advocated by the IWW would no doubt mean that their utopian future would remain long delayed. Alternatively, however, very few could contend there was much slumberousness about the vociferous way the IWW often promulgated their ideas. Similarly, supporters of the IWW approach could contend, at least by the time of publication of Childe’s How Labour Governs in 1923, that the Labor Party’s parliamentary road to the ultimate aim of worker control of industry was a pure mirage - and thus itself completely mired in “a slumber of remote ideals.” FROM THE BOMBO QUARRIES TO THE MINES OF COLEDALE The manager of the Bombo Quarries at the time Vere Golden Childe was writing in the Labor Call in 1919 was one Sidney Clift - the father of the more famous 93 Vere Gordon Childe, How Labour Governs: A Study of Workers’ Representation in Australia, (2nd ed.), Melbourne University Press, Parkville, 1964 [1923], p. 42 94 Labor News, 22 February 1919., p.3 44 Charmian Clift who once shared a house with the even more famous Leonard Cohen.95 Born and raised in Derbyshire, Syd Clift came to Australia before WW1 and moved to live in Kiama as a mining engineer in charge of one of the blue metal quarries there run by the State Government Railways. Syd Clift was no revolutionary but he did have a conscience. And his daughter, Charmian, along with quite a few others in Kiama would be particularly grateful to him for holding on to his job when the Great Depression hit in 1929. According to Garry Kinnane, when the NSW Railways Department decided to close the quarry during the depression, Syd Clift insisted on keeping it going by doing all the maintenance himself and putting in lots of extra unpaid hours. In this way the quarry struggled on and many men were kept in employment in Kiama, whereas most workers elsewhere in Illawarra did it very tough. But, with or without a job, an economic depression in Kiama or Coledale or Scarborough was a lot better than one in Surry Hills or Darlinghurst – for in Illawarra there were always fish to land and rabbits to catch whenever the bread and dripping started to get low. In Coledale and Scarborough it was this fact that enabled some single men to be much more independent-minded about whether they would accept the terms the bosses were offering. Indeed, the collective hunting and fishing expeditions of striking miners actually served to foster greater independence of thought – particularly if you had access to a bit of land where you could also grow vegetables or strip fruit trees of their harvest. By the time Vere Gordon Childe was writing in the Labor Call in 1919 the Coledale miners were evidencing considerable independence and defying their union leaders' calls to do as their employers requested: A compulsory conference of the Coledale miners and employers, fixed for yesterday, did not occur, the owners' representatives not putting in an appearance. It was later explained that the conference would be declared abortive unless the Coledale men extended their 14 days' notice of a strike. It is understood that that district branch of the Federation has urged the Coledale men to extend this notice, but the men refused. The prospects of relief from the union for the strikers is very gloomy. It would probably be a month before they could get any relief at all, and when it would, only be very meagre. The Coledale outlook generally is murky, but there is no suggestion of a general strike, not at present, anyway.96 But, again, whether this is the kind of “aimless militancy” of which Childe was so contemptuous is hard to know. What can be known is that, at least by march 1919, the Coledale miners were sufficiently un-slumberous (to adapt Childe’s phrasing) to both refuse to work with scabs— even to the point of handing in their notice— and to be in need of feeling the ‘restraint’ then being supplied by the supposedly militant (though deeply God fearing) secretary of the NSW Coal and Shale Employees Federation, Albert Willis. 95 96 Garry Kinnane, George Johnston: a biography, Melbourne University Press, 1996, pp.70-74 Tweed Daily (Murwillumbah) 19 Mar 1919, p.3 45 Willis moved from the right of the Labor Party to its left and then, in 1919, to the right of the most left-leaning wing of the "Industrial Labor Party" through his temporary support of the Wobbly inspired “One Big Union” principle. When there looked no chance of electoral success for this new “Industrial Labor Party” (an organisation which, because of its parliamentary aspirations, was itself anathema to genuine Wobbly ideologues) Willis quickly returned to the conservative mainstream Labor Party fold. By 1923 he was sufficiently respectable and reconstructed to be made NSW Labor Party Branch President and in 1931 was appointed to that cushiest of positions - NSW Agent General in London - by Premier Jack Lang. Dismissed from that position by the incoming Stevens’ Government after Jack Lang was sacked by the Governor, Willis ended his days as a Conciliation Commissioner and Chairman of the Commonwealth Central Coal Authority from 1943-47— and wiled away his twilight years in luxury at “Bryn Eirw” at Cannon's Road on Burraneer Bay.97 Willis was thus certainly not quite the committed Wobbly radical. Indeed, he was probably just the kind of self-serving individual for whom Bill Casey expressed complete contempt in his wonderful Australian Wobbly song “Bump me Into Parliament” previously quoted in full. VERE GORDON CHILDE’S KNOWLEDGE OF ANTI-CAPITALIST ATITUDES IN ILLAWARRA & ELSEWHERE The man who would later become a truly world famous archaeologist and author (and friend of Communist Party of Great Britain Leader, Palm Dutt, and other leftwingers) was never a card-carrying commo himself. Indeed, he seems to have— like so many—been constrained by his background. Childe was the middle class highly intellectual only surviving child of the Reverend Stephen Henry (1844–1923) and Harriet Eliza Childe 1853–1910), both of English descent. Educated at Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore) and Sydney University he graduated B.A. in 1914 with first-class honours in Latin, Greek and philosophy and won the University Medal. He also scored Professor Francis Anderson's prize for philosophy and the Sir Daniel Cooper graduate scholarship which enabled him to escape his parents and get to Queen's College, Oxford, where he was awarded a B.Litt. in 1916 for research on Indo-European archaeology. The next year he again obtained first-class honours. As a socialist and pacifist he only returned reluctantly to Sydney to tutor at St Andrew's College, University of Sydney, from which he would soon be dismissed (or, rather, resigned his college position at the request of the Principal) after giving a pacifist speech in Melbourne in which both the press and the Australian security services took an interest. 97 “Funeral Notice”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 Mar 1941, p. 7. See also Frank Farrell, 'Willis, Albert Charles (1876–1954)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/willis-albert-charles-9122/text16089, published first in hardcopy 1990, accessed online 9 March 2016. 46 In August 1919 Childe became private secretary to John Storey, then leader of the NSW Opposition and soon Labor Premier of NSW from March 1920 until October 1921. In that month Childe left for England, where he worked for six months in the NSW’s Agent-General's Office, but was dismissed when the Labor Government fell and the conservative Kiama-born George Fuller became Premier.98 Very late in life Childe dismissed his experiences in NSW as a “sentimental excursion”99 into Australian politics. By then he was back in Australia and seemingly a long way from either mixing with or pretending to know anything about revolutionaries. Nonetheless, his written account of the period 1916 -1922, How Labour Governs, published in London in 1923 is about as close as we can get to a full-scale first-hand analysis of the radical politics of those years. The dispiriting experience of working for Premier Storey made Childe (much like the ideologues in the IWW) largely dismissive of any chance of placing one’s hope in the possibility that parliament could deliver socialism. Moreover, Childe’s account of the IWW and the splits and divisions among the socalled ‘left’ of the Labor Party are probably as good a prime source as we are ever likely to get. Nonetheless, good as Childe’s reminiscences are, they contain clear errors and exaggerations which, I guess, can only be put down to his attitude being crippled by middle class anxiety. A prime concern with his account is Childe’s acceptance of the view that the IWW were definitely responsible for arson attacks during the anti conscription campaign and also during the campaign to release the Wobbly editor of Direct Action, Tom Barker, from gaol. Childe’s remarkable statement that “The inner circle of the IWW was confessedly responsible for the fires”100 is a case of Childe either completely swallowing the line of the press and the police informers or of him having had access to personal confessions from IWW members— the sources of which he does not cite. The latter is unlikely for on the immediately proceeding page of How Labour Governs Childe asserts, “It cannot be reasonably be doubted that some members at least of the organisation were implicated directly in the incendiaries.”101 Despite having read what I suspect is every scrap of surviving evidence relating to these alleged arson attacks there is no way I would be game to ‘reasonably’ make such an assertion— for all the ‘evidence’ relies on information provided by paid police informers. And, as has been mentioned before, even Tom Barker himself explained that “we had many little groups amongst us who were doing various things, and those things were deadly 98 Jim Allen, 'Childe, Vere Gordon (1892–1957)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/childe-vere-gordon5580/text9521, published first in hardcopy 1979, accessed online 9 March 2016. 99 Vere Gordon Childe, “Retrospect” in Antiquity, 1958, “Retrospect” in Antiquity, Volume 32, 1958, p. 69 100 Vere Gordon Childe, How Labour Governs, op.cit., p.148 101 How Labour Governs, op.cit., p.147 47 secret and they kept them to themselves, so that you might be God Almighty in the organisation, but you wouldn’t know half a dozen things that were going on.102 Equally surprising is Childe’s palpable horror that the IWW “had to make use of men of a fine calibre— ordinary criminals”— to achieve its ends. Childe's subsequent stretching his very bourgeois horror to then condemn the IWW as a whole (rather than a single embittered member) for the murder of a policeman at Tottenham, seems to indicate that he has not fully escaped his very conservative Christian background. A recent Ph.D thesis by Rowan Day, however, makes it seem pretty likely that the Tottenham killing was motivated much more by personal issues and thus had not all that much to do with the IWW’s propagandistic war on capitalism.103 In addition, Childe’s description of Wobbly songs as being “crude”104 also appears to suggest he may not have entirely escaped the moral distaste of his deeply religious parents. That Childe also gives voice to the idea that the IWW urged violent revolution is also very much against the tenor of the articles published in Direct Action which at no time countenanced murder. Childe, however, argues the following. They definitely advocated violence both to carry the revolution through and hasten it on. Here they definitely broke with the Socialists. Both believed in the inevitable and abrupt collapse of Capitalism as predicted by Marx. But the I.W.W. proposed to facilitate its collapse by doing everything in their power to make the capitalist system unworkable here and now. This was the philosophical justification for ‘go-slow’ and ‘sabotage.’ This ideal provides the inner motive for the so-called criminal acts perpetrated by prominent members of the association. For instance, J. B. King, Morgan, Goldstein and others, carried on the business of forging £5 notes (for which they were convicted), not with the idea of enriching themselves, but with the deliberate intention of accelerating the débâcle of bourgeois society by deprecating the circulating medium.105 Here both Childe’s logic and lack of evidence defeats him. ‘Go-slow’ and ‘sabotage’ and ‘forging £5 notes’ do not constitute physical violence against individuals. Furthermore, that Childe does not personally know the IWW very well at all is evident in his remarks about one Mr Jim Quinton being a member of the IWW which were published in Sally Freen’s biography of Childe.106 Quinton was not actually a Wobbly but simply a radical anti-conscriptionist and member of Australian Socialist Party who, from Gympie in Queensland, once stated (contradicting Childe) that “His experience of the police of New South Wales convinced him that the so-called I.W.W. fires had not been caused by the men recently convicted, but by the paid agents of the ruling class.” What is more, reports 102 Tom Barker and the IWW: oral history – recorded and edited by Eric Fry, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Canberra, 1965; republished by the IWWW Brisbane General membership Branch, 1999, p. 35. 103 See Rowan Day’s highly readable Ph.D thesis “The Tottenham Rebels: Radical Labour Politics in a Small Mining Town during the Great War”, University of Western Sydney, 2014 and his subsequent book Rowan Day, Murder in Tottenham: Australia's first political assassination, Anchor Books, 2015. 104 Vere Gordon Childe, How Labour Governs, op.cit., p.142 105 Vere Gordon Childe, How Labour Governs, op.cit., p.147 106 Sally Green, Prehistorian: A Biography of V. Gordon Childe, Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire: Moonraker Press, 1981, p. xi 48 in Direct Action clearly identify Quinton as “not a member of the I.W.W., because he was a Socialist, who believed in political and industrial action.”107 This is the important ideological distinction. Real Wobblies abjured all parliamentary political action. Anyone running for parliament (or supporting the idea of others being elected to that “talking shop”) was not a hard line member of the IWW. Childe, of course, must have been aware of this and so must never have met Quinton. If he knew of Jim Quinton only by reputation then it could not have been very well at all if he still considered that a member of the Australian Socialist Party – which routinely ran candidates in parliamentary elections – could be a genuine Wobbly. Moreover, Childe does not even appear to fully understand the practical workings of unions such as The Coal and Shale Employees’ Association (Miners Union) which he categorises as “a genuine industrial union” rather than the craft union it still was – though indeed, at times, it had endeavoured to cease to be one. The Western, Northern and Southern Miners Unions were Federated by Peter Bowling by early 1909 in order to try to overcome the problem that it was still common practice for each district to scab on the other and provide coal while individual pits in other districts— and sometimes in their own— were still on strike. But, because the great 1909-1910 miners’ strike was so comprehensively defeated, the union’s supposed federated ‘industrial’ status did not always adhere and so, in practice, the Miners’ Union— as an ‘industrial Federation—was still often pretty hopelessly ‘craft union’ in practice during WW1. Childe’s lack of familiarity with the lives of actual miners is also evident. Moreover, how out of date some of his information relating to people and events sometimes was is also apparent. For example, on the first page of chapter XI of How Labour Governs Childe seems unaware that the “Mr C. Pattinson” he identifies as the Southern [i.e. Illawarra] miners’ representative of the “industrial section of the Labor Party” (supposedly made of more left learning individuals than the mainstream members of the conservative Parliamentary Labor Party) at a One Big Union Conference in 1916 was the same man “who opposed the Minister for Agriculture at Wickham (near Newcastle) in the 1917 election. Pattinson (variously spelt) was also a close friend of Billy Hughes and so hardly like to be at all radical. E. A. Beeby even claims that Pattison conspired with Hughes to bring about Peter Bowling’s gaoling and that he had once “hinted that he [Pattison] had something awful up his sleeve against Mr. Bowling and his friends. That awful disclosure has never yet been made.”108 Pattinson had “lately been a prominent member of the Metropolitan Colliery Miner’s Lodge, at Helensburgh” - just 12 kilometres up the road from Scarborough and 107 108 Direct Action, 23 December, 1916 Illawarra Mercury 23 Sep 1910 49 Coledale. At Newcastle, however, Pattinson was regularly accused of fraternising with IWW members.109 Y Yet Childe seems to have never known Pattinson personally and only appears to have culled his name from the newspapers. Additionally Childe appears unable to make a clear distinction between IWW supporters who abjure political action and those more conservative individuals who believe there is some hope in the ALP. Childe seems to equate support of any kind for the “One Big Union” (OBU) as evidence that one is a member or supporter of the IWW when that is usually very far from the case— and almost always so if that OBU supporter is a candidate for political office. Pattinson was radical at Helensburgh only in his opposition towards conscription and his support, perhaps, for something approaching the Wobbly notion of “One Big Union”. Pattinson, indeed, duly lost his Helensburgh colliery job after being warned to desist from attending anti-conscription meetings by the Helensburgh mine manager110 - but this is very far from indicating that he was genuinely interested in overturning capitalism.111 What is impressive at Coledale and Scarborough is that so many of the miners (whether IWW members or not) seem willing to act independently and appear relatively uninterested in what Labor Party political aspirants have to say. During the Great Strike of 1917, which began in the Railway shops at Eveleigh straggled on in NSW from August to December of that year, some miners in the Illawarra’s northern colliery villages were going it alone and—even before their union called them out on strike— were refusing to even travel to work. As early as the 3rd August (along with an unrelated dispute which has already led to a strike at Coledale) a number of miners on the south coast were refusing to travel to work on trains as they feared that they may be stranded by a strike or, worse, be faced with having to travel home on a scab train.112 While by the 6th August 1917, only 250 locomotive drivers, firemen and cleaners in Bathurst had joined their Sydney colleagues’ strike113, 400 went on strike at Goulburn.114 But this hardly compares with northern Illawarra where, by August 6th, at least 1,000 miners on the south coast, from Coledale, Scarborough, and New Tunnel [at Scarborough] were all idle.115 Moreover, on the night of the 5th of September, 1917 what might have been an Illawarra example of ‘the propaganda of the deed’ was undertaken by persons unknown. 109 Northern Times (Newcastle), 28 February 1917 p 1 and 6 March 1917, p.4 Illawarra Mercury, 6 October 1916, p.6 111 A detailed example of the nuances of Pattinson’s political position—approximating the ideas of the “Industrial Section of the Labor Party”— and how it differed from the more radical Wobbly agenda can be read in full in Appendix 2: “Wickham Electorate: Mr Pattinson’s Candidature, Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, 28 Feb 1917, p.9 112 Daily Telegraph (Sydney), 6 August 1917, p.12 113 Barrier Miner (Broken Hill), 7 August 1917, p.2 114 ibid 115 Sydney Morning Herald, 6 August 1917, p.8 110 50 TRAIN WRECKERS ON SOUTH COAST A SIGNALMAN'S DISCOVERY. Bellambi, Thursday An attempt was made last night to wreck the passenger train from Sydney to Wollongong by placing a kerosene tin full of heavy bolts on four feet of railway line between Bellambi and Corrimal. The train leaves Sydney at 6.25 p.m., and is due at its destination at 9 p.m. The driver and passengers were unaware of their narrow escape until the train reached Wollongong. The dastardly action was discovered by one of the night signalmen on his way home on a railway tricycle. While passing under one of the overhead bridges, a signalman was subjected to a fusillade of stones. Fortunately he escaped unhurt. As a result of the cowardly action of those concerned in attempting to wreck the train and to injure the signalman additional precautions will be taken to patrol the railway line at night time from Bulli to Wollongong. The South Coast railway line, since the attempt on the life of Fireman Green, has been regularly patrolled by the police between Clifton and Coledale for nearly a fortnight. As the result of last night's outrage, it will be necessary to guard the line further south.116 One can never know if this was the work of an IWW member, an embittered independent striker or simply the work of a sociopath. It is possible, however, that it may have been a put-up job to soften up the public for the substantial and prolonged police surveillance to which the district was about to be subjected. Potentially, of course, if it was a genuine attempt at sabotage it could have led to a fatality or at least serious injury. Whatever the case it was certainly earlier totally overshadowed in terms of nation wide press coverage by what, at first, looked like a really significant example of the ‘propaganda of the deed” at Coledale on the night of the 25th August 1917. Robert Bollard, in his Ph.D thesis entitled “‘The Active Chorus’: The Mass Strike of 1917 in Eastern Australia”, provides a succinct summary of the remarkable events which took place at Coledale.117 “Alfred Vincent Green, a 30-year-old loyalist cleaner, who had scabbed on a cleaners’ strike only three weeks before the Great Strike erupted80, was acting as fireman on a train south from Sydney towards Wollongong on the night of 25 August. After passing Wombarra platform...the line takes a curve before nearing Coledale station, and at this particular spot on each side of the line the bush is very dense...It is supposed that a shot was fired from each side of the train intending to injure both driver and fireman, the fireman receiving the shots in the arms and the chest, the driver escaping any injury. A clumsy attempt was made to frame two miners, who were allegedly members of the IWW, for this attack –Frederick Lowden, aged 27, and James McEnaney, aged 26, both ‘miners and natives of England’. The frame-up partly relied on the exceptionally convenient discovery of two bullets wrapped in an IWW songbook during a police search of their premises (after their arrest). Fortunately for the two miners, the police case collapsed due to the unreliability of their 116 Sydney Morning Herald, 7 September 1917, p.8 Robert Bollard, “‘The Active Chorus’: The Mass Strike of 1917 in Eastern Australia”, Ph.D Thesis, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts Education and Human Development, Victoria University, September 2007 117 51 chief witness, and the fact that the accused were both attending meetings in Sydney on the day of the shooting.118 The best explanation of what took place – and one of which all the historians of the IWW seem to be unaware – is the much longer first hand account of our already encountered very very very Presbyterian friend, Mr. James Sproston. *** A rare still photographic image from silent film footage depicting Frederick Lowden and James McEnaney being led from the Wollongong Gaol to the Wollongong Court House after being falsely charged with the attempted murder of the scab Fireman Alfred Vivian Green at Coledale in September 1917 (private collection) 118 Robert Bollard cites the Daily Telegraph, 27 August 1917, p.4; Illawarra Mercury, 31 August 1917, p.4; Sydney Morning Herald, 5 September 1917, p.10 and ANU, NBA, ACSEF Papers, E165/15/2, ACSEF records, ‘Statement of accused F. Lowden regarding Coledale shooting.’ 52 WHEN THINGS GOT MUCH TOO EXCITING DURING THE 1917 GENERAL STRIKE IN COLEDALE— AN ACCOUNT BY JAMES POTTER SPROSTON This account below is taken from the pages of the Sydney Truth, December 30, 1917. VICTIMISATION THE CRUEL CASE OF LOWDEN & McENANEY Facts as to the Thorburn "Frame-up". NARRATED The monstrous case in which a Scoundrel accused Innocent men of shooting with intent to murder Alfred Vivian Green The two innocent men refused Compensation and denied employment. We have been asked by Mr. James Sproston, of Scarborough, to publish the following article dealing with the facts as to the treatment of the two men who were victims of a scoundrel named Thorburn, during the recent strike. As newspaper readers are aware, the man who is now serving a term of imprisonment for his wicked attempt to make these men suffer for a crime that they had not committed. The two men are highly esteemed in the district and in the local miners' lodge. They were put to great expense in providing for their defence: but have been refused compensation and have also been deprived of employment. These unfortunate men are suffering, for no other reason apparently than that they were trusted unionists. Mr. Sproston's article is as follows:· Scarborough, 24th December, 1917 "Here, read that". As he uttered the words, Fred Lowden tossed a letter over the table for my perusal. I glanced at the contents which were as follows:Wollongong Mr. A.A. Lysaght, Sir, Referring to your letter of 31st October last asking that Frederick Louden [sic] and James McEnaney be compensated in respect of their arrest and detention on a charge of shooting at Alfred Vivian Green with intent to murder, I am directed to inform you that the Minister of Justice, after careful consideration of the facts of this matter, is unable to see his way clear to recommend the payment of any compensation. I looked Lowden in the eyes as I remarked, "Minister of Justice, eh?" "Yes", he said, quietly. "There is some justice about it, but then", he went on, “What can you expect? These fellows never get the inns and outs of a case like that, they do not understand". "I see they have again spelt your name with a u instead of w", I said. 53 "Yes, I noticed it", said Lowden. "It probably looks a bit foreign to spell it like that; they have been told about it often enough". "Well, what is the best thing to do now?" I inquired. "I hardly know", returned Lowden and he sighed. I knew what he was thinking of, £50 had been borrowed from a friend to pay Mr. Lysaght, the solicitor, of Wollongong, and there was another 25 guineas to pay, for the solicitor's fee amounted to £76 5s. "Well, look here", I said. "I am going to write the full facts of the case to "Truth". You know how we went to "Truth” office and how we learned from the edition of "Truth", August 6th, 1916, that he was a sly grog police pimp. You remember how delighted we were that Thorburn's photo appeared in that edition. Also the fact that in the edition of "Truth" February 11th 1917, there appeared a case in which this same Thorburn admitted being a special constable, describing himself as a special inquiry agent who had no office, but had worked for the police for 18 months. You remembered how a grin spread over the features of Andy Lysaght when we took those copies of "Truth" to his office. How we fervently hoped that Thorburn would be put in the box and be confronted with these things out of "Truth?" "Yes", said Lowden, "we got some good things from "Truth", I'll admit". ''Well, then", I asked, "Give me your permission to write to "Truth" office and appeal to "Truth" to publish the whole facts of the dirtiest plot that was ever attempted upon the Union officials of Scarborough Lodge". "All right, go ahead", said Lowden. ''We will have to pay that money back somehow, and God knows how we are going to now we are victimised". On the Sunday morning of the 26th of August, the sleepy little village of Scarborough was aroused by the news that a "loyalist" had been shot on the railway near the New Tunnel Mine, or what is known officially as the South Clifton Tunnel Colliery [today the suburb is known as Wombarra]. Rumor, as usual, was quick on the scene. It was at first the driver of the train, and he was dying; then it was the fireman, and he was dead. From the very first day, public opinion in Scarborough declared that whoever was responsible for the shooting, it was not the miners, for their behaviour during the strike was all that could be desired. The chief reason for the lack of excitement was the fact of there being no strike at all in the collieries at this end of the Illawarra District, as soon as the railway strike commenced, the "Worker" as the train is called which conveys men to and from the mines, was knocked off, and the proprietors closed down the mines at Scarborough, Coalcliff and Coledale. This is perhaps the reason why we so bitterly resent the action of the Government and the colliery managers in the victimisation of any one man who was employed in any 54 of the collieries which did not strike, but were shut down during the period of the fight. But I am getting away from the subject. For days after the shooting occurred, the residents of Scarborough were pestered with the dust and stink of the motor car 1403, which passed up and down the South Coast road full of detectives, police, inspectors, blacktrackers included. Even in the small hours of the morning one was aroused out of a peaceful slumber to mutter to himself, "Confound the D's and their 1403, I wish they would run over the cliff or bump some of the stray cattle in the village". On the morning of September the 4th, Tuesday, the village was again stirred by news that the President and Delegate of Scarborough Lodge had been arrested on the shooting charge, and on every side the villagers were heard to comment, "Great heaven's, they are mad; they could not have chosen two quieter or more sensible men in the village." Quickly again rumor got to work and it was circulated that Thorburn, who was better known as Smith, had supplied information which led to the arrest. One certain man named Hughes quickly informed the residents that if it was Thorburn who supplied the information it was invented; for he knew for a fact that Thorburn and the woman who was with him stayed in his Hughes' house on the night of the shooting, until half-past twelve and the train went down soon after ten o'clock the place where the shooting occurred being about half a mile from where he lived. As soon as the Secretary of the Scarborough Miners' Lodge (Mr. Salkeld)119 heard of the above he went to see Hughes, accompanied by the writer. We got a written statement from him, and placed it in the hands of Mr. A. A. Lysaght, of Wollongong. We also went to see Inspector Anderson to arrange for the defence of the President and Delegate of our Lodge. The inspector inquired if we were going to get a solicitor from Sydney; and we informed him we were going to obtain the services of Mr. Lysaght, of Wollongong, as he was the solicitor for the miners in the Illawarra district. I wondered at the time why such a question should be asked, but I found out later, for on every occasion that the two accused were brought before the court the Crown endeavored to obtain a remand to Sydney, and would doubtless have succeeded had we obtained the Services of a city solicitor. I remember, too, having in my hand a copy of the "Daily Telegraph" of Wednesday, September 5th, I read there the report that Lowden and McEnaney had been charged at the Scarborough Police Court before Mr. Edwards, represented by Mr. A. A. Lysaght, Wollongong, and remanded for eight days to Sydney. I had that copy in my hand before the court opened. As soon as the charge was read out, the Crown applied for an eight day's remand to Sydney, but the "Telegraph" made a slip. Mr. Lysaght rose to object, and the Magistrate remanded the accused for three days to Wollongong. I showed Mr. Lysaght the report in the "Telegraph" that morning after 119 A Jacob Salkeld was fined “10 shillings, 6 shillings costs, or seven days” for drunkenness in September 1914 (Illawarra Mercury, 11 Sep 1914, p.2) and “For a breach of special rules in South Bulli Mine” he was “fined 5s, and 10s costs.” (Illawarra Mercury, 14 Aug 1914, p.2). He died in 1951 but appears to have left little other historical record. He does not appear to have been a militant. 55 the court rose; and he remarked, with a grin, "Didn't I ouchre [sic] them? Fancy wanting a remand to Sydney." On Friday, September 7th, at Wollongong the two accused were again brought before Mr. Edwards; again the Crown asked for a remand to Sydney; again Mr. Lysaght objected to the accused going to Sydney, and they were remanded for eight days again to Wollongong. On Friday, the 14th of September, the charge was read over before Mr. Edwards again, and again the Crown asked for a remand, Mr. Lysaght said, after consulting the accused, that he would not object to a remand for a month or even three months if the accused could be let out on bail. The Crown would have no case, he thought, at the end of that time. Mr. Bathgate, for the Crown, seemed to think he would get a conviction, and some amusement was caused when he turned to Mr. Lysaght with the remark, "You don't know what I know", and quick as a flash came the retort, "No, but I know what you don't know". However, my heart warmed a bit towards the magistrate when I heard him say he thought it would be unfair to keep the two men in custody any longer "they had already been in prison eleven days" without granting them bail, therefore would grant bail; but when Mr. Bathgate for the Crown asked for substantial bail, and suggested £l500 each, and the magistrate said quickly, "I have already decided on that figure", my heart grew cold, and I forgot I was in a court of justice. £3000 in cash or securities had to be raised to release our two lodge officers, two honest coal-miners, £3000: Great God, how my head ached: As the clock was striking twelve on the next day at noon, Lowden and McEnaney were proudly walking away from the Police Court accompanied by their friends. Such a wondrous fellow-felling was exhibited amongst the miners that I dare venture to say now that even though bail had been fixed at £3000 each, it would have been forthcoming. But I could not help making a comparison of the case in Sydney where one man had the misfortune to shoot a fellow-being dead, how differently he was treated. But that man was a "loyalist"; and the President and Delegate of Scarborough Miners' Lodge were designated as "strikers" - even though we were locked out and did not strike. These things were hard to swallow, but at that time we did not bother much; we had got another remand for eight days, and Lowden and Mac had their liberty. On Friday, the 21st day of September, the same old procedure was gone through. McEnaney by this time was showing effect of the worry, the long days and nights of anxiety were telling their tale. McEnaney is a good man. In a meeting of miners, or even in debate, a perfect gentleman; whether he was with or against the majority, he was never put out, never excited, always open to reason if arguing with an opponent, he was quick to see if he had made a mistake, and with a shake of the head would say, quietly, "Ah ye I never thought of that", and would sit down. Lowden on the other hand, is a cheerful but impulsive sort of young man, whose goodness of heart has won him many friends. I remember one night Lowden coming into my place, and, throwing a £1 note over the table, saying to my wife, "I have just heard that Mrs ....... whose husband is in the Illawarra Hospital, is hard up. Get her a pound's worth of groceries, and send them up. Don't mention my name; say a friend has sent them". I remember, too, McEnaney coming to my place shortly after the strike commenced, and pushing over the sum of £100. he said, "This money belongs to the District. At the Delegate Board yesterday the money was entrusted to the 56 delegates of the various Lodges, in proportion to the number of members. You know that I used to subscribe to "Direct Action". Probably my name would be on the list of subscribers when the police made a raid on the I.W.W. rooms in Sussex Street. [McEnaney was correct to have worried as his name was on the list of IWW members and subscribers confiscated by the police (although they had him down as “john” rather than “James”) during the raid and now held in the NSW State Archives: Report by Det. Moore on Tom Barker in NSW Police Department, Special Bundle concerning the International (sic) Workers of the World. 1917-23, Archives Authority of NSW, hereafter NSW Police IWW Papers]. If the police had been better researchers, however, they would have noticed that McEnaney paid 2 shillings for a subscription to the IWW in August 1915 (Direct Action, 1 August 1915, p 4)] Keep this for the men; it may be needed for some of them for food. If the police ever come to look for any "Direct Actions" at my place, I shall know the men's money is safe". I have wondered many times if McEnaney had a premonition of coming evil. It only shows, how· ever, that men whose thoughts are wrapped in doing good to their class are not to be classed as criminals by any means. I do not suppose the men of Scarborough Lodge ever knew how McEnaney quietly put their interests first, for the money that was entrusted to him was back in the hands of J. T. Sweeney, the District Secretary, the day after the news - came of his arrest. Of such are Lowden and McEnaney. Straight, open, honest as the day, men who would scorn to hurt a bird, good, hard-working toilers, who are now victimised. Not only has the Government refused to compensate them for the injustice, but it has also assisted in the plot to deny them the right to work for their food. We ask in heaven's name why, and we turn to the very wind for an answer, for the very breezes softly murmur, they were the President and delegate of the Scarborough Miners' Lodge. I sigh as I turn over the newspaper a few weeks old, and I see through a mist of tears, of which I am not ashamed the following – “No man shall be barred because of his past connection with unionism". Again the Crown asked for a remand on the 21st of September, and again Mr. Lysaght urged that there would be no case against the accused. He also asked that the bail be reduced, but Mr. Bathgate, who no doubt thought the accused were guilty, objected and also insinuated that these men were importations; had only been a few years in the country, also belonged to the notorious organisation, the I.W.W., which statement Mr. Lysaght immediately denied from his knowledge of the facts that we had given to him. The two men used to subscribe to "Direct Action". For that matter so did I, and I reserve the right to buy any paper which is allowed to go on the market. This much I will say, fearless of contradiction; that Lowden and McEnaney were never members of the I.W.W. after that organisation was declared unlawful, and I turn to the copy of Hansard, 18th July, 1917, page 232, and I read there where the Prime Minister in the debate upon the Unlawful Associations' Bill, stated that men shall be able to withdraw from that association and become useful citizens, but I fail to see how a worker can become a useful citizen if he is denied the right to work. 57 Of course there is the question of enlisting, but that is another subject. Even the Magistrate stated that the remark of Mr. Bathgate about the I.W.W. and the accused was unfair at that stage, but he did not reduce the bail, and another remand was granted for 19 days on the same bail. During the next 19 anxious days, I had many an opportunity of discovering from Lowden and McEnaney what it was like to be in a cell. "Whatever did you think, Mr. McEnaney, when you were in that dreadful place?" My wife inquired one night. I remember the night, Mac was sitting in an armchair in the corner looking as though (as Mr. Lysaght once so aptly put it) he had the whole of the cares of Ireland on his shoulders. Lines were appearing on his face, and, though it may have been my imagination, I felt sure he was growing grey, patches of white appeared here and there were appearing in his hair, going grey at thirty-four! Would to God the Minister of Justice had been with us that night: Mac raised his head from between his hands and said, in response to the question: "I thought of all kinds of things, Mrs. but there was one thing that troubled me more than everything else. It worried me night and day, it was the thought that a fellow being could descend so low as to try and swear away the liberty of men that he knew to be innocent. I never imagined that such a being existed. I did not think a working man could be so vile." I looked across at my wife as he finished speaking, I saw the glistening tear reflecting the lamp light; I choked back a lump in my throat, as I thought. "How this man loves the workers when it hurts him most to have his faith shattered in such a way." Half an hour later I stood with my wife at the bedside of our three little children, ere we retired for the night. How peacefully children seem to sleep. I noticed the little curls over the forehead of my little girl aged 6, my wife touched me on the shoulder and said impulsively, "Oh, I hope our children will be as good as McEnaney when they grow up". "Pray God they will", I answered, "I shall be satisfied". Slowly the nineteen days passed by. Now and then Lowden would remember and relate to us some of the petty insults and indignities they had been subject to whilst in custody. One day, whilst crossing the courthouse yard in Wollongong, an enterprising cinema photographer had snapped them, and we had learned since that their photos had been exhibited on one of the picture screens in the City of Sydney. I remember the photographer at Wollongong trying to get a snapshot of Mr. Lysaght in front of the Presbyterian Church, but Andy turned his back, then said "Look here, old man, I don't object to being photographed, but I'm hanged if I'm going to be exhibited standing in the front rank like a parson". On one of the days on which the two men appeared before the court Mr. Lysaght was taken for one of the accused men. He was walking down Crown Street towards the courthouse accompanied by Lowden and McEnaney, when his attention was called to a party of people in a motor car, and he overheard the following: "There go the men who did the shooting. Do you see that tall man, that (meaning Mr. Lysaght) is McEnaney, that (indicating McEnaney) is Lowden, and that smart-looking young fellow (indicating Lowden) is their solicitor". Mr. Lysaght related this with amusement, saying to Lowden, "You did not know you were taken for a solicitor, eh, Lowden?" It was a great relief to us all when the two anxious Lodge officials appeared at the end of the 19 days, to hear the magistrate express his regret that the two men had been caused such inconvenience, and to hear him say that no doubt the Crown would compensate them for the expense they had been put to, but it was not for him to say. It was a relief to see Thorburn in the dock to receive his reward. But, in summing up the whole affair, there are several things arising out of this case which we will never 58 understand. We wonder why the Crown wanted a remand to Sydney. Why was Lowden and McEnaney's hut searched four or five times? Why cartridges were discovered in their hut that were not there at the first search, especially so, seeing that Lowden or McEnaney never possessed a firearm in their lives; and why are Lowden and McEnaney not only denied compensation, but denied the right of a job -denied the right of earning a few pounds honestly to enable them to pay their solicitor? Why, also, is the late secretary of Scarborough Miners' Lodge denied the right of a job? The man who promptly planted down £ 50 out of his own savings in order to get Andy Lysaght to fight this case. There may be an appeal made to the miners, and knowing their previous generosity I have no doubt that it will be successful, but it is not charity, these two men desire it is justice. Oh, that the people could hear and give the answer. Why are these men victimised? What have they done? *** The above is a truly remarkable contribution from James Sproston— and composed so soon after the events it describes and by someone intimately acquainted with the key players. Sproston remains a real puzzle – and has forced me to reconsider the politics of someone I would normally regard as just another deluded Christian nutter. Extraordinarily, however, Sproston seems to be a man genuinely and sincerely motivated by a sense that injustices must be righted. Exceptional too is how sympathetic he can be to individuals who, presumably, shared little or none of his Christian zeal. Our James Potter Sproston was, indeed, a remarkable individual— even in the opinion of the hardest of hardline atheists like myself. And as an aged Illawarra militant once said to me in relation to another deluded Christian devotee – “Don’t be too hard on him – everyone needs to find some solace in life and if it provides him with some comfort what is the real harm?” Quite, but my fondness for those Wobbly activist who saw all purveyors of religion as dope pedlars still makes it hard for me to fully understand the otherwise admirable politics of Mr. Sproston. Lowden, contrary to what other historians have implied,120 was probably never a Wobbly and ended up in old age a pretty hopeless Wollongong left-winger with one of the worst jobs in the universe - secretary of the South Coast Trades and Labour Council (a position which would drive any real revolutionary mad because one is expected to get excited about every petty dispute in every petty workplace between Helensburgh and the NSW border. Tragically, Lowden ended up in that most hopeless of all political organisations— the Australian Labor Party. Perhaps his only lasting impact was the assistance he gave 120 Rowan Day in his Ph.D thesis, “The Tottenham Rebels: Radical Labour Politics in a Small Mining Town during the Great War”, UWS, 2014, asserts (p.253) that both Lowden & McEnaney were IWW members. Bollard in his Ph.D thesis, “‘The Active Chorus’: The Mass Strike of 1917 in Eastern Australia”, is more circumspect and uses the words “alleged members” (p.98). 59 Illawarra’s Italian community in setting up the Fraternity Bowling and Recreation Club in the 1950s.121 / It is due to Lowden’s influence that the Fraternity Club (today in the control of its creditors and probably only still operating because its debts can not be easily liquated in the short term) bears such a French revolutionary moniker. Lowden’s involvement in the establishment of what is today most commonly called “The Frat” was not completely disinterested – as he was a very keen lawn bowler.122 By 1950, however, Lowden’s radicalism was over and he had gained a sinecure on the Joint Coal Board and was a director of the Wollongong and District Miners' CoOperative Building' Society.123 He was even reduced to being the M.C. at the opening of the “modern Atlantic Service Station of Henson Motors’ firm at Corrimal” where “he spoke in high terms of the foresight and business ability of the proprietor Mr. Jack Henson.”124 Deary me! Poor James McEnaney did not fare so well. Tragically, he does not seem to have been able to be so effectively protected from blacklisting like Lowden. Despite the floated implication during the press reports leading up the court case that both McEnaney and Lowden were only recently arrived in Australia125, McEnaney had actually been a paid-up member of the Stanwell Park Surf Lifesaving Club in the 1908-109 season.126 This was the nearest surf club to Coledale then in existence in that year—as the club at Thirroul did not really get off the ground until the following years. And as McEnaney was said to be aged 36 (Lowden was then said to be aged 27)127 at the time he was falsely accused, he must have then been in his late 20s when he arrived in Australia. It would appear that he had originally come to Australia with his father, Thomas McEnaney, from Wellington in New Zealand.128 When Thomas passed way in 1919 his probate notice described him as “Thomas McEnaney, late of Wellington, New Zealand, and formerly of Clifton, in the State of New South Wales, miner, deceased.”129 So difficult did James McEnaney find it to get another mining job that he was forced to change his name. 121 Illawarra Daily Mercury, 24 October 1953, p.11 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 19 April 1954, p.1 123 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 2 December 1954, p.42 124 Illawarra Daily Mercury, 30 March 1954 p. 2 125 Daily Herald (Adelaide), 5 September 1917, p.5 126 See 1908-1909 membership lists in Evan Griffiths, Vigilance and Service: The History of Helensburgh-Stanwell Park Surf Life Saving Club 1908-2008, Stanwell Park, 2014 127 Poverty Bay Herald, (New Zealand), 28 September 1917, p. 5 128 The Adelaide Daily Herald claimed both Lowden and McEnaney were originally English citizens (5 September, 1917 p. 5) 129 Illawarra Mercury, 10 October 1919 p. 7 122 60 It took until 1928 before the following change of name by deed poll notice appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald. I. JAMES McENANEY, of 25 Thomas-street, Balmain, In the State of New South Wales Coal Miner, heretofore called and known by the name of JAMES MOFITT, hereby give Public Notice that on the eleventh day, of January, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-eight, I formally and absolutely renounced, relinquished, and abandoned the use of my surname of Moffitt, and then assumed and adopted and determined thenceforth on all occasions whatsoever to use and subscribe the name of McENANEY, instead of the name of MOFFITT. And I give further Notice that by a Deed Poll, dated the eleventh day of January, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-eight, duly executed and attested and filed on Record In the Registrar General's Office, Sydney, on the thirteenth day of January, one thousand nine hundred and twenty eight, I formally and absolutely renounced and abandoned the said surname of Moffitt, and declared that I have assumed and adopted and Intended thenceforth upon all occasions whatsoever to use and subscribe the name of McENANEY Instead of the name MOFFITT and so as to be at all times thereafter called, known, and described by the name of McENANEY only. Dated this thirteenth day of January, one thousand nine hundred and twcnty-eight Signed J. McENANEY.130 The only bright spot for the blacklisted McEnaney in these years may have, possibly, been his relationship with Lilian Moffitt - whose name he had adopted in order to gain employment - whom he married (registered at Balmain North) in 1927. Yet the former Wobbly remained a radical and when the Depression hit in the 1930s, although still down and out on his luck, he was back on the south coast and active in the Wollongong Unemployed Workers Movement (UWM) and wrote this open letter to the South Coast Times. J. McEnaney forwards us a length letter, on behalf of the Wollongong Unemployed Workers' Movement. He states that it is difficult to realise just what actuates the Wollongong Council in attempting to prevent street demonstrations of unemployed, and asks is it because Wollongong is such a busy centre that a march would congest the traffic in Crown-street; is it because the law prevents demonstrations by only one kind; or is it that Wollongong Council has a particular reason for preventing unemployed marches, or as the council contends the unemployed, as such, have forfeited all rights as citizens. After he has analysed the whole of the questions he arrives at the conclusion that the council considers the unemployed have forfeited their rights.131 Len Richardson, in his otherwise excellent book entitled The Bitter Years: Wollongong during the Great Depression, fails to mention McEnaney—although he does mention numerous other UWM activists who were members of the Communist Party including more conservative Labor Party members along with McEnaney’s fellow accused, Fred Lowden, who though not a UWM member was at least supportive of UWM demonstrations. These demos did McEnaney no good, however, for in September 1931 (along with 37 others including well known local communists, John Cranston, Pat McHenry and Ernest Briemle) - McEnaney was prosecuted under Section 229 of the local Government Act for obstructing a public road.132 130 Sydney Morning Herald, 16 January 1928, p.2; Government Gazette of NSW, 20 January, 1920 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 1 May 1931, p.8 132 Illawarra Mercury, 23 October 1931, p 3 131 61 McEnaney was again recommended to be prosecuted for the same offence the following month—along with Fred Lowden's Labor Party and South Coast Labour Council mate, Stephen Best (who was soon to die in motorcycle accident) and a most interesting northern suburbs Illawarra identity named Len Tracey.133 The recommending was done by the Wollongong Council Health Committee which was then led by the ultra right wing conservative, Harvey Gale. So active was Gale in taking the names and generally harassing unemployed demonstrators that one newspaper describes him as Inspector Gale – mistaking his enthusiasm for that of an Inspector of Police rather than that of Council Health and Building Inspector.134 The only others surviving thread of McEnaney’s fate is the engagement announcement of his only daughter, Kathleen, in 1952. He and his wife, Lilian, were said to be then living at Marrickville in Sydney.135 The former Wobbly activist at Coledale, James McEnaney, died (registered at Sydney) in 1964— just another uncelebrated Australian revolutionary. WATCHING THE DETECTIVES (AND THERE WERE PLENTY TO WATCH AT COLEDALE) As the South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus reported on the 7th September 1917, at “Scarborough-Clifton J. McEnaney and F. Louden [sic] were arrested in connection with the recent shooting of railway fireman Alfred Vivian Green, at Wombarra. The arrest was effected by Inspector Anderson, Detectives Devlin, Downie, Robinson, and Surridge, and Constable Edney.” That’s a lot of detectives to round up two innocent men. Mention has already been made that “The South Coast railway line, since the attempt on the life of Fireman Green, has been regularly patrolled by the police between Clifton and Coledale for nearly a fortnight.”136 But some intimation that there were already many plain clothes detectives, informers and provocateurs at work in the northern colliery villages had been evident even during the mid-point of The Great Strike of 1917 itself: and their presence seems to have created some genuine fear among the miners. Strike Effects The route march from Wollongong to the city of strikers arranged by the northern and miners' lodges, which was to have started from Wollongong on Wednesday morning, was abandoned. Mr. W. Parsons (president of the Illawarra branch), and Mr. J. T. Sweeney (secretary), attended the meetings which had been called for Monday at Corrimal and Scarborough, and advised it being dropped. Lodge secretaries also were advised by wire to urge abandoning the project, as inkling had been received of an intention of the authorities to disperse it.137 133 134 “Report of Health Committee”, Illawarra Mercury 7 Nov 1931, p.10 See Joseph Davis, "The secret life of Harvey E. Gale: Wollongong's inter-war Health and Building inspector", Illawarra Historical Society Bulletin, September 2005, pp.56-62 135 “Family Notices”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 Oct 1952, p.34 136 Sydney Morning Herald, 7 September, 1917 137 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 31 August 1917, p.11. Sweeney was a notorious conservative and even the Illawarra Mercury said he was “not an extremist, and believes in settling disputes by constitutional methods.” (22 February 1916, p.2) 62 The atmosphere of tension, suspicion and hysteria in northern Illawarra became even more extreme after the death of a policeman at Tottenham. He was shot by a member of the IWW named Roland Kennedy who was later hanged— along with a probably less guilty Australian-born citizen doomed for possessing the German-sounding surname of Franz. Even though he turned ‘King’s Evidence’, Frank Franz became the only person in Australian legal history to have ever done so and then still be hanged for his pains. This tragedy was also compounded by the death of a striker who was shot by a scab at Camperdown— although the “loyalist” murderer was treated with extraordinary leniency in comparison to Franz: INQUEST ON A STRIKER. THE COLEDALE OUTRAGE. I.W.W. MEMBERS SENTENCED. Sydney, Sept. 4. An inquest was opened today concerning the death of the striker Mervyn Ambrose Flanagan, who was shot during a disturbance at Camperdown last Thursday. Reginald Wearne, who is charged with having feloniously slain Flanagan, was present at the inquest. Laurence Thorpe said a number or strikers attacked him and Wearne, while they were driving lorries through Camper down. Witness was knocked down and dragged towards a vacant allotment. Wearne drew a revolver and told Flanagan to keep back. Wearne fired two shots into the ground, but the men kept advancing. Some stones were thrown. Presently another shot was fired and, turning round, he saw Flanagan on the ground. Constable Andrews said that after the occurrence Wearne said: "I had to do it to save myself and my mate. They were attacking us with stones and would not keep off when I warned them." The inquest was adjourned till tomorrow. A development occurred early today in connection with the shooting of the fireman Alfred Green while a train was travel ling in the vicinity of Coledale on the night of August 25. The police arrested James McEnaney (36) and Fredk. Lowden (27) at Scarborough on a charge of shooting at Green with intent to murder him. Both the accused are miners and natives of England. The Government had offered £1,000 reward in connection with the shooting. At the Central Police Court today six men, one of them an old man of 85, were charged with continuing to be members or an unlawful association, the Industrial Workers of the World. They were all sentenced to six months' hard labour.138 Even some people with no real sympathy for the ideology of the IWW must have baulked slightly at this last outrage. The mention of the “£1,000 reward”, however, highlights one of the major problems with the actions of the detectives and their paid informers. Thorburn – who fingered McEnaney and Lowden for the attempted murder of the train guard was a classic ne’er-do-well and long-term paid informer. Incredibly, Thorburn’s evidence was at first accepted even though Lowden had the perfect alibi in that he was in Sydney on the night of the shooting and even McEnaney could produce several witnesses to show he was elsewhere in Coledale at the time the shooting was supposed to have taken place. The following remarkably maverick newspaper report sums Thorburn up in a suitably jaundiced fashion. Charles David Thorburn,139 the corrupt cur who undertook to collect the big reward offered for the arrest of the person who shot and badly wounded Green, the fireman of a train passing 138 The West Australian, 5 September 1917, p. 7 According to the NSW Police Gazette, 1919, p.63, Thorburn used at least two aliases: “Charles Roy Simpson” and “Sid Moon”. Perusal of page one of the 25 November 1919 edition of The National 139 63 Coledale, on the South Coast, by accusing two innocent men; when he audaciously stated in Court, at his trial, that he was incited thereto by the detectives in charge of the case. It came out, through this assertion, that Thorburn had been a police pimp for some considerable time; and he admitted that he had received about £1000 in 'rewards' within the previous year; while he boasted that he had fattened the revenue, during that period, in fines, etc. to the amount of over £8000. Nice, clean revenue, we DON'T think? And reputable hotelkeepers are often the victims of these parasites, who bet ten on blood money, and will swear any lie to fill their own pockets with tainted cash. To a creature who was prepared to swear away the liberty — even possibly the life — of two harmless toilers as this fellow was; to swear to a fictitious breach of the liquor law would be a mere morning's amusement And no doubt he has done it repeatedly, to earn that unholy £1000, and help his pals, the police, to a successful 'case' to go on their record. Thorburn has received a sentence of three years' hard labour; and may be put down as very lucky that the sentence was not at least doubled. Three years certainly seems inadequate for a foul deed like Thorburn’s, of which Judge Ferguson, in sentencing him said, 'It is the most detestable crime you could be guilty of.” Yet, upon this detestable dingo's sworn testimony many have been mulcted in heavy sums, and others have lost their liberty and their good name. In this particular case, the evidence of Thorburn — hitherto accepted against hotelkeepers and others — was challenged by the police, and he proved to be the pimply, pestiferous, perjuring pest he has probably always been. It is full time that our magistrates refused to accept, let alone convict upon, the evidence of those corrupt, conscienceless carrion, the paid pimps. Meanwhile, the honest miners and others of the South Coast towns must reflect with horror on the thing that has been among them, like a worm in a fine potato, for so long, and has fattened on a rotten system and the manufactured misfortunes of others — misfortunes manufactured and thrust upon them by creatures unfit to be at large, let alone made use of by any public department.140 Even the conservative Australian Workers Union newspaper paper expressed considerable disgust at the conduct of the police detectives when Lowden’s and McEnaney claims for compensation were subsequently rejected: At the trial of the latter for conspiracy with a woman, who was also concerned in the false statement, the culprit pleaded that he had conspired, but not with the woman. His fellow conspirators, he said, were members of the police. His statement was discredited, and he was sentenced, to a period of imprisonment.141 Yet after 30 years of research I still have no convincing evidence as to who actually fired the gun on that night at Coledale– but, at the very least, a strong suspicion must be that Inspector Anderson and Sergeant Devlin may have encouraged Thorburn to lay the blame on the two miners. And Detective Surridge may well be the one who first tempted Thorburn with the expectation of a large cash reward. In court, Thorburn’s solicitor Mr Abigail declared the following. What my client says is that he did conspire, but not with the woman [Ethel] Roy. He says he conspired with two policemen, named Robertson and Surridge. They induced him to agree to conspire and allege that two men, Lowden and M'Enaney, committed the crime of shooting Green.142 And, even though one would probably prefer not to believe it, it may not even be beyond the realms of possibility that it was a highly skilled police sharpshooter who Advocate (Bathurst) reveals that he also used the name “M. Moon” when passing valueless cheques and that “in sentencing defendant to six months' hard labor” the judge, “ after perusing the list of previous convictions submitted by tho police, reminded defendant that he had been previously convicted for false pretences.” Thorburn was then said to be 26 years of age. 140 “Pesteriferous Pimps”, Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills), 8 December 1917, p.2 141 “False Charge at Wollongong,” The Australian Worker (Sydney), 3 Jan 1918, p.8 142 “Conspiracy Charges”, Northern Times (Newcastle,) 29 Nov 1917, p.5 64 fired the shot in the first place– for the difficulty of hitting an individual travelling on a moving steam train in the dark must be very considerable indeed. It is, however, just possible that a local unknown Wobbly or IWW sympathiser may have become so frustrated with the course of the General Strike and so appalled at scabs working the trains that he did fire the shot. He (or, perhaps, even she), however, would have had to have been either a really crack shot or a very lucky one to have hit the scab fireman named Alfred Vincent Green. HOW HAD IT ALL COME TO THIS? Fuelled by both the press and the propaganda of the Federal and NSW Government, conservatives began to view the IWW with some exaggerated alarm. The general view was that the IWW was a violent revolutionary organisation made up mainly of pro-German foreigners who were determined to encourage the masses to overthrow the established order. This anxiety had been building up since late in 1916 and began to snowball between the first conscription referendum held on 28 October 1916 (which narrowly rejected conscription with a margin of 49% for and 51% against) and the second attempt held on 20 December 1917 but which was defeated by a greater margin. The alarm felt by the authorities was no doubt an over-reaction for - even at the best estimate available (that of Norman Jeffrey) - the IWW in Australia would have had an absolute maximum of only 4000 members throughout Australia during all the years of WW1. The best guess of the absolute maximum circulation of their newspaper Direct Action (again by Jeffrey) for any single issue is a not insignificant 26,000 copies.143 Nevertheless, despite their small and widely dispersed membership, the IWW itself did little to dispel these alarmist notions and even sometimes adopted a Wobbly tactic that had been successfully employed in America. In Adelaide, Port Pire and Broken Hill, the Wobblies tried the tactic of flooding gaols with willing prisoners – in order to win free speech campaigns and defy legislation that had made IWW membership unlawful.144 How wise this ‘lambs to the slaughter’ tactic was, in retrospect, is a moot point but it no doubt had some immediate (although short-lived) propaganda value. Some of the methods by which the Wobblies proved their points are worth recounting. The Labour Government refused them permission to peddle literature and make speeches in the Sydney Domain. They did not debate about their rights, they just continued to peddle literature and make speeches. A few were jailed, the rest just kept on. 143 Norman Jeffrey’s estimates quoted by Verity Burgmann, Revolutionary industrial unionism : the industrial workers of the world in Australia, ibid., , p.126 and also by L. G. Churchward, “The American Influence on the Australian Labour Movement”, Historical Studies, vol 5, no 19, Nov 1952, p.268 144 See L. G. Churchward, “The American Influence on the Australian Labour Movement”, ibid., p.276; and also Rowan Day, “The Tottenham Rebels…”, ibid., p.114 65 In 1914, Charlie Reeve, of Sydney, went to take part in a campaign in South Australia. On July 1, 1914, a telegram from Port Pirie was printed in Direct Action: "Reeve gaoled 19th, 10 days, five on the 23rd, then 3 weeks; three more today, one month. Six new names taken. Freefooters wanted." These Wobblies were being jailed for carrying on a "free speech campaign" in the streets. They simply announced that they could fill the jails to overflowing if need be, and the police soon hung off. In Newcastle, the tactic was for one member to stand orating until he was hauled away. He then put up a ferocious struggle and when the weary police returned, there was another demagogue, also ready to fight back for all he was worth. There were more where he came from, and they were duly released, one at a time. The police grew tired of it before the Wobblies did.145 Even after the defeat of the first conscription referendum (and plenty of credit must go to the enthusiastic way Wobbly members pursued the anti-conscription cause), the IWW paper Direct Action remained deliberately provocative and published the following under the headline “General Strike”: The miners have selected an opportune time for the fight. The defeat of the conscription referendum, the mixed state of both State and Federal politics, and the shortage of coal stocks, all tend to place the miners in an advantageous position. The miners are realising that six years of State politics, and Labor preponderance in the Federal Parliament, means nothing to the workers. They have come to the conclusion that militant and aggressive tactics alone will get results. Possibly when the next Eight Hours Day comes along, the workers will be able to celebrate something that they really possess. The Australian coal-miner in the past has not been noted for solidarity, although there was always a hopeful craft union militancy that augured well, for the time when a better understanding became imperative amongst them. Under the present capitalist system, the coal miners hold an advantageous position, as long as there is general action. Society depends upon coal fuel.146 And, unsurprisingly, the militants at Scarborough and South Clifton (soon to be more often known as Wombarra) were at the forefront of this fight – as they had already won the concession from their employers independently of their district and statewide union leadership through some Wobbly inspired on-the-job direct action. The 'Eight Hours Bank to Bank,' if established will mean that miners, truckers, underground and surface workers will work eight hours only. Some of these workers have been working nine hours and longer. In two mines on the South Coast this precedent has been established, but these lodges, in a spirit of loyalty, are lighting in the best style to help their fellow workers to enforce this demand.147 So, and it indeed was a rare occasion, the Scarborough Tunnel mine was working (having already won its own strike) while other south coast miners were unable to present themselves for work. SCARBOROUGH- CLIFTON 145 Ian Bedford, “The IWW in Australia”, Libertarian, No. 2, September 1958. Available on line at http://www.takver.com/history/iww_in_australia.htm Accessed 13 March 2016. 146 “General Strike”, Direct Action (Sydney), 11 Nov 1916, p. 4 147 ibid. 66 The Tunnel mine at Scarborough got a start on Monday, but it was not so at South Clifton, as it was found that many of the working places had taken in water during the stoppage and were therefore unfit for the workmen to enter. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday about forty men were at work putting everything in order for a start at the earliest possible moment, and this, was expected to take place yesterday morning.148 The only defence of the other Illawarra mine owners was to lock out the men to whom they had not already granted the condition and hope to starve them into submission. Astoundingly, however, so desperate were things becoming locally that the editor of the South Coast Times even started openly criticising the mine owners: The colliery owners, and not the coal miners are here responsible for depriving the Government and the public of the coal which the men are prepared to get. Although Mr. Justice Edmunds came to Bulli, presumably acting under the emergency powers which the Prime Minister deemed essential, and outlined reasonable terms of settlement, to which the Bulli men agreed, the men are not allowed to resume work because the proprietors rejected the settlement. But this is not the worst feature, of the case, Mr. Sweeney added. Not only do the Bulli Co. refuse to allow the men to resume work m the Bulli mine, but from one end of the district to the other they are as if blacklisted and boycotted, for although other mines on the South Coast lack men, Bulli men cannot get a start at any other mine, or on any other works m the district where coal interests prevail. In fact, it has been openly stated by two representatives of the Coal owners that the Bulli men will not be allowed to start in any mine on the South Coast. If this is an attempt to starve them into submission and compel them to return to Bulli to work for less than the minimum wage, or on terms dictated; by the boss, then this sort of tyranny is just the thing to louse the whole of the district, and the work done by the officers in smoothing things for a peaceful Xmas, is in danger of being wasted. Scarborough is beat for wheelers, and, other collieries are supposed to be beat for men, why are these 100 men locked out, and kept out? Aye, kept out with a vengeance! The public can now judge of the fairness and equity and obedience to authority of some of the colliery proprietors.149 Them is fighting words and even sound (almost) alarmingly akin to IWW propaganda. The combination of the local demand for 8 hours bank to bank and the national opposition to conscription created a perfect storm. That Prime Minister Hughes himself was very publicly pushing the imperialist war agenda was like a red rag to a bull. But that bull in the northern Illawarra colliery villages did not need much encouragement to charge. The last time Billy Hughes had visited the area was at the time of the big Miners Strike in 1910 which was led by IWW member Peter Bowling in the days when the more conservative ‘Detroit’ faction of the IWW still held sway in Australia. Back then the reactionary Goulburn Post had reported that “the South Clifton and Coledale miners were responsible for the unfair treatment meted out to Mr Hughes at Bulli” and also that “A number of Coledale miners were arrested for disorderly conduct at Bulli.150 Things were still bad in late 1916 and they got so bad in late 1917 that Mr Justice Edmunds, during the opening “the proceedings of the Coal Board in Brisbane to-day”, noted that the condition of “8 hours bank to bank” was still being argued over in the 148 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 8 December 1916, p.22 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 15 December 1916, p.15 150 “Coal Strike:, Goulburn Evening Penny Post, 8 Jan 1910, p. 5 149 67 Illawarra mines and concluded: “The only way he could describe it was a sort of hysterical mania for striking had affected them.”151 What faraway judges sitting on comfy judicial benches could not apparently understand was the prevailing conditions of existence miners in the northern Illawarra colliery villages: appalling and often unsanitary housing conditions; wages so intermittent that meeting the rent would have been difficult even if decent accommodation was available; individual miners being gaoled for even a single day’s absence from work on the few days they were required; and sometimes a police presence in town escorting ‘scabs’ to work during prolonged industrial disputes. Is there little wonder that some did not begin to adopt extreme views about the merits or otherwise of capitalism? When even conservative newspaper editors could see that something was clearly wrong – and when even the most conservative trade union leaders and Labor Party politicians sometimes felt the needs to mouth ‘progressive’ sentiments – was it simply a case that the radical propaganda of a few individuals was beginning to have some impact? Had the handful of individuals in Coledale and Scarborough—who had sought for some years now to undermine the authority of the both the bosses and the State by means of audacious and often wittily judicious iconoclastic statements and propaganda— finally started to make some inroads? Was that ideological orthodoxy of capitalism which viewed the actions of the masters (the colliery proprietors) as reasonable and that of the servants (the miners) as ungrateful and despicable finally coming apart in these northern Illawarra coastal country towns? 1917 – THE YEAR THE WORLD CHANGED IN NORTHERN ILLAWARRA Conservative reporting of the bolshy activities of the Coledale miners in January 1917 started well - and with an appealing dash of anti Labor Party humour. POLITICAL PARS. The Coledale Minors' Union and the Cobar Federated Miners Union have both recently passed resolutions demanding the immediate release of the convicted I.W.W. alleged incendiaries and murderers. It will soon be as hard to find a union that has not expressed its sympathy with this gang of criminals as it is to find a member of the P.L.L. [Political Labor League: an early name of the Labor party branches in NSW] executive who is not an aspirant for Parliament.152 Fine words and trade union resolutions, of course, butter no parsnips— but at both Cobar and Coledale a fair bit of independent action took place in 1917. Rowan Day, in his refreshingly engaging Ph.D thesis on the Tottenham Wobblies, ably demonstrated that previous historians of the Wobblies have not fully grappled with the evidence of how strong the influence of the IWW was in the west of NSW.153 Cobar, it may come as a surprise, was (like Coledale and Scarborough) a town where Wobblies held quite some sway despite the fact that relatively few residents were probably paid up members. Even an excellent conservative fact-grubbing historian like Geoffrey Blainey had long ago recognised this. As he ably noted in his history of 151 “Southern Coalminers, Darling Downs Gazette, September 1917, p.5 152 The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta), 17 January 1917 p.3 Rowan Day, “The Tottenham Rebels...”, op.cit., pp.236-237 153 68 Broken Hill, many of the radicals at the Barrier had come from Cobar, “where the IWW had a foothold”.154 Indeed, George Reeve had been —arguably — one of the key figures in the early Australian IWW. He later fell from grace during the split between the ‘Chicago’ and ‘Detroit’ factions of the Australian IWW and was forced out. But Reeve had cut his teeth working in the mines in Cobar in western NSW, where he established an IWW Club in 1907.155 Reeve’s more moderate ’Detroit’ brand of Wobblyism had virtually gone into hibernation in that town after the gifted ‘Chicago’ faction agitators—J.B. (John Benjamin) King, Tom Barker and Donald Grant launched themselves on the scene. They quickly ousted the less dynamic and much less charismatic George Reeve by making his less radical view seem irrelevant to the more impatient wage slaves. The conservative Australian old style “Detroit’ faction Wobbly George Reeve quickly came to regard his more militant ‘Chicago’ faction fellow workers as “violent skull crackers and preachers of theft.”156 But so frustrated had the Cobar militants become that in defiance of the recently introduced Federal Unlawful Associations legislation of Billy Hughes a handful of workers formally established a ‘Chicago’ IWW Local in January 1917. It was a reckless thing to do and, despite the fact that there remained a clear presence of IWW supporters in Coledale and Scarborough, they seem never to have been foolish enough to open themselves to both the threat of physical violence from conservatives and pointless harassment and arrest form the police. The Cobar IWW militants and their supporters were not so fortunate. On February 3, 1917 about 20 Wobblies tried to address a surprisingly large crowd of about 1000 in the main street of Cobar and were attacked. The Adelaide Advertiser reported that “every IWW man who was caught was severely dealt with, fists and boots being freely used.”157 The fighting reached such a level that it forced some of the Wobblies to seek police protection.158 This doesn’t appear to have been forthcoming, however, and a report of what ensued was published in the IWW paper, Direct Action. The mine managers and pannikan [sic] bosses, who decided that between themselves, the police, and the Mayor, not to say anything of a J.P. or two, that the I.W.W. must be brutally beaten and bludgeoned out of town. Picking a night when about half a dozen of the boys were about to start a peaceful meeting, they commenced their American tactics. Dare, one of the speakers, was knocked to the ground, and either with a boot or 'knuckle-duster' given a broken jaw. Another 154 Geoffrey Blainey, The Rise of Broken Hill, Macmillan, 1968, p.126 Frank Cain, The Wobblies At War, op.cit., p. 58 156 Rowan Day, “With Fists and Boots Being Freely Used’: Anti-IWW violence in Cobar, 1916-17”, an edited extract of Rowan Day‘s address to the Sydney Branch of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History on 25 May 2011. Available on line at http://asslh.org.au/hummer/vol-7-no-1/cobar/ Accessed 13 March, 2016 157 The Advertiser (Adelaide), 6 February 1917, p. 9 158 Peter John Rushton, ‘The Industrial Workers of the World in Sydney 1913·1917:A Study in Revolutionary Ideology and Practice’, unpublished MA thesis, University of Sydney, 1969, p. 178. 155 69 attacked by the mob of boss-lovers, ran for shelter into a chemist's shop; from there he was pulled by one of the N.S.W. police force, and thrown into the hands of the mob again.159 This IWW literature secretary who had his jaw broken in this riot was hauled before the courts four months later. His crime was having referred to the Mayor of Cobar, Mr Duffy, as “Duffy the stuffy, the plum pudding if you like, parasite of Cobar, who fattens on your back.”160 For this apparently outrageous insult he was sentenced to three months hard labour. Duffy was a forthright opponent of the IWW, and according to the Sydney Morning Herald had “always taken an active part in recruiting”.161 As 1916 turned into 1917, the IWW became terminally ill in much of Australia, and was relentlessly pursued by the State. The attack on the Tottenham police station was partly to blame for the extreme sentences handed out to even those who were likely to be innocent of the various alleged crimes with which they were charged and sentenced. The sedition trials of the ‘Sydney Twelve’ had now taken place and all twelve were in gaol. IWW members John Hamilton (42) native of Victoria, William Beatty (30) England, Morris Joseph Fagin (40) Russia, Donald Grant (27) Scotland, William Teen (30) Tasmania, Thomas Glynn (35) Ireland and Donald McPherson (29) Scotland got sentences of fifteen years; Thomas Moore (34) New Zealand, Bob Besant (25) England, Peter Larkin (46) Ireland and Charlie Reeve (30) England each got ten years; and J.B. (John Benjamin) King, Canada, got five years. Meanwhile Tom Barker was already in gaol for producing the cleverest political poster ever produced in Australia. / Barker had legitimately and wittily argued that this was actually a pro recruitment poster he had designed to encourage the workers to follow their betters—but he was convicted both on it alone and also for being alleged to have also said, "Let those who own Australia do the fighting. Put the wealthiest in the front ranks, the middle class next, and follow them with the politicians, lawyers, and ministers. Answer the declaration of war with call for a general strike." And as even the now increasingly conservative Harry Boote could write, when holding the editorship of The Australian Worker, it was pretty rich that Donald Grant “got fifteen years for using fifteen words.” What Grant was alleged to have said was that “For every day Barker is in gaol it will cost the capitalists ten thousand pounds.” But even a statement as mild and as matter of fact as that which appeared in The Australian Worker was immediately seized upon by the right wing press. “The Worker" says it has no idea what Grant meant when he said this, but "probably he intended to suggest, there would be a strike if Barker were not released.” The "Worker" is not so 159 Direct Action, 3 March 1917. p. 1 “Mayor and the I.W.W.”, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 12 June 1917, p.2 161 “Country News”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 December, 1918, p. 13 160 70 innocent as it professes to be. It knows that was an active member of a band of proved murderers and incendiarists. It knows that several letters and documents were produced at the trial openly advocating and boasting of the use of incendiarism as the best means of effecting Barker's release. It knows that the destruction of the employers' property is one of the chief planks of the I.W.W. platform - and it also knows that at the time Grant used these words several fires had occurred as a result of the I.W.W. efforts. If the "Worker" thinks that Grant should have been allowed to incite weak-minded, and evil-minded people to commit crime, let it openly say so, and if it believes that arson and murder are justified by class hatred the sooner the public is made aware of the fact the better.162 Without its finest writers and speakers the Wobblies’ Direct Action became a much less lively newspaper. On the December 18, 1916 the Unlawful Associations Act had been passed in Federal Parliament, with the avowed intention of destroying the IWW. The Bill would not normally have been legal, but it was made possible at this time by the War Precautions Act.163 The passing of this legislation almost immediately resulted in sackings of individual workers (sometimes even for the faintest suspicion of being a sympathiser), the jailing of over one hundred IWW members and the deportation of foreign-born members - of which there were quite a number. Under the provisions of the Act, the IWW was considered an “unlawful association”, and any member who advocated any action which would hinder the war effort—and what constituted hindering the war effort was interpreted very broadly indeed—would be gaoled for a minimum of six months.164 Some parliamentarians actually thought that “six months” was too good for these traitorous Wobbly bastards. Senator Edward Millen thought it “very tender as a penalty” and Labor Senator Patrick Lynch agreed. But when Billy Hughes argued the case for his legislation in Parliament he came up with a list of Wobbly crimes – and the senseless murder of Police Constable Duncan at Tottenham by an IWW member named Kennedy topped the list. Arson and forgery were also added to the roll-call of Wobbly hanging offences. Most amazingly, however, Hughes also alleged something that was not only unknown to the public but was absolutely startling. He claimed that the IWW had also killed “a Government agent” but refused to give any details of the alleged murder. Other Government agents, Hughes continued, warming to his task, had infiltrated the IWW and discovered that every Wobbly possessed an automatic pistol.165 Hughes’ fairy tale would have no doubt surprised many desperately poor Coledale and Scarborough miners who must clearly, if the PM was to be believed, have preferred purchasing bullets to load their expensive automatic pistols in lieu of food. 162 “Labour and the IWW,” The Muswellbrook Chronicle, 30 Dec 1916, p.8 “Suppression of IWW”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 December, 1916 164 Frank Cain, "The I.W.W: aspects of its suppression in Australia, 1916-1919," Labour History, No. 42, May 1982); see also Burgmann, Revolutionary Industrial Unionism: The Industrial Workers of the World in Australia, op.cit., p. 215 165 Commonwealth of Australia Parliamentary Debates, LXXX. 19/12/1916, p. 10152 and p. 10169 163 71 And, particularly in the case of the Coledale shooting frame-up, that would have required quite a stretch of the imagination indeed - as according to the good Presbyterian James Sproston, “Lowden or McEnaney never possessed a firearm in their lives.”166 The Prime Minister, however, might have done well to read his copies of the IWW paper, Direct Action, more carefully. The putrid journals of bossdom become very violent at times, and accuse the IWW of advocating methods of violence…. A study of the I.W.W. constitution and structure will prove that we are organising the working class on lines that do not call for violence, and when the I.W.W. plan of organisation is accomplished, even the violent attacks of the thugs, pimps and police can be frustrated. The I.W.W. is organising to prevent violence. A working class organisation which depends upon the use of violence for furthering its objects is unscientific, antiquated and dangerous…Better far than the bomb and the bullet, is the arc of the folded arms. In this battle no life need be lost, no blood need be spilt. The power of One Big Union of the working class can stop all capitalist violence and bring the captains of industry to their knees.167 Were such statements IWW doctrine or IWW ingenuousness? SO DID THE IWW REALLY PREACH VIOLENCE AS THE MEANS OF OVERTHROWING CAPITALISM? Detective Nicholas Moore, Military Intelligence’s IWW expert, certainly seems to have thought so. And he was also very preoccupied with the fear of individual Wobblies acquiring firearms. Miller visited Sydney’s leading gunsmiths and firearms dealers to gauge if there had been any increase in sales while pressing for tighter regulation of the trade.168 Moreover, Prime Minister William Morris Hughes was clearly of the view that IWW were if not yet murderers then quite capable of quickly becoming so. The day before the 1917 election Hughes ratcheted up his rhetoric, declaring there was a choice between “the forces of anarchy and IWWism under Mr. Brookfield’s red flag of revolution” and “responsible government and the safety of the Empire, as symbolized in the National Flag.”169 Percy Brookfield had won the NSW Legislative Assembly seat of Sturt (centred on Broken Hill) at by-election for Sturt and had recently again won the seat with an increased majority. He was never a member of the IWW but was radical enough to support some of their ideas. Brookfield even very actively campaigned for the cause of freeing the IWW Twelve. In 1920, when Brookfield fortunately held the balance of power in the NSW Parliament, he persuaded the Storey Labor Government to appoint a second Royal Commission into the sentences of the twelve imprisoned IWW members. Ironically, without the support of an independent Labour politician like Brookfield, the IWW 166 Truth (Sydney), 30 December, 1917 Direct Action, 12 May 1917 p.2 168 NSWSR, 7/6720 169 The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 March, 1917, p. 6 167 72 Twelve (who despised Labor politicians) are likely to have had to have served their full draconian sentences and would never have had the pleasure of knowing Justice N. K. Ewing had substantially accepted their claim that they had been convicted on perjured evidence. Brookfield had earlier been an itinerant worker and in 1913 worked in the mines at Cobar. Here he had possibly been at least to some extent influenced by Wobbly propaganda and became ideologically well to the left of the Labor Party. Unfortunately, on March 22 1921, Brookfield was shot on Riverton railway station in South Australia, while trying to disarm Koorman Tomayoff, a deranged Russian who had already wounded two people. Percy Brookfield died in hospital that same day.170 In terms of his attitude to violence as a means of reforming society, however, Brookfield’s views seem to have been as difficult to pin down as those of the IWW itself. Brookfield was asked by a voice in the crowd during his election campaign in mid January 1917 a very difficult question. The voice wanted to know if there was any contradiction in the fact that he had once said he would do all in his “power to prevent the destruction of property, it did not matter to whom it belonged” and then later had said that he “would do all in your power to obtain the release of the Î.W.W. men who have been imprisoned on a charge of conspiring to destroy property.” In trying to answer as to what attitude he would “adopt to prevent a repetition of a conspiracy such as those men were charged with?” Brookfield seems to have been capable only of avoiding the question and obfuscating. Brookfield’s answer was the following: “I would first have to wait until I could see the best means of preventing it, but regarding those 12 men I want to say they were tried and convicted by Billy Hughes and the capitalistic press of the country long before they were brought to the court, which was against the principles of British justice and trial by jury. Many of those men did not say half off the box that I said, and I will raise hell to get them out of gaol.”171 A somewhat better summation of IWW workplace strategy that goes a little closer to addressing whether or not the IWW advocated violence was produced by historian Ian Bedford in 1958. We may suppose that the I.W.W. derived its initial impact, not just from its aims nor yet from the organisational scheme by which it hoped to secure them, but by the very simplicity and elegance with which it stated precepts which were red meat to many an old time unionist: " . . .The truth dawns on us that all social relations, all institutions, all political parties, are but a reflex of the economic system that prevails; that only a militant working-class organised on sound lines, at the point of production, and carrying the fight on IN THE INDUSTRIES, can bring about emancipation from wage slavery." " . . .Arbitration recognises the right of the employer to share in the product of labour, and the power of the Court to decide some conditions in an industry it does not understand. 170 For an excellent account of Percy Brookfield’s life and death, see Paul Adams, The Best Hated Man in Australia: the life and death of Percy Brookfield 1875-1921, Puncher and Wattmann, 2010. 171 “The Sturt Seat”, Barrier Miner (Broken Hill), 15 January 1917, p.3 73 "The I.W.W. holds that there is nothing to arbitrate about. "The I.W.W. holds that any understanding between workers and employers is only an armistice, to be broken, when convenient, by either side. The Employing Class, as a whole, has always recognised and acted up to this. Only the working class have been foolish enough to keep on their side of contracts." The I.W.W. emphasis on immediacy, on forthright action in the here-and-now, its justification of no-holds barred combat with the employer, was its most novel and dynamic contribution to the Australian working class movement. "There are many ways of applying sabotage as rules in the game of chess. "Of course, the employers practice sabotage on a large scale, both on the workers and on each other. Adulterating foodstuffs, 'cornering' commodities; failing to tell a man applying for a job, what the others are getting so as to start him at less; secretly paying a slogger a little extra in order to get him to speed the others up; 'editing,' or cooking up, news items so as to deceive the workers and the public generally; and in a thousand and one ways. "Cement hardens too much, or too little, to suit the designs of a man manipulating the materials; paint peels off and changes colour if the mixer is careless; it is unlucky for a tyrannical boss to walk under a ladder; class conscious farm hands, or travelling rebels, would be more careless with matches when on the property of farmers who ride into town to shoot or bludgeon strikers. "Every worker will know best how to practice sabotage in his own industry; he can get further information if required from 'Industrial Unionists' and syndicalist papers and literature, but the job is the best place to study. A little theory and practice combined, during working hours, will soon turn an intelligent man into an artist.”172 Nowhere in this quotation, however, does Bedford use the word violence. The closest he comes is the word “sabotage” - and it is also instructive that he began the above summary with a piece of Wobbly doxology containing the important words "Wooden Shoes". "The Bosses Own the Earth. You Only Own Your Labour Power. Organize to Control It and the Earth is Yours. Wage Slaves, Wear Your Wooden Shoes." It must be emphasized, however, that for many members of the IWW, sabotage perhaps never did this mean the destruction of property or machinery, especially the machinery of production – although this possibility never stopped employers and politicians from claiming that it did. But the IWW itself was conflicted about how much they should publicly emphasize their sabotage strategies. As Ralph Chaplin (who wrote the IWW labour anthem "Solidarity Forever" and created many of the IWW's famous "silent agitator" cartoons, including ‘the IWW sabotage-cat’) later recounted in his autobiography, Wobbly: “Even after the war was declared, [Big Bill Haywood] fought to the last ditch for the reprinting of Elisabeth Gurley Flynn’s Sabotage...It was never reprinted.”173 As Chaplin—who understood sabotage to only mean non-violent passive resistance— went on to point out, “My ‘Sab Cat’ [cartoon] was supposed to symbolize the "slow 172 Ian Bedford, Libertarian, Number 2, September 1958. Ralph Chaplin, Wobbly: Rough and Tumble Story of an American Radical, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948, pp. 206-207 173 74 down" as a means of "striking on the job." Crucially, Chaplin continued, identifying the problem as squarely being a failure of propaganda. Thanks to our own careless use of the word, the prosecution’s case seemed plausible to the jury and the public. We had been guilty of using both the "wooden shoe" and the "Black Cat" to symbolize our strategy of "striking on the job." The "sabotage" advocated in my cartoons and stickerettes was summed up in the widely circulated jingle: “The hours are long, the pay is small so take your time and buck ‘em all.” We tried to show the difference between our sit-down and slowdown strategies and the kind of sabotage used by extremists in Continental Europe.174 Because of the negative backlash, the American IWW officially distanced itself from sabotage as a tactic in 1918 as evidenced by the following. • Resolution Regarding Sabotage - IWW General Executive Board (1918) …in order that our position on such matters may be made clear and unequivocal, we the General Executive Board of said Industrial Workers of the World, do hereby declare that said organization does not now, and never has believed in or advocated either destruction or violence as a means of accomplishing industrial reform; • first, because no principle was ever settled by such methods; • second, because industrial history has taught us that when strikers resort to violence and unlawful methods, all the resources of the government are immediately arrayed against them and they lose their cause; • third, because such methods destroy the constructive impulse which it is the purpose of this organization to foster and develop in order that the workers may fit themselves to assume their place in the new society, Reaffirmed by the present General Executive Board and published December 13, 1919 in New Solidarity. Members of G. E. B.: George Speed, chairman; George D. Bradley; James King; Henry Bradley; John Jackson; Fred Nelson; Chas. J. Miller; Thomas Whitehead, Gen’l. Sec’y.-Treas. But this motion (and what ever clarification it now provided) was all far too late for the Australian IWW. Its reputation and fate were already sealed. Even in a strong trade union town like Broken Hill the Barrier Miner was willing to publish a racist and imperialist diatribe against the IWW revolutionaries penned by a local very conservative miner. THE SPREAD OF THE POISON Like a poisonous reptile lurking in the grass, charged to the teeth with deadly venom, the notorious I.W.W. is infecting one healthy body after an other…. Having recruited from amongst the most ignorant, reckless, and thoughtless section of the A.M.A. (Amalgamated Miners Association) sufficient number of followers, they converted meetings of their rebel society into meetings of the A.M.A., and then had resolutions formally carried in the name of the A.M.A. acknowledging the I.W.W. as co-worker's and brother unionists… 174 ibid, p.207 75 Recent revelations of I.W.W. murder, and the confessions and other evidence given at the recent police court proceedings against 12 members in Sydney have made it necessary to assume a new disguise…. . Being really organised in the interests of Germany, the I.W.W. used its poisonous power upon the members of the Parliamentary Party which owed allegiance to the Labor conference. … And now we find that the I.W.W., which has become so notorious throughout the land that it is necessary for the Government to take special precautions to guard the stacks of wheat against the fire raisers…This will unavoidably remind us of the blazing fires with which the I.W.W. has been associated in Sydney and elsewhere. Red flags, red torches, red blood! These are the three sighs by which men - and women too - may know the I.W.W. … If the I.W.W. and their tools can get their way, they will be able to create, with the aid of Germany (as they boast of having in the United States) strikes, which will include men of "27 different nationalities speaking 47 different languages." That is what they wish to bring about in Broken Hill and in other parts of Australia. J. SMETHURST. “Miner" Office.175 When a conservative miner could write an alarmist letter like this, it was not much of a stretch for the law courts and the conservative press to bring before the public many examples of the IWW’s careless use of the word sabotage and the threat to use it whenever possible. This was most obviously on display in the reporting of the trials of (and the events leading up to them) both Tom Barker and the IWW Twelve. But in 1916 in Australia it was all too easy for the conservative general public, the capitalist press and members of parliament to be unable to grasp (or at least choose to be unable to grasp) such fine distinctions. And an IWW member and enthusiastic activist named Mick Sawtell was certainly unwilling to make it easy to grasp such distinctions. Outraged by the arrest and sentencing of Tom Barker, Sawtell fired off the following letter. I.W.W. IN THE WEST. ALLEGED THREATENED SABOTAGE. M. SAWTELL COMMITTED FOR TRIAL. Perth. Thursday. The charge against Michael Sawtell a member of the l.W.W. who, it was alleged, sent a threatening letter to Senator Lynch, was investigated in the City Court yesterday. Accused, who was undefended, pleaded not guilty. Headed by the words, "Injury, to one is injury "to all," and bearing no date, the letter in the case read:Dear Senator. Tom Barker, of the I.W.W., Sydney, has nine months' gaol hanging over his head. If Barker goes up then we will sabotage the master class all over Australia. All the Labor politicians are capitalists; consequently, we will not hesitate to sabotage the Labor politicians. If you wish to save your farm at Three Springs see that Tom Barker is released at once. Be sure and show this note to all the other members of the Labor party. Remember your class, the capitalist class, has everything to lose. We workers have only our chains. Don't forget to release Tom Barker - or sabotage. 175 Barrier Miner (Broken Hill), 21 Oct 1916, p. 4 76 Senator Lynch said he received the letter through the post on the approach of harvest time last year. He knew the accused, and at times had had business dealings with him. In reply to accused, the witness said he might have said, on one occasion, that he would do his utmost to suppress the I.W.W. The evidence of the detectives showed that the accused first came under the notice of the police three years ago, when he was holding I.W.W. meetings in company with a man named King. Towards the end of his speech King said that the secretary (Sawtell) had a quantity of literature for sale. Several papers and pamphlets produced were purchased by one of the detectives. An extract from one paper read by the prosecuting counsel said: 'The I.W.W. is going to play hell with dividends and another from the newspaper "Direct Action" said, "After God made the rattlesnake, the toad, and the bug, he had some stuff left, out of which he created a scab, and after he had finished the scab he used the last rubbish in the place and created a politician.176 Despite the highly provocative and obviously threatening tone and content of the letter, Mick Sawtell is not actually making a direct threat to life and limb – but to Senator Lynch's capitalist property. This rather fine distinction didn’t cut much mustard with the court, however - even though Sawtell said “he wrote the letter with a view to intimidate Mr. Lynch into using his influence to get Tom Barker released, and subsequently he was released. I never intended to destroy his farm," Sawtell continued. "I know Sr. lynch. He is an ignorant man with a violent temper."177 There is much disingenuousness on Sawtell’s part here. Senator Lynch did own a farm and he was clearly a capitalist like many Labor politicians and Mick Sawtell does indeed use the threat “If you wish to save your farm at Three Springs...” Sawtell would thus appear to be obliquely implying that the form the ‘sabotage' will take is the old tactic used in the 1890s strike in Australia which went by the name of “Bryant & May: that is, the setting of fire to wheat crops or woolsheds in retaliation for graziers and farmers trying to enforce freedom of contract by employing scabs. When J. B. King wrote his own inflammatory letter to Senator Lynch, Tom Barker was already in gaol for producing his famous anti-recruitment poster. But J. B. King would pay dearly for his beliefs and writings – as did each of the IWW Twelve. The outrageousness of their sentences was bravely explained in the Brisbane Truth by the ex-IWW member and former prisoner Douglas Sinclair. “It should be well known by now that they were not charged with doing anything. They were CHARGED WITH CONSPIRACY to do things. Briefly, conspiracy: (l) to cause fires; (2) to obtain the release of Tom Barker by unlawful means, (3) to excite sedition.”178 176 Barrier Miner (Broken Hill), 26 Oct 1916, p.2 “An ignorant man”, The Journal (Adelaide), 7 Mar 1917 p.2 178 “Are They Innocent?”, Truth (Brisbane), 4 Aug 1918, p.11: See also Douglas Sinclair and Jim Duncan, Justice ... outraged. The case for the twelve : 'Tis an X-ray on the evidence of the 12 longsentenced I.W.W. men in N.S.W. prisons / written for the executive of the Industrial Labor Party, 1920 Sydney : I.L.P., - Solidarity Series 2 177 77 Yet on every occasion members of the IWW were brought before court and accused of advocating violence the words they used (and for which they were often convicted and sentenced to gaol) were almost always surprisingly non-specific. The trouble, however (as American IWW agitator Ralph Chaplin explained above) was that the word “sabotage” is derived from the French word “sabot,” wooden shoe. In the France wooden shoes were once “dropped into machines by striking workmen ready to walk off the job. In the course of time this practice was extended to the use of monkey wrenches, explosives, or emory powder. The prosecution used the historic meaning of the word to prove that we drove spikes into logs, copper tacks into fruit trees, and practiced all manner of arson, dynamiting and wanton destruction. Thanks to our own careless use of the word, the prosecution’s case seemed plausible to the jury and the public.”179 Yet at the hearing of the trial of the IWW Twelve, the counsel for the accused, Mr James, explained that Donald Grant “had advised the crowd not to use violence on the day that the riot occurred at the Police Station.” That Grant actually used such conciliatory words was not contested by either the opposing counsel or the witnesses who were called to give evidence. Letters, however, were produced in court which— although again non-specific— had a quite damning effect. Sergeant George Brown deposed that he heard King and Glynn speak in the Sydney Domain on July 23 at a meeting of the I.W.W. King said: "It is a mission to the working class. Make this world a hell for the capitalist class and every shirker that belong to it. I don't mind seeing them roasting and toasting on the gridiron.'….” After that Mr. Lamb read the following, extract from a letter from Broken Hill dated July 19, 1916, and signed “Fritz Ratz”. Sorry for Tom Barker. Hope to goodness the workers will soon wake up and do something more than passing resolutions. It is action that is wanted. Perhaps the most damning letters produced in Court were the following. The next letter was signed "G. E. Bright, and was from Redfern-street, Woolloongabba [a suburb of Brisbane]. It was dated June, 6, 1916, and was addressed to the secretary of the Barker Defence Committee, Sydney; In it, Mr. Lamb said, there appeared the following passage: It appears from the last issue of our paper that beseeching political parasites for the release of Fellow worker Barker is useless. Some organised method of "sabo" must be put into operation. There are six "F.W.’s here who would like a hint as to means or method of battle. – A private letter to me will fill the bill. In a letter, dated August 20 1916 written to Glynn, this appeared: “Why don't the boys carry something solid when attending meetings so that when the "slop" (police) come to start trouble the boys may do him injury which will side-track a lot of the trouble into other channels in the end. Whether these two letters were real or fabricated is hard to know. Yet they may well have been genuine for Tom Barker admitted, as has been quoted previously above, “We had many little groups amongst us who were doing various things, and those 179 Ralph Chaplin, Wobbly: Rough and Tumble Story of an American Radical, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948, pp. 206-207 78 things were deadly secret and they kept them to themselves, so that you might be God Almighty in the organisation, but you wouldn’t know half a dozen things that were going on.”180 For the more ideologically minded hard-liners of the IWW, however, ‘sabotage’ was not physical violence (and probably not even violence against property) but the power of education, of ideas and of propaganda. A letter to this effect was even read to the court but its use of the word “sabotage” as a synonym for education (here colloquially referred to as “dope”) appears to have been either completely misunderstood or ignored. A letter addressed to "Fellow Worker'', and purporting to come from Auckland, contained the following passage: Our educational scheme will deal with economics, biology, physiology, and scientific sabotage, etc., etc. The most potent weapon of the militant minority is the original dope or ideas, that can be given out showing how few individuals here and a few there on different jobs can on any day and at all times, by incessant and silent sabotage, without the knowledge of the boss, and. without the knowledge or approval of the mentally sluggish and indifferent, ignorant, and cowardly majority, wring the concessions particularly shorter hours so necessary to enable the unemployed to become absorbed. By scientific sabotage, scientifically, silently, and jesuitically applied, victimisation and detection, etc. will become a thing of the past. The bosses' stool pigeons will thereby lose their jobs as pimps and manhunters. Remember that Durand, the syndicalist agitator, who was sentenced to death in France, was saved by systematic sabotage, and that the hop-pickers' leaders in America are being released through sabotage.181 In short, probably only a minority of IWW members felt physical violence was the kind of ‘sabotage’ that was an appropriate response to State violence. Some larger number of IWW members possibly believed that sabotage amounting to damage of capitalist property only (while eschewing physical violence) was an even more appropriate response to overthrowing the status quo. For others (possibly a majority of IWW members) sabotage most likely meant “the go slow”—the tactic of only going on strike as a last resort because being on strike everyday at work (by each worker effectively conducting one-man-lightning-go-slow)—was the best way to make the capitalist system unworkable. The official line— coming both from America and from Tom Barker in Australia— was that sabotage simply meant constant “education’ of the masses about the evils of the capitalist system and the hopelessness of trying to reform capitalism through Parliament. Tom Barker, however, remains a bit of a puzzle. Although his anti-conscription poster is pure genius one wonders about the affection he still expresses for both Bill McKell and Bob Heffron (two gentleman who sold out their IWW ideals and became conservative Labor Premiers of NSW) and the anti-communist Prime Minster of New Zealand, Peter Fraser.182 Barker, of course, knew these people from the days of their more radical activism during the 1913 Waihi strike in New Zealand and the anticonscription campaign in NSW. 180 Tom Barker and the IWW: oral history – recorded and edited by Eric Fry, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Canberra, 1965; republished by the IWWW Brisbane General membership Branch, 1999, p. 35 181 “The Treason Charges”, Barrier Miner (Broken Hill), 17 Oct 1916, p.2 182 Tom Barker and the IW, ibid., p. 40-41. 79 Sadly, both Barker and even Tom Mann would appear to have later been duchessed by Peter Fraser whom Barker claims always invited them to receptions held at the Savoy Hotel whenever the New Zealand Prime Minister was in London.183 Old age had clearly softened the radicalism of even the Australian intellectual giant of the IWW – and one wonders whether when he was still alive in London in the 1960s whether he still thought that ‘education’ was enough to bring about the emancipation of the working class. Two more letters read in court during the trial suggest that there were IWW members, like Tom Barker, who thought propaganda (educational ‘dope’ to use the Wobbly slang) was enough – although it is very easy to see how the language they use could be misconstrued as referring to the use of violence rather than education. The following passage was read from a letter from Melbourne: Even consistent Fleming has dropped his ideal for a theism; but we are stronger now than ever, and the future looks bright, and though we are in finance and numbers weak we have the power of the "cat" to prevent the tyrants holding our "F.W.” [Fellow Worker Tom Barker]… A letter from Queensland, dated August 1, said:There are any amount of rebels in Queensland, but they, are not in the Herbert River district. The few of us who are here are using the “cat" for all it is worth. It is all we can do.184 But this was all too late for the Australian Wobblies who had by then, for all intents and purposes, (so effective had the gaolings associated with the unlawful la associations legislation), ceased to exist as an organisation. But at places like Coledale and Scarborough individual former members and supporters often still held the views they had before such views were made unlawful. And what is special about the northern Illawarra colliery townships during the period 1914 -1919 is that there is no surviving evidence of either physical violence or sabotage taking place – apart from the sensational frame-up known as the Coledale shooting and the example set by constant non-violent on-the-job 'go slow’ propaganda put into practice each day. Yet, it must surely be obvious that—given the hegemonic status of capitalism and the power of the State in Australia when operating as the executive committee of the bourgeoisie— it is surely ludicrous to suggest that such an enshrined economic system and its world view could be overturned by propaganda alone, One would also have to be exceedingly naïve to think that such a revolution could take place without some violence erupting when attempts were made to deprive the bourgeoisie of its possessions. To believe otherwise one would have to be inordinately credulous or, at worst, extremely disingenuous. Nonetheless, although active physical violence against persons and property was not much in evidence in the northern Illawarra colliery villages in the period 1914-1919, physical violence and sabotage of employer property appears to have been much more significant and, perhaps, at times de rigueur in Illawarra’s nineteenth century industrial realpolitik. 183 184 Ibid. “The Treason Charges”, Barrier Miner (Broken Hill), 17 Oct 1916, p.2 80 The question, however, is whether it was anti-capitalist physical violence and sabotage? But it is a question that becomes problematic because it remains a genuine conundrum to determine precisely when capitalism became the dominant economic system operating in Illawarra. Indeed, so rapid was the transition from paternal convict outpost to corrupt rum-rebel entrepot that it is a moot point whether capitalism may have been present from the earliest days and that the whole system of convictism was merely a primitive form of State subsidy for capitalist exploitation in Illawarra from the get-go after the white invasion.185 Alongside the employment of convict labour “The Master and Servants Act" transplanted from England operated with the full force of the law in Illawarra. “Freedom of contract” operated alongside Convictism and was the hegemonic ‘common sense’ of employment relations in Illawarra and employees were expected to follow precisely the dictates of the law if they entered into a contact of employment with any ‘Master’. So now the time has come to more fully explore the sometimes surprising antecedents of anti capitalist sabotage in Illawarra. *** 185 See S.J. Butlin, Foundations of the Australian Monetary System 1788-1851, Sydney University Press, 1968, p.195. Available on line at http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/sup0003.pdf Accessed 16 March, 2016 81 PART TWO THE ANTECEDENTS OF ANTI CAPITALIST SABOTAGE IN ILAWARRA ANARCHISTS WITHOUT IDEOLOGY ON THE ILLAWARRA COLONIAL FRONTIER Did the Wobbly view that the master class and the servant class have nothing in common ever have any currency in Illawarra – even from the first days of the convict era? Well, records are sparse indeed, but there do seem to be a handful of genuine precedents. One kind of rampant monopolising Illawarra capitalist was the absentee landholder Andrew Allen – the son of Commissary David Allan (an individual who himself had exceeding difficulty distinguishing between what was actually his and what was the NSW Government’s money). His legacy today is Allen’s creek which runs through the Port Kembla steelworks. Here, on the shores of Lake Illawarra, Allens fils and Allen père let cattle run free under the nominal care of anonymous convicts servants waiting until he and his Dad could get the best price selling them back to the commissariat. One of those early records of just such an anonymous convict is found in the tales spun by Alexander Harris of the earliest days of the Illawarra frontier in 1826. It was a time when the nascent landed aristocracy of the likes of the Wentworths and Merchant Browne largely left their shepherd servants to their own devices— having charging them with the vague task of minding cattle on largely uncleared and unfenced acreages of up to 2000 acres. Harris records his encounter with just such a convict shepherd by the shores of Yalla Lake (today known as Lake Illawarra) in December 1826: He was a merry, free-hearted fellow, still a prisoner of the crown, and employed by his master in taking care of stock (horned cattle). And here it may not be out of place to make a few remarks upon this occupation and the class of men engaged in it. In New South Wales large settlers possess some thousands of horned cattle; these are divided into convenient numbers, and stationed in various parts as their owner may happen to possess land. Each is branded, generally before six months old; and is then suffered to ramble at large over the pasture or technically the run assigned to the herd it belongs to: and these runs are unenclosed. Where, therefore, there are several of these runs adjoining, the various herds often mingle; but as one part of the stockman's duty is continually to search up and restore his cattle to their own run, and as these men always assist each other, the different herds are kept tolerably distinct. It however is an unavoidable incident of the system that some get lost. Either they wander away into the mountains, or die in some unfrequented creek, or, without design on any one's part, attach themselves to some passing herd that is shifting its station, &c. Hence it is impossible to make stockmen accountable for every beast; especially in some of the mountainous or mountain-bordered runs; one of which last was that we had arrived at. It will readily be understood what strong temptation was thus put in the way of men whose honesty had been subverted by a thief's life from infancy upwards, 82 to sell an odd beast or two when they considered they could do so without detection; and it would be a very imperfect notion of the population of New South Wales that should fail to include the fact that there are scores of the free to be met with who are just as ready for a good purchase on the cross as the bond for a sale. For a beast that would fetch 8l. or 10l. of the butchers in Sydney (who, by the bye, were at this time not very particular in buying every head they killed from the right owner), for such a beast the cross-dealer would give the stockman 3l. or 4l. [3 or 4 guineas] in ready dollars. Common sense could not expect the convict stockman, kept by his master without wages and often most miserably fed and clad, to remain true to his trust under such temptation. Thus sometimes a bullock was turned over to the travelling cattle-jobber: sometimes three or four young calves were driven away before branding into a snug bight of the mountain and never brought to light till they were branded with a false brand and would no longer follow their mothers, and so lead to detection. Sometimes the brands of beasts, not very remarkable otherwise, were obliterated by branding with fresh brands; and in latter days it has been found that sometimes the beast has been thrown and the branded section of the hide actually flayed off. Let the reader in short imagine what was likely to take place on a run of perhaps ten miles each way, inhabited only by ten or twelve convicts in charge of five or six herds of cattle. This game, it was afterwards known, was going on pretty smartly at the stations on the Yalla Lake, where we had arrived; and one of the most active hands in it was the unhappy fellow I have referred to, who, however, was only temporarily engaged there. Not knowing all this at the time, I took a great liking to the man: I may also say that I did not even suspect him to be a prisoner of the crown. He was well dressed, had plenty of money, had a good horse at the door, and seemed quite his own master.186 Now here was an individual who was clearly trying to reclaim some of the ‘surplus value’ his ‘employer’’, or rather slave-owner (as the man was still a convict under sentence) was happily extracting from his unfortunate period of servitude. Such people do not, however, appear to have been ideological anarchists. They were simply individuals taking advantage of an anarchic station – as the members of the bunyip aristocracy fortunate to have been granted vast acreages in Illawarra did not want to waste their time actually living there and found the prospect of supervising their uncouth convicts who were supposed to be minding cows rather distasteful. But Harris nonetheless provides a rare glimpse into the strangeness and vagaries of convict capitalism on what was then the still a remote and difficult to access colonial frontier. Eight years later, just four kilometres up the road where a giant fig tree still stands, my two favourite local convict girls – Mary Maloney and Sarah McGregor - also adopted a direct actionist approach to the Master (Captain Waldron) who was sexually harassing them. Fed up with the old goat’s unwanted advances they both retaliated when he tried yet again to touch one of them up. The good captain was overpowered and hit his head as he fell to the ground – suffering an injury from which he never recovered. Best of all the two girls appear to have adopted a rather scandalously joyous approach to their activities if the reports of the Sydney Herald are to be believed. "...witness [Mrs Waldron] then turned to Mary Maloney, and exclaimed, "you vile woman, what have you done to my husband?" Prisoner immediately pulled up her petticoats, and exposed her person to the view of the whole family; the male servants were then placed about the house as a security for the family; the language of the prisoners during this time, was of the most 186 Alexander Harris, Alexander Harris (An Emigrant mechanic 1847), Settlers and Convicts, Melbourne University Press, 1964, pp.53-55 83 disgraceful description; both were equally violent and outrageous, and insisted upon having their clothes, as they were free, and would not wait for the constables who had been sent for; the clothes were ultimately given to them to prevent further violence; the deceased was removed to the parlour, and then wrote a note for Captain Allman, of the Police, who came immediately; at the time of his arrival, deceased's right side, hand, and arm, had become useless, and it was with great difficulty he could speak; deceased was ultimately carried to his bed, in which, he lingered, in an almost insensible state, until the 28th of January, when he breathed his last....187 Charged with murdering their master, one of the girls, in the words of Wollongong solicitor Bill McDonald, astutely ‘pleaded her belly’— and managed, unlike the conservative feminist Labour Historian Joy Damousi claims, to live to tell the tale. Neither of the women was executed on a charge of murder and Damousi must not have followed up on either the case itself or the reasonably extensive paper trail of the later colonial careers of the two women.188 But, of course, neither of these women were what we might consider philosophical anarchists. They were merely women vociferously protesting about their unacceptable conditions of convict employment. And this present study is particularly interested in such working men and women who actively challenge the authority of their masters – and take special interest in whether or not they are willing to resort to violence in order to do so. Yet for all that, Alexander Harris’s convict anarchist cow herders were simply taking the line of least resistance—whereas as Mary Maloney and Sarah McGregor lashed out violently in response to their oppression. They are akin to (but not quite like) those somewhat different and even more shadowy IWW sympathisers who were later to be active in the northern colliery villages of Illawarra. LABOURING MEN AND WIVES FOR SALE In wild and lawless frontier places such as Illawarra—where it seems a kind of bandit capitalism might have been beginning to emerge as the convict system fell into desuetude— the instances of possible revolutionary direct action become more frequently reported as criminal (rather than political) behaviour. Illawarra prior to 1850 appears, unlikely as it may seem, very much the kind of capitalist society depicted in Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge. A ruling class is very much in place but there are also men and women of more humble origin on the make—along with the plenty of winners and losers in the struggle for existence. Sometimes, as so often in Hardy’s literary philosophy of the cold hand of fortune and circumstance, the loser (as in the well known Bob Dylan song) is presented as being later to win. Surprisingly, in at least one respect, so alike are the two societies of Australia’s Illawarra and England’s Dorset that, as Frank McCaffrey records, “Billie the Barber sold his wife”, Ann, to James Beadle after putting her up for auction in what was then 187 The Sydney Herald, 24 February 1834 See the inaccurate claim made in Joy Damousi, Depraved and Disorderly: Female Convicts, Sexuality and Gender in Colonial, Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 64. For amore accurate account see W.G. McDonald, Captain Waldron Deceased, Illawarra Historical Society, 1972, p.21 188 84 the main street of Wollongong. Sadly, poor Billy (whose surname will be revealed in a work to be published later this year) would find that that James Beadle and his new wife, Ann, lived happily ever after.189 There is no report of anyone being arrested over this – and no record of registration of a subsequent ‘marriage ‘ for James and Ann exists so they were presumably sufficiently law-abiding not to engage in bigamy – though putting your wife up for auction in Illawarra was apparently (at least in the days before the passing of the Married Women’s Property Act) possibly just within the bounds of the law. DEATHS. BEADLE. —At the residence of his brother Samuel, Molong, on the 3rd May, JAMES BEADLE (late of Kembla, American Creek), aged 82 years.190 DEATH. BEADLE. — On the 14th February, 1896, at the residence of her brother-in-law (Samuel Beadle, of Molong), ANN, the relict of the late James Beadle, formerly of American Creek, and an old resident of Illawarra, aged 82 years. Inserted by her friends, T. Morris and A. S. Wilson.191 An additional death notice indicates James Beadle, was a “native of Essex, England, and for 56 years resident of the colony.”192 As it turns out an intrepid Illawarra historian after being given these details has confirmed my hunch that McCaffrey’s gossip was indeed accurate and has even turned up the full name of Billy the Barber the eponymous wife auctioneer. This is not the place, however, to steal her thunder. What can be revealed, however, is that the time has come to elevate McCaffrey as Illawarra’s prime historical nineteenth century source. He had the advantage of starting to collect oral testimony containing much salacious gossip from long term residents of Illawarra as early as the 1870s. And if his sources were on the money then so is McCaffrey – and, in my experience, they often appear to be. Moreover, as in the case of Billy the Barber, I have sometimes found that even most unlikely statements in his extensive archive are often capable of being confirmed from other records. Unconventional and challenging of public mores as such anecdotes may be, such curiosities are a long way from this book’s focus on trying to reveal something of the lives of the few individuals living in northern Illawarra in the twentieth century who were tying to adopt a serious-minded (although often relatively anarchic attempt) to fundamentally challenge not only the power of capitalism but even sometimes its sexual politics. But before turning to these individuals, it is necessary to provide a little background about the timidity of so many of the individuals who have sometimes previously been considered ‘radical’ by Labour historians (often Labor party members) interested in the trade union movement in Wollongong. 189 See the extensive collection of papers belonging to and produced by Frank McCaffrey held at the University of Wollongong Archives. 190 Illawarra Mercury, 13 May 1890 191 Illawarra Mercury, 22 February 1896 192 Molong Express & Western District Advertiser, 10 May 1890 85 THE HOPELESSNESS OF EARLY ILLAWARRA TRADE UNIONS & THE FEW INDIVIDUALS WHO KICKED AGAINST THE TRACES Getting Wollongong’s earliest coal miners to even think about going on strike—let alone forming a trade union to protect their interests—proved difficult. But true blue Illawarra militancy eventually prevailed and the courageous Wollongong miners held out for one whole day. We are informed that two delegates from Newcastle made their appearance at Wollongong on Thursday last, and during that evening and following day made overtures to the miners in that district to suspend work. During the whole of Friday mining operations were suspended, but on Saturday the Wollongong miners resolved to continue their usual work, and the delegates returned to Sydney on their way back to Newcastle.193 Later that year, however, Wollongong seems to have got its first modern industrial dispute when the men then constructing Wollongong Harbour at Belmore Basin withdrew their labour power. Strike at the Harbor. — The men employed at the harbor works struck yesterday morning; and from enquiries we have made it appears the gangers work by the yard, and pay the union day Wages. They were to pay them 7s per day; but for the last two payments the men have, only received 6s per day, under the plea, we believe, that from some cause or other the price received for the work would not afford more. The men, we are informed, now demand 8s per day. There is another lot of men, which they call navvies, who work together as partners also by the piece, but who complain that they have been charged for powder and sharpening tools cither wholly or in part more than was agreed for. These are the facts as stated [to] us. Mr. Gibbon is now at Kiama - but we sincerely hopeful upon his return that an amicable arrangement, will be come to with the men, so that the works, in which we are all so much interested, may be proceeded with.194 Sadly, we know nothing much more of this dispute. But what is of interest is how keen the local newspaper editor was to encourage a compromise so that work on the harbour could proceed and how that editor seems to be of the view that the ‘common interest’ of all classes in enlarging the tiny port of Wollongong is presumed to be self evident. But society does not work like that – and there were then lots of competing interest down at Wollongong harbour as is revealed in this lengthy report of preparations to begin construction work. LANDLORDS versus TENANTS. Mr. Gibbons, the harbor contractor, is about to erect huts for his men, on government land adjacent to the wharf; and we are told that the inhabitants of Wollongong intend to prevent him — if they can. We hope the in habitants of Wollongong have more sense than to attempt any thing of the kind. We do not see on what pretext they can be called to interfere with the operations of Mr. Gibbons. For aught, that appears to the contrary, he has as much right to erect huts as workshops, sheds, stores, or a powder magazine. Accustomed as he has been to carry on works where there were neither habitations nor inhabitants, it has been his duly, as much as his right to provide not only workshops and houses, but also provisions, water, and fuel. If the men had to disperse in search of lodgings and provisions at any place distant from their work, the work could not be prosecuted without costing more than it would be worth. The vicinity of the 193 194 Illawarra Mercury, 8 October 1861 p.2; see also Sydney Morning Herald, 14 October 1861 p.3 Illawarra Mercury, 19 November 1861 p. 2 86 town to the harbor works must render it less necessary for the contractor to provide house accommodation for the workmen. If there be sufficient, and suitable habitations, it would be needless to erect more. But the contractor and his men, as they are the best, must be the sole judges of what is needful, and what superfluous. He is not likely to build huts which will not be occupied, and we presume that there cannot be compulsory occupation. They can be let only to those who choose to take then, and none will choose to save those who find them more suitable to their wants and means than any which the town affords. If Mr. Gibbons finds that he can supply houses at some shillings per week less than is charged in town, he will have so much the more to spend on harbor improvements. Owners of house property near the harbor may have been expecting to draw exorbitant, if not extortionate, rents out of the increased demand for house accommodation, and they may feel it as a grievance that their monopoly should be invaded. But they expect rather too much if they expect the inhabitants of Wollongong to form a public meeting, or to sign a memorial for no purpose but to keep up their rents…. To aim at preventing the erection of more houses, is as absurd and childish as to complain of more shops, more ships, more farms.195 Under a capitalist system, there can be few ‘common interests’—protest as much to the contrary as the Illawarra Mercury might wish. Even back in 1861, the solution (as would happen in the last decade of the nineteenth century and up until the outbreak of WW1) was to try to let Government as ‘The Executive Arm of Capitalism’ to try to come up with the solution to the resolution of conflicting and competing interests in society. But it is not an easy thing to do – and there almost has to be someone who loses. And in this case the losers were the landlords who owned harbour front property— though the Illawarra Mercury tried to sell the ‘compromise’ in which the landlords lost out as a ‘sacrifice’ that must be made for the public good. Since the above was in type we have learned from good authority that the cost of the huts that arc about being erected by Mr. Gibbins on the Point will be defrayed out of the monies voted for the Harbor Works, and the rents arising there from will be accounted for to the Government; and, further, that when the works are completed, the huts will be sold, and the money placed to tho credit of the Harbor fund.196 That is what class collaboration under capitalism is all about – and it is all to the good if the Government (yes that is us, suckers, ‘the general public’) can be made to pay for whatever compromises capitalism deems necessary. But what of those back in the 1860s who believed that the interests of the working class and the employing class had nothing in common? How should they be expected to respond? And what form did their actual responses take? Sadly, the full story of the 'resolution’ of this dispute is unclear—except for a lone newspaper report which seems to indicate the workers were defeated by a number of workers being willing to scab on their mates and return to work. 195 196 Illawarra Mercury, 30 August 1861, p.2 ibid. 87 The strike at the Wollongong Harbour Works has been brought to a close, and the men, or the greater portion of them, have returned to work.197 The Wollongong workers in 1861, however, weren’t a patch on those from Newcastle where a most extraordinary kind of strike was in progress. The miners' strike at Newcastle still continues, all efforts at mutual accommodation between employer and employed having failed. There is strong reason to fear that one result of this will be to inflict a permanent injury on Newcastle, by diverting much of its trade into other channels. The mine proprietors, it is stated, have come to a determination of ejecting the miners from the cottages the property of the former, which they have hitherto occupied. There was recently some little disturbance between the coal miners and the police. The miners' wives having attacked some seamen who were engaged in getting coal for embarkation, the arrest of one of these viragos was directed, whereupon the miners came to the rescue, and the police were not numerous enough to retain their capture. Steps have been taken to secure the arrest of the leading rioters, forty policemen having started for Newcastle last night.198 Such momentous events – even involving a momentous united feminist action some 25 years before the today more celebrated one on the Bulli Coal Tramway in 1886 unfortunately made virtually zero impact 25 years earlier on the political consciousness of the timid Illawarra mine workers. A deputation from the coal miners at Newcastle have visited the Wollongong miners, but failed to induce the latter to strike.199 These Wollongong miners seem to have been already in the process of becoming the conservative sort of people who thought that craft trade unions purporting to represent the working class were the answer to the problems of the toiling masses – and that industrial disputes should be restricted only to the men working in a single mine in dispute with the owners of that colliery. The more radical notion that an injury to one section of the working class was an injury to all was likely to have been almost certainly still then beyond their ken. A NASCENT WOBBLY DIRECT ACTIONIST? Earlier that year, however, a single individual temporarily residing in Illawarra seems to have reacted against what he saw as the unreasonable request of a local authority. William Edwards, pilot of Wollongong, appeared to prefer a charge of using abusive language against William May. This arose out, of the resistance of the defendant to the request of the complainant, that a light in a hut occupied by defendant near tho entrance of the harbor, should be obscured, so as to prevent vessels entering the harbor being misled thereby. Constable Thompson deposed to the service of the summons, and the Chief Constable said he believed May had left the district. A warrant was issued.200 197 198 The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 December 1861, p.5 The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 October 1861, p.4 199 The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 October 1861 p.3 200 Illawarra Mercury, 12 April 1861, p.2 88 Clearly, there may have been some risk to public safety here— but you would think it would be the responsibility of the harbour authorities to provide some sort of lighting rather than asking some bloke to extinguish the candles or oil-lamp in his tent. Yet the authorities probably really should have known better than to mess with our sweet William May—for pretty soon afterwards he was causing all sorts of havoc. WATER POLICE COURT- Friday BEFORE the water police magistrate and M Ronald J.P. Arson. Luke Conroy, and William May, brought up on remand charged with setting fire to the ship Sovereign of the Seas, were further remanded until Monday.201 Hindsight would suggest that it might have been best to have not messed with a militant – presumably unemployed - Seamen's cook like William May over a rather minor matter down by Wollongong Harbour. Even while awaiting trial for setting fire to his ship, William May had to face another charge. WATER POLICE COURT. Wednesday. Before Mr. B. Burdekin and Mr. W. Hay. The undermentioned seamen were found guilty of desertion and were awarded the following sentences…Charles Courtenay, William May, and John Williams, schooner Robert and Betsey, fourteen days. Nicholas Quinn, a deserter from the vessel Robert and Betsy, was sentenced to four weeks' hard labour in gaol.202 Pretty clearly, it must have a bastard of a ship (and with a bastard named “Mr Henderson" as Master) for so many of the crew to desert – and, of course, it is surely wrong that there even existed a Master and Servant Act under which such individuals should be convicted for withdrawing their labour. William May and his shipmates had been heading from Newcastle to Launceston and must have jumped ship in Sydney. The English 1823 Master and Servant Acts became part of Australian political history and regulated relations between employers and employees throughout the 19th century. Its avowed purpose was the better regulations of servants, labourers and work people but was heavily biased towards employers – and seems to have been expressly designed to both discipline employees and repress the "combination" of workers in trade unions. The law required obedience and loyalty from servants to their contracted employer. Infringements of the contract were punishable before a court of law, often with a jail sentence of hard labour. It was precisely this act which was used against our William May. 201 202 Empire (Sydney), Saturday 14 September 1861 p. 5 The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 October 1861 p.2 89 As little as one hour's absence by a ‘free’ (that is, non convict) servant without permission could result in either a punishment of prison or some time on the treadmill. By 1840, absconders in Australia who left their employment without permission were subject to being hunted down under the Bushrangers Act. In the Melbourne jurisdiction, between 1835 and 1845, when labour shortages were acute, over 20% of prison inmates had been convicted under the New South Wales Act 1823 (UK) for offences including leaving one’s place of work without permission and being found in hotels.203 By 1902, the 1823 Act had been modified in NSW to include forfeit of wages if the written or unwritten contract for work was unfulfilled. Absence from a place of work became punishable by imprisonment of up to three months with or without hard labour. There were also penalties of up to 10 pounds for anyone who harboured, concealed or re-employed a 'servant' (i.e. worker) who had deserted or absconded or absented himself from his duty implied in the 'contract'.204 The next year our boy William May (whom we first met at Wollongong Harbour) was in further trouble – and may well have been engaged in an act of sabotage against an employer he found unsatisfactory. Daniel Yates appeared before the bench, yesterday, on the information of William May, who asserted that the defendant was indebted to him in the sum of £1 13s for wages. William May deposed that he hired with the defendant on the 28th or 29th of October at 10s a day; he worked for him for four days and three hours; he had received 20s on account, and now claimed £1 13s; the reason he left Mr. Yates' employ was on account of an alleged injury to a stone, but he (the complainant) did not consider he had damaged the stone. Cross-examined: He was in his yard at ten o’clock; he did finish the stone as far as he (Mr. Yates) would allow him; he did not know that another stone had to be used instead of the one he injured. — Daniel Yates deposed that the complainant was in his employ five days and three hours, but that he objected to pay him for two days five hours out of that time, as he had spoilt the stone he was engaged upon; the men in the yard said he was drunk when working the stone. — Henry Sherwood deposed that the stone was spoilt for the purpose it was intended for, viz., a window-sill; it was next to worthless now. The bench thought that the 20s the complainant had on account, the spoiling of the stone, and the value of the same (8s), balanced the amount claimed, viz., £1 13s. The price of the summons (4s. 6d.) was refunded to the complainant.205 It is hard to know for sure but our William May, might possibly have been a kind of ancestor of those individuals working in the northern Illawarra colliery villages in the early 20th century who did not believe that there was any such thing as a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. Capitalism, in their view, did not operate that way. There would always be a difference (a profit) accruing to the employer at the end of the day – otherwise he would have little interest in employing anyone. The best way to deal with such an employers, they therefore felt, was to implement the principle that “fast workers die young”. And if ever this tactic failed a wooden shoe (sabotage) was probably the most appropriate response. 203 See J.W. Turner, “Newcastle Miners and The Master and Servant Act, 1830-1862 “by J.W. Turner in Labour History, Number 16, May 1969. 204 Masters and Servants Act (1902) N.S.W - Act No. 59, 1902. An Act to consolidate the enactments relating to Master and Servants, (4th September, 1902). 205 The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 25 November 1862 p.2 90 I think I first encountered one of these sorts of individuals when I got my first casual job as a labourer in a malt factory at Bellambi. This “fellow worker”, almost immediately after I was introduced to him on the first day, advised me to take up smoking. And when I said I didn’t like smoking he said, “More fool you boy. I’m a chain smoker and I’ve mastered the art of taking five minutes to roll a cigarette. I reckon that, simply by taking my time, I’ve reduced the working day by at least 40 per cent. No trade union could win you that.” The first task I was set to was, after being handed a scythe, was to chop down the long grass growing at the entrance to the factory. There was a hell of a lot of it and it covered a very large area. And when, like a good boy who worked very hard and did as I was told, my employer called out to me as I was about to leave that afternoon, “You’re a good worker. You’ve done well – but there’s no more for you to do here so you’ll have to finish up tomorrow.” The next afternoon the chain smoking former co-worker waved me goodbye and said, “You’ll learn one day boy.” Naively, I assumed this chain-smoking fellow was probably a militant trade unionist – but, in retrospect, I think I may have been wrong. Years later, after having my political consciousness raised by the non party militants of the Seamen’s Union of Australia I was, perhaps, in a better position to understand the mind-set of both an itinerant worker like poor William May and also that of my chain-smoking former workmate. Nineteenth century Seamen, it seems, sometimes desired land jobs – but often found much less camaraderie and solidarity in workplaces. When conditions on board a ship became intolerable, individual desertion or collective mutiny were possible options. On both land and sea, sabotage might sometimes be a possible response. At this distance we can’t know what the precise motivation of some hitherto unremarked individual like William May might have been. Like so many small-time and possible irrelevant rebels that small desertion is as far as it has proved possible to track someone with such an unexceptional name as William May. One would think, however, that a novice stonemason’s labourer might have stronger support from a group of individuals who had, in Melbourne at least, formed a Union which on the 21st April 1856 passed a motion moved by Secretary James Galloway (and which was carried unanimously) that a “system of eight hours per day should be introduced into the Building Trades” – a condition that even today would appear to be honoured more in the breach than in practice. Such spectacular improvements in working conditions were made possible by the exodus of large numbers of workers to the goldfields from the 1850s. Yet, until well after the first United Kingdom Trade Union Act of 1871 was implemented, which was supposedly meant to secure the legal status of trade unions, trade unions were (in 91 theory if not in practice) still capable of being regarded as illegal because they could be said to be "in restraint of trade". Throughout the 1860s, punitive provisions were extended by judicial interpretation. This often led to the imprisonment of union officials who led strikes or tried to encourage fellow workers to challenge an employer's hiring practices— particularly relating to the use of non-union workers. A revised Master and Servant Act was passed in 1867, which supposedly limited imprisonment to "aggravated" breaches of contract (where injury to persons or property was likely to result). Yet it soon became clear that only workers were going to be subject to the Act’s provisions. Imprisonment then sometimes followed for workers who failed to comply with specific court orders or for non-payment fines or compensation for alleged damages.206 . Our William May was simply one hitherto completely forgotten victim of such legislation. PREMIER INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS (THE FRIENDLY KIND) After the major gold rushes had ended and labour supply returned to something approaching ‘normal’, and while trade unions remained small and confined to either one industry or even just one worksite, they were relatively easy for employers to defeat. But when the seamen’s strike erupted between November 1878 and January 1879, although it was motivated by racist and highly anti-internationalist attitudes, it still alarmed the employers. Although the strike wasn’t as ‘gigantic’ as one of the Seamen’s Union handbills of the time claimed, this dispute still did cause enormous disruption to trade in Sydney. The handbill itself—which, the Sydney Morning Herald claimed, was “distributed about the wharfs”— tried to encourage other unions to support the Seamen in their struggle. NOTICE TO FIREMEN, TRIMMERS, SAILORS, STEWARDS, COOKS, and OTHERS. You are aware that for some time past the A. S. N. Company of this port have been quietly superseding the European crews by Chinese in their boats, and as it seems to be their intention to man all their boats by Chinese, the seamen at present in their employ are determined to resist to the utmost this attempt to displace them. In this, what will be to them a gigantic struggle, they appeal confidently to their brother seamen to refuse most decidedly to ship in their places. In carrying on this struggle they are sacrificing themselves, not for their benefit alone, but for the benefit of all seamen in these colonies for all time; for, if the A. S. N. Company gain the day in this, their example will be followed by other companies in this and other ports, and thousands of seamen who have made these colonies their home will be forced to give up their only means of living. 206 See J. W Turner, “Newcastle Miners and The Master and Servant Act, 1830-1862”, ibid. 92 Seamen, don't ship in any boat where the men are on strike, and don't ship in any capacity, whether as firemen, trimmers, deck-hands, stewards, or cooks, on board ships that carry Chinese crews. N.B.--To Wharf Labourers. -You are respectfully requested not to ship by the run in any of the boats on strike.207 Now this is not the sort of radicalism that could be said to anywhere near approach a general strike but the employers instantly realised they had a problem. If trade unions worked cooperatively – and an injury to one became an injury to all – not just the employers but the entire capitalist system might be under threat. The future NSW Premier, George Dibbs, got to the heart of the employers fears when he addressed the members of “The Anti Strike Association” which met soon after the Seamen’s strike had been defeated in late January 1879 – very full details of which were published in the Illawarra Mercury. The working classes had a power in their hands, he ventured to say, that they should not possess, and that power, wielded as it had been, would amount almost, as far as the employers of labour were concerned, to a reign of terror.208 Dibbs' solution, proposed long before the big strikes of the 1890s, was the establishment of a form of arbitration. He hoped it would yet be seen by the working-classes that the capitalists were not their enemies, but their best friends; and that while according to working men to the fullest extent the right to form trades unions they would do all in then power to prevent a strike or a lock-out. In France there was a sort of joint council of operatives and employers, and in cases of dispute the leaders of the men and the leaders of the masters met in open council, where both sides of the dispute were fairly heard in presence of, the parties concerned; and, where otherwise there would be a strike, this council of prudent men brought the voice of reason into play to settle the differences which arose.209 Not all employers were keen on the idea. Many felt that it was best to trust to the market for that way employers would only pay what they the market necessitated. For some, State intervention in the market was anathema—and for others even trade unions were beyond the pale as they interfered with such sacrosanct notions as ‘freedom of contract’. Later, at Helensburgh in 1907, by which time it was clear the various systems of conciliation, arbitration and Wages Boards which had by then been introduced had clearly proved wanting. Kiama born NSW Premier, Sir Joseph Carruthers, shot home the blame for the disharmony between and labour and capital to, of all people, barristers! ARBITRATION IN NEW SOUTH WALES. MR CARRUTHERS AND BULLYING BARRISTERS Sydney, September 5 The breakdown of the Arbitration Act in NSW was referred to by Mr. Carruthers at Helensburgh tonight; He stated that the Act was a cumbersome and an unworkable statute, expensive in administration and unsatisfactory in its results 207 The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 November 1878 Illawarra Mercury, 28 January 1879 p. 4 209 ibid 208 93 Friendly feeling and conciliatory attitude between employers and employed were necessary elements of the settlement of all labour disputes, but too often ill-feeling and hatred were created and accentuated by bullying barristers, whose only concern was to win their case at no matter what cost. The Act should be swept aside in favour of one to establish wages boards in order that the parties concerned should meet and settle their own dispute without the intervention of heavily-paid barristers.210 Perhaps there was a touch of jealousy here for Carruthers had been admitted as a solicitor on 28 June 1879—and, never even admitted to the bar, had been forced to make investment in land his chief source of income. This speculation got Carruthers into a spot of bother when, In June 1905, the Labor Party member for Orange, Albert Gardiner, moved that the Royal Commissioner inquiring into land scandals be empowered to investigate alleged abuses under Carruthers and other Secretaries for Lands. Predictably, despite his above-expressed view that “Friendly feeling and conciliatory attitude between employers and employed were necessary elements of the settlement of all labour disputes”, Carruthers fully supported an amendment of the Industrial Disputes Act to increase penalties on strikers. THE SCABS WIN (SORT OF) AND THE MEEK INHERIT NOTHING In 1887 the ship Merksworth docked at Bulli Jetty in an attempt to deliver some scabs to break a strike that had straggled on from late 1886. In order to block the train carrying the scabs from the jetty to the mine, around hundred miners' wives and daughters lay on the tramway and the scabs decided they were probably best advised to go home—though one of their number decided to join the Union. Scabs were a big problem— and one that the largely clueless nascent union leaders knew not how to handle. They could “interview” them and “tin can” them to and from the mine (and sometimes try to punch their lights out) but seemed largely unaware that unless you can actually hold something over the bosses their ‘craft unions’ had little hope of challenging the power of their masters to enforce ‘freedom of contract’. Only a trade union that is big enough and united enough to ensure that no-one will scab—and can ensure that workers in other industries will not undermine them by assisting employers to get their goods to market— is going to have much chance of challenging the power and might of the owners or those who manage the means of production. Picturesque as the women’s action on the Bulli Colliery tramway may have been, the men eventually went back to the mine starved into submission. 210 The Advertiser (Adelaide,) 6 September 1907 p.5 94 They also had the indignity of working with those who’d previously scabbed on them and could do nothing about the fact that the more militant and vociferous fellow workers during the dispute were blacklisted and never gained re-employment in the mine. This, of course, was a small mercy when the mine very soon blew up and turned Bulli into a town where there were widows everywhere. In some case every male member of a family – grandfathers, fathers and brothers—perished in the mine. There were 81 deaths in all and it was the biggest land disaster to have occurred in Australia up to that time.211 But this sort of thing had been seen by some of the Bulli workers back in the old country. Not surprisingly, the words of ‘The Blantyre Explosion’ were soon adapted and sung locally— just as the defeated in England had long turned their misery into song. Similarly, the Lancashire machine breakers certainly knew what was what when they sang their mournful and (sometimes almost incomprehensible) ditty. Aw'm a poor loo-wayver as mony a one knaws Aw've nowt t'ate in th' heawse, un' aw've worn eawt my cloas You’d hardly gie sixpence fur o' aw've got on Meh clogs ur' booath baws'n un' stockins aw've none The Bulli Miners, however, turned this sort of English vernacular lament into the worst of all milksop whinging folk songs about their own disaster – and the lyrics are decidedly less than original. The Bulli Explosion Traditional By Slacky Creek's banks as I sadly did wander among the pit heaps as evening grew high. I spied a young maiden all dressed in deep mourning a weeping and wailing with many a sigh. I stepped up beside her and this I addressed her "Pray, tell me fair maid of your trouble and pain." Sobbing and sighing at last she did answer "Johnny Murphy, kind sir, was my true lover's name twenty-one years of age full of youth and good looking to work down the mine 211 See Don Dingsdag, The Bulli Mining Disaster 1887: Lessons from the Past, St Louis Press, 1993, for a fuller account of the strike and its aftermath. 95 of Old Bulli he came. The wedding was fixed all guests were invited that calm summer's evening my Johnny was slain. The explosion was heard all the women and children with pale anxious faces made haste to the mine.“ When the truth was made known the hills rang with their mourning. Eighty one old and young miners were slain. Now husbands and wives and sweethearts and brothers that Bulli explosion they'll never forget. And all you young miners who hear my sad story shed a tear for the victims who were laid to their rest.212 But crocodile tears and fine words butter no parsnips— and just three years later the miners of northern Illawarra were on strike again. Basically all they could do was sing and make a bit of noise. And much as I like the folk music which emerged out of such industrial disputes one must needs be aware that song is often the cry of the weak and the defeated. Meanwhile the petty prosecutions continued apace. William Dobing, a miner employed by the Osborne Wallsend Coal Company, was charged with having, on tho 3rd September, violated one of the special rules of the Company by leaving tho colliery without giving fourteen days' notice.213 Quite a few others were similarly charged – yet within a fortnight all was quickly resolved and the relationship between masters and servants was soon all sweetness and light—with both employers and employees at each other’s throat in court. COURT OF PETTY SESSIONS. Thursday, Sept. 25. (Before the Police Magistrate, Messrs. W. J. Wiseman, A. Parsons, and J. A. Beatson, J's.P.) William Dobbins, James Hamilton, Thomas Patterson, and Andrew Duncan, miners at Mount Keira and Mount Kembla collieries, appeared, charged with leaving their work without giving fourteen days notice as required by the special rules of the collieries. Mr. C. Bull for the prosecution, and Mr. Muir for defendants. Mr. Bull said that, acting upon advice given by him, it had been decided by the masters to withdraw the informations against the four defendants. Mr. Muir applied for costs. Mr. Bull contended that no costs ought to have been asked for, seeing that it was by mutual understanding that the cases had been adjourned. It was with a spirit of good will towards defendants that the informations had been withdrawn. The Bench allowed £2 2s costs. 212 213 The lyrics were sung to me as a child by my aunt’s foster father—Padgy Woods of Park Road Bulli. Illawarra Mercury, 16 September, 1890 p.2 96 H. O. MacCabe, manager of Mount Keira colliery, was sued by William Dobbins and James Hamilton for the amount of wages due to them at the time they ceased work. Mr. Ronaldson, manager of Mount Kembla Colliery, was similarly sued by Matthew Thompson and Edward Simpson. Mr. Muir for complainants, and Mr. C. Bull for defendants. Mr. Bull said he had been instructed to state that there would be no difficulty in these cases, as it had been decided to pay all the wages due to the men employed at the collieries. Mr. Muir said he was quite prepared to accept this assurance. No formal order was made, defendants to pay costs of court.214 WHEN THEY GAOL YOU FOR STRIKING, IT’S A RICH MAN’S COUNTRY YET Pretty quickly, however, the great strike of 1890 was in progress and the armed might of the capitalist State went straight into action in northern Illawarra. The spirit of unrest seems to have removed itself today from Wollongong to Austinmer, 11 miles distant, where 22 free labourers, guarded by a force of military under Colonel Mackenzie and Captain Nathan, and by a troop of police, arrived by special train this morning, under engagement to the North Bulli Coal Company. When the train drew up at the station some 50 or 60 unionists created a disturbance, and later on their numbers were swelled by both men and women to over 100. As the free labourers proceeded to their work the mob raised an uproar, the women equally with the men making use of disgusting and disgraceful comments and threats, and yelling and hooting as though possessed. The demonstration, however, was of no avail, for none of the free men turned back. They have been engaged to load slack at, it is reported, the rate of 1 shilling per ton, but this seems hardly probable, especially in view of the fact that the slack has a market value of about £1 per ton. The men are working on a heap estimated to contain 16,000 tons of this stuff.215 The employers and the press then decided to play hardball. ‘Freedom of Contract’ was clearly going to be enforced beyond reason and yet the report of the Illawarra Mercury seemed to suggest that the proprietors of that august journal felt that the whole idea of “the arrival of some non-unionists at Austinmer” was a bit of a joke. As was anticipated by us, a slight ebullition occurred at Austinmer. The cause of the quietude being disturbed in that part was the appearance of NON-UNIONISTS UPON THE SCENE. They are essentially a disturbing element wherever they go, and when they appear there is mostly reactions, as those whose places they come to fill kick against the invasion of their territory, and adopt the most suitable means to cause them to retire—a matter that singularly enough they have shown an inclination to perform. 15 "free" laborers landed at Austinmer to fill slack, it was reported, at the North Illawarra mine. The contingent was expected, and there was a somewhat large muster of unionists to "welcome" them. On being interviewed by pickets 9 agreed give up the idea of working at the slack-heap and after having the inner man comforted and other small kindnesses shown them, they set out ON SHANKS' PONY in the direction of Sydney. Two others agreed to seek fresh fields in the direction of Kiama, and left the scene of their disappointment simultaneously with those who took an opposite direction. Four remained, but it was understood that after spending the night at Austinmer, and possibly becoming better acquainted with the situation they cried "enough," and departed. No acts of violence were reported yesterday in connection with this latest "free" labour serio-comic drama.216 The line between comedy and tragedy, however, is rather a fine one—even though the Illawarra Mercury was actually quite correctly aware that it served a very conservative law-abiding community where radicals were few and far between. 214 Illawarra Mercury, 27 September 1890, p.2 The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 October 1890 p.9 216 “The General Strike”, Illawarra Mercury, 4 October 1890 215 97 But even the most placid beast can be provoked – and the Mercury then noted with some slight alarm that “Police Reinforcements” are still taking place in the northern section of the district.” The Mercury, with bizarre optimism, seemed to be of the view that if law-abiding citizens of Wollongong granted the miners the right to form an association (and that association reciprocally granted the employers the right not to employ them if they were a member of the union) then all would be well. The editorialist at the Illawarra Mercury consequently thundered. There is absolutely nothing to warrant this multiplication of police protection, and upon what pretext the authorities are taking this objectionable step it would be difficult to say, unless perhaps it is wilful and designing misrepresentation of the true state of affairs. Being totally uncalled for, the matter can only be looked upon as an irritating abrasion of the civil authority calculated to incite rather than deter. The district delegates have taken this view of the matter, and at a meeting held at Bulli this week, they passed a resolution requesting Mr. Woodward, M. P., to PROTEST AGAINST THE AUTHORITIES stationing a lot of police amongst a law-abiding class of people. This, with additional minutes, is now standing the test of the district lodges. The men are determined to use every endeavour to induce the masters to recognise their association and the association officers, and it is understood this will be made one of the salient provisions in the "TREATY OF PEACE" when it is effected.”217 The ameliorist editor of that paper - Archibald Campbell - seemed clearly of the view that, in every dispute, there will always be an amiable settlement. He died in 1903 and so never got the chance to see his delusion challenged by the IWW during WW1. Yet at a delegate’s meeting the timidity of the miners was clearly in evidence and may have given some boost to Mr Campbell’s unfounded optimism. One important resolution at that meeting was "that no settlement be come to until the masters will recognise our association and its officers”. This was adopted. The matter of union men filling coke at the cokeworks in place of the men who had left over some grievances was discussed, and the motion was carried to the effect that the men be called out at once as their working was detrimental to the interests of labour and trades unionism. The presence of the extra police was commented upon, and a motion was adopted, “that the secretary write to Mr Woodward, M L.A., asking him to enter his protest against the sending down here of a large body of constables amongst a quiet law-abiding people, which is only calculated to disturb the peace in the district.218 Mr J. B. Nicholson, the south coast miners' general secretary, who was now also one of the useless delegates on the hopeless Labour Defence Committee which had been set up in Sydney to co-ordinate the strike (but, in reality, did their best to contain it) “came down on Thursday night and returned yesterday morning”. Typically, during his whistlestop visit, Nicholson had “no news of importance to communicate” and merely arranged “for a further distribution of strike pay. The treasurer and assistant secretary are now engaged paying the men at their respective lodges 10s per man.”219 The leaders of the Labour Defence Committee and moderate coal miners' leaders like Nicholson were clearly going to have no luck defeating the scabs—and so some of the rank file began to take matters into their own hands. 217 ibid The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 Oct 18990, p.5 219 ibid 218 98 Wollongong. It is reported that about 2 o'clock this morning about 150 men surrounded the dwelling of a man working at [Mount] Pleasant. They dragged him from his dwelling and carried him away. The police were apprised of the assault at 2 o'clock. The man appears to have escaped from his tormentor, and come into town. Judging from present reports matters are very unsettled.220 But then the crunch came and, with stocks of coal running low, the State and the employers began to feel nervous and it was no doubt the uncontrolled direct action of northern Illawarra workers and their families which compelled the forces of reaction to play their hand. The test cases at Wollongong against miners for absenting themselves from work before their notice expired resulted in the men being fined five guineas with costs, or in default 14 days' imprisonment. On October 3 £6000 was paid to the Newcastle miners as strike pay. The Railway Commissioners by this time were beginning to cut into their accumulations of coal very seriously and determined to take steps to secure a supply; but first asked the Defence Committee to allow coal to be cut to keep communications by rail open. The Defence Committee refused this. The Commissioners consequently made arrangements with certain colliery owners, and 120 miners were advertised for at high rates of wages, protection being guaranteed. Several efforts ware made by various Southern coal owners to get non-union men to work at the mines, but in almost every instance, the persuasion or threats of the unionists were successful and 43 nonunionists were landed, but were marched off by the unionists, and at Corrimal 15 non-unionists were induced to leave. [Unionists] gathered wherever the obnoxious non-unionists arrived, hooting and howling and using the vilest language to the strangers. At Corrimal, on October10, some thousand persons assembled, and on the non-unionists issuing from the mine in the afternoon a rush was made for them, and they promptly capitulated, some, however, being seriously assaulted. They were marched off to Bulli station and despatched by train.221 In the face of such genuine militancy (which often did not shirk at the thought of physical violence against scabs) the State of NSW— acting as the executive committee of the bourgeoisie—went into action. “On receipt of the news of this disturbance, 100 Permanent Artillerymen and 50 police were despatched at once to protect the non-unionists.”222 It’s difficult to fully imagine the impact such an extraordinary large display of force would have had in these tiny northern Illawarra mining towns. At Clifton “where 32 free labourers had been prevented form landing” the State’s marshalled forces—made up of “80 Permanent Artillerymen and 80 constables”— made sure that “under the protection of these reinforcements” it was certain that a “landing was accomplished.”223 At Austinmer, a spirited display was offered by the miners when “20 non-unionists were introduced” at that mine “under guard of the Permanent Artillery and police.”224 That force was under the command of “Colonel Mackenzie and Captain Nathan”. They “formed a camp, while the police, under Inspector Cotter, together with the free labourers, took possession of the company's cottages, the whole being located close to 220 ibid “The Coalminers’ Strike”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 November 1890, p.3 222 ibid 223 ibid 224 ibid 221 99 the pit mouth and slack heap. Captain Money Fisher, Stipendiary Magistrate, is also there.” All in all, the forces deployed by the NSW State amounted to “28 artillery, 26 constables, and 20 free labourers, the latter including three of the four men who, under intimidation, left work last Saturday and returned to Sydney under union escort. The whole started work at slack-filling shortly after arrival. There were only about 20 persons, including women, at Austinmer station when the train arrived. Owing to the arrangements being made, with the utmost secrecy, the new arrivals were totally unexpected, otherwise no doubt a large muster of unionists would have occurred.”225 “The mob” of local miners “which assembled wherever any new development was expected was in the habit of blowing horns and hooting, and otherwise interfering with the comfort and rest of the men engaged at work”. But it was easy to divide the unionists by picking out and arresting a small number of the protestors - and so “four men who were arrested” duly “received three days' imprisonment for this conduct.”226 Some individual miners could see the pointlessness of a protest that only could end in arrest if their protest was to appear to be at all likely to be effective. These few concluded that sabotage was the only answer to their problem of scabs taking their jobs. If they could stop the scabs working by other means than picketing—and thereby avoid arrest— then a dispute might be resolved in ways more satisfactory to the workers than to their bosses. And so on October 16th “A railway bridge belonging to the Mount Pleasant Company was set on fire” by some unknown person or persons and it “was suspected, by strikers.” Yet even this proved ineffective for the company was able to put out the conflagration before it could do some serious damage.”227 Meanwhile, the leadership of both the Labour Defence Committee and the local miners dithered and were completely outfoxed when “The Railway Commissioner had been negotiating with the Mount Kembla directors for the supply of coal, and the military and police, numbering some 200 strong, were taken to Mount Kembla, and efficiently guarded the non-unionists, who began work on October 10th. Men, women, and children from all parts of the district assembled and made the usual demonstration of hooting and groaning. The mine, however, was well situated strategically for defence and all attempts to get at the labourers failed.228 The genius of some individual members of the rank file, however, enabled the strikers to come up with the idea of travelling to Sydney and volunteering as scabs. They were thus given a free train ride into the Mount Kembla mine courtesy of the mine owners themselves—which otherwise was impenetrable for the striking workers. 225 The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 October, 1890, p.10 “The Coalminers’ Strike”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 November 1890, p.3 227 ibid 228 ibid 226 100 But the best of all is that these unionists impersonating as ‘free labourers’ then managed to convince the scabs that conditions in the mine were so appalling that they too should go on strike.229 Amusing as this is, but with coal still being produced under the protection of the military and the police, the strike was clearly going to be defeated—but foolishly the Illawarra miners held out longer than anywhere else in the State and were only finally starved back to work in February of the following year. Facing obvious defeat, however, some of the rank file again abandoned their conservative leaders and took matters into their own hands. Mr. Thomas Mitchell [MLA and proprietor of the Woonona Colliery] had for some time been trying to effect the same thing [“a conference with the employers”] in the Southern district and had himself afforded very favourable terms to his own men to return to work, which were refused. On his attempting to take up non-unionists from the Bellambi jetty in a train, the strikers formed a solid rank across the railway line with a woman in the front, and it made further progress impossible. Some trucks also were let loose, which, however, were stopped before doing any damage. At Corrimal on the same day 40 non-unionists were got in under military and police protection. On the following day a serious outrage was committed at Mr. Mitchell's Woonona colliery. About 16 waggons were started down the incline, the points and crossings having been wedged or broken off, and in consequence 10 wagons were completely demolished, a portion of the line destroyed, and damage to the amount of over £1000 in all done. The manner in which the outrage was committed showed that several powerful men must have been at work, probably under the direction of a skilled person.230 Clearly, some of the more militant miners decided that physical violence against the boss’s property was the best solution to their problems. And, interestingly, these actions were far more violent than anything publicly known to have been later perpetrated by the Wobblies at Coledale and Scarborough in the years 1914-1919. Alternatively, the miners at Coalcliff Colliery at least tried to adopt a more gentle form of dealing with what the employers delicately called a ‘free labourer’ and the miners bluntly called a scab. CLIFTON. MONDAY. The union men on strike here got hold of a non-unionist from Coalcliff Colliery on Saturday afternoon, and took him to the railway station. One shilling being all he possessed they got him a ticket for Waterfall and saw him away in the train. But sometimes ‘free labourers’ simply don’t know when they are on to a good thing and then go and spoil it all for their fellow scabs. He [the aforementioned gentleman with a free railway ticket to Waterfall], however, got back to the mine about 2 a.m. on Sunday, having walked back from Waterfall on Saturday evening. They assaulted another non-unionist who had left the mine, and was waiting quietly at the railway station for the last train to Sydney, when one man laid open his head with a stick without any provocation. Yesterday several non-unionists came into the township from the colliery, and, were soon surrounded by a crowd of unionist men and women, who gave the non-unionists severe handling and abuse, and had not Mr. Small, police magistrate, who chanced to be at hand, interfered, they would not have got back to their quarters on the jetty so easily. Mr. M'Donald, who passed along the road soon after, came in for a lot of abuse. Seven non-unionists who left 229 230 Henry Lee and Stuart Piggin, The Mount Kembla Disaster, Melbourne University Press, 1997 “The Coalminers’ Strike”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 November 1890, p.3 101 here on Saturday to go to their homes in Sydney returned by the mail train this morning, arriving at South Clifton soon after 5 a.m. The union pickets who watch the arrival and departure of all trains soon got together a crowd armed with sticks and met them half-way between the railway station and the colliery. One of tho non-unionists at once took to his heel along the road, and is now under the protection of the police at Austinmer. Two others also disappeared but the remaining four did not got off so easily, being compelled by the strikers to take the next train back to Sydney, most of them bearing evidence in the shape of cut heads, &c., of the "moral suasion" used by the cowardly crowd. Lieutenant-Colonel Mackenzie left here this afternoon with 20 of the Permanent Artillery and several police for Bulli, where the Illawarra miners are holding a meeting. The S.S. Hilda231 arrived here this morning with 25 more free labourers aboard. During the time they were being landed a large crowd of women who had collected on the road kept up a continual noise, hooting, shouting, &c The Hilda is expected to take in a cargo of coal for Sydney to-morrow. Later. One of the non-unionists who was ill-treated at South Clifton this morning has just arrived at camp with his forehead laid open and one hand smashed. Another who returned to Sydney this morning, told a mate of his who came up this evening who was badly cut about the head and bruised all over, and is going into the hospital. Two of the crowd who beat them are known, and legal proceedings will be taken against them. Neither of the men, who are seriously hurt, will be able to work for some time.232 Even some of the more radical women got in on the act—and were subjected to some extraordinarily sexist and patronising remarks. But their attempts at physical violence adopted a more traditional response—designed to humiliate rather than injure. Five women, named Brown, Grace (2), Benas, and Peacock, who were tried about a month ago for attempting to tar and feather a man named Hall at Mount Pleasant, appeared today before the Bench, consisting of Mr. Thomas, P.M., and Messrs. Armstrong and Williams. After consulting with his brother magistrate the P.M. stated the circumstances under which sentence had been deferred on defendants. He had since considered the matter, and viewed their conduct as diabolical. The women had practically unsexed themselves, and could not be considered to be women any longer. He himself thought the fine inflicted should be one which would mark the Bench's sense of the offence. He considered the fine should be £ó, while his colleagues limited it to £1. He would not agree to the less amount, and therefore the case would have to be remanded and reheard. The difficulty was ultimately got over by Mr. Bull, solicitor, stating that Mr. Lahiff, the prosecutor, while agreeing with the police magistrate’s view, did not think it desirable to inflict such fine as would necessitate the alternative of imprisonment. Thereupon the police magistrates, in view of the attitude of his brother magistrate, inflicted a fine of £1, with £1 6s costs each, or two months' imprisonment. Mr. Armstrong said that after the remarks made by the police magistrate he disclaimed all sympathy with the strike, or with any form of 231 Michael McFadyen indicates the S.S. Hilda was “Built in 1878-9 by Cuncliffe and Dunlop in Port Glasgow, Scotland,” and “was a collier that ran on the short coastal run between the Newcastle and Illawarra coalfields to Sydney. Displacing 222 tons and with a length of 125.2 feet and width of 21.2 feet, the Hilda was not a large ship by even collier standards. The ship had two masts with fore and aft sails to assist the steam engine. The ship was owned by Alexander Stuart who started and owned the Coalcliff Mining Company. Mr Stuart later became Sir Alexander Stuart and from 1883 to 1885 he was Premier of New South Wales. He also owned a number of other colliers. The ship was skippered in 1880 and 1886 by Captain Henry Wyatt who was a long-time employee of E. Vickery and Sons Ltd which owned the Coal Cliff coal mine in the Illawarra. The official records show that in 1886 ownership changed from Alexander Stuart to H. Robinson. Sir Alex died in 1886 so it was presumably sold at that time. In reality, the ship was still owned by the Coalcliff Mining Company. This company was now owned by Sir John Robertson and Charles Cowper [who both served terms as Premier of NSW]. In 1892 the mine and ships were sold to Ebenezer Vickery and then on sold to E. Vickery and Sons.” http://dive.hemnet.com.au/wrecks/hilda.htm Accessed 21 March 2016 232 The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 October 1890, p.6 102 intimidation; but the defendants were women, and at the trial an inducement had been held to them to plead guilty. The Bench was, therefore, bound to deal leniently with them. Both the P.M. and Mr. Bull objected to the statement that any inducement had been held out to plead guilty.233 Yet there were other methods by which workers could express their anger – such as sticks and stones (but without the sticks). And it’s extraordinary how severe the penalty for playing “stones” as a means of overthrowing capitalism could potentially be. For example, a man with the wonderfully anonymous name of Jim Smith “appeared in custody.” Mr. Bull, for the prosecution, read the section of the Act which set forth that the penalty for an offence of this kind was penal servitude for life. Constable Ryan gave evidence that on the date mentioned he and other constables, also Mr. E. Vickery and his son, were travelling on an engine to Kembla; when near the coke works a crowd of about 100 men met them; he saw defendant throw a stone which struck the engine; several stones struck the engine; defendant was about six yards away when throwing stones; witness afterwards arrested defendant, who is a Mount Pleasant miner.234 Mostly, however, picketing proved completely ineffective as an industrial strategy. The unionists who went from here to Austinmer this morning to try and prevent the nonunionists in starting work, found that they were outnumbered by the military and police, and had to return home without effecting their purpose. At Coalcliff Colliery work has proceeded satisfactorily today, the output being over 100 tons for the day, and have now nearly 400 tons on the jetty waiting the arrival of a steamer.235 At Bellambi and Corrimal things looked a touch more promising. Yet even where sufficient numbers of picketers could be massed locally, the owners pretty smartly put in requests to the State Government for more military and police assistance and it was granted as far as possible—and where that kind of response proved difficult ‘special constables’ were sworn in to assist the work of the cops. THE STRIKE. ANOTHER DISTURBANCE AT THE MINES. At the Corrimal mine which is being worked for the supply of coal for railway purposes by nonunion men, another disturbance occurred. Mr Mitchell, M.L A., endeavoured to take a number of free labourers to the mine. When they lauded they were interviewed, by Mr. Mitchell’s permission, by a number of union leaders, but as the free labourers persisted in going to work someone ascended an incline near the month of the mine and started two of the trucks running down the incline. The truck very newly collided with the train which conveyed the free labourers, and had it not been for the timely action of a few bystanders a serious incident might have been the result. The unionists, having failed in their objects, next decided to form themselves into a body and stood on the railway line. They placed a woman in front with a danger signal, and refused to move. This, it appears, is a repetition of the tactic adopted three years ago, at the time of the coal strike. The police endeavoured to argue with the men, but their efforts were of no avail, and the free labourers are now camping near the wharf. More police and military protection is to be asked for. The disturbance at the southern collieries and the consequent necessity for increased police protection have made it desirable for the Government to make extra provision for the protection of life and property in the community. During the last day or two a considerable number of 233 “The Coalminers’ Strike”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 November 1890, p.3 The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 October 1890, p.6. 235 “Negotiations For A Conference”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 Oct 1890, p. 10 234 103 additional constables have been sworn in, many of them being taken from the ranks of the special constables who have been enrolled during the strike.236 Despite this surprising rank and file militancy and defiance, so pathetic was the local union leadership in that mine that “The Woonona Lodge immediately passed a resolution of sympathy, condemning the outrage in the severest terms.”237 Clearly, the trade union leadership at the Woonona Colliery was almost as fully committed to the maintenance of capitalism as their employers. No doubt considerably annoyed at the pusillanimity of their leaders, a few of the local militants had one last go at their boss. ”A similar attempt to that at Woonona mine was made next day at the Bulli Colliery, but without success, the incline being insufficient.238 The Sydney Morning Herald editorialised thus: “It was not surprising, in the face of these attempts, that the Southern [i.e. Illawarra] colliery proprietors, at a meeting in Sydney, declined to consider any offer for a conference.”239 Disappointingly, when the union leadership of the Northern and Western NSW mining districts ordered their men to give up the struggle and return to work, the Illawarra miners were left high and dry. It was a massive defeat—and reprisals for those who had stuck their heads up too high during the dispute would, of course, swiftly follow. The result of the ballot was that a majority of the mines were in favour of a return to work. Work in all the Western mines was resumed on October 27. In the South, however, matters were not improving, frequent assaults on non-unionists occurring. Two men, found guilty at the Bulli Police Court of intimidation at Bellambi were sentenced to a month's imprisonment. It was reported from Newcastle on October 29 the Wallarah miners had started cutting coal.240 Elements among the more thoughtful minority of trade unionists—in the face of such a comprehensive defeat—must have begun thinking about whether there might be a better way of improving their lives. But in deciding what that better way might be—they split into two camps: one moderate and one radical. The moderates decided that seeking parliamentary representation for working people was the go. The more radical felt that this would only produce representatives—like the pusillanimous men who had led them in the recent strike—who would become divorced form the daily workplace struggle in which the interests of the capitalists and the workers had nothing in common. Some of the more prescient workers felt that, over time, parliamentary representatives might seek to preserve their rather comfortable positions sitting on the soft padding of the parliamentary benches and so conveniently forget the harsh reality of the workers’ daily grind. 236 ‘The Strike”, Goulburn Evening Penny Post, 23 October 1890, p.2 The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 November 1890, p.3 238 ibid 239 ibid 240 The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 November 1890, p.3 237 104 As we have seen above, in time these working class men (and some few women) would become known as Wobblies - The Industrial workers of the World (Chicago faction) - and proceed to somewhat effectively fan the flames of discontent in the northern Illawarra. 105 PART THREE THE PERSONAL COST OF OPPOSITION TO CAPITALISM VICTIMISATION IN NORTHERN ILLAWARRA In the aftermath of the miner’s forceful resistance at Mitchell’s Colliery tramway line as it headed towards the mine’s jetty “Two men”, unnamed, were “found guilty at the Bulli Police Court of intimidation at Bellambi and were sentenced to a month's imprisonment.”241 Somebody, presumably, had to pay for the fuss and a month in chokey would surely be an exemplar to all those who, like the little red engine, thought they could. In reality, after the Woonona Miner’s Lodge made their abject apology and took it cap in hand (only to have it rejected by their good employer, Joseph Mitchell MLA) there was little that could be done for these two men—apart from a token and ineffectual show of solidarity. BULLI, Sunday. A public meeting was held last night at Dickson's Hotel towards providing relief for the distressed families of the five unionists now commencing sentence of one month's imprisonment imposed on them for intimidation at Austinmer by the local Bench at last sitting. Dr Clifton Sturt presided. The attendance was large and representative. Some unable to attend forwarded donations with apologies. Mr. Charles Russell of Wollongong, solicitor for the men in imprisonment, besides making his services gratuitous also contributed 5 guineas to the relief fund, Mr John Evans, J. P., manager of the Bulli mine, donating a like amount. After a resolution affirming practical sympathy with those principally affected, subscriptions were taken up, and a committee was appointed to canvas the district for support. In conjunction with the miners' relief committee of Wollongong, measures were taken for affording instant relief tor the most urgent cases. The miners' delegate board have decided to hold two public indignation meetings in connection with the alleged harsh sentences. One takes place at Bulli Park tomorrow, another at Wollongong on Wednesday. A considerable demonstration is being announced for the occasion, and it is reported that Messrs Fletcher, Melville, and Woodward, Ms. L. A., will take part in the proceedings.242 The problem for the radicals in the 1890s, however, was that it is likely that the vast majority of northern Illawarra men and women were conservative and simply wanted a quiet life and the chance to raise their families in relative comfort. Often they struggled to try to acquire either a small piece of land and build a house or to find a better place to rent—and prolonged strikes might jeopardise their chances of holding on to such dreams. It was often only single itinerant men—with little to lose if they went without pay for a considerable number of weeks—who are more readily capable of defying the system and refusing to be subject to conciliatory moves to accommodate themselves to the wishes of their bosses. 241 242 ibid The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 November 1890, p.5 106 This would very much appear to be the case at Woonona. Some employers, however, were slightly less hard-line than others. Only one local colliery manager, “Mr Pringle, manager of the Corrimal mine”. was willing to take “a broad view of matters”243 and accede to a conciliatory conference with the striking men. Just in case though, the good Mr Pringle had a bit of a bet both ways. The Corrimal mine is still guarded with military and police. It now turns out about a hundred tons of large and small coal daily, with free labour. Fresh batches continue to arrive there…but few appear to remain permanently.244 The aforementioned boss of Woonona Colliery, Joseph Mitchell M.L.A., however, was no longer willing to try to get the men to talk. Both Mitchell and the Sydney Morning Herald seemed to believe (or at least wanted the public to believe) that the refusal of the miners to accept a ‘generous’ offer was incomprehensible. Mr. Mitchell has, by force of adverse circumstances, withdrawn from the work of conciliation. It is asserted that the local men were kept in utter ignorance of the principal proceedings at the late miners' conference in Sydney until too late, otherwise they would have found it highly desirable to accept Mr. Mitchell’s generous and prolonged offer. Older and more thoughtful men express themselves disgusted with and sick of the strike. One of them in the local press suggests that businessmen should at once stop all credit as a means of terminating the disaster. In obedience with Mr. Mitchell's orders, the late miners took their tools out of Bellambi pit yesterday, and the Keira men will do the same next week. Mr Mitchell commences cutting coal with free labour tomorrow.”245 The men were beaten – and the only resort for the completely disaffected miner was sabotage. Fortunately, the scabs working the mine were often so inexperienced that they sometimes engaged in unintended sabotage themselves. Through defective handling at this colliery, three loaded trucks becoming prematurely detached from the wire rope yesterday, rushed down the incline to the imminent danger and fright of persons passing on the Wollongong road, which the line crosses. The trucks ran off and were wrecked near the scene of the recent night outrage, to which no clue has yet been obtained, notwithstanding that £50 was offered by Mr. Mitchell.246 Despite the rich financial inducement to do so, it would appear that sufficient solidarity remained among the defeated men for the reward offer not to be to taken up. Although, perhaps, after all, the sabotage was just the work of a few militant itinerants or disaffected scabs who quickly left the district and hence were beyond the reach of either the law or a fellow miner willing to dob in one of his peers. 243 ibid ibid 245 ibid 246 The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 November 1890 p.5 244 107 The situation was reported as being as follows. At present, more or less work is being carried on in every mine in the district, mostly by new hands. It is estimated that at present the number of new hands in the district cannot be far above of 400, and new hands are arriving daily. It is stated on good authority that in another fortnight the number of new hands will be doubled. There is a fair proportion of good men amongst them, and it is certain that numbers of them will continue permanently. The consequence will be that an equal number of local men will be displaced. It is estimated that when the strike commenced there were about 1000 at work in the district. At the present rate, when the strike is over, a considerable number of those will have been displaced by fresh hands. It is currently reported that Mr. Mitchell in future will decline to meet any deputation upon the subject of resuming work at his mine. He says that he has already done all he could to induce the men to return to work by offering liberal terms, but as they declined, he will in future carry on his business as it suits him. The Kembla mine is steadily working without interruption and increasing the output daily. The Keira mine has been working regularly, so far, but it is said the men will cease work on Monday. The Corrimal mine is sending out a fair quantity of coal and slack, the former to Sydney, by rail. The Pleasant mine is working regularly, sending down and shipping back. It is understood that the question of returning to work was fully considered yesterday in the various lodges, and that it was unanimously decided the men would not re-commence work under a new agreement. In the meantime new hands are supplanting the old ones. Altogether, from the present aspect, it would appear that when the men have decided to return to work there will be no vacancies. It is to be feared that in such a contingency trouble may ensue.247 These fears, however, proved unrealistic and it would be almost 20 long years before anything even vaguely like Wobbly propaganda began to encourage a few workers to make a stand against the capitalist system itself rather than simply individual employers. MAKING AN EXAMPLE OF THE FEW The fears of both the press and the owners proved illusory. But, of course, just to be sure that there would be less chance of an uprising, someone would have to pay the price of the recent disturbances. A judicious example had to made of at least a few so that the vast majority of individuals would be less keen to take the law into their own hands at some future date. This morning at the Bulli Police Court, James Haining and William Moon, under arrest, were charged before Mr. W. H. Thomas, P.M., Mr. H. T. Hicks, and Mr. A. S. Artis, that they did on 23rd instant, at Bellambi, unlawfully use threats of violence, with intent to prevent James Grant from working at his lawful occupation. A second case against Haining charged him with a similar offence against William James and William Marshall. Mr. Chas. Bull appeared for the prosecution, and Mr. C. Russell for the defence. Senior-constable Nies deposed that he arrested Haining at Woonona about 7 o’clock last Sunday evening, and in reply to the charge the accused said he did not make any threat. By his solicitor's advice Haining pleaded guilty. Mr. Russell urged, in extenuation of his client, that Haining was considerably influenced by the effect of liquor, and in his position a striker in desperate straits suffered from the most extreme excitement. The accused had gained a good character as an old resident, with a large family, and had been employed by the Bulli Company for over l0 years. Mr. Russell therefore pleaded for the leniency of the Bench. This appeal being further strengthened by the prosecuting solicitor's disposition not to press for an extreme penalty under the distressing circumstances, but at the same time strongly urging the accused to become a total abstainer, for the good of society as well as his own benefit. The Bench concluded that the ends of justice would be met by a fine of £1 in each case with professional fees and court costs, or four months in gaol. The fine was paid. Moon's case being similar, he was fined £1 and costs or two months' incarceration. The fine was paid. 247 The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 November 1890 p.5 108 Four other men did not get off so lightly. George Cram, John Hobbs, Robert Jackson, James Burnett, and James Wood appeared on summons, that they did on the 11th October, at Austinmer colliery, unlawfully and by threat of violent prevent Wm. Egan, Joseph Foley, and Robt. Clarke from following their lawful occupation. Mr. Bull appeared for the prosecution, Mr. Jas. Muir for the defence. The accused pleaded not guilty. Senior Constable Nies deposed that 20 persons visited the free labourers named on the date specified, and through their spokesman, Hobbs, requested the men to knock off work. The free labourers, however, demurring, they were threatened with large reinforcements of unionists, who would compel their compliance. Being frightened, the free labourers accompanied their interviewers to the railway station, where, however, Seniorconstable Nies, finding they were leaving their work against their inclination, induced them to return to the colliery under his protection, subsequently about 200 men, women, and children rolled up around the free labourers' residence, and stoutly resisted all the constables' efforts at restraint, and making menacing gestures with sticks they invariably carried, pushed past the police, expressing their intention of dragging the free labourers out, and would pull the house down if necessary. The free labourers became exceedingly terrified, and feared their lives would be taken if they refused. The police failed to produce any effect either by threat or conciliation, and the men were hustled down to the railway station and despatched to Sydney under union escort. Three of the free labourers returned a week afterward, under police and military protection. These were subpoenaed as witnesses, but were, according to the police, too frightened to attend the court. The defendants attributed their absence to the refusal to prosecute, and that they had left work of their own free will, and fraternised with the unionists before leaving in the train. The defendant Cram claimed to be amongst the crowd purely as a peace maker. Woods and Barnett denied having seen the free labourers, although amongst the crowd. Jackson pleaded he only saw them at the railway station. The police evidence was very strong and unanimous, but the defendants swore it was false, particularly with regard to Cram. The defendants’ solicitor applied for an adjournment to obtain the free labourers' attendance, together with Mr. Moore, the managing director, who was an actual witness of all the proceedings. The Bench refused an adjournment, and after retiring the Police Magistrate declared the charge fully proved, and sentenced all the defendants to one month's imprisonment with hard labour, in Wollongong Gaol, together with the payment of five guineas professional fees and costs of court. The defendants were subsequently removed to gaol in a special train. Much sympathy was expressed for them, as they are married men with previously unblemished records.248 When even married men with unblemished records get this sort of treatment something is surely wrong. But working out precisely what was wrong (and then what it might be possible to do about it) proved very difficult in Illawarra and elsewhere in Australia. The four gaoled men were, in reality, deeply conservative individuals and Cram, in particular, belonged to a northern Illawarra family which would go on to become highly respected and considerably wealthy. It would take more than 20 years before some evidence of the world-view of a much more militant and politically conscious imprisoned worker than these four meek and mild Illawarra would make it into print. 248 The Sydney Morning Herald, 30 October 1890, p.5 109 MICK SAWTELL BEHIND BARS 1917 "Behind the Bars" A glorious Sunday afternoon - I look out on glorious sunshine - through the bars of my little eight by four cell. I am thinking of many things. Frequently I hear children’s voices (my cell overlooks a lane), Sunday School children I suppose. I strain and peer through the bars but cannot see them. The children’s prattle grows fainter and fainter and finally dies away. A motor hums past; then a tram-car rattles by and all is silent again. I sit on the hammock, put my feet on the opposite wall and try to read Mathew Arnold. I am disturbed. Many clattering footsteps pass my cell door, the other prisoners going to church, and presently I hear the droning of the sermon. I am glad I am spared the mental torture of attending church, for the words no religion are written in large letters on my door. Again I try to read and again I am disturbed, but this time it is my own turbulent, uncontrolled thoughts that surge through my mind. Sunday afternoon. How is the [IWW] Local? How are the boys on the wharf? How is the outside world and how are the twelve rebels [The IWW Twelve] in the East? All the local incidents of the class struggle fly like ghostly shadows to and fro in my mind. Grand old Monty [78 year old Miller]249 goes East to carry our fiery cross - as industrial "Peter the Hermit" - to rally the working class forces for the Crusade, not to wrest Jerusalem from the Turk, but to snatch the twelve rebels from the master's Bastille. What shall we do? What did Galileo do? What did [Giordano] Bruno do? What has every true man done, who has been inspired with a truth, they keep on with courage and persistency until they change the minds of men. What others have done the I.W.W. can do. Is the class struggle less a truth than the law of gravitation? Did jail, torture or death cow those who fought for religious differentiation? Did jail and deportation stay early trade unionism? And what shall we do? What have the workers ever done, as the final means, to release their fellow workers but shown their industrial might? 249 The 1917 Wobbly poster devoted to Monty Miler lied –and added 10 years to Monty’s age. 110 The humblest worker can help in this. The humblest worker can give his moral, financial and physical support in saying "These men shall be released." Fifteen years - hell it makes me shudder to think of it. Fifteen years of this - behind the bars. No that can never be; rather we will make it fifteen years of the bitterest working class activity and agitation the world has ever known. Working class freedom always relies upon working class courage. The human mind is susceptible to reason and change in that rests progress. With persistent action we can say with Arnold "Might is right 'till Right is Ready" and then when the light of knowledge has lit up the minds of enough workers they will insist. Circumstances and numbers will decide the exact details for the release of those behind bars. And this I soliloquise in my little narrow cell. The glorious sun is sinking low now. I am happy. I am glad. The ruling class has been unable to jail my ideas. I finish the day by humming over to myself a few rebel songs and thus closes a glorious Sunday afternoon - behind the bars.250 As Warwick Eather once noted in relation to Cold War anti-communism, the climate in rural towns was “more confrontationist, strident and paranoid than that in the major cities.”251 Places like Coledale and Scarborough in northern Illawarra exacerbated this situation. Workers so outnumbered the mine bosses and shopkeepers that both had good reason to be paranoid—and the dramatic Coledale shooting dealt with above simply added to the paranoia and the extent of the subsequent police response. DEFEATING CRAFT UNIONISM AT COLEDALE The hopeless situation of small unions—often not even a combination of all workers in a single industry in a district or region—was evident to the militants in northern Illawarra. Even before the One Big Union (OBU) movement got fully underway some radicals thought that the Australian Workers Union (AWU) might be the answer. As the biggest union in Australia some felt that, perhaps, it could itself become the OBU which would go on to overthrow capitalism. The AWU leadership liked the idea of their organisation becoming the OBU in Australia – but they were a lot less interested in defeating capitalism. One IWW member, however, W.A. (Archibald) McNaught had a go at capturing its leadership—and, indeed, he went pretty close to actually doing so. The official report of the 13th annual convention of the A.W.U., held in January 1916, shows that W. A. McNaught, an acknowledged member of the I.W.W., received nearly 10,000 votes from members of the A.W.U. Mr. McNaught ran for the presidency against Mr. W. G. Spence. McNaught polled 9484 votes and Spence 13402 (page 8). In returning thanks (page 9), Mr. McNaught said 'though he belonged to the I.W.W. he was not out to bust the Union, nor was it 250 Direct Action, 21 July 1917 Warwick Eather, “Organised Labour and Anti-Communism in Wagga Wagga in the 1950s” in Australian Labour History Reconsidered, David Palmer, Ross Shanahan, Martin Shanahan (eds) (Adelaide: Australian Humanities Press, 1999 251 111 the aim of any I.W.W. man inside or outside the A.W.U. The I.W.W was endeavouring to point out the fallacy of craft unionism.' The I.W.W. is noted for its hostility to arbitration methods. It opposes bitterly anything that tends to bring about industrial peace and good feeling between employers and employed. As the 1916 Convention (page 48), the following I.W.W. proposal sent in from Breeza was discussed: ‘That arbitration be abolished, and direct action be enforced.' Mr. McNaught supported the resolution, but it was defeated. The division list (page 52), however, discloses the remarkable fact that among those who voted for the I.W.W. proposal was F. W. Lundie, the present president of the Association — a fact that would tend to show that the party which supported Mr. McNaught against Mr. Spence are now in the ascendant.252 McNaught felt that the only answer to working people’s problems was to “make direct negotiations with employers and refuse to accept arbitration.” Arbitration was in the interests of the boss, and no longer protected unionists from the encroachment of capitalists. Therefore it failed to be of value to the A.W.U., and in fact arbitration meant the chloroforming of unionism. Labour was the only commodity the average worker had to sell, and if they took away the power of the worker to sell his labour they weakened him. By removing from the worker the right to strike, help was given to the master class to bludgeon the worker into submission. Once arbitration agreements were entered into there was an end to real industrial solidarity amongst the workers. Arbitration seemed to be the 'sacred cow' which the Union worshipped, but there were members who regarded the signing of agreements as tantamount to signing an industrial death warrant. The Arbitration Act provided for strike penalties up to £1000. No union official whose organisation was registered under the Act could go out, and advocate a strike, however much the circumstances might justify him in so doing.253 McNaught was a plain speaker and some workers at Coledale and Scarborough appear to have tried to put many of his forthright ideas into practice. The Australian Workers' Union has worn the arbitration coat best, and lately it has become so threadbare and shabby that it bas been patched and patched until it resembles the coat of many colours. It no longer protects the worker from the cold blast of capitalism. Why not throw it away and put on this new coat offered free gratis by the industrial unionist—direct action—with all the one big union tactics of beating the boss? Here is only one way to bring the capitalist of Australia to his knees. Stop its profits. Stop them where they are made—on the job. Do not come out on strike. Go in on strike. Go slow and help to solve the unemployed problem. The reason your mate is out of a job is because you work too long and too hard. Do you still think you can beat the master in the Arbitration Court, brother? If so, sleep on; sleep on.254 So in order to get rid of trouble-makers who held views like McNaught the owners of both the South Clifton (Scarborough) mine and the Scarborough tunnel mine tried an interesting technique. At South Clifton sixteen miners are under notice of discharge in consequence of a reduction of hands necessitated by the narrowing of the working area. It was contended by the District Officers, that the discharged men should be found places for in the Scarborough Tunnel. The 252 Sunday Times (Sydney), 11 Mar 1917, p.2 “A.W.U. Convention”, Worker (Brisbane), 9 Mar 1916, p.5 254 “Arbitration And The A.W.U.”, Direct Action (Sydney), 29 Jan 1916, p.2 253 112 management, however, claimed that the latter was a distinct mine, and that they were free to choose workmen for that.255 To the men this action on the part of the employers was akin to the ‘freedom of contract’ battles fought back in the 1890. In coming after the anti conscription campaign and the gaoling of the IWW Twelve this was bad enough—but even more specific local factors came into play. Work had remained very intermittent and there had been constant stoppages for all sorts of reasons. SCARBOROUGH-CLIFTON The South Clifton colliery was idle on Monday owing to a dispute arising amongst the wheelers. The Tunnel colliery and also South Clifton mine were idle on Friday last on account of it being found necessary to clean out the boilers.256 And, of course, even simply turning up for work itself could—as always in mining— be very dangerous. On Monday evening a meeting was held to consider the question of raising funds to assist Mrs. Winstanley, who has three children to support, and who recently lost her husband as a result of an accident at the Tunnel colliery. The meeting decided to hold a concert and dance at an early date.257 Walter Winstanley had died as a result of a mine accident in September 1916 and did not live to see his unborn child. His widow, Amelia Winstanely, gave birth to a daughter named Margaret Blanch, in February 1917. Despite the tragedy, Amelia Winstanley had a rare piece of luck in the ensuing compensation case. An action by Amelia Winstanley for damages against the South Clifton Coal Co. for the loss of her husband, who was fatally injured by the haulage machinery at South Clifton, his foot being caught in the wheel while he was oiling, proceeded during the week in the Supreme Court. The question for the jury was whether there had been negligence in precaution such as fencing the area and boarding the wheel up. £2000 was claimed. A verdict for £1500 was given. Mr. Lysaght was solicitor for plaintiff.258 And so the fund-raising was directed to another unfortunate miner. Now that Mrs. Winstanley has been fairly well provided for, the committee, who had a benefit in hand on her behalf, have decided to go on with the collection on behalf of Mr. Joseph Ord, who met with an accident in the South Clifton mine a little over four years ago, and who has been off work since. And this was not even the worst of it. 255 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 16 March 1917, p.11 op.cit., p 19 257 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 16 March 1917 p.19 258 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 23 March 1917 p.12 256 113 DEATH AT NORTH BULLI COLEDALE On Monday night a sad fatality occurred at the North Bulli colliery, Patrick Kelly, residing at Corrimal, was killed, Robert Griffiths, a deputy, seriously injured, R. Cummings, rather seriously; and T. Goudie, slightly injured. It appears that the men were engaged in the work of brushing when a large quantity of stone came away from the side of the place without any warning. The fatality caused quite a gloom to spread over the community, as the men were well known and highly respected. Patrick Kelly had until lately been employed on the duplication works at Stanwell Park, and had only recently gone to Corrimal to reside. The Coroner opened an inquest on Tuesday and adjourned it till the 22nd inst., at Wollongong. LUDICROUS AND POINTLESS POLICE HARRASMENT OF A LOCAL MINER As late as 1918 the authorities were still finding it necessary to be worried about potential radicals. Yet at Helensburgh the chosen police victim would appear to have been targeted for his nationality more than his politics. Such was the anti-German hysteria in northern Illawarra at the time that it was not even safe to have born more than 500 miles north of the German border. Racism was often the chosen pretext to blacken the names of individual members of the IWW but the police were not especially good at targeting the appropriate individuals. A STRIKE TIME CONVICTION. William Suscovige, a miner, appealed against conviction at Helensburgh on 10th September of offensive behaviour on 6th Sept., also of indecent language, for each of which he had been fined 40s, 6s costs, or 14 days; also on a charge of being a member of an unlawful association for which the sentence was 3 months' imprisonment. Mr. Lysaght for appellant. The deposition of Constable McRae at the lower court was read. It stated that appellant was one of a crowd at Helensburgh on September 6th, who were following some seven or eight men home who had been working in the mine. There were shouts of "keep the Red Flag flying," singing, and cheers for the I.W.W., etc. Heard accused say he was a member of the I.W.W. and he was proud of it; witness asked him if he was still a member; he replied he was. Appellant was carrying the flag produced; he was running about, seeming to be taking a leading part and very excited. After he was arrested the procession ceased. Afterwards searched appellant's residence and there found a copy of 'Direct Action' and an I.W.W. song-sheet; also a book "Sinn Fein and the Irish Rebellion," and other literature (produced). By Mr. Lysaght: Had come to Helensburgh the day before on special duty from Wyalong. These processions were of daily occurrence. Saw certificate of naturalisation of accused as an American citizen, and that he was born in Lithuania, a province of Russian Poland, also letters affirming that appellant's conduct in New Zealand and Victoria had been good. Accused sometimes spoke English alright, he had asked witness to get him a job at Coledale, and he would find out more about the shooting affair than all the detectives put together. The evidence of Constable Rixon was admitted as corroborative of that of previous witness. Appellant's deposition in the lower court being read bore that he had never heard of the I.W.W. till in the Domain in Sydney; did not know what it meant. The red ribbon produced was put in his coat by a lady in George-street; could not read English newspapers. Never cheered for the I.W.W. in the procession at Helensburgh. 114 By Mr. Lysaght: Got the flag; was working in the mine before the strike; had been at meetings in the Domain on Sundays in coalminers' processions. Had not seen the copy of "Direct Action" (produced) found in his home, some newspapers were given to him in the Domain. Did not know what Sinn Fein meant; worked in New Zealand and, Victoria before coming to New South Wales. Had been seven years in America. Here witness told his Honor of a man coming into the cell in which he was placed after arrest and telling him he was a member of the I.W.W., and offering to bail him out. By Crown Prosecutor: Left Russia in 1901; worked in coal mines in America; never heard of I.W.W. there or in New Zealand. Someone explained it to witness in Victoria. Did not know what the procession when he was arrested was for. Never heard "scab" called to anyone. His Honor: Did you never hear a man called a scab? Witness: I heard a noise. His Honor, after putting the question again and getting the same answer, intimated that the court did not believe that. Mr. Lysaght elicited that witness had heard "scab" called out in front of the procession. The deposition of A. Kirkwood was read; it set forth that witness had not heard accused make any noise on the occasion of the procession; was sure he did not understand what I.W.W. meant. The deposition of John Wonders was to the same effect. George Warren's deposition stated he was president of the miners' lodge; the I.W.W. had nothing to do with the procession; accused did not use the words he was charged with. Heard constables call accused a "dirty low German who ought to be in the concentration camp." Maxwell Ferguson, a miner, deposed he heard the police call appellant a dirty low German. Appellant never called for cheers for the I.W.W. or used bad language. Cross-examined: Witness was refused to be taken back at the Metropolitan mine. Had taken rather a leading part in the processions. Had heard "scab" called; would not use the word himself because of the law, otherwise he would. Had never been a member of the I.W.W., had bought "Direct Action." Was keeping the procession in order. By His Honor: Had known appellant four or five months before the procession; would not say he was excitable. Appellant carried the flag produced. By His Honor: The crowd were warned before the procession not to call them scabs. John Piccinilli, a lad, deposed he was about five yards from appellant when he was arrested. The constable in arresting said. "Come here, I want you"; appellant did not say anything. Appellant did not use the words charged or say he was a member of the I.W.W. Robert Nixon, a miner, gave similar evidence. Cross-examined: Had never heard of any I.W.W.'s at Helensburgh. By His Honor: Had seen appellant have the flag produced at Helensburgh, but did not remember if he carried it in the procession. Mr. Lysaght, in an address, traversed the evidence emphasising that in regard to connection with the unlawful association it was a bit slim. His Honor dismissed the appeals in the cases of offensive behaviour and of indecent language. With regard to the third he had so much doubt as to whether or not appellant was ever a member that he would give him the benefit of it. 115 Appeal upheld. Three guineas costs allowed against appellant. One month allowed in which to pay the fines. His Honor ordered the I.W.W. literature and the flag to be destroyed. 259 HISTORICAL PRAXIS While local miners in northern Illawarra were squabbling with the boss most days of the week (and also engaging in the kind of direct workplace action IWW propagandists felt was superior to both arbitration and representation of former members of the working class in parliament) the conservative press predictably expressed both its alarm and its almost complete misunderstanding of what the IWW actually wanted. THE SUPRESSION OF THE IWW It is a matter for all-round satisfaction that the Federal Parliament has dealt with the I.W.W. menace in a manner that will give the authorities a strong hand in dealing with this crime inspiring organisation; indeed, it would have been wonderful had the Hughes Government delayed a day longer than was necessary in dealing with a body or society that included murder and incendiarism in its methods of redressing its imaginary grievances... The recent salutary sentences imposed upon a dozen culprits and the execution of a couple for murder have apparently had a steadying effect on the members of the somewhat aggressive society. In this country, with the most liberal franchise in the world and freedom of speech to the verge of unbridled license, there is no excuse for any body resorting to violence, much less destruction of property and murder. If the I.W.W. is imbued with doctrines or principles sufficiently alluring, and even sound enough to command respect and support, then with an army of intelligent propagandists stumping the country at election time, they would have no difficulty, in securing adherents, and, likely enough draw to it a following that would secure at least a few seats.260 The idea of a complete transformation of society was probably pretty much incomprehensible to this particular newspaper editorial writer. Yet it was precisely this sort of incomprehension that the IWW was up against. To the hegemonic ‘common sense’ of the typical non-urban Panglossian newspaper editor it would have seemed inexplicable that the IWW did not want to run for a seat in parliament in this best and most democratic of all countries. The writer of the editorial, however, has simply failed to understand that the IWW saw the bourgeois Australian Parliament with all its pathetic Labor Party members as actually the problem and not at all the solution. For this newspaper editor, the ruling ideas in any age must surely have been those of the ruling class. It was simply common sense. And if all the local historian trawls are through these conservative newspapers of the time then that is precisely the sort of conservative history one is likely to come up with. But by writing history at the micro level it is sometimes possible to try to develop a kind of history which is pitched at “at the level of family traditions, and obscure intellectuals currents, which surface, submerge, and then sometimes surface again, in little periodicals, or in piecemeal local newspaper reports. The point of this kind of history is to endeavour to see the minds of these men and women—even though they 259 260 “Quarter Sessions”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 22 Feb 1918, p. 9 The Bega Budget, 23 December 1916, p.2 116 have proved the losers of history— with a little more humility and in a much less patronising way than they are normally treated.261 As a historian unwilling to be constrained by previous “pat political sentiments” which view the Communist Party as the Ultima Thule of ‘left wing’ Australian politics, this present study posits the more underground (and often fugitive) intellectual currents circulating at the time of the First World War as almost entirely “anti-hegemonic”. It endeavours also to give some slight recognition to the countervailing dissenting attitudes held by the tiny disputatious socialist sects before they were crushed by the dead hand of a very bureaucratic and ineffective Australian Communist Party that emerged in Australia after 1920.262 And it is in trying to bring such previously ignored local anti-hegemonic men and women to the forefront of the writing of Illawarra history that a decision has been made to focus on the two tiny and almost completely ignored Illawarra coal mining villages of Scarborough and Coledale. So while ostensibly exploring the dissenting intellectual traditions of a handful of Illawarra coalmining activists, the primary aim has not only been to merely demonstrate how to recover details of individual working class lives but to actually try to be a lot more interested in studying the often obscure traditions and beliefs that helped shape their ‘intellectual life” – and in a way which attempts to challenge conventional approaches to the writing of Labour History. In placing, in Marxist terms, as least as much emphasis on the ‘superstructure’ of society as the economic base, the purpose is to try to recover something of the ‘cultural’ life and milieu of the once lost voices of these two coal mining villages. By thus placing the focus of this history not on “the ruling ideas” of the period 1914 1919, I have tried try to give historical space to the largely forgotten dissenters from the ruling ideas of a political labour movement largely addicted to conciliation and arbitration and frequently gone completely addle-brained with jingoistic enthusiasm for the Imperialist war then ranging and watering the field of Flanders with the blood of naïve Australians volunteers. LOCAL CONSERVATISM Despite the best efforts of northern Illawarra Wobblies it cannot be denied just how pathetically conservative many locals still were. Two juxtaposed items in the “The Searchlight” column of the Illawarra Mercury on the 16th of August 1918 give a good idea of the diametrically opposed strands of local political thought. Mr. Brookfield, M.L.A., will speak at the Wollongong Town Hall on Sunday afternoon, in reference to the I.W.W. prisoners. The members of the South Coast 'March to Freedom' will arrive at Wollongong next Friday. Particulars appear in our advertising column.”263 261 E.P Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, Penguin Harmondsworth, 1968, p.xv (also (Thompson, 1993 p. xv). 262 q.v. E.P. Thompson 1993, p. 108. 263 Illawarra Mercury, 16 Aug 1918, p. 2 117 Those keen to support yet another mindless recruiting march after the continual publication in the local press of thousands of deaths and casualties were unlikely to be the sort of individuals upon whose minds Wobbly propaganda had impacted. They were also unlikely (that is, if they had ever even heard of him) to have been keen supporters of Percy Brookfield – “the best hated man in Australia” 264 - or could have cared less about the fate of the IWW Twelve whom Brookfield was then fighting hard to get released. While it was really only after unremitting pressure from Brookfield (who then had the balance of power in the NSW Parliament) that an independent inquiry into the gaoling of the IWW Twelve was eventually held (and most of these imprisoned "Wobblies" subsequently released), inexplicably the South Coast March to Freedom (while not the rollicking success its bloodthirsty supporters had hoped) nonetheless still succeeded in getting a handful of suckers to enlist. Remarkably, the ‘success’ of the march was again reported – this time by the South Coast Times – with another extraordinarily injudicious juxtaposition. PATRIOTIC. The South Coast March to Freedom gathered in about 160 recruits. Private Vivian Gray eldest son of the late W. and Mrs. Gray, of Campbell-St Wollongong, is reported wounded and missing. The circumstances of this family have been exceedingly unfortunate. Mr. W. Dobbie, of Fairy Meadow, has received word that his son, private William Dobbie, has been wounded in the knee, and is in a London hospital.265 Fortunately, most of these 160 recruits (hopefully an over enthusiastic press estimation) would sail too late to be in too much danger of watering the cold ground of Europe with their blood. For them their little overseas adventure was possibly a much safer one than staying at home and publicly professing support for the IWW. A seaman named Frank Milburn, for example, was committed for trial in Sydney on a charge of making statements likely to cause disaffection to his Majesty. It was alleged that he called out in the Domain on Sunday, June 16, "Three cheers for the I.W.W., and God damn the King of England.”266 For this he was brought to court and charged with the following. (1) Making statements likely to cause disaffection to his Majesty; (2) making statements likely to prejudice recruiting; (3) attempting; to cause sedition.267 Fortunately, Frank Milburn had the wit to deny having made the statements and got lucky in that “The jury returned a verdict of acquittal.”268 264 See Paul Robert Adams, The Life and Death of Percy Brookfield 1875-1921, Puncher & Wattman, 2010. 265 “Patriotic”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 27 Sep 1918 p.8 266 “News in Brief”, The Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Observer, 5 July 1918, p.8 267 “Quarter Sessions”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 Jul 1918, p.9 118 Yet the fact that saying “God damn the King of England” could still have been, even in 1918, vaguely considered as some sort of crime in a so-called Parliamentary democracy with universal suffrage indicates that, indeed, the addition of a Bill of Rights is actually a most necessary addendum to our illustrious Federal Constitution (which, remarkably, also happens to have neglected to mention either the words “Prime Minster” or “Cabinet”). But just about anything was possible under the wartime provisions instituted in Australia during WW1. Thus NSW, in 1918, would still seem very much a police state in that the War Precautions Act (combined with the general war hysteria then in operation) could allow a man to be charged for speaking his mind in a so-called democratic country. Even so, in the absence of an Australian constitutional Bill of Rights, it probably—strictly speaking—remained illegal to say “God damn the King [or Queen] of England” until at least 1953 when Australia finally ceased to be a “dominion” of the United Kingdom and instead became a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations. The remarkable thing, however, is that the northern Illawarra mining village - as you will soon see – remained a police State in 1919 even after the War Precautions Act had supposedly fallen into desuetude. The level of surveillance in these northern Illawarra townships was truly extraordinary. Sadly, either by accident or design, no full surviving official police record of the surveillance reports for either Coledale or Scarborough appear to have survived. Fortunately, however, a very detailed record of just how conscientious the surveillance could be for the nearby town township of Helensburgh has been preserved in the State Archives. This is included in full as an appendix at the end of this work. A reading of it demonstrates that, even in Helensburgh where there was virtually zero evidence of genuinely radical activity, the police were expected to keep very firm tabs on even exceedingly moderate members of the Labor Party. It was often enough to simply be suspected of IWW sympathies to appear to warrant a high level of surveillance—although the power of particular police officers and informers to be able to discern the differences between genuine radicalism and simple membership of a conservative trade union seem to have varied enormously. Yet, nonetheless, while the war dragged on, the victimisation of northern Illawarra miners suspected of even vaguely radical political leanings continued apace. IWW NUTTERS The views expounded by a handful of militant propagandists in Coledale and Scarborough were largely anathema to God-fearing careerist union leaders and Labor Party politicians. Such individuals professed to believe that Wages’ Boards and Conciliation Commissions were the best ways to improve the lives of working people. Wobblies believed this to be nonsense. But, few in number though these militant Wobbly propagandists were, their ideas seem to have often worried both the bosses 268 “Quarter Sessions”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 Jul 1918, p.9 119 and the servants of the capitalists in the press, the police and the embryonic Australian intelligence agencies. They also so disturbed the editors of the conservative journals of record throughout Australia that remarkable headlines such as the following appeared in even newspapers very far distant from Illawarra. From 1916 right through and into the Great Depression of the 1930s the standard strategy appears to have been to depict the presumed rebels as either nutters or foreigners. I.W.W. MINERS' MAD REQUEST.SYDNEY, Wednesday. —The Coledale Miners' Union has demanded of the Prime Minister the release of the twelve I.W.W. men sentenced at Sydney.269 FOREIGNER HEAD OF COMMUNISTS STARTED DOLE RIOTS. A meeting of unemployed at Corrimal this morning declared the dole black and a large number refused to accept rations. A crowd of some hundreds gathered outside the School of Arts - but a strong force of police was in attendance. A Bulli message states the police are searching for a foreigner, alleged to be the leader of Communists who are believed to be responsible for the recent disturbances at South Coast mining townships. When rations were distributed this morning there was no disorder, although a large crowd assembled outside the Miners' Hall. Constable Perry, who was the victim of the rioters on Monday, is suffering from concussion and injuries to the legs, but is slowly improving. "BAND OF RUFFIANS” At the Bulli Police Court last night a number of men were charged with having assaulted Constable Perry and Sergeant Standen and occasioned them grievous bodily harm.270 Those individuals at Coledale during WW! Who were seriously appalled at the gaoling of IWW members for up to 15 years on the flimsiest of evidence are thus very much a part of an alternative strand of local working class activism that has either too often been ignored or viewed with some embarrassment by mildly left wing and Labourite historians. If the capitalist State and its courts could do this then it was sure to have accentuated whatever disillusionment with the system some workers already felt. The move by renegade former Labor Party members to introduce conscription was bad enough. Yet, for some workers, this disillusion extended far past simple condemnation of the Labor Party towards confirming the IWW view that both the parliamentary road to socialism and the so-called ‘protection’ of workers interests by combining to form bureaucratic trade unions was a complete dead end. The extremists among the IWW supporters became fully hardened to the view that the employing class and the working class had absolutely nothing in common. How shocked they would have been if they had lived on into the twenty-first century. And what they would have made of the hopeless situation where, in 2007, the leader 269 270 “I.W.W.”, Northern Star (Lismore), 28 Dec 1916, p.3 “Foreigner”, Daily Examiner (Grafton),14 May 1931, p.5 120 of the Australian Council of Trade Unions could utter the following extraordinary statement is anybody’s guess. The job of all unions is to protect secure, well-paid employment for Australian working families. To achieve this we need profitable businesses that value their workers. The idea that unions would somehow want to undermine business is frankly absurd. Under a Labor Government we would want to work with employers to grow the economy and increase opportunities for Australian workers.”271 My own guess is that they would be truly amazed they at the situation today where trade unionism itself (let alone dreams of the 'One Big Union') seems in an irreversible decline and there remains little hope for young workers who – if they are lucky – get the pleasure of being doomed to insecure contract employment in jobs where there remains virtually no-one to protect them from the whims of private or even Government employers. Even young people today fortunate enough to gain some form of more or less secure Government or semi government employment are likely to be ‘protected’ by trade union bureaucrats who have little real power to resist the demands of employers. And in a political climate where the right to spontaneously and collectively withdraw one’s labour power as form of protest has become well-nigh completely illegal there would simply seem to be no place for anything even vaguely resembling the ideology of the IWW. How could it all have gone so wrong? What was so different about the people back then in that some were willing to take on the bosses in the heart of the workplace and, if necessary, defy governments, trade union leaders and employers? And what has (and did) become of them? If one is to believe what one reads in the papers there are all sorts of shiftless individuals in Australian society today— but why then do so few of them offer up a direct challenge to the workings of the capitalist system and the state apparatus which supports it? And why was it possible for a good handful of such rebellious individuals to be present in the colliery villages of Coledale and Scarborough on the NSW South Coast during the period 1914-1919 - and yet for such individuals to be virtually no existent today? Moreover, how was it possible, despite all sorts of obstacles during and immediately after WW1, for some of these individuals to remain defiant and why was it possible for some to maintain a certain attractive lightness of attitude and optimism about many of their actions? Moreover, how was it possible for some to sustain a decided wittiness about their often avowedly propagandistic utterances—and even sometimes to evince a flair for entertainment which often blossomed in their courtroom performances? 271 Sharan Burrow, Speech to “Australia at the Crossroads, Just Peace Public Forum, Brisbane City Hall. 8 August 2007.A précis available at http://www.actu.org.au/actu-media/mediareleases/2007/liberal-party-advertisement-is-insulting-to-working-families-says-actu Accessed 26th March 2016 121 What, then, I am interested in most of all is what happens to such people who believed that the development of organised labour and the performance of its political representatives was clearly a blind alley? What was the fate of those few who maintained their often-improvised alternative approaches to industrial struggle even when there was either little or even no hope of success - and when it was also pretty clear they were going to serve gaol-time for their actions and utterances? What becomes of such people as individuals? And what legacy, if any, have they left to our present generation? Particularly, what can be learnt today from their antiauthoritarian forms of organisation in disseminating propaganda both of the word and the deed? *** 122 PART FOUR REBELS WITHOUT A REVOLUTION BOB HEFFRON - NSW PREMIER AND HIGHLY UNLIKELY FORMER REVOLUTIONARY Sometimes the most conservative people break out a bit when they are young— or, rather, are said to be subjected to undesirable influences. For Bob Heffron, the future Premier of NSW, it was the New Zealand Waihi Strike of 1912 – a dispute during which he first met one of the future stars of the Sydney IWW. Heffron had been born in New Zealand in 1890, had joined the New Zealand Socialist Party in 1912 and, as a miners' union organiser, became involved in the Waihi strike. The IWW were very active in this dispute and Tom Barker, the most prominent of the luminaries of the IWW in NSW during WW1, had been charged with sedition during the dispute and had to flee across the ditch to cause further trouble in the larger, drier and more western third island of New Zealand. Heffron would, of course, later abandon all revolutionary notions he may have imbibed from Tom Barker and his colleagues. Yet even after he’d entered that greatest of Australian political abominations—the NSW Parliament—Heffron sometimes still used the rhetoric (if not the substance) of the old days of class warfare. Indeed, Heffron is certainly the only Premier of NSW ever to enter parliament as a former foundation member of the ‘International Class War Prisoners’ Association’. Heffron then spent 37 years in the NSW Parliament and in later years took to wearing a quite risible homburg hat. As the journalist, academic and editor Evan Whitton once remarked this was the “approved headdress op judges, north shore company directors and the more prosperous Macquarie Street medical specialists.” 272 In his valedictory speech in Parliament Bob Heffron remarked: In looking back on my life, I express happiness that I did go into politics. If anybody had then said to me that I would become a Minister of the Crown, I should have thought that I would be the last card in the pack. When I see these young fellows in the Ministry, it reminds me of when I was beating about back in the dark days of the depression. Had anybody then suggested that I would become a Premier of New South Wales, I should have considered that man a suitable candidate for Callan Park. Heffron’s political career is thus a sad trajectory from the New Zealand Socialist Party to the Victorian Socialist Party to the NSW Industrial Labor Party and, worst of all, to the Australian Labor Party (NSW Branch). 272 David Clune and Ken Turner, The Premiers of New South Wales, 1856-2005, Federation Press, 2006, p.316 123 Yet when Heffron was first elected to the NSW Parliament, after the Stock Market crash of October 1929, the economic crisis was starting to bite very hard in NSW. With perhaps as many as 40% of Australian workingmen either unemployed or perilously underemployed, capitalism was certainly not flavour of the month. People stranded in the streets in front of the houses they formerly rented—with their meagre belongings and furniture scattered over the footpath— is never a good look. Indeed, eviction due to unemployment is the ultimate indictment of a system based on the kind of capitalist consumerism that pretends to promise each worker a chance to experience all the good things of life. When the most basic of commodities—food and shelter—seem out of reach of ordinary people then the economic system under which they are meant to labour has clearly failed them. And one of the most unpleasant of many unpleasant jobs of any policeman must surely be the forced removal of a destitute family from their lodgings—but the law is the law and an officer of the law must obey those laws if he or she wishes to keep their job. And if you don’t own your home and can’t pay your rent or your mortgage repayments then the landlord or the bank has the legal right to remove you from its premises. Remarkably, however, Bob Heffron had this to say about such things in the NSW Parliament: A little while ago it was stated in this House that there had been 8,000 evictions during the last twelve or eighteen months. Those figures were challenged by the Premier, who made them several thousands less. We all know there is no difference in fact between an eviction made through an order of the court and the case of the tenant who is told by the landlord that he must get out. These people have to get out of their homes, and, generally, have to go into bag humpies or anywhere they can find shelter. Ever since I have been a member of this House I have opposed evictions of any kind. Whilst I admit it is hard on the landlord to have a person in his house not paying rent, it is harder still upon the unemployed man and his wife and children to be turned into the streets just as starving stock are turned out on to the road during drought periods. I have always regarded this matter as being a definite responsibility of the Government, and it appears to me the only equitable way of meeting it is to give a definite rent allowance on the same principle as the food allowance is provided. If this were done many people would be prevented from being rendered homeless. It’s a reformist proposal, of course—and shows no sense of any real challenge to the rights of private property owners. All it does, in reality, is suggest that the State should help subsidize the rents which will be payable to landlords. It is not a philosophy that wants to see the demise of landlords and of capitalist economic crises. Nonetheless, they are not words normally associated with the kind of timid Labor politician who ends up wearing a homburg hat. Was it just that some of the IWW propaganda Heffron had swallowed in the New Zealand Waihi dispute had lingered in his brain after both he and Tom Barker had to flee across the ditch to Australia? Well, possibly, that has some slight chance of being the case.—for in April 1924 the conservative NSW Government - with Illawarra-born Sir George Fuller at the helm – 124 felt that Heffron and six other unionists needed to be arrested on the charge of “conspiracy to strike action”.273 Controversially, even though at first refused bail by the trial judge, Heffron and his fellow defendants (represented by Richard Windeyer KC and H. V. Evatt no less) were fortunate to be found not guilty and were released in July 1924 by the court, in a verdict that had been returned by the direction of the judge.274 Having escaped this trap, Heffron (unlike Tom Barker) swerved well to the political right and joined the ALP - initially as a supporter of that famous real estate agent and future anti-communist Premier named Jack Lang. There were others in Illawarra who did the same and this is what their rhetoric sounded like. At the NSWALP conference of 1932 Mr. Crowther (President of Corrimal ALP) said that if the Labour movement was big enough for Mr. Lang, it was big enough for the unemployed. The motion was carried with an addendum that quarterly reports on the activities of the unemployed should be supplied to the ALP. On Sunday, the unemployment question was recommitted to enable Mr Crowther (Illawarra) to move that legislation should be enacted so that the payments received for child endowment should not be taken into consideration when determining the amount of food relief for those unemployed. “Mere words are useless," said Mr Crowther. “We lost seats in the last elections because the unemployed were not organised. The ALP relief committees on the South Coast have even assisted Nationalists and won their support. We have dealt with 141 evictions and we have not had one family put on to the street. The police have offered cells as shelter for children of the unemployed. There is enough building materials not being used by the Government to house the unemployed throughout the State. We have broken the Communist auxiliary bodies. The very men who had advocated the burning of the dole questionnaires on the South Coast when searched in the police station, had in their possession their own dole questionnaires duly signed. The boycott is the only weapon to force business people to assist us. The Nationalist Relief Council on the South Coast has done great work.’275 This was all a touch over-optimistic (and was actually a pretty big porky) as their had already been numerous evictions in Illawarra – and the local Communist-backed Unemployed Workers Movement (UWM) had been forced to declare ‘black’ many residences from which the unemployed had been removed.276 Fed up with the hopelessness of the Labor Party, even some moderate Illawarra Trades and Labour Council members (who were members of the Labor Party) had to fall in behind the Communists and pass “A recommendation to the affiliated unions…asking that, a levy of 1/- per working member be struck for the purpose of defending the [anti-eviction] prisoners arrested.” The local crisis soon got so serious that the Illawarra Labour Council was even forced to attack the Labor Party for its lack of support to the unemployed! 273 “7 arrested. Conspiracy Charge. Union Officials. Shipping Dispute", The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 April 1924. p. 9. 274 “Port Lyttelton. Charge Fails. ‘Not Guilty’ By Direction", The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 July 1924. p. 9. 275 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 3 June 1932 p.16 276 Illawarra Mercury, 27 March 1931, p.11 125 Delegates decided “That this council stands and pledges its support to the South Coast Relief Committee in the stand taken against the eviction of an unemployed worker at Thirroul, which the authorities propose to carry out on Tuesday, June 30th, and stands solidly behind the [Communist] Unemployed Workers' Movement in all their struggles for better conditions.” The following resolution was carried unanimously: “That the delegates report to their organisations on the policy of the 'Labour Daily' against the militant workers, the U.W.M., and the general anti-working class articles and reports published recently; this with a view to ascertaining the attitude of their members as to definite organised action being taken against the newspaper.” Delegates stated that the 'Labour Daily' had vied with the capitalist newspapers in being antiworking class, instead of carrying out its function of giving reports and doing propaganda from a working class viewpoint, as was the purpose of a Labour paper.”277 So bad was that situation in Illawarra in the early 1930s that Mrs. J. Croft (who would some years later go on to be vice president of that most militant of all feminist Wollongong organisations— the Wollongong Housewives' Association278-- was driven to revolutionary utterance. “Nothing pleases me more than to extract money from the enemy to assist the unemployed" said Mrs Croft (Wollongong). Nurse Francis said that certain questions on the questionnaire were a disgrace, and would have to be removed by the next Labor Government. "Steal for your children, If you cannot get the food any other way," said Nurse Francis.279 So clearly there were still activists to the left of the Labor Party (and also to the left of the Communist Party) in Illawarra – but they were few and far between and whether they were influenced by Wobbly ideas left over from the First World War is hard to judge. But sometimes radicals—those who speak out only when the crisis is evident to all—are not necessarily the ones who usually have a long-lasting propagandistic impact on local communities. John Hitchen, for example, was an activist in the UWM an also both a member of the Communist Party—and one of the leaders of the far-famed Bulli Riot. THE BULLI DOLE RIOT OF 1931 This event has sometimes been hailed as one of the high points of anti-capitalist activism in Illawarra – but it actually wasn’t. It was always going to be a tough call to convince the unemployed to refuse to accept their dole rations. A new official committee had been formed to distribute ration orders, but some members of the Unemployed Workers Movement (UWM) insisted that a committee of their own number should be appointed instead. They then tried to declare the rations 'black' and attempted to picket the doors of the building where rations were being issued. When some unemployed tried to enter the building to secure their rations the pickets made an effort to prevent them. 277 Illawarra Mercury, 3 July 1931, p.1 The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 January 1939, p.13 279 The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 April 1933 p.7 278 126 Sergeant Standen told the pickets to stand aside. One replied that he’d rather “go into the lock-up as starve outside.” The seven or so UWM members then moved away but then returned and kept encouraging people to refuse to accept their rations. The police then informed the men that if they did not desist from preventing people entering they would be arrested. It’s a hard task, however, to entangle what is true and not true in the various news reports of the event that were published throughout Australia. According to a West Australian newspaper “one man was jostled, and so the police moved to arrest the ringleaders near the door. About ten men then attacked the police.” News reports are varied and most are possibly unreliable but one claims the “mob used iron pipes, lumps of wood and stones, as well as fists and boots. The sergeant while down was kicked in the face. A horse and sulky standing near by were knocked over during the mêlée. The police were considerably battered, and only drew weapons in self defence.”280 At his trial, however, Hitchen claimed that “a man attacked me, and I stooped down to pick up something. I was then arrested by Constables Smith and Perry and dragged to the police station, with my stomach and knees rubbing the ground. Oh reaching the police station Constable Smith violently threw me against a cement wall in the exercise yard, causing a wound on the head which later had to be stitched. About 2.p.m.—four hours later—Dr. Palmer stitched the wound in my head.281 The upshot of it all was that eleven unemployed individuals were arrested, tried and (despite numerous appeals) were sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment. Hitchens, Robert Cuthbertson and Ernest Briemle, for example, received six months. The Labor Party was less than supportive of those charged. DOLE RIOTS. A.L.P. Branch Supports Police. BULLI, Monday. At a fully attended meeting of the Woonona branch of the A.L.P., a resolution was unanimously carried complimenting the police "on the prompt action they took in preventing a cowardly and murderous attack on the peaceful citizens of Bulli and Woonona." A further resolution was carried appealing to the Lang Government to give the citizens of Bulli, on the day the dole is issued, greater police protection "against a travelling band of Communists."282 The Labor Party, however, was telling half-truths. There were communists among those arrested and, yes, some did travel - but most were resident locals. Indeed John Hitchen remained resident in Bulli until his death in 1965. His wife, Anastasia, had 280 The Daily News (Perth), Saturday 30 May 1931, p.4 Illawarra Mercury, 16 October 1931 p.9 282 The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 May 1931, p.9 281 127 died there some 12 years earlier and so they were hardly the blow-ins the Labor Party claimed. It was a duplicitous statement for the Labor Party to make anyway for many unemployed men were forced to leave their homes and travel in search of work in order to be able to be entitled to dole ration relief. The lingering taint of racism which so often hung around the Labor Party may also have been in evidence for some of those charged. August Udd, for example, was of Finnish nationality but had been in Australia for ten years. “He had been camping at Coniston and went to Bulli that morning looking for work. He denied taking part in the brawl, although he had been punched by a policeman when he was stopped by them. Both Constables Russell and Boyd denied striking Udd.” The poor bugger got 14 days imprisonment and had to pay £3/3/- in costs for having the audacity to appeal his sentence. Another, Robert Cuthbertson, a miner who seemed to have moved from the Newcastle area to Wollongong (but whose wife, Margaret, had strong local connections) was sentenced to three months gaol and also had to pay £3/3/0 costs for daring to appeal his conviction.283 Ernest Briemle, on the other hand, was Swiss born but had been in Australia for more than 20 years at the time of his arrest – arriving at the age of 17. An active communist, he had worked in Queensland and also as a wharfie in Sydney before moving to Illawarra in 1928. He’d previously been given three months imprisonment for assisting a German citizen who was attempting to leave Australia during the First World War.284 This criminal conviction tends to suggest he may have been associated with the IWW anti-conscription campaign during WW1 Those activists who appear to have been of greatest momentary impact locally, however, were those who abjured all interest in getting elected to parliament and, instead, sought to get workers to withdraw from the arbitration system and use their combined industrial power to force concessions from employers and the capitalist state. THE DANGEROUS IDEAS This present story not been about people who were, politically speaking, supposedly on something conservatives usually (and rather vaguely) describe as ‘The Left’. It is about the relatively small number of people who were unwilling to do deals with the bosses in order to ameliorate some of the worst evils of capitalist society. The focus is on people to the left of even so-called ‘Left Wing’ political parties and trade unions— people who were not interested in reforming capitalism but in ending it. The primary idea which thus seems to have motivated a few individuals at Coledale and Scarborough during the period 1914-1919 was the view that “the working class and the employing class have nothing in common.” 283 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 4 March 1932 See Len Richardson, The Bitter years: Wollongong During the Great Depression, Hale & Iremonger, 1984, pp.78-80 284 128 Once that idea is accepted, an organic intellectual of the working class can then go on to develop the somewhat heretical view that craft trade unions need to be condemned as organisations which divide—rather than unite—working people. Moreover, in dividing up workers into organisations representing different industries they make no effort to educate workers as a class conscious force determined to overthrow capitalism. Back in the early 1970s, I once met a bloke working at a TAFE College as a storeman. He told me he’s been a rank and file militant on the Port Kembla wharves (a self-admitted communist but claimed he was “too left wing” for any of the various Australian Communist Parties) and who, after years of workplace activism, had quit his job and the Waterside Workers Federation. He did this, he claimed, despite being offered a cushy Watchman’s job as an encouragement to stay. He claimed he did so because, as he phrased it, “I finally realised I’d not been fighting for the working class all these years - but just for one individual trade union. I’d kidded myself that improving the conditions and wages in one industry would flow on to those working in others represented by less militant individuals.” As he was not getting any younger and midnight shifts loading asbestos at Port Kembla no longer held much appeal, he'd told me he’d quit the wharves and taken the low-paying Government job without midnight shifts at TAFE very soon after the wharfies had won triple-time payments for Sunday midnight shift. His fellow militants had actively urged him to stay – but he still insisted on leaving despite the fact that an interview panel had been lined up for the cushy Wharf Watchman's job. He told me he went for the interview and found that the panel was made up of three of his militant fellow unionists and another militant he’d been to sea with years ago when he was an activist in the Seamen’s Union. There were just one or two representatives of the stevedoring companies and they were obviously going to be outvoted. This unusual labourer then told me he had come to the conclusion that most (if not all) trade unions simply existed to act through the arbitration system over which they had little genuine control. He argued that unionism and arbitration discouraged most rank file union activism and simply encouraged the development of union bureaucracy. Although this bloke had probably never even heard of him, such views are remarkably akin to those of Antonio Gramsci, who argued that the “specialisation of professional activity as trade-union leaders, as well as the naturally restricted horizon which is bound up with disconnected economic struggles in a peaceful period, leads only too easily, amongst trade-union officials, to bureaucratism and a certain narrowness of outlook. From this also comes that openly admitted need for industrial peace, which shrinks from great risks and presumed dangers to the stability of the trade-unions.”285 I wondered at the time if this Port Kembla wharfie might once have been a Wobbly or been influenced by one when young – but he said he had never heard of them. 285 Original in L’Ordine Nuovo, reprinted in Antonio Gramsci, Soviets in Italy, Nottingham: Nottingham Institute for Workers Control, 1969, p.9 129 Yet both the IWW and this Port Kembla wharfie both held the belief that arbitration had destroyed the fighting spirit of the unions and taken power away from the rank and file. Only by the rank and file taking action on the job could the now almost sacrosanct belief in arbitration—and the consequent tendency towards apathy among the membership towards union affairs—be challenged. Unionists, they argued, were wrong to put their faith in awards and the promises of Labor politicians, rather than in their own power as organised workers. This man struck me as a genuine working class intellectual— largely unaffected by ideologies and socialist sectarianism. In researching the history of such ideas the only people I could find who seem to have once held similar ideas in Illawarra were those active in the mining villages of Coledale and Scarborough during WW1 – the members and supporters of a short lived Australian efflorescence of the Industrial Workers of the World. The Wobblies were people who didn’t like craft unions - and they no doubt would have still called the Seamen’s and Waterside Workers unions of the 1950s and 1960s craft unions for all their apparent relative militancy in the Australian context of widespread ‘craft unions. Back during (and for a little while after) WW1, the Wobblies argued that it was necessary for all unions to combine as one in order to withdraw from the arbitration system and use their combined industrial power to force major concessions from employers. But there seems no trace of any impetus towards forming such an organisation in Australia today. Yet this is not to suggest that either the old IWW itself or this unusual ex-Port Kembla Wharfie were working class saints – and this story does not want to descend completely into hagiography. Nonetheless, on the plus side, the IWW was clearly immune to the mass anti-German war hysteria whipped up in Australia during WW1—and cheerfully welcomed both Germans and other foreigners if they espoused revolutionary ideals. The Wobblies and their Northern Illawarra supporters had at least one major fault in contemporary terms. They appear, on the surviving evidence, to have made no mention of Aboriginal issues during the years 1914-1919— though, of course, their views on such matters may have gone unrecorded because there were very actually few individuals identifying as indigenous in northern Illawarra in the early 1900s. Whether or not they would have been welcoming of Aboriginal activists is hard to know but, it is at least true that one IWW member, Mick Sawtell, went on to be very active in the Aboriginal rights movements from the late 1930s.286 Additionally, some of the hot-headed IWW local supporters seem to have had a weakness for both drinking to excess and gambling. And even the ex-Port Kembla wharfie I once met (mentioned above) seemed to have an excessive fondness for beer. 286 “Duty to Aborigines”, The Workers' Weekly (Sydney), 15 October 1937, p. 4 130 Yet, regardless of such presumed faults and peccadilloes, the few local people holding radical beliefs and proclivities seem to have most often become not only simply hidden from history in Illawarra – but invisible to it. Often we know not even their names. Similarly, although a few women were among their number we know virtually nothing about their sexual politics – even though it is sometimes said that the prominent Sydney IWW activist, Charlie Reeve, was “openly gay”. And, although no clear record of what attitude other Wobblies held towards this seems to have survived, it is something one would suspect may have genuinely frightened not only the horses but large sections of the working class during the early years of the twentieth century—and not only in the northern suburbs of Illawarra! But these radicals apparently did not let such matters ruffle their feathers too much. They seemed to take a delight in cheerfully singing anticlerical and anti-capitalist ditties, pasting up stickers and posters containing amusing catch phrases and attempting to sell various radical political pamphlets and copies of both the Australian and American editions of the IWW newspapers. Yet so little has previously been written about such people residing for a time in northern Illawarra that we are often possessed of just a pseudonym—or sometimes a Christian name or surname only for those few who then wished to actively challenge the economic system in which they were enmeshed. To some extent this is to be expected for it was wise to try and conceal their identities for they were then highly likely to be persecuted by the State and its laws - or to be harassed to a greater or lesser extent by the their fellow workers. The task that is being undertaken is thus to try to put some thin flesh on the bones of those few individuals in Illawarra who saw no future in ameliorating capitalism and were willing to engage in both ideological an physical sabotage of the economic system they abhorred. It has largely been uninterested in those who blazed brightly with the flames of redhot radicalism and then saw the error of their ways and either became ‘Labor rats’ in the political sphere - or merely obedient wage slaves at the coalface of various industries. Instead the focus of this paper is on those who, like the anonymous narrator of William Morris Utopian prose work News From Nowhere, hoped to live in a future where the parliamentary road to socialism was viewed as ludicrous. We went on a little further, and I looked to the right again, and said, in rather a doubtful tone of voice, “Why, there are the Houses of Parliament! Do you still use them?” He [Dick [burst out laughing, and was some time before he could control himself; then he clapped me on the back and said: “I take you, neighbour; you may well wonder at our keeping them standing, and I know something about that, and my old kinsman has given me books to read about the strange game that they played there. Use them! Well, yes, they are used for a sort of subsidiary market, and a storage place for manure, and they are handy for that, being on the waterside. I believe it was intended to pull them down quite at the beginning of our days; but there was, I am told, a queer antiquarian society, which had done some service in past times, and which straightway set up its pipe against their destruction, as it has done with many other buildings, which most people looked upon as worthless, and public nuisances. 131 What has thus gone before is something of the tale of that band of individuals in Illawarra who saw class collaborationist trade unions and worker’s representatives in parliament as inimical to the achievement of a genuinely democratic society. Bourgeois democracy was not for them. It was, indeed, seen almost as bad as the ‘pie in the sky when you die’ espoused by both religious nutters and the slighter saner deluded working class devotees of Primitive Methodism. Some of the individuals who make up this story preferred direct action and a kind of participatory democracy promoted by very loosely structured organisations of workers – more like local social clubs than political parties. They thus had no interest at all in a parliamentary political reformist road to socialism and some were only willing, reluctantly, to work with what they saw as the ‘boneheads’ in craft trade unions. Others reserved such pejorative terms only for ununionised people who expressed anti-union ideas. Tom Barker who visited Coledale to fan the flames of discontent, for example, had early warned the Tottenham IWW members “not to antagonise the crafties”, for “they are the material we have to work upon, and therefore every care should be taken to keep their good will.287 Despite their contempt for the apathetic (or at best reformist) attitudes of their fellow workers, many of this rather small band of individuals at Coledale and Scarborough appeared to be of the rather extreme view that it was actually wrong that one person could exploit the labours of another by extracting the surplus value which fell between the actual cost of producing a good or service and retailing it at a profit. Others were burdened little by ideology or economic theories such as the labour theory of value – and were simply desperate men and women with little to lose and for whom the hard grind of selling one’s labour power in order to become indebted in order to own a house and land (by which they could then hope to raise a family in relative security) was either unpalatable or financially inconceivable. Yet such individuals were not often simply hard-bitten class warriors prepared to kill in order to wrench power from the State and the bourgeoisie – though quite a few seem to have not been averse to some fisticuffs (or even stronger physical violence) if they felt it would serve their cause. Deliberate sabotage of particular industries may not have been beyond some either. “Bryant and May” was a not unheard of expression in the backblocks shearing sheds when a squatter wanted his property to ‘shear non-union’ or provided sub standard accommodation for his seasonal workers. Some individuals were alleged to have even felt that some inner-city arson performed on factories and business premises might be the go. There were also other IWW members supposed to be launching an assault on capitalism by mean of the high quality forgery of banknotes - which it was presumed might be a means of debasing the currency and hence the capitalist economy itself. A small-scale attempt at assisting in this process may even have taken place in the aftermath of the defeat of the big strike at Scarborough and Coledale Scarborough and Coledale in July 1910. 287 “Letters from Sydney Local to Tottenham Local,” 3 May, 1915, NSW Police IWW Papers, Box 7/5588 SRNSW 132 The police have during the week been making inquiries re the uttering of forged £5 notes of the Bank of Australasia. Mr. C. Tuckerman, at Coledale, and Mr. Ussher (Scarborough Hotel) were each victimised. Mr. Caiger at Clifton escaped by not happening to have change.288 As someone who detests formal meetings and bureaucracy of all kinds what I find admirable about such individual IWW supporters in these tiny little political clubs of as few as two or three members was the somewhat straggly good cheer and revolutionary élan with which they began to produce a quite radical kind of propaganda of both the deed and the word in the northern Illawarra mining townships. They were thus often quite extraordinary local examples of what Antonio Gramsci described as “organic intellectuals of the working class.” But they were not—at least in this early period of the twentieth century— like the communists later in the century whose rather tedious efforts to transform capitalism have been fairly well covered by Australian historians. These radical IWW sympathisers were stridently antihierarchical, congenitally opposed to bureaucratic approaches to the organisation of the working class and often highly internationalist and anti-racist in outlook. PARLIAMENTARY RATS AND TRADE UNION STOOGES Despite the fact that their beliefs would probably entangle them in future schemes of violence (although there is no clear evidence of that being perpetrated by IWW members in the northern colliery townships during WW1), the militant handful of Wobbly members and their supporters, in retrospect, seem more admirable than even mining leaders like David Ritchie who wasn’t all bad but gave up the struggle in despair and moved to the north coast to set up his sons as farmers. And they were certainly infinitely superior to the egregious Thomas Richard (T.R.) Morgan who managed to so smoothly see the common interests between labour and capital that he went from being Secretary of the South Coast Miners Union to Assistant Secretary of the Southern Coal Proprietors Association! A radical he was not – and how he managed to stay a member of the local Labor Party after his extraordinary betrayal of local miners speaks volumes for what kind of political party was representing workers in Illawarra during WW1. It was, no doubt, the assistance of treacherous individuals like Morgan that all remained relatively quiet, industrially at least, on the Illawarra political front between 1892 and 1909 – a period punctuated by what was then Australia’s greatest land disaster in the explosion at the Mount Kembla mine in 1902 resulting in the death of 96 people. South Clifton Colliery at Scarborough, however, continued to be perceived as a troublesome flashpoint and, in 1894, the town made the local police particularly nervous even when there was probably no real need to panic. PRECAUTIONS AT SOUTH CLIFTON. In anticipation of trouble at the South Clifton colliery on Tuesday, the members of the local police force proceeded there for the purpose of assisting to enforce order. It was rumoured that a number of the men on strike at the other collieries in the district had arranged to meet at South 288 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus 15 July 1910, p.13 133 Clifton and insist on the miners there ceasing work and joining their ranks, but either the rumor was entirely without foundation or the news of the intended presence on the scene of a large body of police caused the men to alter their programme, for not the slightest trouble arose. We were told yesterday by a Kembla miner who was at Clifton on the day in question that there was not the slightest sign of disorder at the mine, and that he believed the men on strike had never entertained a thought of creating a disturbance. The industrial situation was clearly pretty grim when the police were insufficiently confident to trust their paid informers—of which the Kembla miner mentioned above was possibly one— and felt cause to both worry about and make preparations for even chimerical disturbances at mass meetings of workers and citizens.289 But then in the year 1909 both the State and its police force had a slightly more genuine reason for concern when a man named Peter Bowling rose to prominence— and succeeded in temporarily uniting the western, northern and southern colliery districts, and then tried to bung on a kind of general strike. For his pains, both Bowling and the new secretary of the Southern Miners - Andrew Gray (who replaced the notorious ‘Labour Rat' T.R. Morgan) - were sentenced to two years gaol for conspiracy. A few local miners – and also those from Bowling’s home stretch at Wallsend (near Newcastle at 'Back Creek '(Minmi) Miners' Lodge – were outraged. Both capitalism and parliamentary democracy (even with supposed workers’ representatives sitting in parliament) seemed, at least to some, to have completely failed them. Last Friday Mrs. Bowling received the following telegram from Mr. John Haynes: — 'Sympathy and congratulations. Your, husband and other men will soon meet with great public tribute of honor. Starting campaign at Bulli tonight. [signed] H. Young. Wallsend Lodge, which is strongly 'I.W.W., rejects all proposals for settlement, and will be satisfied with nothing but an organization of all the workers of Australia on sound scientific principles to overthrow the system of wage slavery.290 Both Peter Bowling and Andrew Gray had a bad end – and, because of their politics, neither would be met with “great public tribute of honour.” South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus 11 February 1910 p.10 With supporters like the lone John Haynes, poor Peter Bowling and Andrew Gray were clearly going to rot in gaol for some considerable time. Haynes even found 289 290 Illawarra Mercury, 11 Jan 1894, p.3 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus 18 February 1910, p.6 134 difficulty trying to find a place in Wollongong which would allow him to speak. In desperation it was later advertised that Haynes was to speak from the Commercial Hotel balcony on the imprisonment of the strike leaders. The Illawarra Mercury, however, reported “That for some reason or other he was not allowed to speak.”291 But the real reason was simply that the forces of local conservatism did not want to hear about the injustices inflicted upon people who were opposed to capitalism. Haynes, however, was not just your average discontented working class loser. He too had been unjustly imprisoned when, as the result of one article he wrote, he was sued by the owner of the Clontarf Pleasure Gardens. He refused to pay the costs of the resulting libel action and was imprisoned for six weeks in 1882. He got lucky though and the public raised £3,000 and he was then released. John Haynes (1850 –1917) was also a parliamentarian in NSW for five months short of thirty years—and, even more significantly, a co-founder with J. F. Archibald of The Bulletin magazine in 1880. Better still, Haynes was associated with the production of several radical and even anarchist publications in Sydney at Leigh House (Active Service Brigade HQ) and William McNamara's ‘Book Depot’ which Jack Lang once called “the cradle of the NSW Labor Party”.292 As an unruly member of the NSW Parliament, Haynes was often in hot bother because he frequently made accusations of corruption against his fellow parliamentarians. He married his third wife, Esther Campbell, in 1899 and they had one daughter and one son. In 1904, Haynes lost his seat but continued to pursue those whom he saw as corrupt politicians. A 1906 Royal Commission on Lands Administration partly supported his allegations. As editor of The Newsletter he even attacked John Norton, fellow parliamentarian and Truth publisher, as a murderer.293 In Wollongong, however, even the Salvation Army wouldn’t give him a break. On Saturday evening, Mr. John Haynes visited Wollongong for the purpose of working up a demonstration against the 'Coercion' Act. The hotel-keepers proved to be unwilling to allow the use of their balconies as a platform without the permission of Inspector Poultney, and the only answer that officer gave Mr. Haynes when applied to was that he (Mr. Haynes) would have to take the responsibility for whatever happened. Mr. Haynes found another obstacle in the Salvation Army, which, as customary, was having a service at the Crown-street centre. He eventually gave up. He was accompanied by Mrs. Haynes and two children.294 But at least Haynes didn’t cop it as tough as Illawarra miners’ leaders Andrew Gray and Peter Bowling who replaced the aforementioned Labour Rat, T.R. Morgan, as General Secretary of the Illawarra miners during the big four month’s longs strike of 1909-10. Both the Miners NSW President Peter Bowling and Andrew Gray (then General Secretary of the Illawarra Colliery Employees' Federation) were sentenced to prison 291 Illawarra Mercury, 15 February 1910, p.2 J.T. Lang, I Remember, Sydney, 1956, pp.7-11 293 Heather Radi, “John Haynes”, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 4, Melbourne University Press, 1972 294 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 18 February 1910, p.8 292 135 terms of two and a half years for inducing workers to strike. They served 9 months in Goulburn gaol but were released on the first day of the election to power of the very moderate NSW McGowan Labor Government. Andrew Gray’s fate, however, had been sealed by the evidence delivered to the court by none other than local policeman and Bulli Surf Club member, Bill Harmer. Constable Harmer, under the politically motivated orders of both his local superiors and the then very conservative NSW Wade Government, wrote down in his notebook the words Andrew Gray uttered during a miner’s meeting at Clifton. Many police, I suspect, would have said “it was a very noisy meeting and as I was standing unobtrusively at the back it was really hard to hear precisely what was said.” Instead Harmer claimed in court that he had written down every word Andrew Gray had spoken. These words which Harmer wrote down included the sentence: “I told the miners at Newcastle that the southern miners would be with them to a man.” Harmer also recorded Gray as saying he could assure the meeting that there would be no coallumpers to handle coal, and that he was “in possession of certain information which could not be divulged until next day.” In answer to an interjection, Harmer claimed Gray had said, "The blow must be struck now - while the stocks of coal are low. We must down tools at once to be effective." This sort of dobbing would have been bad enough in the eyes of many local miners but Harmer’s situation was soon to get infinitely worse – particularly after the following rather sad begging-letter appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald. LATE MR. ANDREW GRAY. Organised labour is being asked, through the secretary of the Labour Council of New South Wales, to financially support Mrs. Gray, invalided widow of tho late Mr. Andrew Gray, who was general secretary of the Illawarra Colliery Employees' Federation. In making the appeal Mr. Kavanagh says: -"It will be remembered that Mr. Gray was put in prison for alleged aiding and abetting the big coal strike. He was at the time of the trouble general secretary of the Amalgamated Miners' Association, and merely did his duty as an officer and a man. Mr. Gray went to prison a healthy, robust man, and came out a physical wreck. He was not long a free man when he joined the big majority. He certainly gave up his life for the cause. He was an enthusiastic unionist and a white man in every respect. Mrs. Gray never recovered the shock of her husband's imprisonment and subsequent death, and is at present practically an invalid, and unable to work for her little ones. Hence the issue of subscription lists, which we trust will be liberally responded to by all true unionists. No matter how small the amount, give what you can.295 295 Sydney Morning Herald, December 16, 1913. Gray’s prison experience had been related at a meeting at Scarborough and recorded in an article headlined “Prison fare” (The Sydney Morning Herald 22 August 1910, p.8): “At Scarborough on Friday evening a complimentary dinner was tendered to friends who assisted the South Clifton miners during the recent strike Mr. N. Smith, president of tho local lodge, presided. Responding to the toast of the Illawarra Colliery Employees' Association, Mr. A Gray touched on his experiences while a prisoner in Bathurst Gaol. He said that he earned 6s in goal at the rate of 3d per week. This money he intended to have framed to be banded down to posterity. In Darlinghurst for the first seven days he did 23 hours in the cell, with one hour exercise. It was practically solitary confinement, although he was allowed to pick oakum. After doing this he was sent to Bathurst Gaol. His most painful experience was at this juncture when previous to entering a 136 Harmer could, of course, claim that he was only doing his duty too – but that reasonable excuse would probably have made living in northern Illawarra no less easy for him. History has left unrecorded whether or not Constable Harmer made a donation to the appeal for Mrs Gray and her children. But it gets worse, poor Bowling not only ended up having to become Secretary of the Southern Miners Association down here in The Gong but was often pitted face to face against the Labor rat and new representative of the Southern Colliery Proprietors Thomas Richard (T.R.) Morgan, who had well and truly gone over to the bosses’ side. The outbreak of war, however, would also see an end to whatever radicalism Bowling may have once possessed – four of his sons went off to WW1 and this hardly placed him in a very effective position to vociferously pursue the anti conscription cause which would erupt with vengeance locally in the 1916. THE LESSONS LEARNED BETWEEN 1890 & 1914 For more than two decades the militant few in Illawarra had the chance to reflect on what happens when working men and women challenge the power of capitalism and the State. Apart from lots of persecution, blacklisting and deaths in mines the daily workplace squabble between labour and capital continued apace. But the events of the Maritime and Shearers Wars of 1890s had so unsettled some of ‘the-powers-that-be’ that the NSW Royal Commission into strikes came up with a solution it thought might help keep the industrial peace: arbitration and conciliation. And it was a wonderful solution for the bosses - for it pretty effectively curtailed wildcat on-the-job direct-action militancy. The conference of miners' delegates in Sydney on September 1 decided to call out the Illawarra miners, who responded promptly to the call…The representatives of the following collieries exceedingly regret the ill-advised action of the men in stopping work without giving the required notice and without reasonable cause. This was signed by the following colliery owners: Southern Coal Company, Mount Kembla, Mount Keira, Mount Pleasant, Corrimal South Bulli, Bellambi, North Illawarra, and Bulli.296 Black Maria, he was chained to four criminals. They took their departure from Darlinghurst at 5.30 a.m., and it was not until 1.40 p.m. that they were liberated from their handcuffs and chains. The food for the first two months consisted of a plate of hominy and 5oz of dry broad for breakfast, dinner 2oz of meat and vegetables and for supper a plate of hominy and 2oz of bread. Before his food allowance was increased, as he was put to tailoring, he had to perform the task of making seven pairs of trousers in the week. He did this and received 2oz extra meat, 1oz sugar two days only. Brennan and Lewis, on account of ill-health, were treated to rice and milk seven weeks before they were discharged. "Gaol," Mr. Gray concluded, "was not a place where any law-abiding citizen would choose to go to again after one experience." At the same time, it he were ever able to advance the cause of Labour by submitting to tho ordeal again, he would not be found wanting. (Applause)” 296 “The Coalminers’ Strike”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 November 1890, p.3 137 When Federal legislation helped enshrine these initiatives in the early years of the twentieth century only the most radical miners saw that they could easily be used to both reduce wages and halt improvements in conditions as well as, if necessary, to also gaol more militant individuals. As they did at Mount Kembla back in the 1890s, miners could picket and hoot and howl abuse and then run away— but they could not often stop scabs entering the mines. By way of continuing the attack made yesterday upon the men employed at the Mount Keira mine, a band of rowdies camped out on the mount last night and amused themselves by repeating the programme to which Kembla miners have become quite accustomed. Bullocks' horns, kerosene tins, and other such implements were freely used, and to these were added occasional hooting, yelling, and dismal attempts at singing. Those engaged in performances of this kind at Mount Kembla did not venture out of the bush, and so kept themselves out of reach of the law.297 If the miner’s tried to do anything more reckless than singing and making loud noises they copped the full force of the military and judicial might of the capitalist state. Mr. W. Small left this evening for Clifton, where he will act as resident magistrate. Mr. Turner succeeds him at Mount Kembla. Captain Fisher is stationed at Austinmer. It is intended to establish a kind of headquarter station for the military forces in this district under the direction of Colonel M'Kenzie, so that men may be sent at once wherever wanted. Colonel McKenzie is expected to pay a visit of inspection to the Kembla camp tomorrow.298 And those foolish enough to try even mild defiance of the authorities were swiftly dealt with. But at Keira last night the main road was made the scene of operations, with the result that the police effected the capture of four young men, named James Hamilton, Patrick Carroll, Robert Keene, and William Dunphy. These were charged at the local police court this morning with riotous behaviour in a public place, and were each sentenced to three days' imprisonment, without the option of a fine.299 Cleverer techniques need to be employed if the scabs were to be either convinced or intimidated to down tools. Once bitten, twice shy, however, and when the exceedingly savvy miners at Mount Kembla worked out a way of getting union men into the mine to ‘interview’ the scabs who had received armed military escort it took a while for the mine owners to work out what was happening. It is rather a curious fact that many of the men who take a leading part in creating disturbances in this district first made their appearance here as free labourers during the strike of four years ago. When the strike terminated the great majority of free labourers were persuaded to join the union, and during the present difficulty few have been more zealous than they in fomenting hostile demonstrations against the men now at work. Not a few of these converts to unionism have from time to time of late engaged in Sydney as free labourers, and been sent with others to different mines intended to be worked, with the result that when the batches reach their destination there have always been some who, having succumbed to secret persuasions, decline to fulfil their contract; in other words, these secret emissaries of the union have, while sensibly working as free labourers, occupied themselves in getting as many men as possible to leave with them. With a view to checkmating this kind of thing the agents in engaging men make a point of 297 The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 October 1890, p.9 ibid 299 ibid 298 138 concealing the name of the district in which the mine is situated, simply telling those whom they have engaged to meet at a given spot at a given time, and it is not until the men are so assembled that they know whether they are going east or west. Within the past day or two, several instances have come under notice where unionists have applied for work to the manager of a local colliery, and have been taken on; but, their real motive being speedily discovered, summary dismissal followed.300 But in small relatively isolated places like Mount Kembla and the colliery villages of northern Illawarra there were problems for others apart from the workers themselves. This was because there were some apart from the mine owners—mainly shopkeepers—who needed to extract profits from their labours. And when miners and others were on strike it was difficult to do so—and could even sometimes spell financial ruin for storekeepers and others forced to extend credit and wait long periods before repayment. Having to subsist on as many shillings per week as they formerly had pounds, their savings have disappeared, and credit accounts run up at the local storekeepers, to an amount that tempts tradesmen to refuse further credit. But here the fear comes in that a refusal to grant further supplies without cash payment may involve the loss of the sum already owing, thus the tradesmen of the district suffer also, and are anxiously looking forward to a settlement.301 The workers could do their best to challenge the mine owners – but it took a lot of effort and was rarely entirely successful. Though the miners are out of work they are not idle, on the contrary, the work of a picket involves far more personal discomfort than colliery work, and in view of this, one cannot but feel some surprise at the unflinching manner in which these men stick to their self-imposed duties. Some are mounted and scour the place thoroughly, while others are posted all over the place in such a way as to preclude the possibility of a man getting unseen to a mine that is watched. Mount Kembla is a case in point. Every approach is guarded and a signal given by any isolated picket would suffice to bring a couple of hundred men to his assistance. The watch on Mount Keira and Mount Pleasant is not nearly so strict; yet it is sufficient to render it improbable that a stranger could get there unseen; but though the strikers may prevent the owners of the Kembla mine from getting additional men on to their property, they cannot prevent work from being carried on. 302 BOWLED OUT BY A FUTURE PRIME MINISTER The above strategies were the mostly failed techniques the miners of Illawarra endeavoured to employ during the 1890s. But the events of the Maritime Strike and Shearers Wars of 1890s unsettled both sides of the participants in the class was – and as a consequence some of the-powers-that-be sitting on the NSW Royal Commission into strikes came up with a solution they thought might help keep the industrial peace. The State turned to Wages Boards and Arbitration as a means to try to enforce a modicum of worker/employer harmony and for almost 20 years the more militant rank and file workers watched their conservative paid trade unions leaders timidly manage disputes. Their leaders seemed often quite content to accept whatever the 300 The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 October 1890, p.9 ibid. 302 The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 October 1890, p.9 301 139 authorities were prepared to hand out – even if it meant a loss in terms of either wages or conditions. Many such leaders were career opportunists themselves and hoped to fill seats in parliament as supposed representatives of the workers where, they crossed their hearts and promised and prayed to hell, that the worst evils of capitalism might best be resolved without resort to unnecessary and prolonged industrial struggle. And all went more or less smoothly – though there were, of course, numerous small stoppages and lockouts and petty disputation– until a man named Peter Bowling came up with the idea of uniting the three districts of miners in NSW – the Western, Northern and Southern Associations – into ‘One Big Union’. Bowling’s nemesis, however, would prove to be a fellow trade union leader named William Morris Hughes. Hughes much preferred smaller craft unions—and, indeed, was soon keen on them he held office in two, as both secretary and president, respectively, of both the Wharf Labourers and the Coal Lumpers Union. As a member of Federal Parliament and Labor Party representative of the workers, Hughes believed in a parliamentary road to whatever very mild form of socialism he might once have ever professed to have believed in. But Hughes was a wily character indeed – and, reputedly, a highly effective orator (and the motions he succeeded at having passed at mass meetings strongly support such an estimation) - and seems to have completely outfoxed Peter Bowling who (despite being hailed as the hottest of revolutionary hotheads) may not have actually had his heart fully in the struggle. Foolishly, Bowling let Hughes be the main spokesperson for the Strike Congress during the prolonged dispute of late 1909-1910. Even more bizarrely, both prior to and immediately after his first arrest (and even when he was out on bail) Bowling even made some puzzling deferential and world-weary statements about his own role and also that of Hughes, his supposed comrade in arms. When Bowling was pressed for reports on the progress of the very bitter strike he told reporters to refer to Hughes: “He’s our mouthpiece – just now. But circumstances might arise under which he could not be our mouthpiece…. I’m glad to get out of it, for I am very tired.” 303 The strain on any revolutionary leader unsure of who will and who will not support him or her must surely be immense— and, sadly, Bowling does not seem to have been fully up to the game. Nonetheless, Bowling’s arrest brought matters to a head and the impatience of the militants was evident when even Hughes own Coal Lumpers Union (who declared they would strike until the arrested mine leaders were released despite their rank and file supposedly being held on Hughes’ very tight leash) started to have an influence on Hughes’ wharf labourers who began to waver and looked like they might follow suit. 303 Sydney Morning Herald, 3rd December, 1909 140 This is precisely what Bowling had previously wanted. If Wharf Labourers and Seamen and Railway Workers all refused to transport coal then a kind of ‘general’ strike was likely to have a chance of being successful in many of its aims. But such a display of solidarity smacked of both the ‘One Big Union’ and IWW movements. And even though Bowling had led a bitter attack on the political Labor Party at the 1909 NSW Trade Union Congress his oratory did not carry the Congress with him— just as those who had urged adoption of the IWW Preamble on the Congress had failed the previous year. There were definitely still – as there always seem to have been – many more conservative than radical workers involved in both the trade unions and Labor Party. And this was even true within the various ‘socialist’ sects then in existence. Hughes (true to form and just as he had done in the Broken Hill dispute the previous year) was working to contain the miners’ strike to within manageable limits. Hughes and Bowling had fundamental differences on their respective conceptions of the purpose of the strike. But Hughes outmanoeuvred Bowling completely by travelling to Melbourne where he convinced Senator Guthrie of the Seamen’s Union to keep the Melbourne workers out of the strike— just as he was desperately endeavouring to keep his own wharfies from coming out in support of the miners before he could come up with some sort of limp resolution to the dispute Hughes’ oratory and chicanery seemed to prevail and he succeeded in restraining both the coal lumpers and the wharfies from acting precipitously. By now Bowling must have surely been aware that Hughes was betraying him and so, while out on bail, Bowling openly criticised Hughes at a meeting at West Wallsend. Mr. Chairman, ladies, fellow conspirators and criminals, — I hope you will continue to keep as quiet as possible. I know you are wanted to make what is legally called a riot. You are all guilty of an offence against the law in being here tonight, but I fail to detect any deep trace of criminality in your faces. Lately I saw in Parliament House faces which showed deeper marks of criminality. They are criminals, and don't you make any mistake about it…. I am going to accuse the members of the Government of corruption of the grossest type, namely, conspiracy with the colliery proprietors. I also accuse the colliery proprietor of conspiracy against the Commonwealth of Australia… Continuing, Mr. Bowling said that some of the leaders in Sydney seemed to be in favour of mediation, bordering on crawling. The time had come when mediation was impossible, …Mr. Hughes had done everything possible in the direction, of mediation, and that failed utterly. If they were going to fight, let them fight, but if they were going to crawl down, let them crawl down at once. "I am going down to Sydney tomorrow to meet the men at the waterside, and the south and west if necessary, to see if they are going to be fooled any longer with mediation." He concluded, "This is a greater crime I am about to commit than I am now accused of. If Wade had in his laws a greater charge than conspiracy, then I should be arrested again tonight. That is what I think about Wade's arrests. I only view my arrest on Saturday night with amusement and contempt.”304 304 The Age (Melbourne), 9 December1909, p.7 141 Premier Wade then rushed through his Coercion Act by suspending standing orders on the 16th December (as an amendment to the Industrial Disputes Act) imposing a penalty of 12 months imprisonment on any leader who instigated, aided or encouraged people to continue a strike or lock out—and empowering the police to enter any premises on which a strike or lockout was being planned or aided.305 It was under this Act that Bowling (and others) were later charged and dragged to Goulburn gaol in leg irons. Obviously the adding of a touch of the convict stain was not a good look in an Australia where there were still even living convict transportees— and no doubt this even added to both the despair and frustration of the more radical members of the working class. Hughes obviously did not want the strike to be extended. If his wharf labourers came out in support of the miners he too would probably have become (under the strict terms of his own Industrial Disputes Act) a criminal just like Bowling. Left without support from other unions, the Western Miners reached an agreement with the coal owners and went back to work on the 21st December 1909. The northern miners held out the longest and the Illawarra miners were with them for a considerable time but finally caved-in and, in February 1910, scabbed on their northern fellow workers. The Northern Miners at last accepted defeat on the 14th March 1910 and returned to work on the old terms. To any astute working class radical the treacherous activities of a union leader and Labor politician like Hughes could only confirm their lack of faith in following a parliamentary road towards amelioration of the working conditions of ordinary people. Moreover, if they had at the time been aware of the letters of congratulation being sent to Hughes then they would have also had no doubt that leaders of ‘craft’ trade unions should not be trusted to handle industrial disputes ever again. Even a leading industrialist—like the ironmaster, William Sandford—wrote to Hughes telling him that he “had a most difficult job to prevent civil war: and great credit is due to you.” Hughes’ actions were so egregious and treacherous that even a political opponent like W. A. Watt, then Treasurer of Victoria, wrote to him and stated: “I hope you will not mind me saying how much I admire the courage an sagacity with which you are conducting the fight in NSW.” Despite few workers then possessing any full knowledge of just how bad Hughes’ behaviour really was, some (even by 1910) are likely to have already become irreconcilably alienated members of the far left of the working class Harry Holland, even though deluded enough to think elections mattered and willing to put himself up to run against Hughes in his seat at the next election, managed to produce some propaganda containing the slogan “W. Hughes: Blackleg, Traitor, 305 “The Coal Strike: The Anti-Strike Act”, Geelong Advertiser, 21 Dec 1909, p.3 142 Sweater”. Totally unsuccessful at the ballot and deeply disillusioned, Holland gave up, moved to New Zealand and accepted the editorship of the Maoriland Worker before becoming involved in the massive 1913 Waihi strike agitation during which he was imprisoned for seditious language and served three months of a twelve-month sentence. Bowling himself provided the following juicy quotation in support of Holland’s election campaign: “The name of Hughes should stink in the nostrils of every honest worker. His deeds in the strike were the deeds of Judas Iscariot; and when I go to jail tomorrow it will be as a direct result of the treachery of Hughes.”306 Perhaps the strongest indication that some on the radicals were now totally of the view that class collaborationists like Hughes were beyond the pale is an image of Premier Wade and Hughes shaking hands with the following speech bubbles. Gregory Wade: “You must wreck the strike Bill. I’ll put Bowling and Butler and O’Connor and the others where they won’t hinder our plans. I won’t send you to jail, unless Billy: Shake on it, Greg, I’m your man.”307 Some members of the Coledale and Scarborough communities, however, would be unlikely to have forgotten all this when Hughes decided to impose conscription and himself start to lock up members of the IWW in 1916. And so out attention must turn to the remarkable turn of events at Coledale and Scarborough after miners elsewhere in the NSW had all gone back to work after their massive defeat of late 1909 and early 1910. A STRIKE IN A NORTHERN TOWN Coledale and Scarborough were tiny colliery villages hanging on to the edge of the Illawarra escarpment as it threatens to topple into the sea heading north from Wollongong towards Stanwell Park. Both were very new centres. Coledale had really only existed as a place from about 1902 when the North Bulli Company opened a mine there after abandoning its nearby Austinmer shaft in the 1890s. And Scarborough itself was a new name for a place called “South Clifton” where a tunnel colliery had opened in 1907. By 1909 it had “56 men employed”. The nearby “South Clifton Colliery had a pay sheet totalling £1500 per fortnight - whereas the “Tunnel Colliery” at Scarborough had a pay-sheet which only amounted to £162/4s. per fortnight. Eight “new coke ovens at South Clifton”, however, “were also in readiness to be charged.”308 After the defeat of the 1909-1910 strike and the gaoling of their leaders, as mentioned above, the south coast miners went back to work cap in hand. 306 “Press Cuttings and Handbills”, SLNSW, Mitchell Library, Q.335. 9/4 ibid 308 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 15 May 1909, p.13 307 143 But not at Coledale. At the North Bulli Company’s mine, at Coledale, only nine miners out of over 200 formerly employed put in an appearance to work. None of the wheelers turned up. All the top hands and several shiftmen were ready for work. Under the agreement between the employers and Miners' Association the refusal on the part of the men to give the manager the right to exercise his discretion to refuse to grant employment to any person possessing the necessary mining experience, no matter whether he was an old employee or not. As the old employees have acted defiantly against the decision of the district under the terms the agreement entered into between the two associations the old employees are now out in the cold.309 These men had been done-in by both the bosses and their own union. Even the least radical of them – those wiling to return to work – were often not in a position to do so for the bosses came up with the following excuse. Under the circumstances we would have liked to have the old hands back peaceably but the obstinacy displayed on the present occasion when there is really no reason for it is a limit to all human endurance. Of course it is not known what action the management will take in regard to the absentees who have been engaged in other avocations during the time of idleness such as fishing and fencing and, in accordance with the shortness of notice, were unable to return through no fault of their own. Several of the old employees tired of waiting obtained employment at Lithgow.310 Some men at Clifton, Scarborough and Coledale, however, looked like they had made a decision that they were not going to take it anymore and would possibly be interested in operating by different rules. A case arising out of a socialist meeting held at Clifton on Sunday afternoon was before the South Clifton police court. At the close of his remarks, H. E. [Harry] Holland, who was the principal speaker, moved a resolution to the following effect, “That this meeting of workers of Clifton, Scarborough and Coledale demand the release of Peter Bowling and other strike leaders.” John Curtis, a local miner, seconded the resolution, and reviewed the recent strike troubles. During his remarks it is alleged that he used insulting words towards the police. Curtis was charged at the South Clifton police court with using insulting words within the hearing of persons passing on the Main South Coast road, Scarborough, to wit, “I hope the time is not far distant when we will not be frightened by a few paltry policemen. We have been frightened by a few paltry policemen here at Scarborough. On the case being called, Curtis stated that he had only been served with the summons on the previous day, and applied for a remand, which was granted.311 Nonetheless, at his re-appearance he was “was fined 1s with costs amounting to 16s 6d.” Curtis said “that he would not pay the fine.” Despite such intransigence, surprisingly, “The P.M. allowed him seven days in which to pay.”312 Even the now fairly conservative labour newspaper, The Worker (published at Wagga), expressed some surprise at the charge against Curtis. 309 “South at Work”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 February 1910, p.8 ibid 311 The Maitland Daily Mercury, 8 Apr 1910, p.4 312 “Insulting the Police”, Illawarra Mercury, 10 May 1910, p.2 310 144 Whatever may be said for or against the advisability of speaking of the police as “paltry” there can hardly be any difference of opinion of the paltriness of the charge against Curtis. That it should have been proceeded with after a month's adjournment was possible only because the law is administered by a paltry Government.313 The International Socialist was slightly stronger in its view and under the headline “The Madness of Mr. Wade!” wrote the following. Surely there was never a more paltry or spitefully pitiable prosecution than this! We do not suggest that the local police could have been responsible for such a piece of muddled madness. We assume that the Government, knowing that the meeting was to be held, instructed the police to report and get a case if the opportunity presented. The only opportunity apparently was in the words “a few paltry police,” used on private land! The police may not have been paltry, but it is surely a paltry-minded Government that could order the spending of public money to prose cute such a case — a case for which the magistrate appears to have shown his contempt by the infliction of a fine of ONE SHILLING. It seems as if the Wade Government was getting madder every day.314 A POLICE STATE IN NORTHERN ILLAWARRA Things looked even more serious at nearby Scarborough as a dispute was still actively in progress and the bosses were unwilling to even restart the mine. At Scarborough it was "not anticipated that the men would return to work as there is a local trouble to be settled as well as the general strike The management knowing the circumstances and the attitude of the men did not prepare the mine, consequently the whistle did not sound for work. The chances at this colliery at the present time are very remote regarding a resumption as both sides to the local dispute, are still determined not to give in and the district Officers of the Miners Association are endeavouring, to bring about a settlement. The miners stating that the only way for them to return to work is for the two men concerned who refuse to pay fines inflicted by the lodge lo leave the district and work elsewhere. This Williamson and Phillips refuse to do, hence the deadlock.315 At least we have some names here – but only those of the scabs and not the militants who are our main concern. At the Scarborough New Tunnel Colliery, which is owned by the same company, “the whistle was blown for work on Saturday but as the miners employed there are members of the same association as the employees at Scarborough they could not see their way clear to make a start. At the same time there are many of the miners at this end of the district who expressed the opinion that the employees at the Tunnel colliery were justified in returning, and possibly in the course of a few days they may be induced to do so.316 The Sydney Evening News reported that “Great excitement prevails over the position of South Clifton”, and suggested “much speculation is indulged in among miners as to 313 The Worker (Wagga), 12 May 1910, p.5 314 “The Madness of Mr. Wade”, The International Socialist (Sydney), 14 May 1910, p.2 315 ibid ibid 316 145 the probable result.”317 Had the putative Chinese curse “may you live in exciting times” been well-known back then the report may have been less up-beat in their reporting of the fact that even though the “Coledale men did not favour the resumption at last Saturday's ballot, nevertheless, nine miners and several shiftmen, but no wheelers, went into the mine this morning.”318 At South Clifton, however, the impact of some of the rebellious IWW tradition of singing in the face of adversity may have been in evidence for, just a few days later, it was reported that “On Friday night last the Scarborough minstrel troupe gave a very successful entertainment to raise funds for the men on strike.”319 The mine owners, however, were determined to remain both triumphant and provocative and when, “As a result of a meeting of the South Clifton miners’ lodge on Tuesday morning a deputation waited' on the manager (Mr. Wilson) to ascertain whether Williamson and Phillips were to be re-instated at the colliery, on being replied to in the affirmative, Mr. Waugh (miners' treasurer) proceeded at once to Sydney with a view of Andrew Gray interviewing Mr. Saywell (owner of the mine) on the matter.”320 | Even though they had now been on strike for 26 weeks, the South Clifton men were still unwilling to give in. This was remarkable of the district secretary at the time was the very same Thomas Morgan who - as explained earlier -was about to engage in an incredible act of treachery by becoming a paid employee of the Coal Proprietors Association rather than head of the miners to whom he was supposed to be devoted.. While the local miners’ leadership appears to have been almost class collaborationist to a man, at least some influential members of the rank and file were able to resist the conservative pleas of their leaders to accept the offer of Judge Edmunds for the issue of a command to undergo formal mediation. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that “When it came to the crucial point of deciding, one woman, who evidently thought her husband was wavering, excitedly exclaimed that if he voted in favour of going back to work with Williamson and Phillips she would divorce him. Another interjected that if she was a man she would pick oakum first.”321 The expression is not much in use today but “picking oakum” was one of the most common forms of hard labour in Victorian era prisons. Prisoners were given quantities of old rope, which they had to untwist into many corkscrew strands. What is truly remarkable is the continued defiance of these women who would no doubt be experiencing considerable financial hardship as their husbands had now been on strike for more than half a year. 317 “Trouble at South Clifton”, Evening News (Sydney), Monday 14 February, 1910, p.7 ibid 319 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 18 February 1910, p 14 320 ibid 321 “Clifton Trouble”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 Feb 1910, p.9 318 146 At Coledale things were also pretty interesting—if not so stridently steadfast as at nearby South Clifton (Scarborough) Colliery. POSITION AT COLEDALE. MANY OLD HANDS OUT. STRANGERS AT WORK. (FROM OUR SPECIAL REPORTER.) COLEDALE, Thursday. At Coledale the miners in a body approached the management this morning for work. Police were present, and although new arrivals for work came by train, no attempt was made to molest them. The old employees calmly looked on, holding to the belief that their case will yet come out on top. Mr. Thomas Cater, manager of the colliery, stated that the men in a body arrived at the mine, and asked for a ballot to be taken for places. They were informed that several of the places applied for had already been filled, and therefore it was too late to take a ballot. The men were further informed that under the provisions of the agreement between the Miners' Association and the owners the management now had the right to choose those required on personal application being made. As the old employees did not apply like those at other South Coast collieries on Monday last, their places had accordingly been filled by strangers. “About 160 miners are employed," continued Mr. Cater, "but as the places for 10 pairs of men are not yet ready for occupation, this reduces the total number required to 140. With the strangers and old employees who elected to go in, we now have 300 men, so that we do not anticipate any trouble in obtaining the remaining 40, as there is plenty of labour available. Why," said Mr. Cater, "a filler with no previous experience whatever went into the mine yesterday and earned 10s, and I make bold to say that any man with a few days' experience, provided he is not afraid of a little exercise, can earn without any great effort 12s a day." In support of this Mr. Cater added that he was 72 years of age, and had every confidence that if put to it he could easily average 12s a day at this class of work. The men, continued the manager, have only themselves to blame. If they had applied in the proper way on Monday last for work, it was there for them. Before the end of the week all the places would be occupied.322 In the Sydney Morning Herald report some prophetic words were recorded. Miners spoken to regarding the situation stated in their opinion they had not been given a chance. The desire of the men was to return to work in a body, but they were prevented from doing so on account of shortness of notice, and the fact that a large number of their members were away from the district. "However," added one of a small crowd gathered near the colliery works, "the last has not been heard of Coledale.”323 One of the crowd also suggested that “The action of the owners of the mine means that a lot of the old employees will have to break up their homes, and go on tramp. We are members of tho Miners' Association, and have already received letters from two lodges promising sympathy. The association, under the circumstances, must therefore help us, so there is more trouble looming ahead if something is not done to help us out of the present difficulty."324 Discontented miners on the tramp, however, were precisely the target at which the IWW often aimed its revolutionary propaganda. 322 “Position at Coledale”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 February 1910, p.10 The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 February 1910 p.9 324 ibid 323 147 How Williamson and Phillips were capable of withstanding the opprobrium that was being directed there way is very difficult to understand. But what is being demonstrated here is that even as early as 1910 the northern Illawarra coastal mining townships were a bit different to other areas on the coast. There seemed to be a majority of miners working at the South Clifton, for example, who were unwilling to listen to district union official and appeared to believe that on the job direct action and negotiation—unmediated by others—was the way to handle industrial disputes. This must surely have made the area more fertile ground for IWW propaganda during the coming years of the WW1. But, despite the long defiance of the miners and their wives, capitalist employment relations were not overthrown at South Clifton. CLIFTON-SCARBOROUGH The populace at Clifton is overjoyed at the fact that the miners have once more resumed work. When Williamson and Phillips, the two men, who were responsible for the commencement of the trouble, were proceeding to the mine on Tuesday morning to commence work they were subjected to some banter at the hands of a number of women, but these were given a little friendly advice by Inspector Pountney, with the result that when the two men came out of the mine in the afternoon they were allowed to proceed to their homes unmolested.325 But, apart form that, it looked like the strike was finally beaten “and it is anticipated that the coke ovens will be in readiness for the coke-workers to resume work next week.”326 Things were even worse in terms of victimisation for the men at Coledale. Since the commencement of work at North Bulli Colliery the daily output of clean coal has not yet reached 400 tons. About 50 miners, the majority of whom are married men, have been unable to get back to their places in the mine, and it is understood that a still further number will receive their notice after the first pay. The management are adopting strict measures, and evidently intend to put up with no nonsense. For instance, a miner who was going by train, to his work on Monday was over-carried to Scarborough through the train not stopping at Coledale. Being late, he did not present himself that day, but did so on the following morning. On being asked where he was the previous day he explained the circumstances which prevented his appearance. The explanation was not accepted, however, and he was refused his lamp.327 The District Miner’s Association were offering no support in the case of the Scarborough men – and if workers were to be treated like this at Coledale it is little wonder that “A number of miners spoken to at Coledale during the week indicated that it was the intention of the North Bulli Miners Lodge to break away from the Colliery Employees Association, and to look only after their own grievances in the future.”328 The local miners leadership and a possible majority of the miners at Scarborough and Coledale were clearly now very far apart in ideological terms. 325 “Clifton-Scarborough”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 25 Feb 1910, p.15 ibid 327 “Coledale”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 25 Feb 1910, p.15 328 ibid 326 148 The scene was being set for events largely unprecedented in Australian industrial disputation. By March 1910 “At South Clifton the men resumed work during the week alongside Williamson and Phillips, the two men who were responsible for the downing of tools here five months ago. By doing so they took the advice of the executive officers, but a sore feeling exists, and it was rumoured that the men intend to give 14 days' notice unless these two men are dismissed.”329 But it looks like this was just bluff – for while both the South Clifton Colliery proper and the South Clifton Tunnel colliery were working full time by March 4 1910 yet “about 13 policemen are still stationed at Clifton for the purpose of protecting Williamson and Phillips, but since the first day of starting work, no demonstration has been made against these men.”330 In such a tiny town that was an extraordinarily large permanent police presence. Both Scarborough and Coledale were clearly on the radar of the nascent forces engaged in political surveillance in the Australian colonies. And they were to remain so for at least another decade. News of the stand-off had spread throughout Australia - and was not very supportive of the striking miners. A writer in the Sydney press even recommended that Williamson and Phillips should receive some monetary recompense for their pluck and determination. Needless to say, that the feeling at Clifton-Scarborough is very much against this proposal but the miners were being very goodhumoured about such a prospect and one union man on Tuesday suggested that the plate should be passed round at the pay office at South Clifton on pay day if they wanted to see some fun.331 But having fun at the expense of Williamson and Philips could have surprising consequences. At the Clifton Police Court, on Thursday last, A. E. Smith, George Fenton and William Stokes were fined £2 each, with 3s 6d witnesses' expenses, for calling Williamson and Phillips 'scabs.' It appears that Williamson was passing the Clifton Hotel, and the defendants were on the verandah. They did not notice, however, that Constable Connors was but a few yards behind Williamson at the time, and so, with the assistance of Constable Dingwall, promptly arrested them. These men belonged to the permanent railway service.332 And the trio did not get off lightly for their misdemeanour. “Alfred Ernest Smith, George Fenton, and William Stokes. The men appeared at the Clifton Police Court on Wednesday, charged with using offensive language. Each pleaded guilty, and 329 The Worker (Wagga), 3 March 1910 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, Friday 4 March 1910 331 ibid 332 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 15 April 1910 p.13 330 149 was fined £2 and 3s 6d costs, or one month in Wollongong Gaol. Application for time in which to pay the fines was refused.”333 Smith was again charged at the Scarborough Police Court, in August 1911, for “obscene language” and “fined 10s, court costs 8s, one witness '6s, one 10s 4d, in default 14 days. “Alfred Smith also copped it once again for “obscene language, fined 10s, court costs 8s, one witness 6s, one 10s 4d, in default 14 days.”334 Helen Palmer would later write in her Ballad of 1891 concerning the bitter strikes of that year, “where they gaol man for striking it’s a rich man’s country” - but it’s even worse than that where they arrest a man for calling out the word “scab” without the threat of physical violence. Clearly, there is clearly no implied right of free speech in the Australian constitution and little justice in the heart of the law. The colliery villages of Clifton, Scarborough and Coledale were starting to look very much like a police state in microcosm. And it wasn’t just the scabs who were being subject to offensive language. Sometimes there was also outright war between the mine deputies who might on occasion (but not always) also be viewed as stooges of the bosses and individual miners. The difference in the punishment meted out to the respective parties may or may not be significant on this occasion- yet there does seem a qualitative difference between the offences. Mining Prosecutions. At the Scarborough Police Court on Wednesday, John Wilson, manager of the South Clifton Colliery, prosecuted a deputy, William Sykes, for breach of special rule. 187, by using insulting language in the mine to a miner named Brennan. . Defendant pleaded guilty, stating that he was provoked by Brennan, and in the heat of the moment he called him a b — — liar. Mr. Lysaght, who appeared for Mr. Wilson, stated Sykes had been discharged. Fined 10s, and costs amounting to £1 15s 8d, in default 7 days; the S.M. adding that defendant, in his position, should have set an example to the men; instead of breaking the law. Peter Brennan was then charged, on the information of Mr. Wilson, with a breach of special rule 175, in that he did an act— to wit, strike a deputy with a safety lamp-— whereby the safety of the men employed at the colliery might have been1 imperilled. Defendant pleaded guilty under great provocation, and states Sykes had called him offensive terms and otherwise insulted him. Mr. Lysaght stated that the manager desired him to emphasise the grave nature of the offence, but he was loth to ask his Worship to send defendant to gaol without the option of a fine, because of his wife and family. Fined 10s costs of court 4s 6d, witness 10s 2d professional costs 21s, in default 7 days The S.M. said that but for the great provocation received, be would most probably have sent defendant to gaol.335 Unusually, the previously mentioned George Fenton - who was so outraged by the bravado of the intransigent pair of scabs known only by their surnames “Williamson and Phillips” that he called them ‘scabs’ - is one of the few rank and file militants individuals of the time for whom we possess an image. 333 The Maitland Weekly Mercury, 16 April 1910 p.10 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 18 August 1911, p.10 335 “Mining Prosecutions.”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 8 September, 1911, p.15 334 150 As well as being a mining unionist Fenton was also a musician in the Scarborough Town band and apparently had a good voice as well.336 He is also one of the few whose life didn’t end too badly. He remained a committed unionist and was active in planning the annual May Day entertainments for many years. When Fred Lowden – the man falsely accused of both murder and IWW membership at Coledale in 1917 attended the Thirroul Excelsior Miners’ Victory Smoko after they won the May Day Banner Cup in 1937, George Fenton was there and sang the final song on the programme: “I’ll be round your way next week”. And Fred Lowden described Fenton’s performance as “certainly something out of the box”.337 Fenton stayed in the district and died in 1941. But it matters little what Fenton looked like. What counts is that this newfound independence started to, at least for a brief time, pay dividends—as in the following case of direct action producing very prompt results. On Wednesday evening the wheelers employed at South Clifton mine refused to go on duty owing to two of their number ''being'' dismissed. A general meeting of the lodge was held later on, and as a result of an interview with the manager it was arranged for the two wheelers to resume work last night, and then the matter was amicably settled.338 But then the police really started to move in and actively pursue even the most minor of offences. George Fenton from a poor quality undated photo of the Scarborough Town Band ONCE BITTEN, TWICE BITTEN: POLICEMEN CRAMPING THE COLEDALE & SCARBOROUGH (SOUTH CLIFTON) MINERS’ STYLE 336 “Victory Smoko“, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, Friday 25 June 1937, p.17 ibid 338 “Scarborough”, Illawarra Mercury, 24 Jan 191, p. 2 337 151 Some of the militants charged with various offences by the police proved to be recidivists. The aforementioned Alfred Ernest Smith, for example, was once again charged in August 1911 at the Scarborough Police Court for “obscene language,” and “fined 10s, court costs 8s, one witness '6s, one 10s 4d, in default 14 days.” 339 Smith was by now no longer a cleanskin for he (along with others) had only a little while before his charge of yelling at the scab named Williamson also had been charged with “Unlawfully trespassing on the railway line.”340 He was now a marked man – and the police seemed keen to detain him at every opportunity. Despite (or perhaps because of) the heavy police presence, these coastal colliery villages were still clearly not yet united as a haven of revolutionary rank and file unionists opposed to both conservative union leaders and police informers. By May 26 1910, for example, “Two members of the South Clifton Lodge declined to pay a levy recently imposed for the support of the Newcastle miners. A deputation was appointed to wait on the manager in connection with the matter, as a repetition of the Williamson-Phillips episode is not desired.”341 With conservatives like this among their fellow workers, militant anti-capitalist propaganda was hardly likely to completely prevail. And by the end of the year it indeed looked like the trouble for the bosses might soon be over. “CLIFTON— SCARBOROUGH The last pay at the South Clifton colliery constituted a record, considerably over £2,000 being distributed, but - judging by indications early this week it looks as though the current pay will be even greater than last.342 But, just in case, the State Government had decided that the precautionary principle was the best approach and “Mr. Alex. Johnson, of Berry, the contractor for the erection of the new police quarters at Scarborough, is making good headway with the work.”343 It was a prudent and strategic move – for that police station would be put to good use in the ensuing years. Indeed, the evidence is pretty clear that the police officers (stationed in tents) were clearly meeting with some steady resistance to their presence prior to the erection of a formal and solidly built brick police station. A certain William Morgan was charged with “behaving riotously in the bar of the Scarborough hotel, fined 10s, in default 14 days; ditto, using indecent language, fined 20s, in default 7 days; ditto, assaulting Constable Breeze whilst in the execution of his duty, fined; 40s, or 14 days.344 Although it had taken more than a year, industrial matters seem to have at last settled down, temporarily, by August 1911. This was, perhaps, an acknowledgement by the more savvy political radicals that that the police presence at Scarborough would soon 339 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 18 August 1911 p.10 “Clifton-Scarborough”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 10 Jun 1910, p.10 341 The Worker (Wagga), Thursday 26 May 1910 p.28 342 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus 18 November 1910, p.11 343 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 18 November 1910, p.11 344 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 26 May 1911, p.10 340 152 be here to stay and that a more circumspect approach to agitation might now be in order. Political activism turned suddenly quiescent – and it was decided that the police presence could be very significantly reduced. In reality, however, it was simply a case of the calm before the storm. “During the progress of the last big strike additional police were stationed at Clifton, owing to the feeling existing against the two men, Williamson and Phillips, who defied the Miners' Union by refusing to pay fines which they considered were unjustly imposed. The force of police were gradually withdrawn until only one remained, Constable Dingwall, of Kiama. Constable Dingwall (whoso duty while in Clifton appears to have consisted almost solely of escorting Williamson and Phillips to the colliery) has received instructions to return to his station on Thursday. Williamson has left the district, but Phillips is still here, and seems as determined to remain as he was in defying the Miners' Union during the strike.345 TRADE UNION MUSICAL CHAIRS Blacklisted at Scarborough and Clifton in 1910, John Curtis washed up a year later at Mount Kembla as Miner’s Lodge president346 - but not before serving (Hospital as a representative of the New Tunnel Colliery at Scarborough ) on the committee which helped on August 10, 1910, to establish Coledale Hospital.347 His activism did not stop at Mount Kembla either for, in 1912 “Mr. G[eorge]. Waite and Mr. J. Batho [a railway guard from Sydney actually named Thomas Batho348] of the I.W.W. delivered addresses at the hall at Kembla Heights on Saturday night last on anti-militarism.” John Curtis, as President of the Mount Kembla Miners' Lodge, occupied the chair. The speakers “traversed a considerable amount of ground and dealt severely with the Federal Labour Government for the adoption of the present compulsory system of military training, and the new Compulsory Arbitration Act.349 Curtis also occupied the chair when Australia’s first Labor Prime Minister, Mr J. C. Watson, visited Mount Kembla in support of the proposed Labor Daily newspaper.350 The latter was hardly the most radical of initiatives or activities but, nonetheless, it looked like a radical had been born. By November Curtis had been duly forced out of Mount Kembla colliery by the bosses - just like his predecessor as Lodge Secretary, James Russell.351 Since Russell's dismissal from the Mount Kembla Colliery, it is said, other men have been, discharged for leaving their working places before knock-off time. J. Curtis, president of the Mount Kembla miners' lodge, has since left the colliery.352 345 Illawarra Mercury, 18 August 1911, p.2 The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 June 1911 347 The names of the original 1910 Hospital committee reported in South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 23 March 1917, p.8 348 “In Memoriam “, People (Sydney), 13 Jan 1916, p.4 349 Illawarra Mercury, 26 April 1912, p.8 350 Illawarra Mercury, 14 June 1912, p.8 351 Illawarra Mercury, 8 November 1912, p.2 352 Sunday Times (Sydney), Sunday 24 November 1912 p.7 346 153 Intriguingly, the former radical miner’s leader Peter Bowling (now the elected head of the South Coast Miners) performed very poorly in trying to get James Russell reinstated in this instance. At a mass meeting in Wollongong in November 1912 Russell was called upon to explain the reason for his dismissal, and he repeated the statement which he had made “on oath before Judge Scholes, which was to the effect that he did not violate Rule 196 of the colliery by giving instructions to men that they should not carry out the manager's instructions. He told the man— Foy — that he was to work as the manager directed him until his case was considered by the miners' lodge, and the lodge would deal with the case.”353 Bowling, incredibly, suggested that he did not believe in strikes and Mr. T. Thompson (Mount Pleasant) “gave Mr. Bowling credit for so far evading a strike”.354 And as Bowling’s new-found conservatism was very clearly in evidence on this occasion, it was something that John Curtis was presumably not going to countenance for very long. Bowling’s conduct must have seemed both intolerable and very puzzling to militant workers such as John Curtis. Even the very conservative editor of the Illawarra Mercury found Bowling’s conduct surprising. Never in the whole course of his [Bowling's] life had he worked so hard to preserve the law of the country being broken as he was doing at present. At the Delegate Board meeting some unruly spirits, who realised that Russell's dismissal aimed at the very life of unionism, were for immediately downing tools, but he put the position before them and wrote out the resolution preventing a strike. He also had to face the Mount Kembla men, who had made up their minds that they would not work an hour after Russell's notice had expired. When he interviewed the officers of that lodge it took him some time before he could persuade them not to strike, and then he had to get the lodge to agree to it also. If Kembla had come out, Coalcliff would also have come out,355 Intriguingly it took the uncle of Ted Roach (future leader of the famous Dalfram Dispute which took place in 1938) to move the rather conservative motion which was passed by the meeting: “Mr. 'Roach (Coledale) proposed, “That the executive be empowered to take such stops in furtherance of our Objective as they think proper.356 Ted Roach’s uncle was much more conservative than his father. For example, the now increasingly conservative Peter Bowling called Ted’s father, Matthew Roach, “Comrade Roach"357 (perhaps a little ironically) in order to distinguish him from A. C. Willis whom many labour historians have previously (somewhat mistakenly in my view) considered a lifetime militant. The intransigence of Ted Roach’s father, Matthew (and also his defiance of even the once legendary militant Peter Bowling) was clearly demonstrated in 1912 when the following took place. Trouble occurred at Coledale on Wednesday on account of a miner named Roach refusing to go on wheeling when requested to do so by the management. Roach had previously wheeled on quite 353 Illawarra Mercury, 26 November 1912, p.2 ibid 355 ibid 356 ibid 357 “Bowling v. Willis”, Illawarra Mercury, 8 August 1913, p.2 354 154 a number of occasions, but on this occasion he refused to do so. As a result of Roach's decision not to wheel, the back shift - numbering about 30 - were thrown idle on Wednesday. On Thursday Roach's lamp was stopped because he again refused to go on wheeling. The back shift also refused to go in, thus being thrown idle. Mr. Peter Bowling was in attendance at a meeting on Wednesday afternoon, but no settlement was arrived at.358 Edward C. (Ted) Roach, (son of Matthew and Blanche) was, of course, eventually to become the only man up until that time in Australia to lead a largely successful strike over a purely political - rather than an economic - issue. He had been born at Coledale in late 1909, at the height of the struggle that would see Peter Bowling gaoled. And the internationalism Roach possibly learned at the feet of the Wobbly militants in Coledale seems to have contributed to his later much less than insular political outlook. And this wider view of the world may well have played a small role in contributing to his convincing the wharfies to refuse to load the pig-iron which was heading for Japan on to the ship named the ‘Dalfram’ in 1938 - and also to later tie-up Dutch ships in Australian ports while the Indonesians were fighting for their independence. And despite the surprising mildness of Ted Roach’s uncle’s 1912 motion, the frustration with conservative responses to the tyranny of the employers and the increasing timidity of their union and political leaders was clearly building up into the kind of pressure cooker which would eventually explode in the northern Illawarra colliery townships during WW1. Sadly, Ted Roach would in later life learn what it is to be done-in by union and political leaders far more conservative than himself. But as the years drifted towards WW1 things remained much unchanged industrially in the little colliery coastal colliery villages of North Bulli (Coledale) and Scarborough (South Clifton). COLEDALE There has been no work at the North Bulli Colliery since Thursday of last week, and if all one hears be true, the outlook for a resumption of operations is by no means bright. The hearing of the charges against the Surface Hands for absenting themselves from work has been in progress at the Bulli Court, and up till Wednesday, at least two of the defendants had acceded to 'take it out,' in lieu of paying the fine. As the result of this action, there will be many whose lot during the coming festive season, will not be as bright as it might be, and the pity of it all is that the hatchet cannot be buried, and an amicable settlement speedily brought about.359 And things were clearly going to get a whole lot worse. PART FIVE A REBEL COMMUNITY IN REVOLT THE YEAR AUSTRALIA CHANGED Despite all the auguries to the contrary, the new year of 1915 opened brightly enough. 358 359 “Illawarra Miners,” Illawarra Mercury, 14 March, 1913, p.2 South Coast Times and Wollongong, 18 December 1914 p.16 155 Judging by the number of new cottages raising their heads in and around Coledale, The building trade has not been materially affected by the war. The new cottage hospital is also being pushed on toward completion. It is a very fine structure indeed.360 But it was also said “the residents of Coledale are very wrath at the action of some young men who appear to be able to find no other place to bathe than in the town water supply dam, situated on Coledale Heights. The local newspaper went on to add that “such behaviour as this is filthy in the extreme, and it is hoped that those responsible for it will speedily be made an example of by the authorities.”361 But by February things were back to normal and, in terms of radicalism, the Coledale men again seemed to be far in advance of other more southerly Illawarra collieries. Oddly, however, the workers were even showing the sort of community spirit even the capitalist press could praise. A meeting was held here on Satur day night to discuss the question of constructing a swimming pool in the rocks on the beach, Mr. Miller, manager of the North Bulli mine [at Coledale], promised to supply sufficient powder for blasting operations; Mr Jones is to supply the necessary tools, while the young men of the town have agreed to form a working bee to carry out the work. A swimming pool is urgently needed, and the workers are to be congratulated on the step they are about to take.362 But, despite the congratulations, by February things were back to normal and in terms of rank and file radicalism, Once again the Coledale men found themselves far in advance of other more southerly Illawarra collieries. COLEDALE North Bulli Colliery was idle last Tuesday. The miners turned up to work, but decided to have a meeting to discuss the minutes of the recent delegate meeting. The men, it is stated, were given to understand by some person that after the meeting they would be allowed to make a start, but it appears they had been misinformed, with the result that after the business had been transacted they all went home. One of the matters that is causing some discussion, is the recent election of Mr. Jas. Russell as treasurer of the Illawarra Colliery Employees' Association. It is said that some of those who voted for Mr. Jas. Russell, of Balgownie, and who until recently held the position of secretary of the North Bulli Miners' Lodge, were under the impression that they were giving their vote to Mr. Jas. Russell, of Thirroul, and late of Mount Kembla. This has led to an explanation being required, and a number of the men go so far as to want the ballot taken over again.363 The Coledale miner’s approved of the more radical James Russell of Thirroul, of course, but at least this dispute gave the miner’s plenty of time to get on with completion of the swimming pool. The men folk at Coledale are making good progress with the work of constructing a swimming pool. Last week-end about forty men put in an appearance and gave their services free, while on Tuesday— the mine being idle— another gang of men did excellent work.”364 360 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 22 January 1915, p.20 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus,, 29 January 1915 p.17 362 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 5 February 1915 p.15 363 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 12 February 1915, p.15 364 ibid. 361 156 A few people in Coledale may also have been doing something else for free. IWW counterfeiting may actually have been in progress in Coledale in 1915 (earlier than anywhere else in Australia) as Richard Dennis deposed he was a labourer residing in Coledale and had “unknowingly” offered a ”spurious sovereign” in payment for some pies. He had been drinking and playing two up that afternoon he said. It is possible that this was just an excuse, Alternatively, however Mr Dennis might have just been a mug with some metalwork skills. The judge, at least, claimed he was “sympathetic” although clearly suspicious and said he “would pass a light sentence”: “two months in Long Bay penitentiary.”365 And even when it came to the call for a new ballot in relation to the election of James Russell as Illawarra Miners’ Treasurer it was only the Coledale men who were in favour. There is then, perhaps, little wonder in the fact that, at that annual Church of England Sunday school concert, “Miss Lucy Roach (yes, Ted Roach’s sister) did a recitation entitled “Civil War”. It could hardly have been a more prophetic title. THERE IS SUCH A THING AS SOCIETY (IN COLEDALE AT LEAST) Troubles were also bubbling along in the usual vaguely rebellious manner at nearby Scarborough. A stoppage occurred at South Clifton on Thursday, in consequence of something which befell two of the employees. A meeting was to be held today.366 The South Clifton Colliery and the Scarborough Tunnel Mine are not working too well as a result of a falling off in trade. The former only worked four days last week, while the latter only got in three days. There will only be about seven days at each colliery for the pay.367 In contrast, for all intents and purposes (at least according to the local press), things now appeared to be going swimmingly at Coledale. At the North Bulli mine the working conditions are better than at most other collieries in the district— the average being about nine days each fortnight. The coke ovens here are being kept going constantly and the output is being despatched as fast as it can be turned put. The shortage of hoppers, however, is occasionally responsible for some delay.368 Perhaps the consistent activism of the Coledale men had actually started to pay off if it was indeed true that conditions were “better than at most other collieries in the district.” The progress of the war was clearly not hindering the demand for coal and some new clubs and organisation were popping up in town. A meeting of the Illawarra Cottage Hospital Committee, for example, was held and it was decided to arrange for a ball and also a banquet to celebrate the official opening of the new hospital building. 365 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 19 February 1915, p.18 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 5 March 1915 p.13 367 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 5 March 1915 p.6 368 ibid 366 157 The old Coledale Progress Association, having been out of action for some considerable time past, the residents of Coledale met on Friday evening last, with a view to forming another association. The attendance numbered about 30 and much enthusiasm prevailed. After discussion, it was unanimously deeded to form a new Progress Association, and a number of matters requiring attention were discussed. The following office-bearers were appointed: — President, Mr. Miller (manager North. Bulli Colliery); vice-presidents Messrs C. Tuckerman, J. Johnson, and C. Brock; secretary, Mr. Thomas Stanley; treasurer, Mr. R. Grills. One of the first matters to be undertaken will be the provision of better railway siding facilities.369 Unsurprisingly, the most pressing matter on their agenda was clearly going to benefit the coal owners. So clearly this re-formed Progress Association was less of a community-minded body and more a rather firmly pro-business organisation. How progressive or otherwise, might have been “The local Cinderella Club” and the “socials” it held in the Coledale Hall” is a little harder to assess. So, too, it is difficult to determine the precise political allegiances of “The members of Coledale Pigeon Homing Society”.370 To add to this also fairly extraordinary social mix were the navvies working on the duplication of the railway line who had established their camp at Scarborough. It was only in late March 1915 that some of their number moved further south to erect their tents at Thirroul while at the same time “20 lads who had previously enlisted for the front, and who are at present in training at the Liverpool camp, were entertained at a farewell social in the Scarborough Palace Hall.”371 Militant miners, itinerant navvies, a Conservative Progress Association, timid Masonic Lodge members, young men cheerfully enlisting for an imperialist war, a new fangled movie theatre, a hospital built by and for miners and their families, shopkeepers dependant on the income of a mining community, a picturesque ocean rock pool constructed by striking miners, IWW propagandists and black-listed miners from near and far – this amounted to quite a heady social mix. And when you add drunks, aspirational Labor Party hacks, two-up school enthusiasts, rabid anti-conscriptionists, police informers, a fracturing political Labor Party, great fishing off Sharkey’s beach at Coledale, constant stoppages at the three local collieries and a bloody-minded very conservative political coalition soon to take State and Federal power - it all amounts to a really quite extraordinary little society—even without mentioning the paradox of extended militant mining families with the surname Roach somehow managing to countenance celebrating very conservative Methodist family weddings, attending patriotic balls and even luke-warmly supporting social fundraisers for “our boy’s at the front.” It’s not really much of an exaggeration to say that this was already probably a very heady and explosive social mix – even without the need for someone or something to set the fuse to what was about to become a genuine social powder keg. 369 Coledale”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 5 March 1915,p.6 ibid 371 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, Friday 19 March 1915 370 158 Those few IWW activists resident in Coledale might have already held the view that the working class and the employing class have nothing in common—but even trying to find the common element that could bind a community as diverse as this one in northern Illawarra was possibly always going to be a bit of an ask. And the powers that be would soon come to regret the fact that they had withdrawn some of the inordinately strong police presence they had previously established in early 1910 and only withdrew in August 1911. IN BOOB FOR TAKING A DAY OFF WORK So, apart from the handful of resident IWW militants, there were clearly still plenty of conservatives in the towns of Coledale and Scarborough. Nonetheless, the really big issue remained an industrial one. And it was one about which there was plenty to seriously protest about. As a check weighman at the nearby Coalcliff mine’s expressed it at a mass meeting at the Star Stadium in Wollongong there was something clearly awry with the way matters of industrial relations were being handled by the courts: “Mr James Calladine (Coalcliff), proposed the first motion, which was one protesting against members of the I. C. E. A. (Illawarra Collieries Employees Association) having been gaoled for absenting themselves from work for one day.” To even a fairly rabid conservative Australian this must have appeared extraordinarily tyrannical and clearly demonstrated that the Masters and Servants Act was still fully operative in NSW as late as 1915 – and working by means of the “special rules” which were actually separate to the formal Industrial Arbitration Act itself. Men at the adjoining mines of Clifton, Scarborough and Coledale had also been gaoled—as one of the rank and file miners and part time boxers from Coledale explained. Mr. Standen (Coledale), said they had been in the same position there that Coalcliff was in that day, with the exception that they had no one in gaol today, because the last of the men got out on Saturday. The little game, as he saw it, was that they were taking one at a time and when these paid the fine they took someone else. They were keeping the employees out of work, because, he took it, no one would work while their fellow men were in gaol unless they could get these cases settled and get to work in reason again. The trouble had been with the surface hands, who had been asking for better conditions. The Coledale men in August decided to stop work in protest because the surface hands had no chance of getting their case before the Board. It was decided they should go to work on the following Monday morning, but they did not. The first case from Coledale was dismissed; Mr. Broomfield was prosecuting, but because they could not get a conviction, they brought Mr. Beeby down. The first one fined had four weeks to pay in, but he did not pay; the next had no time to pay at all. The manager had agreed to withhold all the other charges; they got the other men out of gaol, and the colliery resumed work. The management sent a letter a few weeks ago to say they thought the employees should pay the cost of the summonses they had withdrawn. He did not mind telling them they were not going to do it. 372 One could hardly hope for more pleasing resistance in the face of such ridiculousness. Recently emigrated Welsh-born miner and Methodist lay-preacher William (Billy) Davies (1883-1956— who would in 1917 replace the absolutely hopeless J. B. Nicholson as the local member of the NSW Legislative Assembly— was in 1915 sounding a lot more radical than he would later become. Unsurprisingly, when soon to 372 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 19 March 1915 159 be safely ensconced on the leather cushioned seats of parliament, Davies (the former Scarborough colliery worker) went on to spend the rest of his days representing the Illawarra in both State and Federal parliaments for a total of 40 years until his death in 1956. Mr. W. Davies (Scarborough) favoured a motion expressive of emphatic protest against the suspension by Judge Heydon of the provisions of 'the I.A. Act for the increasing of wages' boards. Also that the Government be called upon to redeem its promise to this Association to amend the law so that such cases as that of J. Russell could not occur or recent cases in which members had been called on to pay penalties or go to gaol. Judge Heydon has decreed that wages could not be increased but he did not say that profits could not be increased, and they condemned him for ruling so. Wages must remain the same while prices of commodities went soaring up they could not get increases to follow them. The other part of the motion calling for doing away with the penal clauses of the Act; that would do away with anyone going to gaol. They contended that the provision was invidious because, while men could be sent to gaol they could not gaol an employer.373 Along with the obvious injustice of the gaol sentences and fines, it was also the rapid inflation of the price of commodities mentioned here by Davies that clearly added even more combustible fuel to the considerable discontentment already felt by the miners and their families in the northern Illawarra colliery villages. These were just two additional factors which made IWW propaganda sound sometimes highly reasonable to even the most innately conservative mine labourers. The delicious irony, however, was that Davies received most applause for remarks which went to the heart of what more radical working class individuals were saying about how hopeless the Labor Party (which he would soon go on to represent) was at protecting the interests of workers. It should not be necessary for them to have to protest to Labor Government, but, unfortunately, it was. They had met that morning to protest against a so-called Labor Government, which still put into prison men of their own class. When we looked into history, they found that every class which had held the reins of government had legislated in their own interest. Now we had a Labor Government which would not carry out the mandate of the workers. Let them take a leaf out of their predecessors' book and legislate in the interests of their own class! Yet the applause had hardly stopped ringing in his ears when, in the very same year, Davies became a member of the very Labor Party still keen to compromise and legislate against working class interests whenever it could get away with it. Whether or not Davies himself swallowed the delusion that the Labor Party was made up only of former members of the working class fighting to free their fellow workers from wage slavery is hard to know for sure – even though the sophistry of which lay preachers are sometimes capable should not, perhaps, be underestimated.374 And so it goes. During his 1917 election campaign Davies was forced to deny allegations made in two pamphlets circulating locally that he was a supporter of the IWW375 --and it is obviously rather revealing of just how remarkably conservative some sections of the Illawarra Labor Party already were that they could not see the hilarity of accusing Billy Davies of being a member of IWW. 373 “Aggregate Miners' Meeting”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 19 March 1915, p.4 ibid 375 “Mr Davies and the IWW”, Illawarra Mercury, 23 Mar 1917, p.2 374 160 By 1924, Davies had become pretty much the sworn enemy of the more radical Coledale miners who found slightly more appeal in the “industrial section of the Labor Movement” which still harboured some sly hankerings after the fading dream of the IWW notion of the ‘One Big Union’. The District Assembly Movement is being taken up enthusiastically by the industrialists of the South Coast. In spite of the efforts of Labor Member Davies to sabotage the activities of the Assembly, the movement bids fair to be a great success, and will prove of great importance to the industrial and political movement of the South Coast. The dissatisfaction arising out of the present undemocratic representation upon A.L.P. conference finds expression upon the Assembly, and, judging from the opinions expressed, the industrial section of the Labor Movement will demand with no uncertain voice the alteration of the A.L.P. rules governing representation.376 A BLACK-LISTED RADICAL TURNS UP IN TOWN WITH HIS WIFE AND KIDS A man more likely to be a sometime Coledale member of IWW was Mr. Joseph Charlton who ran against Davies and Nicholson at the 1917 election, representing the Socialist Labour party. Joseph Charlton had previously unsuccessfully run for the same party in the Newcastle based NSW seat of Waratah in 1913.377 “Prior to that he had 16 years' experience in New Zealand, at Blackall on the West coast” where he certainly would have encountered Wobbly ideas.378 Charlton had come to Coledale after being prevented form working at Maitland by both the bosses and his workmates – for making a principled stand against paying a “Patriotic levy” and thereby earning the wrath of his fellow miners. Cessnock Miners' Lodge Sued MINER'S REFUSAL TO PAY His Honor Judge Fitzhardinge, who presided over the Maitland District Court held last week at East Maitland Courthouse, has forwarded to the Registrar (Mr. W, B. Geddes), his reserved judgment in the case in which Joseph Charlton, formerly of Cessnock, now of Coledale, miner, brought an action against the Cessnock Miners' Lodge, and Raymond Lord, president, Herbert Davies, secretary, Edward Whiteford, treasurer, and John Platt, James Gray, Jas. Laing, Robert B. Laing, Robert Pate, William Livingstone, David McNeil, and Edward Rouse, members of the committee of the Cessnock Miners' Lodge, claiming £100 damages in consequence of his being deprived of work in the Cessnock district on account of his objecting to pay a patriotic levy of 6d a. fortnight. Mr. D. R. Abigail appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. E. R. Watt (instructed by Mr. J. D. Reid, of Messrs. Reid and Reid), Newcastle, for the defendants. His Honor's judgment is as follows: Plaintiff sued to recover damages of £100 from the defendants, who he alleged had conspired to induce and did induce the Caledonian Collieries Ltd. (Aberdare Extended Coalmine), to cease to have him working in their mine. Some special damage was also alleged. The plaintiff gave and called evidence in support of his claim; his pay was £10 to £11 per fortnight. The main defence raised was that defendants were justified in declining to work with the plaintiff, and they were also justified in warning the manager of the Aberdare Extended colliery that they so declined. In support of that 376 The Workers' Weekly (Sydney), 20 June 1924 p.4 The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 October 1913, p.14 378 Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, 8 September 1911, p.5 377 161 defence it was admitted in cross examination by the plaintiff, that when the present war was started he was an active member of the I.W.W. (since resigned), that he had moved in the lodge a resolution framed in extravagant and bombastic terms condemnatory of the workers of Australia taking any part in the war, which he characterised as a capitalistic war, engineered by bloated parasites for the sake of dividing the workers. Plaintiff also admitted that when his fellow workers (about 400) at the Cessnock mine almost unanimously resolved to strike a levy of threepence per week for patriotic purposes (to assist the dependents of those miners whoso bread winners had enlisted and were on active service), he declined on principle to pay the levy, asserting, inter alia, that he was a socialist and opposed to all wars. Evidence, was given, contradicted by the plaintiff that, he had on many occasions given utterance to disloyal and pro-German sentiments; in my opinion, the defendants were, under the circumstances, justified in declining to work with the plaintiff, as he declined to pay the levy to patriotic purposes, and in warning the management of their intention. A verdict for the defendants was accordingly given.379 Charlton, his wife and also their children were thus deprived of an income in the Cessnock district and so ended up at Coledale and Scarborough. Charlton had no burning desire to be living in the northern Illawarra but word had obviously got out that this was one of the few places where the rank and file would ensure blacklisted radicals had at least a bit of a chance of getting a chance to dig coal. Charlton’s misfortune appears to have been that the “Aberdare Miners' Lodge” was a particularly conservative bunch who, paradoxically, were willing (like the IWW) to take their own rank and file action and defy their own union when necessary. MINERS AND A PATRIOTIC LEVY. ACTION AGAINST A MEMBER. A West Maitland message in the ''Evening News" says: "The Aberdare miners' ledge has rejected the recommendation of the Colliery Employees' Federation that Joseph Charlton should be reinstated as a member of the lodge. In March, Charlton refused to pay levies for soldiers' presentations or for the patriotic fund, on the ground that he was opposed to the destruction of human life. The miners refused to work with him, and he had to leave the pit. In August he sued the officers of the lodge in the Maitland District Court for £100 damages, and lost the case. During the bearing he admitted that he had left the I.W.W. two years previously; he had nothing to do with it since.380 But even publicly claiming to have quit the IWW did Charlton no good. He ended up “blacklisted at every other colliery there. He and his wife and family were thus “starved out of the district.”381 Yet it was blacklisted men with an axe to grind like Charlton and temporarily living in the northern Illawarra colliery townships who, once membership of the IWW was outlawed by the Federal Government, may have been precisely the kind of people best suited to challenge the penal clauses being used to effect the gaoling of northern Illawarra miners. And as early as July 1914 Charlton had perfectly framed the problem with the Australian parliamentary system when his views were reported in an article entitled “The Class War and a Leaderless Army on the Coalfield.” 379 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 15 September 1916, p.17 “Miners and a Patriotic Levy”, Barrier Miner (Broken Hill) 11 January 1917, p.2 381 People (Sydney), 5 September 1918, p.2 380 162 On Saturday night…an open air meeting was addressed by Joseph Charlton, who referred to the fact that the law that the Minister for Labor, Mr. Estell, was now threatening to enforce against the striking miners was the outcome of the miners putting in Parliamentary representatives pledged to support Compulsory Arbitration with penal provisions for striking, etc.”382 Back then, before he joined up with the less radical Socialist Labour Party, Charlton was even willing to express the view of a genuine Wobbly internationalist. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. I.W.W. AND THE WAR Sir, - At a meeting of the Industrial Workers of the World Club, Cessnock, I was instructed to ask you to publish tho following resolution, carried by them: "That we, the members of the Cessnock section of the I.WW., do emphatically protest against and deplore, the notions of various craft unions in regard to their attitude to certain of their numbers by demanding their dismissal from their employment, because they happen (unfortunately for themselves in the present crisis) to be of a nationality whose capitalistic rulers are at war with the capitalistic rulers of British, French; and Russian Empires, whilst the workers of the said countries have no quarrel with one another, but rather need to stand by one another, to protect themselves from further encroachments of their economic condition, by their master class, the international capitalist class." I am ect., JOSEPH CHARLTON Secretary, I.W.W.383 Better still, Charlton’s anti-conscriptionist credentials were also impeccable – in that even before the conscription referendums he had refused to register under the compulsory regulations of the Defence Act: At the West Wallsend Police Court …Captain Anderson, area officer, proceeded against Joseph Charlton and 22 others …”.384 Each was “committed to the custody of the prescribed authority for terms ranging from 7 days to 20 days, and each was ordered to pay 3s costs”. Incredibly, so vociferously enforced were the Defence Act regulations at Wallsend that “In the Children's Court sixteen similar cases were dealt with, and-in each instance the defendant was ordered .to make up the required drills, and was handed over to the custody of the prescribed authorities accordingly.”385 It would appear a pretty clear measure of just how extensive the war hysteria of the time really was if even kids were being harassed. But it’s all a question of priorities. While children in schoolyards were being forced to do marching practice with pieces of wood on their shoulders, in a fashion supposedly meant to simulate the experience of military drill, the owners of North Bulli Colliery at Coledale had still not yet been willing to accede to repeated requests to provide bath accommodation for the miners after they finished their shift.386 382 People (Sydney), 23 July 1914 p.2 Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, 19 January 1915, p.6 384 Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate 6 August 1915 p.3 385 ibid 386 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 13 August 1915, p.13. Things were so bad in other Illawarra mines that, as a Mount Kembla miner, Fred Kirkwood, recalled when he started work in 1923: “There was no bathrooms and toilets around the place, there was no first aid room, no lunchrooms.” (Moore et al, At the Coalface – The human face of coal miners and their communities: An oral history of the early days, Construction Forestry Mining & Energy Union, Sydney,1998, p.24) 383 163 AN XMAS MARRIAGE & THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL LIFE OF A MILITANT METHODIST FAMILY WITH THE SURNAME ROACH Even revolutionaries and lukewarm IWW sympathisers sometimes have children who wish to get married in churches. Or so would seem to be the case at Coledale. Such celebrations, however, were only to be an all too brief seasonal and festive break from the usual round of industrial disputation and class warfare for the Roach family in the northern Illawarra coal villages. Ted Roach once told me he learned his politics at the sparse kitchen table of his Coledale home. Ted’s Dad, Matthew Roach, had been born in 1885. Matt was the eldest son of John and Mary Roach and his birth was registered at Waterloo in Sydney. At a meeting with Ted in Wollongong he regaled me with stories about how his Dad was almost always fulminating over the latest strike and the perfidies of the bosses. Often, Ted claimed, his Dad’s lectures had to take the place of the food that wasn’t on the Roach family’s breakfast table.387 And yet, somehow, some little money had to be found when a daughter wished to be married. And so it was that the family highlight of the year 1915 was the celebration of the marriage of one of the many members of Coledale’s fairly extensive Roach clan. On December 11, at the Methodist Church, Coledale, by Mr. D. Gemmell, pastor, the marriage was solemnised of Blanch [birth registered at Wollongong as “Blanche F. Roach], daughter of and Mrs. John Roach Coledale, with Mr. John Smith. The bride was given away by her brother, Mr. Mat Roach [Ted Roach’s Dad]. Her dress was of white embossed voile; veil of embossed tulle, with chaplet of orange blossoms. She carried a bouquet of roses, white carnations and tuber roses, and wore a gold brooch the gift of the bridegroom. The bridesmaid, Miss Lucy Roach, was dressed in white silk; she also carted a bouquet of tuber roses and carnations, and wore, as a gift of the bridegroom, a gold brooch. Trainbearers were Miss Dulcie Dixon dressed in sparkled voile and Master Reg Tuckerman in maroon plush and white shoes; gifts of the bridegroom to these were, respectively, a handkerchief sash, and a silver pencil case. Mr Walter Roach [brother of Blanche and Matthew - born 1896 registered at Helensburgh] was best man. Mr. Haselhurst presided at the organ, playing The Wedding March. The wedding breakfast was partaken of at Mrs Price’s residence where about sixty guests sat down. The usual toasts were honoured.388 The extended Roach family was a big one. John and Mary Roach had nine kids. The eldest was Matt (Ted Roach’s father) born in 1885 and the youngest was Lucy M. Roach born in 1899. They had arrived in Northern Illawarra from Sydney by the year 1894. Matt Roach married Blanche Kelly (registered at Wollongong) in 1905. He was then 20 years old. The couple’s first son – named after his father – was born in 1907 and 387 388 Ted Roach, personal conversation, Master Builders Club, Wollongong, February 25, 1996 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 24 December 1915, p 10. Blanche was 17 years old. 164 the famous Ted Roach himself was the third child born in 1909. By 1913 there were six sons—and then came the girls. Times were clearly very tough for such a big family in the exceedingly intermittent work environment of the mining townships of Coledale and Scarborough. And it looks like some members of the Roach clan took to stealing to make up for what they did not have. Ted Roach’s uncle, Walter, had been born in 1896 (registered at Helensburgh). At age 16 had got done twice for breaking and entering and stealing. At the Police Court yesterday, James Fairlie (20 years), James Strong (18), Walter Roach (16) and Donald M'Combie were charged that on the 16th, inst., at Coledale, they did break and enter the shop of Rachel Bradley and steal five pine apples, one box of chocolates, and four cakes of toffee; also that they did break and enter the shop of Edward Redman and steal £1 3s 4d, 64 packets of cigarettes, four packets Ceylon tobacco, and 12 boxes of matches.389 Whether this was out of desperate privation—or simply youthful bravado— is hard to know. What does seem more clear, however, is that not all members of the family were fiery radicals – although Ted Roach’s father, Matt, probably was much more radical than most. There is no record in surviving police files, however, that Matt was either a member of the IWW or a subscriber to Direct Action. Nonetheless, his son Ted’s future industrial and political track road is much more certain. Yet, despite eventually becoming a member of the Communist Party of Australia. it is unlikely that Ted Roach – who would go on to become leader of the famous Dalfram Dispute at Port Kembla in 1938 - was ever fully committed (intellectually at least) to all the policies of that surprisingly conservative left wing organisation. Suzanne Roach (Ted’s daughter) explains that, despite some reservations, her father nonetheless gave himself “body and soul” to the cause of communism. Reflecting on her father’s values, Suzanne Roach says he was a “determined man”—which, at least on the impression I formed after myself meeting Ted, is quite an understatement. Suzanne says that it wasn’t communism so much that drove her father but the things he saw and the treatment of people that he witnessed. Ted, she suggests, simply “believed that there were steps that could be taken to make sure that it was possible for everybody to take their own steps to improve their lives. That couldn’t happen in those days. They had no steps to take because there was no opportunity to take those steps. Once he saw the inequities, he worked it out” and took on what he thought he could.390 Before 1936, when the 25-year-old Ted Roach returned to Wollongong, he had developed what Les Louise haltingly (but very astutely) terms “a hatred, not hatred – a sort of hatred. Hatred of a system that imposed suffering.” In short, a hatred of capitalism. 389 “Alleged Burglary at Coledale”, Illawarra Mercury, 23 January 1912, p.2 See Suzanne Roach interviewed in Sandra Pires, The Dalfram Dispute 1938: Pig Iron Bob, Why Documentaries, DVD, 2015 390 165 Les Louise explains that there were seven children in Matthew and Blanche Roach’s family at Coledale and that “the boys left home during the depression to ensure there was a enough food for the girls.” Louise argues that it was the "massive unemployment, suffering of ordinary people, evictions" and "brutality of police” that put “steel into the spines” of people like Ted Roach. He argues that it is such experiences which develop “the kind of personality that is formed” and that, at least “for politically active people”, the experience of the Great Depression of the 1930s also "gave them a broader perspective" on life and “an international perspective on the working class.”391 When he left Coledale and went off and humped his bluey through Queensland during the depression, Ted Roach seems to have taken with him from Illawarra’s northern colliery townships a little something of the essence of that independent analytic Wobbly spirit which may have been imbibed both at his father’s table and in the town of Coledale itself. That independence would later cause Roach problems with the more conservative Communist leadership of the Wharfies in the person of individuals like the muchrevered Big Jim Healy. And as Greg Mallory explains, that same independence manifested itself very soon after Roach gained the leadership of the Port Kembla wharfies in the late 1930s. The threat of the implementation of the Transport Workers’ Act (known to working people as the ‘Dog-Collar Act’) discouraged the WWF from taking more militant action. This Act stipulated that only licensed wharfies could be employed in particular ports specified by the Government. If a licence was taken out and wharfies did not comply with the licensing provisions (which stipulated that all lawful orders had to be carried out), then the licence could be revoked. Thus, if wharfies took out licences, they would sign away their right to strike. Roach was of the view that because of the Act’s draconian provisions, the FCOM [Waterside Workers Federal Committee of Management] was intent on discouraging local branches from staying out over this issue. Indeed, Roach maintained that FCOM actually ordered local branches back to work because each time they (the Federation) made a move – the Dog-Collar Act would hunt ‘em back to work, directed by Jim Healy and the Federal Committee of Management.7 However, Roach was determined to handle the political situation from a local perspective and was not prepared to be dictated to by an ‘outside’ body. He and his fellow branch members were thus intent on pursuing local action through local decision making.”392 Such defiance of the conservative trade union leadership wing of the Communist Party would become part of the impressively scary (and sometimes even somewhat physically menacing) independence of mind Ted Roach could occasionally display – something that rather uncomfortably reminded me of my own wharf-labouring father. This, however, was all in the future and the year 1916 began in the usual way at Coledale. 391 ibid Greg Mallory, The 1938 Dalfram Pig-iron Dispute and Wharfies Leader, Ted Roach, The Hummer Vol. 3, No. 2 – Winter 1999, accessed 28th April 2016 at http://asslh.org.au/hummer/vol-3-no2/dalfram-pig-iron/ 392 166 COLEDALE At the North Bulli Cokeworks last week trouble occurred in connection with the appointment of a platform foreman. The men objected to the person selected, and for a time it looked as though there would be another stoppage on top of the one which had only just been settled. An interview with the management, however, had the effect of a settlement being arrived at. Following upon this came the stoppage of the miners, and on Tuesday it looked as though the employees of the cokeworks were doomed to experience another spell of idleness. During the week a big percentage of the miners here have been trying their luck at fishing from off the beach, and also in boats. Some very good hauls were reported.393 Things were no better at Scarborough. Apart from the progress of the war, the only topic of conversation at this end of the district during the week has been the stoppage of collieries. Even some of the miners were heard to remark that if they could get a job at something else they would quit mining forever.394 As a result of the strike, business at this end of the district is practically at a standstill. Those who are fortunate enough to obtain credit are said to be living pretty high, while those who have the ready money are using it sparingly.395 Some years had now passed since there had been a slight respite from this sort of daily industrial tedium and financial privation when the money had been found to hold that very big Roach family wedding at Coledale. And back then the extended Roach clan had lined up on December 28, 1911 to watch the matrimonial knot being tied in— for this financially-challenged family at least— in an unexpectedly lavish way. It was all reported in fulsome detail in the January 6, 1911 edition of the South Coast Times—including the delightful detail that the future revolutionary (then just a barely four year old little boy named “Master E. Roach”) presented his aunt with a “silver mounted pickle jar” as a wedding present. The Methodist Church, Coledale, was on Wednesday, 28th December the scene of a very impressive wedding, when. Miss Jane Roach, eldest daughter, of Mr and Mrs. J. Roach, was married to Mr. David Atkinson, of the Richmond river. Long before the hour named for the ceremony the church was crowded with guests. The decorations were of the simplest; ferns, palms adorned the sanctuary, and wreaths of rich hue and white blossom hung in the arch where 'the bridal party knelt. The bride, who was given away by her father, wore a graceful gown of softest white trimmed with lace, her long veil which was effectively arranged ‘neath a half -wreath of 'orange blossom was filmy lace. Misses Blanche, Alice and Lucy Roach and two tiny maidens, the Misses Mabel and Rita Osborne were bridesmaids. The Misses Roach were dressed all alike, petrol blue ninon de soire. The first named bridesmaids carried bouquets of flowers, the others carried crooks mounted with pink and white flowers— and bright colored ribbons. Mr. Charles Roach was best man. The Rev. Mr. Bowes, performed the ceremony; while the register was being signed an appropriate hymn was played and, as the bridal party left the church the 'wedding march' was played, and the usual shower of confetti, rice, and flowers, etc, were directed at the bride and bridegroom. In the evening about 100 guests sat down to an excellent breakfast provided by Mr Bray, of Georgestreet, Sydney. After the usual toasts had been proposed and responded to the tables cleared and dancing was carried on till 11 p.m. The bride and bridegroom left by 9.10 p.m. train for Katoomba, where they will spend their honeymoon. Much thanks was bestowed upon Mr. and Mrs. Cater and family for the kind assistance they rendered. 393 “Coledale”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 7 January 1916, p.16 “Scarborough-Clifton”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 7 January 1916, p.13 395 “Scarborough-Clifton”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 14 January 1916, p.5 394 167 The following presents were sent to the bridal party as tokens of the high esteem which they were held in: Miss. Jennie Cater, set of jugs; Mr. Duncan, mat, and household linen; Mr and Mrs F. Roach, silver Cruet stand; Mr. and Mrs. Hall, set of curtains; Mr and Mrs Hunter, set of sunshine; Mr and Mrs Kemp, set of carvers; Mr and Mrs. C. Graham, butter dish; Mr. and W. C. Elliot, pair plaques; Mr. and Mrs. Meredith, set of salad bowls; Mr. and Mrs. J Atkinson, lamp; Mr and Mrs J Smith, cheese and salad bowls; Mr and Mrs G Roach, pair of vases, Mr and Mrs Tuckerman, set of carvers; Miss Olive Austin set of sunshine cake dishes; Mr R McCombie, pair of vases, Mr and Mrs Mr Roach, pair of vases and crached mats, Mr and Mrs J Bird, silver photos frame; Mrs and Miss Hinchey, pair of Dresden vases, and pin cushion; Mr and Mrs H. cater, set carvers, and pair fruit stands; Mr and Mrs A Moss, set tumblers ; Mr. Wigglesworth, silver mounted jam jar; Mr. Riley, flower stand; Miss Holland, set of silver teaspoons; Mr. and Mrs. E Roach, pair of oil paintings; Mr. and Mrs. Cater, silver jam dishes; Mr and Mrs. J Ford, butter and sugar bowls ; Mr. Jack Cater, set of carvers; Mr. W Webb, set jam dishes; Mr. J W Atkinson, pair ornaments; Mrs. Horsely, pair salt cellars; Mrs. Bell, cut glass salad bowl; Master A Roach pair plaques, hand painted Mr. A Rogan, set of wine glasses; Mr. C Roach, tea set; Mr. B Court, glass honey jar; Mrs. and Miss J Hamilton, teaset and trays; Mr. Starr, set of salad bowls; Mrs. J Anderson, set Sunshine; Mr. and Mrs. A. Mitchell, set of honey jars and set of jugs; Miss Ruby Dyer, set ornaments; Miss Jean Hunter, set Sunshine; Mr. and Mrs. Skeats, set Sunshine ; Miss Cater, set Sunshine salad bowls; Mr. W. Clifford, silver revolving butter bowl; Mr. B Roach, silver mounted pickle jar; Mr. and Mrs. Fullagar, silver cruet stand; Miss Florrie and Jennie Roach, cushions; Miss Ethel Roach, cushion Ms. and Mrs. Wilcocks, sweet stand; Miss M Skeats, lamp shade, and flower vases; Miss G Hall, handkerchief basket; Masters Eddie and Mat Roach, set salt cellars; Mr. Phillips, silver shaving set. As it turns out that the Atkinson family of Wollongong were of a somewhat more elevated financial status than the Roach family and the bridegroom David Atkinson was no mere common labourer – but, rather, an electrician at just that time when electricity was being more widely introduced to the northern suburbs of Wollongong. He later took a position as a senior electrician at Lysaghts and lived for many years close to the beach in Ocean Street Thirroul. There he and the former Mary Jane Roach raised five children—William, Isobel, Reginald, Shirley and David. David Atkinson died in 1951 but Mary (Roach) Atkinson lived on until 1973. But the social whirl—and the good fortune of a Roach daughter not marrying an impecunious labourer— involved in a big family wedding like this were surely a most infrequent events in the lives of the extended Roach family. More often the years were punctuated with continuing niggling disputes at the local level and also the threat of a major strike concerning the calculation of overtime payments. SCARBOROUGH— CLIFTON The clippers at the Tunnel colliery, Scarborough, ceased work on Monday last, owing to one of their number receiving a summons for a breach of one of the special rules, to wit, speaking disrespectfully to one of the officials. The lads wanted the summons with drawn, and as the management did not feel disposed to comply with the request the mine was laid idle. At South Clifton colliery on the same day, the wheelers did not go to work for the reason that of late they have been getting, a lot of broken time and have been docked for it. They do not appear to take kindly to this position of affairs, and the mine has since been idle. On Tuesday it was expected that there would be no work at either of the pits this week.396 396 “Scarborough-Clifton”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 4 August 1916, p.22 168 But then things started to look up with a “tentative agreement”. SCARBOROUGH — CLIFTON The Tunnel mine at Scarborough has put up something of a record for this pay, having got in full time — 11 days. At the South Clifton Colliery eight days will be paid for. This will be the first pay under the provisions of the new tentative agreement.397 But, of course, it proved very a very “tentative agreement” indeed. The fact that the men at a number of the collieries in the northern end of the district had deductions made in the last pay—which was under the terms of the tentative agreement—for coming out before time, was the chief factor in laying the collieries referred to idle during the early portion of the present -week.398 The divide between the miners’ leaders and the rank and file was finally coming fully apart. Mr. W. Davies (Employees), strongly urged that the matter be decided; the cavil was due on Friday and if this matter was undecided the cavil could not be drawn. The executive of the lodge were not to blame; the lodge had passed a motion that the agreement be observed.399 Mr. Morgan, the traitor who had gone from Miners’ Union Secretary to Assistant Secretary of the Colliery Proprietors Association, rubbed Davies nose in it and “ rejoined that the union officers should exercise control over their members.”400 Billy Davies (soon to become everything the IWW then detested— that is, a Labor MP) said, “It was probably only a few boys who came out.” But “Mr. Wilson, the colliery manager, said the message was that all the wheelers had come out, and these included 14 miners.” Even the local paper was flummoxed for they were used to getting their information from the miner’s leaders and the rank file were now going it entirely alone. SCARBOROUGH — CLIFTON South Clifton mine was idle on Monday and Tuesday, as also was the Coal cliff. The business people did not know what was the cause of the stoppage, but it was generally understood that the employees were dissatisfied with the rates paid under the provisions of the tentative agreement, the first pay for the same having been distributed on Friday last.401 The disputes were quite simply becoming anarchic. SCARBOROUGH — CLIFTON The employees of the South Clifton and Tunnel collieries had a meeting on Monday when the usual quarterly cavil was drawn. It was then decided to resume work on Tuesday morning, but only the Tunnel employees started on that day, as a dispute arose at South Clifton over the question of a man in the opinion of the employees not being paid the correct fate for his services.402 397 “Scarborough-Clifton”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 25 August 1916, p.22 “Illawarra Miners”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, Friday 1 September 1916, p.11 399 ibid 400 ibid 401 “Scarborough-Clifton”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 1 September 1916, p.20 402 “Scarborough-Clifton”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 8 September 1916, p.17 398 169 The result of all this, of course, was exceptionally intermittent work and hence very small wages. SCARBOROUGH — CLIFTON The employees of the Tunnel mine at Scarborough got in three days last week, while at South Clifton only two days were worked.403 The really big deal of the moment, however, was the “official opening of the new Empire Hall at Coledale…performed by Mr. A. J. Miller [mine manager] on Friday night, in the presence of a very large gathering. 404 . Yet, by the end of the month, things were even worse industrially: “The Tunnel mine at Scarborough only got in one day last week, while South Clifton worked two days.”405 But politically things were getting even more interesting. And so the Illawarra Colliery Employees president, Syd Bird, called a mass meeting opposing Prime Minster Hughes plans to introduce conscription: “He spoke of the curtailment of the rights of free speech, and proceeded to say they were here to say they had been sold by the people they believed were looking after their interest.” The Conscription Referendum thus clearly had the potential to bring even members of the Labor Party like Syd Bird under the influence of IWW propaganda – and it often made it for possible for some Labor Party members to, at times, sound even slightly bolshy. Mr. Bird read to the meeting a motion to be submitted setting forth, “That this mass I meeting of unionists declares that the compulsory calling up of men for military service by proclamation to be destructive of freedom of choice at the referendum and an infringement of the Defence Act not to be permitted in a free community, and therefore demands its withdrawal. That in the event of trades unionists being victimised by their employers this meeting decides to support the executive in any action which may be decided on.” Was duly passed and “The Red Flag chorus was sung.406 This, however, was something the authorities could not tolerate. But, in the first instance, the police seem to have been directed to choose the softest targets: foreigners capable of being pigeonholed as potential traitors and other supporters of Germany and its allies. Repression—brought on by war hysteria and the anti-conscription campaign—was closing in all around: “Under the Aliens Registration regulation the police have registered 14 foreigners, Russians and Germans, also 13 Chinese.407 Despite the fact that many locals had already voluntarily enlisted, the northern colliery townships were still proving a receptive ground for the anti-conscription cause and “Mrs. Griffiths, of Sydney addressed a well attended anti-conscription meeting at Scarborough on Monday night; she received a good hearing.”408 403 “Scarborough-Clifton”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 15 September 1916, p.7 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, Friday 15 September 1916, p 7 405 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 29 September 1916, p.19 406 “Referendum “, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 6 October 1916 p.6 407 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 13 October 1916 p.13 408 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 20 October 1916 p.7 404 170 While at Scarborough, however, “Mr. Briton Wilson, son of Mr. John Wilson, manager of the South Clifton colliery”409 was silly enough to have gone off and enlisted even though his brother was already at the front—although I suppose with a Christian name like “Briton” it is perhaps only to be expected that he was from a family rather excessively fond of British imperialism. But there were others in town who were less enamoured of the idea of being forced to defend the British Empire. Scarborough Progress Association even had its president (Mr. W. A. Sweeny), and the secretary (Mr. J. P. Selby) hand in their resignation when “a letter was received from the Bulli Shire Council asking the association to arrange for the holding of a meeting in furtherance” of the Conscription Referendum.”410 The conscription issue clearly had the ability to make it clear that even individuals of very moderate political views did not like being compelled—and so even the IWW’s more ideologically based opposition to al imperialist wars could become a rallying point for some unlikely supporters. What’s more the endless disputation at the local pits continued and this only added to the levels of discontent: “The employees at the Tunnel colliery did not work on Tuesday. The miners were prepared to start but the wheelers held a meeting and considered a grievance about being paid short. After the meeting the wheelers were just preparing to go into the mine when some other trouble cropped up with the result that the whole of the employees were compelled to go home.411 But the lights were clearly going out all over Australia—and not just in militant colliery townships—when threatening official advertisements such as this began to appear in local papers. THE CALL TO ARMS Courts for the hearing of exemptions will be held as follows: — Helensburgh October 30th. Kiama November 2 and 3. - Dapto November 8. - Scarborough November 10. - Wollongong November 7 and 10. It is necessary for those who are only sons in applying for exemption to either present a statutory declaration to that effect from one or other of their parents or for the parent to attend the Court and declare on oath that the applicant is an only son. The Military authorities ask us to state that warrants will be issued after the 30th inst., for the arrest of those who have not reported themselves.412 Apart from those unwilling to go to gaol for not wanting to be slaughtered on Flanders Field, it was not just the continually striking miners who were in a spot of bother financially—for the local tradesman and shopkeepers were now starting to do it tough too. SCARBOROUGH-CLIFTON For many weeks past the working conditions prevailing at this end of the district have been most unsatisfactory to the business people. Not a week has passed without something cropping up which would cause a cessation of work at one or other of the collieries and now that the 409 Scarborough-Clifton”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 9 Mar 1917, p.21 Scarborough-Clifton”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 27 Oct 1916, p.19 411 ibid 412 Scarborough-Clifton”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 27 Oct 1916, p.10 410 171 employees have ceased work for an indefinite period, the position is one which is causing the trades people to think hard.413 When even those with slightly higher expectations of what life should offer them start to become disaffected, it is then that capitalism needs to resort to more forceful means to enforce the commons sense view that the market economy turned to the purposes of war provides all citizens with the best of all possible worlds. If Lev Davidovich Bronstein (better known as Leon Trotsky) was correct in his view that “war was the locomotive of history”414 then, in northern Illawarra, it was the anticonscription campaign and the incessant industrial disputation in the local collieries at Coledale, Scarborough and South Clifton that provided it with an additional express carriage. This is the precise moment when all the tedious educational propaganda of the handful of IWW militants looked like it might actually have some slight chance of coming to some interesting fruition. THE SOCIAL CONDITIONS THAT MADE COLEDALE RIPE FOR REVOLUTION Despite the existence of generally awful housing condition for many miners—often humpies with bag walls— the housing situation was so extreme at Coledale and Scarborough and Clifton that an inquiry into the possibility of a Government sponsored housing scheme was held in November 1916. The responses of one of the witnesses at the inquiry – a “Mr W. McGee, a miner resident at Scarborough” – were highly instructive of prevailing rather radical local attitudes to home ownership: “Witness said he thought his Lodge was against the principle of buying the house because it tended to make men servile.” Robert Pooley, a miner resident at Scarborough, seemed to hold even more extreme views: “When asked were the majority of the Scarborough houses provided with baths? Pooley answered as follows: “No, he replied/ none, of them. Do you think the miners as a class would look upon a scheme of purchasing houses in 25 years with any degree of favour? No, I don't think they would. If a miner had his house half paid off, witness went on to say, he would have to accept conditions which otherwise he would not.415 Sidney Bird, President of the I.C.E. Association added that “Many miners did not like to undertake obligations of purchase which would tie them to a particular locality. John J. Hiles, Health Inspector of the Bulli Shire Council, “deposed he had condemned a good many humpies that miners had lived in.” When asked if these were “In the vicinity of Scarborough?” he went on to reveal just how absolutely bad things were in terms of accommodation for the miners. Witness, Yes. When he joined the council between the Imperial Hotel and the public school ? there were a number of humpies' in a most insanitary condition. .There was absolutely no closet accommodation, malting it bad for people in the lower levels. He really thought the people living 413 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 3 November 1916 p.8 Leon Trotsky, Report on the Communist International, 1922 415 “Government House Building Scheme for Scarborough”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 10 November 1916, p. 17. 414 172 there became immune from certain diseases, as the Chinese were, from living in filth. And then near Goodrich Street there were a number of humpies occupied by single men. These were in a most insanitary condition. Close to that there were a number of other places of two rooms belonging to the widow of the late Charles Brown, originally built for a pair of single men, but, owing to the want of accommodation, married men were taking them. Had been told by tenants of this that while the father was having his bath before the fire the children had for decency's sake to be put outside, it might be, in rain.416 Hiles even went so far to say he “was satisfied that 25 per cent of the houses about Clifton should be condemned as insanitary and for indecency” and then really put the boot in to mine owner Ebenezer Vickery: “There were a lot of houses belonging to the Vickery estate which really ought to have a firestick put in them.” In 1915, things got so bad in terms of the large numbers of “unauthorised buildings” that Bulli Shire Council felt compelled to take action. The inspector reported that he had lately inspected the bush at the west of the railway line at Coledale and found that the humpy building is again starting. This question has been before the Council on numerous occasions and action has been taken. It seems that the penalties imposed on offenders in insufficient to stop the erection of these filthy and unsightly places. He recommended that the offenders be prosecuted and that the owners of the land be served with notices to abate nuisance caused by 'the insanitary condition of the places in question. — Adopted.417 Clearly these were third-world conditions and it is little wonder that these northern colliery townships were places of considerable discontent. A local WW2 veteran once told me had seen places in Alexandria in Egypt during the was which had been condemned by the Egyptians but which he felt were in marginally better condition than some of the hovels he had seen in the miner's squats in northern Illawarra. John Stephen Kirton (owner of Excelsior Colliery at Thirroul,), however, had a very different view: “J. S. KIRTON, President of the Bulli Shire Council, deposed he was a real believer in miners owning their own homes.” Which was all well and good but capitalism – at least in terms of any realistic possibility of miners working so intermittently as those at Clifton, Scarborough and Coledale – was simply delivering for the families of local miners.418 With such appalling accommodation at home and with so many strikes, fishing was again proving a more pleasant and lucrative occupation that digging for coal: “As a result of the stoppage of work business people report that trade is particularly dull, and the hope is expressed that an early settlement will be arrived at. A few of the men out of work are doing a fairly lucrative business catching fish, which have been biting freely during the past fortnight.”419 Things were getting so serious that even the local press was encouraging the colliery proprietors to grant the men shifts of eight instead of nine hours: “It is much to be hoped that the Proprietors will recognise that they cannot maintain me position of 416 ibid “Bulli Shire Council”, Illawarra Mercury, 10 Sep 1915, p.4 418 ibid. 419 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 10 November 1916, p. 21 417 173 nine hours a day in the mines when eight hours in so many surface employments is acknowledged to be the standard.“420 And, due to the intransigence of the owners and the hopelessness of their union officials, a great many northern colliery miners (of varying degrees of radicalism) decided to seek position in the next union elections. The nominations for' the offices for the year coming are: — President: Dougal McGhee (Scarborough), Andrew Lees (Bulli) , Richard Morgan (Mt. Pleasant) . Vice-president: T White (Clifton) Secretary: V. Bowater (Scarborough), W. Davies (Scarborough), T. H. Marshall (North Bulli), J. T. Sweeney (present secretary). Reps, to Council: H. Knight (N. Bulli), T. H. Marshall, (N. Bulli), (James Emery (Scarborough), V. Bowater, A. Kirkwood, Wm. Davies, C. Edwards (Corrimal). Board of Reference: W. Davies, J.T. Sweeney, James Russell (Excelsior), Jos. Hosking (N. Bulli).421 It’s a surprising large number of nominees from a very restricted geographic area – and a pretty clear indication of the discontent and divisions in northern Illawarra. With Christmas coming the men made a start to try and earn some cash but the efforts did not go smoothly. SCARBOROUGH- CLIFTON The Tunnel mine at Scarborough got a start on Monday, but it was not so at South Clifton, as it was found that many of the working places had taken in water during the stoppage and were therefore unfit for the workmen to enter. On Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday about forty men were at work putting everything in order for a start at the earliest possible moment, and this, was expected to take place yesterday morning.422 So desperate were things becoming that even the editor of the South Coast Times became openly condemnatory of the mine owners. In fact, it has been openly stated by two representatives of the Coal owners that the Bulli men will not be allowed to start in any mine on the South Coast- If this is an attempt to starve them into submission and compel them to return to Bulli to work for less than the minimum wage, or on terms dictated by the boss, then this sort of tyranny is just the thing to rouse the whole of the district, and the work done by the officers in smoothing things for a peaceful Xmas, is in danger of being wasted. Scarborough is beat for wheelers, and, other collieries are supposed to be beat for men, why are these 100 men locked out, and kept out? Aye, kept out with a vengeance! The public can now judge of the fairness and equity and obedience to authority of some of the colliery proprietors.423 Them is fighting words—although hardly alarmingly akin to IWW propaganda. Nonetheless, the editorialist has a clear recognition of the conservative influence of the mining union officials and seems to suspect that if the colliery proprietors persist that conservatism will cease to perform its calming influence on the deeply discontented northern Illawarra miners. 420 “Illawarra Miners”, South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, Friday 10 Nov 1916, p.12. ibid. 422 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, Friday 8 December 1916 p.22 423 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, Friday 15 December 1916, p.15 421 174 With appalling an often unsanitary housing condition, wages so intermittent that meeting the rent would have been difficult even if decent accommodation was available, individual miners being gaoled for even a single day’s absence form work on the few days they were ever required and sometimes a police presence in town escorting ‘scabs’ to work during prolonged industrial disputes – there is little wonder that quite a few people many began to adopt extreme views about the merits or otherwise of capitalism. Had the handful of individual in Coledale and Scarborough who had sought for some years now to undermine the authority of both the bosses and the capitalist State through audacious and often wittily judicious iconoclastic statements begun to have some impact? Had they finally started to make some inroads into the ideological orthodoxy that viewed the actions of the masters (the colliery proprietors) and the servants (the miners) as part of the natural order of things in Australian coastal country towns? GETTING WORSE: THE ARBITRATION VERSUS DIRECT ACTION DEBATE The treacherous former miner’s leader, T. R Morgan, who now represented the colliery proprietors at the Coal Tribunal held in Wollongong provided fulsome details of the situation in the local mines during late March 1917 – and he also identified that the problem then existence had been present for at least a year. Mr. Morgan said there were that day four collieries on strike. At Kembla there was a serious position. Coalcliff was idle through a dispute between the members of the lodge regarding some statements made at a funeral. They laid the colliery idle to fight out their battles. The two South Clifton collieries were also idle; there had been shortening of hands at South Clifton; the lodge, insisted that the hands reduced at the old colliery should be employed at the Tunnel, which was a separate mine altogether. At these four collieries fully one thousand men were idle. One day last week they had four collieries idle, two on another day, and one for the whole week. That was going on the whole of last year, and had become a very serious matter; if they were going to continue the tactics they had adopted last year, when they said they had no tribunal, no one knew where it was going to end. Mr. T Morgan here read a statement as follows of the losses by the stoppages of last year: — Mt. Kembla, 52 days; Mount Keira, 47; Mt. Pleasant, 69; Corrimal, 80 J; South Bulli, 07; Bellambi, 15; Bulli, 124; Excelsior, 71; North Bulli, 64, Sth. Clifton Tunnel, 91; South Clifton Colliery, 89; Coalcliff, 90; Metropolitan, 49; total 879 days. Estimated loss of out put, 615.300 tons; estimated loss in wages, £131,850. In addition to the losses enumerated, the average number of persons daily absent from work was 10 percent of the total number employed, exclusive of those absent through sickness or accident. The average number of members of the Employees' Federation employed daily was 2570. Regarding Kembla, he said he understood that the lodge by 64 votes to 62 had rejected the recommendation made by the Board on Friday last at its meeting in Sydney that work should be resumed and the' question in dispute be dealt with at this meeting of the Board.424 Clearly, the rank and file were fairly evenly divided on the merits or otherwise of arbitration – but by the end of the month they could at least be pleased their collective efforts to get the Coledale Illawarra Cottage Hospital had proved worthwhile. 424 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, Friday 23 March 1917, p.19 175 On Friday last Mr. M. McDonald had a foot badly crushed while at work in the North Bulli Colliery. He was conveyed to the Illawarra Cottage Hospital. He bears the distinction of being the first patient to receive treatment m the new institution.425 Tragically, it would proved to be a very much-needed institution. Fatality at Scarborough Mine Yesterday by a fall of stone in the New Tunnel mine, John Gill, a miner, received mortal injuries, and his mate, Peter Pemberton, was also injured. The latter was taken to the Illawarra Hospital, and latest reports were the patient was doing well and injuries not serious.426 Work did continue but, in the usual manner, only very intermittently: “For the pay this fortnight the South Clifton colliery has six days, while the Tunnel has 4 days. The time lost was due to the accident at the Tunnel last week and also to bad weather.427 In fact, even getting close to anything like a full fortnight’s work hadn’t happened in a very long time. For the pay this week at the Tunnel Colliery, Scarborough, 11 shifts have been worked. This is something out of the ordinary, in as much as it is the first full time since May, 1915.428 This is an absolutely extraordinary statistic – and provides unusually strong quantitative evidence of the extent of local discontent and disputation. At Coledale, too, while the men had at last agreed to submit themselves to arbitration but even that concession only ended in frustration. Judge Edmunds, as he promised, sitting in Sydney, heard the complaints of the proprietors re colliery stoppages and absentees. Both parties stated their position.' His Honor made no order.429 The judge was clearly fed up with the Scarborough men and erupted in a fit of pique. Coal Tribunal His Honor Judge Edmunds sat in Scarborough yesterday. Messrs. T. R. Morgan, J. C. Jones, and J. Jarvie representing the employers, and A. C. Willis, D. Duncombe, and E. Jackson the employees. Mr. Morgan informed the Judge that the Scarborough mines had been idle several days this and last week. His Honor sharply condemned stoppages and at one stage said he would not come to Scarborough again. Later he said he withdrew that as the employees had certainly done better during the last few pays. The employees claimed a reduction in the number of night shift places, giving evidence to show that the mine could be worked with fewer. In announcing his decision, his Honor said he could not instruct the manager as to how the mine was to be worked, and refused the application.430 But there came even worse news for the miners: “Mr. Curlewis, barrister, has been appointed local chairman, and he and assessors will be on a board to deal with district disputes.” 425 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, Friday 30 March 1917, p.19 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 13 April 1917, p .14 427 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 20 April 1917, p.18 428 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 1 June 1917, p.5 429 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 8 June 1917, p.13 430 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 15 June 1917, p.14 426 176 Herbert Raine Curlewis was a cultured reactionary – fluent in Italian and a member of the Royal Australian Historical Society. These victimisation cases were his first as a Judge of the Industrial Arbitration Court—to which position he had only very recently been appointed. There, as even his Australian Dictionary of Biography indicates, “earned a reputation for severity”. His additional “insistence that correct English should be spoken in the cases over which he presided” must have also worked a treat for the northern Illawarra mines who had recklessly neglected to attend either Newington College or the University of Sydney where Curlewis himself had studied.431 The South Coast Times then delivered the grim news that “Judge Curlewis will sit at Wollongong Court House on Monday next, at 10 a.m., to deal with cases of victimisation.”432 And deal with them he no doubt did. Worse still, in the same edition of the newspaper it was noted “A number of police who were engaged on strike duty at North Bulli Colliery, have presented Mr. A. J. Miller, manager, with a smoker's outfit in appreciation of the hospitality they had received at his hands. Inspector Anderson handed over the gift.”433 Not unexpectedly, the relationship between the mine owner's representative and the police was very cosy one. And the local Inspector Anderson proved keen to help the northern Illawarra mine mangers deal with what Coledale manager Alexander J. Miller, later described as at “one time a hot bed of I. W. Wism.”434 Indeed, Inspector Anderson’s anti-strike and patriotic work in Wollongong was to be his swansong performance. A month after Coledale Mine Manager made the presentation of the smoker’s outfit. Inspector Anderson “announced that he would shortly he resigning from the police force, after 35 years' service” and others present remarked that he “would be greatly missed in patriotic and other public circles.”435 And again there is little surprise that Jacob Carlos Jones, now superintendent of all Ebenezer Vickery’s collieries in Illawarra but who, back in 1890 had his “22 free labourers—guarded by a force of military under Colonel Mackenzie and Captain Nathan, and by a troop of police”436—led into the Austinmer Colliery of which he was then the manager, was also one of the most generous donors to the fundraising towards an additional presentation to Inspector W. J. Anderson in recognition of having joined the police force as far back as November, 1879.437 RANK AND FILE SELF RELIANCE AT COLEDALE & SCARBOROUGH Displaying a considerable level of initiative, the members of the miners' lodges at Clifton and Scarborough had already decided to introduce their own health insurance scheme. Their decision was “to contribute 3d. per week to the hospital fund instead of 431 See Brenda Nial, “Herbert Raine Curlewis”, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 12, Melbourne University Press, 1990. 432 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 26 Oct 1917, p. 10 433 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 26 Oct 1917, p. 10 434 Illawarra Mercury, 4 October 1918. 435 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, Friday 16 November 1917, p.10 436 The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 October 1890 p.9 437 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, Friday 16 November 1917, p.11 177 2d. as at present. This levy will be collected once a month, and no matter if a workman resides at Wollongong and is working at Scarborough, he or his wife will be entitled to treatment at the Bulli or Illawarra Cottage Hospital, their maintenance being paid for out 'of the fund.438 Even at the height of the General Strike in 1917 when – no doubt – a great many families would have been very hard up for money, the people of Coledale somehow also managed to make fund-raising for their hospital a priority. Coledale Apart from the railway strike [which the miners of Coledale would soon join] the feature most discussed at Coledale during the week has been the pronounced success which, attended the cantata, 'Under the Palms,' which, under the direction of Mrs. A. J. Miller, was staged in the Coledale Hall on Friday evening last before one of the largest audiences that has been witnessed at any entertainment, previously held here. The hall was attractively decorated in purely Egyptian fashion, while the various colored lights, for which the, Messrs. Yardley Bros. [Picture Theatre proprietors] were mainly responsible, added materially to the spectacular effect. Another striking feature was the elaborate dressing of the various performers, who not only looked well, but went through respective parts with commendable accuracy. Messrs. G. Phillips and P. Beveridge, proprietors of the hall, gave the free use of it for the occasion in order that the funds for the Illawarra Cottage Hospital Cot fund would be still further augmented. The promoters expect to realise about £30 for the cause after all expenses are paid.439 At that very function one of the seven sopranos who were “participants in the cantata” was non other than young Lucy of the bolshy Roach family clan. It was all a rare show of unity and conviviality in a much-divided town. Yet it shows how the cause of the Cottage Hospital was one which was very much in the interest of not only the miners themselves but even that of the mine management. It puts the lie, perhaps, to the complete truth of the Wobbly dictum that the workers and the bosses have nothing in common— and so it was possible for even Mrs. A. J. Miller (the wife of the manger of Coledale's "North Bulli Colliery") to be the key organiser of the well-attended social extravaganza. In that endeavour, Mrs Miller was assisted by the fact that the ‘Under the Palms’ Cantata performance was held at a time when the strike in Coledale was still less than two weeks old and so the miners were, while no doubt short of money, not yet living lives of complete desperation. Had the cantata been performed toward the end of September 1917 when the first of the Coledale men, in a state of total defeat, finally presented themselves for work after nearly two months on strike it would have been unlikely that the ‘Under the Palms’ social event would have ever got underway. Even the Sydney papers expressed surprise that the Coledale men’s support of the strike had finally collapsed. THE COAL STRIKE Beginning of the End SOME MINERS RETURN This Afternoon's Conference WOLLONGONG. Tuesday. 438 439 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 29 June 1917, p.8 “Coledale”, South Coast Times and Wollongong, 17 Aug 1917, p.6 178 The beginning of the end of the coal strike was reached this morning at Coledale, when, in answer to tho colliery whistle, which blew last night, twenty men presented themselves and started work this morning. Notwithstanding that this is the end of the district which has been responsible for the major portion of sectional stoppages In the past, no demonstration was made against tho men as they proceeded to tho mine.440 It was a far cry form the militancy so in evidence at the beginning of 1917 when at Coledale’s ‘North Bulli’ mine the men had also decided to take matters into their own hands. The North Bulli mine was idle on Monday on account of the employees holding a meeting to discuss the new rate of pay. The daylight saving question was also discussed and it is now understood that next week the men will start at the old hour.441 Little did they know, however, that the signs were already there at the beginning of 1917 and very soon the lights were truly going to go out (and it would not be able to be laid at the feet of the temporary war-time measure of the introduction daylight saving)—but not before the obdurate Judge Edmunds made a very slight concession to the men. Afternoon Shift Claim The decision of Judge Edmunds in the claim for the abolition at Scarborough mine of the afternoon shift has been drafted. The claim is rejected, but the management are ordered to provide baths for the men on the shift, and these, if they work the eight hours, are to come out an hour earlier if they have a train to get to. 442 Yet even this decision to continue starting at the old time in spite of daylight saving being introduced as a wartime measure was already adding to local discontent. The effect of the daylight saving scheme as it affects the miners and other workers, may be said to be entirely discordant with the ideas of the fellow who does the hard graft. It is pointed out that the hours of rest, so essential' to the worker, are curtailed; the same applies to the housewife, but in her case the daylight saving scheme instead of shortening the hours of labor, actually lengthens her working day by from two to three hours. A group of miners were discussing the question one evening recently, when one of the number averred they would suffer it till the end of the first term, and, to use his own phraseology: After that, it going to be counted out. The speaker's audience nodded sympathetic approval.443 Nothing much else seemed right either – not even the bathing facilities. CLIFTON On Monday and Tuesday of this week was a stoppage of work at the Tunnel colliery, the trouble arising out of what the men consider to be the inadequate bathing facilities provided at the pit top. At present the washing shed for the fourteen men employed on the night shift is not made available until tea minutes to 11 o'clock, and as the train to convey the men home leaves the Scarborough station at 16 minutes past 11. the employees claim that there is not sufficient time allowed to wash and catch their train. They further contend that there is only room in the shed for three men to bathe at the one time. On the other hand, the management maintains that if the men were permitted to enter the bathing shed before ten minutes to 11 they would not be 440 “The Coal Strike”, The Sun (Sydney) 25 Sep 1917, p. 5 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 12 January 1917, p.5 442 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 26 January 1917 p.13 443 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 2 February 1917, p.14 441 179 working the eight hours provided for in the recent agreement. On Tuesday afternoon there was a probability of the dispute being settled the following day, the stipulation being that the men return to work to permit of a conference being held.444 For all the intervening months between February and July 1917 it was a pretty much business as usual in the northern colliery villages—endless disputes and stoppages on an almost weekly basis. And (as with the ridiculous situation relating to bathing facilities) it was over the often over the most unreasonable quibbling on the part of the mine management. This is a typical news report from the first half of 1917. SCARBOROUGH-CLIFTON On Tuesday morning, the employees of the Tunnel Colliery at Scarborough refused to make a start owing to the main travelling road being alleged to be too wet for the men to proceed to their respective places. At the South Clifton Colliery the number of employees who turned up after the holiday did not amount to more than half.445 Once they had tasted some independence, it would seem that many miners had now decided to only turn up for work when they felt like. Wobbly propaganda argued that “fast workers die young” but working miners who take ample number of rest days probably lived even longer than those who adopted the IWW’s one-man lightning go-slow approach to wage slavery. THE BOSSES’ RESPONSE When you are a mine manager and you’ve got a mine full of Wobblies something just has to be done. The most common response was to sack the individuals they saw as troublemakers. Sometimes, however, the victimised miners did not go quietly. In the cases mentioned below the bosses got lucky because good old Judge Curlewis was on the job. MINERS' COURTS. WOLLONGONG. Tuesday. The Court to inquire late alleged victimisation sat again today. When the case of H. W. Payne was called he demanded that before he made any statement specific charges should be laid against him by the manager. Judge Curlewis intimated that he would conduct the inquiry his own way. Mr Sweeney, who represented the men, and Payne then withdrew. Several other men made similar demands, and their cases were not heard. Those who did not make such demands were proceeded with, and subsequently his Honor and Messrs Morgan and Sweeney had a conference on the bench. Mr Sweeney returned to the table, and said that he thought he should represent the men when they desired him to. In the case of Knight, of the South Bulli mine, Mr Miller, manager of the Coledale colliery, where he formerly worked, said that when Knight worked at the mine he suspected him of belonging to the I.W.W. He was the head of a clique in tho mine organised for the purpose of stopping the mine either by strikes or obstructions. He had to appoint patrols alone the ropes to prevent stoppages. A lot of stoppages took place at that time owing to wilful breakage of the machinery. Knight denied the whole of the charges. He said that they were nothing else than concoctions 444 445 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, Friday 20 July 1917 p.24 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, Friday 8 June 1917 p.6 180 raised to get him out of the industry. He went on to say that a manager in New Zealand said that he was a good workman and a man of his word. His Honor expressed the opinion that any miner who took part in the recent strike could not call himself a man of his word, for the miners had given their word to preserve industrial peace for three years, and had broken it. His Honor said that Knight was a man of considerable intelligence. There was no doubt that trouble seemed to follow him wherever he went. To say that he had been dismissed owing to his connection with unionism was ridiculous. In his Honor’s opinion the managers believed that he was a bad character, and a man they would not have, and in his opinion he had been dismissed on honest and conscientious grounds. The grounds given for the dismissal of a miner named Somerville were habitual bad language, to which his fellow-workmen even objected. This he denied, and he was allowed time to call evidence that his language was not offensive to his mates. In several cases the men were allowed time to produce evidence in reply to the statements made by the managers. It is intimated that George Phillips, who was one of the representatives who took part in negotiations with the Government, had been reinstated.446 A subsequent Illawarra Mercury report provides some additional insight into the attitudes of Mr Knight. H. Knight (Woonona) said when he applied for re-employment he was told by Mr. Sellors to get off the premises quick. - In reply to Mr. Morgan, Knight admitted that he left New Zealand because he was refused employment alter a strike. He was questioned in regard to his actions at Balmain, Scarborough, and Coledale. He denied that he was a member of the I.W.W. He had been kicked out of N.Z. he said, and now they were trying to kick him out of N.S.W. Mr. Morgan: Will you deny that you have always been an agitator? — ‘I have been classed as an agitator. I don't claim to be an agitator. . .' E. O. Sellors was examined at some length by Knight in regard to his parentage, etc. He said he was born in N.S.W., and his parents were also born in the State. A lengthy number of questions were, put to the witness by Knight in regard to coal being supplied to German vessels. Witness said he was satisfied his Company never knowingly supplied coal to German ships. J. Miller (manager Coledale) said he suspected Knight of being connected with the I.W.W. He headed a clique when at Coledale Colliery which aimed at stopping the colliery either by strikes or obstructions… The witness gave a conversation which the undermanager overheard, iu which Knight made a certain statement about stoppages. He made very definite charges against Knight… [Knight replied that] He never encouraged malingerers. His Honor: How can miners call themselves '-men of their word when they gave their word to preserve industrial peace for three, years, and then broke their word. Knight: If you think I am not a man of my word it is useless for me to proceed. His Honor: That will not interfere with your case. I admit many of the men were led to break their word by agitators. Knight: That is your opinion of the men, my experience is that many of the managers are not men of their word. His Honor: The fact that they are not men of their word, does not make you a man of your word. His Honor: Do you suggest that Mr Sellors is a German? Witness: I heard certain rumours and I wanted to ask him myself. His Honor: Do you suggest he supplied coal to a German cruiser. Knight: He suggested I belong to the I.W.W. His Honor: Do you wish my decision in your case made public at once. 446 The Sydney Morning Herald, 31 October 1917, p.12 181 Knight: Yes. His Honor (addressing Knight): That you are a man of considerable intelligence there is not the slightest doubt. Trouble seems to follow you where ever you go — you have been singularly unfortunate. It seems to me that to say you have been dismissed in consequence of your connection with unionism is ridiculous. In my opinion the managers believe you are a man of bad character. Of such a character that you are a man they would not have in their midst. In my opinion your dismissal was on honest and conscientious grounds.447 None of the men, of course, stood much chance against either the words of the mine managers or the less than sympathetic attitudes of the presiding judge. It has not proved possible to uncover the identity of H. W. Payne— but the “George Phillips” who was reinstated (mentioned above) turned out to be a president of the more conciliatory Mount Keira Miner’s Lodge and so posed little threat to the bosses and they thus could have few major objections to his reinstatement. HOW IT ALL ENDED IN COLEDALE Some individuals are willing to comply. Others are not. The problem for the bosses is it is very difficult to get inside a worker’s head—and to stop him thinking. Those individuals who openly rebel, however, can usually be safely incarcerated. The system only needs to be fearful when they are faced with substantial collective action. Only organised workers can intelligently express their hopes and resentments. But all the workers recognise wrongs imposed upon them. Resentment unexpressed embitters. Intelligent expression of discontent is made impossible yet will discontent find means of expression. Possibly like the blind Samson— by tearing down the pillars of the Temple, destroying alike those who revel on the roof and those who toil below. — 'United Mine Workers' Journal.'448 What happened in Coledale and Scarborough, however, was that the resentment festered—and individuals grew bitter indeed. Even intelligent God fearing and basically conservative men like the miner James Sproston (but who also purchased copies of the IWW paper, Direct Action) felt the bitter salt tears of injustice he encountered on a daily basis very strongly indeed. Sproston was probably the one individual in Coledale who—being highly literate but not a member of the IWW – could pen the following anonymous outcry against the police state that the State and the coal owners had found it necessary to implement in a single northern Illawarra colliery township. The following extraordinary article was published anonymously—but is so strikingly similar to Sproston’s previous literary outpourings that it is highly likely to have been written by none other than Coledale’s leading Presbyterian himself. 447 448 Illawarra Mercury 2 November 1917 p.3 The Australian Worker (Sydney), Thursday 3 January 1918 p.8 182 It is one of the rarest and most unusual written records of life in Illawarra ever written—and truly shows the lengths the State will go to in order to ensure that the ‘common sense’ values of capitalist enterprise remain unthreatened. Tyranny in a Mining town. (By a Correspondent.) 'Excuse me, is this Coledale, where the mine deputies are sworn in as special constables and carry revolvers?' said a person seated near the window of the railway carriage overlooking the mining-town. 'Yes; this is the place,' said a miner - who was just entering the carriage and about to take a seat near the person who was asking for information. 'The statement that appeared in the press in reference to the special constables is perfectly true, then?' 'Absolutely; I know it only too well by having had to suffer a little of the tyranny myself.' 'I had no idea,' said the inquirer, 'that such a condition of affairs existed in this country. Of course, I know it exists in the mining camps of America; but who would have thought of it existing so near to Sydney!' 'It may be hard for you to believe, my friend, but I am one of the victims of the black list — another Americanism.' 'Do you mean to say that the mining employers of the South Coast have the American system of black listing in operation here?' 'Certainly! There are men in that little town (as well as others), who can not obtain work anywhere in the district, because all the mine managers have a list of names of men who are termed agitators. When these men look for work they are asked, in the first place their names; secondly, where they worked last'. The mine manager usually says to the applicant who is looking for work, 'Call back in an hour or two, or perhaps, next day.' The man calls back, but in the meantime the telephone (which is now one of the greatest instruments in assisting the carrying out of the black-list), has been busy finding out whether the applicant was employed at the place stated, and the type of man he is. If his name is upon the list there is a change in the demeanour of the manager, and he is told to clear off the grounds as though he were a dog.' 'You say that this kind of treatment is meted out to men simply because they have stood for their rights in the Trade Union movement. 'Yes; if the tyranny was confined to the mine; and the men had their freedom in the town, when they left their work it, wouldn't be hardly so bad. ' 'Is there any control over the men after they leave the mine owners property? ' 'At Coledale there is. Men are intimidated in many different ways. A case appeared in the local press only a few weeks ago, where it stated that special constables went up to a little group of men who were talking in the street, and gave the order, 'Disperse!' as though they were ordering a group of children. Witnesses gave evidence in court 183 that the special (or Keystone) police were sixty strong and that they sported revolvers much like children sported pop-guns.' 'Is it not a wonder that the' Government tolerates these things?' 'Tolerates! Why, it is part of the policy of the present Government, as they created special constables during the late strike. Men are also intimidated if they associate with certain people and frequent certain places. They are told not to associate with persons who congregate on the green or frequent the billiard saloon. 'Are they undesirables who go to those places?' 'From the employers' point of view they are. A number of instances could be mentioned where the liberty of the men has been interfered with, and you might think I am romancing. Mr. _____ is told that if he doesn't give up keeping pigeons he can finish at the mine. ' 'Keeping pigeons! Good God! What has that got to do with his employment?' 'Half a minute; I'll tell you. There are men who keep pigeons who have an independent spirit, and are not too ready to submit to the whip of the employer, and if this man associates with them he is very apt to become contaminated and very likely will show the same spirit of independence and will not allow himself to be used as a play thing at the mine. Mr. ______ is approached at the mine, and he is given a bit of friendly advice as follows: 'If you want to do any good at this mine, you had better knock off talking to those fellows I saw you with last night. More than that, I heard you were taking 'Direct Action' and 'The Worker:' Is that so?' —'Well, yes; but can't I take what papers I like?' 'You can take what papers you like, but if you want to do any good here, you had better take my advice and knock them off. 'That is a piece of impudence,' said the man who was listening intently and wondering whether he is Australia or some other place. 'I haven't finished yet. Mr ______ is wanted, and a little chat convinces him that even his wife hasn't got her freedom. Is it right, you left Mr. ______'s store?' 'Yes, it is quite right. ' 'What is your reason for leaving the store?' 'That is a matter for the wife, not me.' 'Yes, but you know why you left?' 'Look here, I refuse to allow any man 'to say where I or the wife shall purchase goods. I always understood that since the passing of the Truck Act, a man could purchase his goods where he liked!' 'Yes, that may be so; but you needn't take up that attitude. I am only giving you a bit of advice and you will find you will get on a lot better if you will take the advice I am giving you!' 'Anyhow, I am going to please myself about that.' 'Good luck to him; that is the sort of spirit I like to see in a man,' said the visitor. 'The next man who had to go through the mill was a man of many summers, and well known in the town as being a good character and of a very religions turn of mind. He is approached as follows: ‘Is it a fact that you refused to take off your hat last night 184 and walked out of the hall when God Save the King was being sung?' 'Yes, it is a fact, and I refuse to take off my hat on such occasions.' 'Take off your hat now!' The old man, full of emotion, said, 'I refuse to take off my hat to anyone.' 'If you do not take off your hat in this office, you can finish at the 'mine.' The man was firm in his refusal, and he finished at the mine rather than submit to tyranny. We were a good distance along the railway towards Sydney, when the man who was sitting in the corner of the carriage remarked: 'I am really astonished as a result of our conversation. ‘Is there no redress?' 'The people of Coledale have now formed a Citizens' Defence Association for the purpose of protecting.' 'I should think it is needed, too, and may they have success!'449 EXTRACTS FROM THE PERSONAL DIARY OF JACK COGAN One of the best first hand sources for the thoughts of radical individuals in the immediate post war period in Australia was preserved by Edgar Ross, an Australian journalist who edited the miner’s Federation Journal, Common Cause, from 1935 to 1966, and moved politically from the Labor Party to the Communist Party and then to the pro-Moscow Socialist Party of Australia. Cogan’s diary came into Ross’ possession on a visit to Broken Hill where he was resident from 1925 to 1935 and working as sub-editor of the Barrier Daily Truth and, as Ross points out, “The diary tells much about the attitudes of the socialists of the day.” The Diary relates the thoughts of a militant non-party rank and file miner at “the time when the mineworkers of Broken Hill, city of legendary industrial militancy, were engaged in what was claimed to be the world’s longest strike, lasting for eighteen months in 1919-20, as a result of which they won conditions on a much higher level than any other workers in Australia.” “But in its aftermath”, Ross explains, “they experienced large scale unemployment and privations almost equal to those during the strike itself.” SOME INSIGHTS INTO THE MIND OF A RANK AND FILE MILITANT “My name is Jack Cogan. That might not mean much to you. After all, I was just one of many wage slaves exploited by the rapacious Broken Hill mining companies. “It was a Sunday on a fine day in June, 1919, the 22nd to be precise, when I decided to keep a diary to show those who came after me what it was like to be on strike these days.” Actually, it has now been many weeks since we withdrew our labour power from the mines and stopped the wheels of industry turning. There are no sounds now of machinery crushing the ore in the bowels of the earth to make profits for the masters. 449 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 11 April 1919 p.4 185 Let me tell you that conditions in the mines in those days were appalling, many men being killed or maimed because of unsafe mining practices and stricken by lead poisoning and dusted lungs and sent to an early grave. Between 1910 and 1919 there were 141 men killed in the mines. The mines were real hell holes, I can tell you! The temperature underground can reach 110 degrees. How are we to remedy this situation? Some of us were convinced that the only real solution was to change the social system. We studied the works of Marx and Engels and formed the Barrier Socialist Party to study and popularise their ideas.” Cogan could not join the IWW because it was still an outlawed organisation. But these non-party ‘socialists’ who formed a ‘party” during the long strike for the purposes of propaganda only are precisely the kind of rank and file activists to be found at Coledale and Scarborough just a few years before. Cogan continues: We wanted working hours reduced to 6 a day over 5 days – a 30 hours week. We also wanted an increase of £1 a day in our wages, the end of night shift, the abolition of the contract system, which encouraged men to work as hard as they could and run risks to their health in order to get a decent pay. Above all, we wanted something done about industrial disease and adequate compensation for the victims of it. There was a ‘blue’ involving the craft Unions, who were always scrapping about who should get particular jobs, and it closed down the mines. So we decided we wouldn’t resume except on the terms of our log of claims. That was on May 19. But to get back to June 22 [1919] when I started my diary. As usual I got out of bed, went and got the Barrier Daily Truth, then back to bed for a read. Then, down the street to find someone to talk to in the library or at the Trades Hall. We had a meeting in the Central Reserve… we had been holding them every day since the strike started, with the AMA band opening with The Red Flag. The speakers at first reckoned we would have an easy and quick victory and would be able to enjoy some of the good things of life. There was also another gathering at the Trades Hall, devoted mainly to singing and watching the dancing girls. The mining companies had proposed that we resume work and put our claims to arbitration, but we gave that a horse laugh. Still, it was not long after we declared for the strike that some of the slaves began to feel the pinch and we had set up a distress association to see that something was done for them. Bonds were issued, repayable six months after the end of the strike, and I recall that at the first meeting £300 worth were taken out.” If they were going to survive the miners were going to need external financial help so they appointed some delegates to travel “throughout Australia to seek financial support.” The most prominent were J. J. O’Reilly, who suffered from curvature of the spine but it did not stop him doing his job, Mick Considine, a lanky Irishman who was a very 186 eloquent speaker, and Percy Brookfield, who had been the leader of Labor’s Volunteer Army during the campaign against conscription during the war and was elected to parliament. They even went to New Zealand to raise money. It is hardly surprising that Coledale and Scarborough miners were recorded as significant financial contributors to the cause. And the “Mick Considine” mentioned above was a paid-up card carrying member of the IWW who had fled to Broken Hill to escape arrest after the organisation was declared unlawful by the Hughes Federal Government. But [Cogan continues] the most solid support came from the coalies who donated 1 per cent of their pay. The Union had also set up a co-operative store to provide the necessaries of life and we were issued with coupons entitling us to get them. By now, opinions were changing about us getting a quick victory and had given place to a feeling that we were in for a long struggle. There were reports of malnutrition and of a rise in infant mortality. June 23. Another day, and a beauty, too, as I woke with the sun streaming in the window piercing the misty clouds, with the wind moaning its hatred of mankind. I’m a bit of a poet, don’t you think? Anyhow, I hopped out of bed, lit the fire, had a look at the Truth, then down to Paddy’s for a yarn (Paddy Lamb, was a pioneer socialist E.R.) Paddy is worried about the slaves, who are becoming apathetic about the strike and can see nothing but gloom ahead. Thoughts come to me about the situation. It is not that they like their jobs but they have to get a livelihood. Why do the slaves put up with a position where they produce the good things of life for a few while millions live in poverty? But away with these thoughts, there is work to do in this great struggle. There’s also quite a surprising amount of good humour contained in the depressing record of the progress of the strike contained within Cogan’s diary. June 26 [1919]. It’s becoming a hum drum existence. Walking down the street, attending meetings, taking my coupon to the store to get a few things for the larder, chatting up the girls on the women’s committee (That is nice, and I am particularly shook on V-B. In fact I walked her home today and would like to make love to her). Nothing much is happening in the strike, but the news from overseas is interesting, like the uprising in Italy: May the slaves there win out!” As can be seen, organic intellectuals of the working class like Cogan are highly literate, and also able to laugh at themselves. But strikes were meant to be actively supported with strident industrial action by others rather than mere financial support. The principle of any injury to one is an injury to all was designed to make strikes short, sharp and effective. My own Dad told me that the anti-eviction campaigner Mr Maloney once told him it was best to try to avoid prolonged strikes as it was preferable to always be on strike while staying at work and thus still getting paid. Each worker, Maloney apparently joked (at least I presume he was joking) that each worker should adopt the principle of a one-man-lightning-go-slow if the employer was unwilling to agree to a six hour day. 187 The problem, as Cogan’s diary explains, is that this strike at Broken Hill had gone on far too long—although clearly its educational value should not be underestimated. June 29. A great meeting of the rebels today, pleased with the way the slaves are sticking it out but concerned about the lack of activity. The coalies are a tower of strength, now paying a 2 per cent levy. Thrilled by the news of the uprisings in Europe. At a meeting of the AMA a motion was moved by Sam Deed to take a ballot on a return to work. But only two voted for it, and the crowd was in good spirits and actually enjoying the sunshine and the fresh air as a break from the bowels of the earth. July 3. The Federated Engine-Drivers and Firemen’s Association decided to go back to work but, unfortunately for them, there was no work to do. With still no sign of settlement, the members of the Tea and Toasters (The Trades and Trades Laborers, a breakaway of surface workers from the AMA they had received registration under the Trade Union Act of 1881-E.R.) went back to work. So now we are going to picket the mines to stop any funny business. The result: The Tea and Toasters have decided to join the A.M.A. and stay with the strike. We also had a bit of trouble with the Blue Whiskers (the Barrier Workers’ Association, another breakaway from the A.M.A., so named after its leader, who had a reddish beard – E.R.). But we soon busted them. July 15. Having no ore to treat, the Port Pirie smelters have now closed down, something else for the masters to think about! A meeting of industrialists in Sydney have decided to form a new party and Brookfield is in trouble for associating with them. August 25. Reported that Brookfield resigned from the Labor Party over its attitude towards the gaoled I.W.W. men but at the request of the Barrier branch of the party he agreed to withdraw it, but he continues to be at logger heads with the party leaders over his support of a proposal to form a breakaway industrial socialist Labor party for which he was expelled from the Labor Party. The slaves get something to crow about as Brookfield is elected as an Independent, defeating the endorsed Labor Party candidate. By the New Year, there was both good and bad news January 1, 1920. Another year has passed and there is still no settlement of the strike, but there are signs that the bosses are becoming restive as the price of metals begins to rise. A commission has been set up, headed by Professor Henry Chapman, of the University of Sydney, to investigate working conditions in the mines from the standpoint of the health of the slaves. There has also been a conference with the mining companies, who offered a paltry rise in pay. Meanwhile, the slaves fill in their time going to meetings, playing cards in the reserve and going to concerts and dances. I go for rides on my bike and I spend a lot of time reading. I have just been reading Browning and I agree with him that life is but an 188 empty dream. No Truth today, because the boys are on strike. Sometimes I feel I would like to get away from this city of dust, strikes and woe. January 11. Another meeting, but I am getting tired of listening to the same old dope. George Kerr reckons the strike will end this month. But things are now getting pretty tough and I have put my name down for a food coupon again to get some of the necessaries of life. I am spending a lot of time reading, particularly Marx, who explains the ins and outs of the capitalist system, the way the workers are exploited. It convinces me that there is no solution for the problems confronting the wage slaves until they become educated along class lines, develop class consciousness and unite and organise to change the system. But for all his progressive ideas Cogan seems still committed to ‘political’ solutions and has not quite got the message that the workers musts believe in themselves rather than waiting for their leaders to call the shots. It’s good to read of the progress of the Bolsheviks in Russia and of the activities of the Australian Consul, Peter Simonoff, who worked in the mines here. How I long to see Europe flooded with the Bolsheviks’ ideas! January 17. An interesting visit from Albert Willis, the General Secretary of the Miners’ Federation, who told us how the militants walked out of the Labor Party and set up the Industrial Labor Party with the aim of establishing the Socialist Republic of Australia. With Brookfield expelled for supporting it, we will have to set up a branch of the Industrial Labor Party in Broken Hill. Cogan is smart enough to relate, however, that for all the educational benefit of the dispute his fellow workers haven’t learnt all that much after all. December 24. [1920] At last I did get a job and have received my first full pay in eighteen months. But how far will it go? Why can’t they pay us each week instead of having to wait for a fortnight before we get any money? And the job makes me sick anyhow. Especially the slaves. All they can talk about is winning money at the races or the two-up school or about their conquests of women. They don’t seem to be interested in the way they are exploited. January 1, 1921. Another year! What will it bring? I only did a month’s work last year and still many slaves are roaming along the line of lode in search of a job. All countries seem to be in a state of crisis, which may mean the downfall of the capitalist system. But there is much need for educational work. They should read Bellamy’s Parable of the Water Tank which, in simple terms, explains the workings of the capitalist system. Too long have we been chasing the wild wind of reformers that can provide no solution. Learnt of happenings in Victoria through a visit from Bob Heffron” Yes that’s the very Bob Heffron who would go on to be a very conservative Labor Premier of NSW and exceedingly skilled at giving vent to ‘the rather mild wild wind’ of reformist Labor Politics. And so we have come full circle. Cogan, blacklisted at the mine and unable to find alternative work, has to move to Adelaide in search of employment. He has no luck 189 there either – and winds up back in Broken Hill no less militant than before but bitter at the defeat of the union and the murder of Percy Brookfield: March 22 [1921]. Was just preparing to go and hear a talk by John Gunn, the Labor Party’s grand hope, when I heard the paper boys yelling ‘Sensation at Riverton’. Got a paper, and learnt of the shooting of Brookfield on the Riverton railway station, and all Broken Hill is now on edge waiting for news. March 23. And Brookfield is dead. We carried him to the train where there were many Hillites waiting in grief to bid him farewell as his body was being returned to the Barrier. April 12. Very disappointing news from England, where the workers have been sold out, so there will be no revolution. I would love to go to Russia, where the workers are in control. But all I can do is read about it from others, like Phillips Price, Postgate, Brailsford Goode and others. But it is more important to read the works of Lenin which are now coming here, like The State and Revolution. Well, it helps to brighten things a bit while contemplating the dismal picture in Australia. Yet Cogan – despite the defeat of the strike and the hopelessness of his current position – does not despair. February 28, 1922. The industrial situation is as bleak as ever, and the AMA is in a bad way. For the meeting tonight we could not even get a quorum. March 26. It looks as if the Labor Party is well and truly defeated in the Federal elections. I’m sorry about that. I would have liked to see them in power to demonstrate to the workers that they could do nothing for them. Such a statement is a remarkable clear indication that some of the ideas of the IWW about the political bankruptcy of Labor politicians are still alive in the minds of some militant workers as late as 1922. March 28. In the papers today there is a report of Lenin being shot and dying. How sad it will be and how upsetting for the revolution! April 3. Still looking for work, but no luck. A meeting of the AMA decided to join the One Big Union and will now be known as the W.I.U. of A. (Workers Industrial Union of Australia). Let us hope it will be a success. June 2. Much talk locally about the strikes in the shearing and maritime industries in Australia and the struggles of the miners in England. The workers have not given up the fight yet! June 9. It is now nearly six months since I came home, and still no work. The AMA now has only 1,000 financial members. June 26. Reports from the big All Australian Trade Union Congress in Melbourne. A landmark in our history in the moves to bring socialism to Australia. So what importance is a job for Jack Cogan, an unemployed miner of Broken Hill? The struggle goes on 190 That’s the difference between a Labor Party member like Heffron and a genuine rank and file militant. Even though Cogan had probably both picketed and marched through the streets of Broken Hill a thousand times, he refuses to be either too bitter or too totally depressed and defeated— no matter how dire his situation. And Cogan appears to have somehow managed to have been fighting the good fight for a very considerable period of time—for the Sydney radical journal People had (under the headline “IWW CLUB”) been impressed with Cogan’s resistance to complying with compulsory military training as early as 1911. The paper noted the low number of registration of lads for military training at Broken Hill, mention of which had appeared in the papers, The reports, attributing the noncompliance to the anti-militarist crusade carried on by the forward movement at the Hill, was duly discussed –and it was decided to “write an appreciative letter to secretary Cogan desiring the Group to keep in touch with Sydney Club, so that if any proceedings were instituted, as threatened by the Minister for Defence, that a united stand could be made to support the opponents of compulsory conscription.”450 SO WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A DIARY LIKE COGAN’S? Jack Cogan is probably not exactly the sin qua non of Gramsci’s independent-minded revolutionary organic intellectual of the Australian working class. But his diary is about as good as we are ever likely to get. I know of no other first hand extended written record (albeit no doubt edited by Edgar Ross) of the mind of militant worker in the troubled immediate post war period of Australian class conflict. Capitalism may pretend not to be a class system and its ideologues often explicitly deny the existence of class as a social relation. It was once pretty much a given “common sense”, as Gramsci would call it - that Australia was the workers’ paradise. The Department of External Affairs, for example, told potential immigrants in 1915 that they could expect to find “the absence of that violent contrast between rich and poor which is unfortunately so marked a feature in older lands.”451 A future Governor General of Australia no less, R. G, Casey, also claimed in 1949 that “the problem of the relations between an employer and the men and women who work for and with him … is not a political problem but a human problem. It exists wherever there are people who are set in authority over their fellow men, no matter what the political system.”452 And this, on the face of it at least, does seem fair enough –and no doubt there will be continuing ‘Human problems” when the world is turned upside down in some utopian future and the loser now is later to win as the wheel of revolution spins. 450 People (Sydney) Saturday 18 February 1911, p.3 Department of External Affairs, Social Conditions in Australia, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1915, p. 3-4 452 R. G. Casey, The Worker-Boss Problem, Hawthorn Press, Melbourne, 1949, p. 58. 451 191 But whenever (and if) times ever change, whether the first one now will ever later be last remains a very moot point – but, like Jack Cogan - the unemployed miner of Broken Hill in 1922 – one can only hope I suppose and try to mouth Jack Cogan’s slightly less than cheering mantra: An unemployed miner of Broken Hill (and of Coledale and Scarborough and elsewhere in Australia)! The struggle goes on! Traditionally, those on the moderate left (or even some of the small ‘l’ Liberal persuasion) have had a sneaking admiration for the early achievements of Australia’s bourgeois democracy. Influential liberal W. K. Hancock’s Australia celebrated the advance of democracy and nationalism while deprecating levelling influences. Hancock admired the early Australian Labor Party (ALP) as somehow embodying the ideas of democracy and a reformist view that the evils of capitalism could be ameliorated without violence. In his often celebrated 1961 book - simply entitled Australia – the very conservative W. K. Hancock’s even found it possible to praise “the practical men of the Labor Party” who appealed “to the instinct of the Australian people” as opposed to the deluded doctrine that the employing class an the working class have nothing in common.453 For Hancock, Australia is not a class divided society. It is simply a land made up of “the Australian people”. Yet, in his book, Hancock is not simply being a goose - for he is clearly aware that there have been bitter class conflicts in Australian history. Yet he somehow is able to gloss over them as almost being ‘misunderstandings’ fought out at merely the level of ideas rather the reflecting the reality of deeply divided society riven by the fact that some own and control the means of production and others do not.454 The augment is pretty much that, yes, workers and bosses do exist and minor conflicts are inevitable but both trade unions and employer organisations can work a modus operandi which both can comfortably live with. Both the conservative trade unionists and the bosses themselves, however, seem often very keen to avoid the difficult question of whether or not capitalism necessitates class exploitation – or sometimes even if such a thing as exploitation even exists. Even though it is true that a handful of individual on the left of the Labor Party in the early 1920s pushed through a 'socialisation objective’ as part of the platform of the party it is unlikely that more than a tiny handful of its members would have considered that capitalism had to be torn down – lock, stock and barrel. All that most probably thought was necessary was to mitigate some of the more excessive exploitative behaviour of some rogue employers - and the workers’ political representatives would then be able to stop shouting, sit down and relax comfortably on the leather benches in the various seats of parliament with which Australia had by then become infested. 453 454 W. K. Hancock, Australia, Jacaranda, Brisbane, 1961 (1930), p. 182. W. K. Hancock, Australia, Jacaranda, Brisbane, 1961 (1930), pp.44-47 192 Thus any problems with the capitalist system were thus the result of some naughty behaviour on the part of a handful of individuals which the sensible majority could either safely contain or ignore. The common sense message is that the there is no such thing as the class war and that the matter of the right of individuals to exploit the labour of others for profit is simply a non-issue. In short, the view is that ‘we are all in this together’. This "end of ideology" kind of ideology was perhaps, best pronounced back in 1960 in a collection of essays published in America by Daniel Bell entitled The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties.455 He argued that political ideology has become irrelevant among "sensible" people, and that the future lay with pragmatic technocrats. And it indeed seems true that today the Australian political divide between Liberal and Labor had resolved itself in consensus. We are now all supposed to be committed to free markets and ‘safety nets’ for those who fall through the cracks of class society – at least in the rhetoric spun to the voters on election day. Bell’s book was republished by Harvard University Press in 1962 and is considered by the Times Literary Supplement as one of the 100 most influential books since the end of World War Two. It is sometimes considered a landmark in American social thought, and has been regarded as a classic since its first publication in 1962. The Australian Labor Party seems to run with the ideas of both Bell and Francis Fukuyama who – in his book The End of History and the Last Man (1992) - argued that the worldwide spread of liberal democracies and free market capitalism of the West and its lifestyle may signal the end point of humanity's socio-cultural evolution and become the final form of all human government. Curiously, however, while the Australian Labor Party is now an ‘ideology-free zone”, the conservative elements of Australian politics have ramped up its rhetorical divisions a notch and seem to have reclaimed some of the language of class war, spouting the terms "union bosses" and "union thugs" at every opportunity. Indeed, those elements of the right in Australia would now appear to be keen to return to the 1890s when the employers very effectively asserted the right of all (both workers and employers) to “freedom of contract” and to introduce individual contracts under which workers have the right to negotiate away such things as penalty rates, overtime and public holidays. Class society in Australia today, almost by common consent, is probably most commonly defined (if it is ever reluctantly defined at all these days, that is) in terms of the characteristics of individuals – and not social relationships and certainly not by means of such disturbing notions as capitalist exploitation. 455 Daniel Bell, The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties, Free Press, 1960. 193 CONCLUSION THE LEGACY: WOBBLY WOLLONGONG THE BRAVE As might be expected from two villages that were at the epicentre of prolonged radical industrial discontent in NSW, Wobbly militancy hung on for a considerable time in Coledale and Scarborough. 194 Even during WW2 a surprising number of miners from Illawarra's northern colliery villages were unwilling to be pushed around. Absentee Charges Against Mineworkers 70 COALCLIFF MEN FINED Last Friday and Saturday 253 mineworkers of the Metropolitan, Coalcliff and Scarborough Collieries were charged before Mr. C. Pickup, S.M., under the National Security (Coal Control) Regulations with failing to work. On Friday night 120 men from Metropolitan. Colliery were charged at Helensburgh Court with failing to work on August 6th… the men marched from the Miners' hall to the Courthouse, singing to the accompaniment of several mouth organs. They crowded round the outside of the small courthouse, waiting for the court to open, but with the very limited accommodation available to the public, only the lodge officials, together with the district president (Mr. Fred Lowden) were allowed inside.456 What is most impressive, however, is that 67 of the miners were completely defiant and refused to give excuses for the withdrawal of their labour. When the charges against the 133 men at Coalcliff Colliery were called at Wollongong Court on Saturday morning, Mr. Maguire said 67 of the men were in one group while the remainder had individual excuses. The charges, against these '67wen were taken first. They were convicted and each f the following were fined 20/ with 8/- costs in default three days: — Arthur Ainsley, J. Balmforth, J; Boardman, George H. Baker, William Brimelow, John Brimelow [and a further 61 names followed].457 It is hardly an anti-capitalist action—but it was nonetheless a fairly serious challenge to the authority of the State during wartime. What I like, however, is that the “J Boardman” mentioned is actually the first Illawarra man with Wobbly ideas that I ever encountered. His real name was Len Tracey but he’d changed it to Len Boardman because he’d been blacklisted in nearly every colliery in Illawarra. The “J Boardman” is either a misprint or, more likely, Len wanting to be convicted under a different name to the usual ones he’d been sentenced under— even though he was, of course, already using an alias at the time. When I used to see him he was known to most only by the name Len Boardman and—with the demise of the Wobblies—had ended up in both the Unemployed Workers Movement during the Great Depression of the 1930s and was also active in the Communist Party. Indeed, he had even acted - under the name “Mr. L. Boardman “ - as secretary of the Coledale Branch of the Unemployed Workers' Movement in the 1930s. Len, with his long experience of the police would surely have known it was highly unlikely the Federal Government would be willing to lock up 67 men—and, of course, he told me most of his 67 co-workers had no intention of paying the fine and even suspected they were also highly unlikely to be pressed very hard to do so. “On the job direct action was what it was all about”, he told me.458 456 457 South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 20 August 1943, p.2 ibid 195 Len lived out his twilight years reasonably quietly in Thirroul but he had a hard time of it in the early years. It seemed to me there was clearly a price to pay for being a Wobbly. Ironically, Bill Casey and James Sproston, the two individuals who appear to have, relatively speaking, come out best (both ideologically and personally) from the events relating to the activities of the IWW in Illawarra and elsewhere were almost certainly never actually members of the Industrial Worker of the World themselves. This demonstrates, I think, the real value of radical propaganda. Intelligent individuals absorb the best of the ideas but both remain out of prison and are able to criticise wrong-headed strategies from a position of non-party independence. They may then prove unable to challenge capitalism— for nothing is weaker than the feeble strength of one—but their ideas and actions can sometimes have a deep influence on their local communities and organisations. Casey, Sproston and the Roach family of Coledale— in different ways—may even have had, briefly, a significant ideological impact on Australian society. Casey, as previously outlined above, remained a much-admired independent rank and file militant in a Seamen’s Union then dominated by a Communist Party leadership. Sproston seems to have confidently and articulately continued to speak out publicly against whatever unfairness and injustice he observed in every community with which he as associated. Ted Roach added a touch of internationalism (something most seamen – though not so often wharfies—often also possessed) to the militant ideology of the Waterside Workers Federation—particularly in relation to loading of Dutch shipping during the Indonesian struggle for independence. He also, of course, famously led what is possibly the only genuinely purely political strike in Australian history during the Dalfram Dispute at Port Kembla. But even Ted Roach was done in by the system. As Gary Griffiths explained at the time of Ted’s death in 1997. As a result of his militant trade union activity Roach spent time in prison on two occasions. In 1949 at the time of the Miner’s strike, Roach was found to be in contempt of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration when he withdrew union funds to pay strike pay to three Federation branches (including Port Kembla), which had taken action in support of the miners. Roach refused to hand over the strike money. When he attempted to show cause as to why he shouldn’t be sentenced he was interrupted by Justice Foster who stated, “It is the law!” Roach replied, “Yes your Honour, it is the law to starve the miner’s wives and their kids.” Along with Jim Healy, Roach spent six weeks in prison. In 1951, during the Basic Wage Case, Roach was 458 Personal conversation 3 August, 1974; see also Leonard Boardman – Unemployed Workers Movement 1929-33. 40 minutes. Oral history recordings Collection - UOW Archives Interviewee: Leonard Boardman. Interviewer: Heather Williamson [now known as Heather Bailey] 196 again found to be in contempt. This time he spent 9 months and 18 days in isolation in Long Bay.459 Ted Roach himself once told me that he felt appalled that the leadership of the Waterside Workers Federation didn’t do more to get him released earlier from that nine-month sentence. I sensed that he felt genuinely betrayed by his comrades. This fits in pretty well with the run-in Roach earlier had with Big Jim Healy during the Dalfram dispute as Roach explained to Greg Mallory in 1990. According to Roach: “The Committee of Management wanted to order us back, but, of course, Healy knew he was not dealing with the people he always dealt with and he said to the Committee of Management, you’ve got to come down and order them back yourselves. Well, then, I was the first cab off the rank to the meeting and by the time I went down I had ‘em guaranteeing, I got ‘em into a guarantee of 3000 pounds worth of food – it was only a guarantee, but it was a political victory for us down there over the bloody right-wing Committee of Management.”460 This is something that traditional Labor Party historians frequently fail to grasp. The Australian Communist Party was not especially radical and there, indeed, were many right wing communists. It is only the Wobblesque radicals of the like of Ted Roach who pose a genuine threat to the capitalist system in that they genuinely detest capitalism as a system and truly wish to see it done away with. The environment in which Ted Roach grew up—with his father’s political lectures at the breakfast table often being served instead of food— in a climate of continual strikes and disputes throughout WW1 must have made their mark on the young Edward Charles Roach when he gained the leadership of the Wharfies soon after his arrival at Port Kembla. Unlike traditional trade union leaders who often tried to rest on their laurels for as long a possible after an industrial victory of one kind or another, Ted Roach believed in perpetual contestation of the bosses’ right to tell workers what to do. Roach expressed his approach in the following characteristically forthright manner. The facts are that we waged consistent campaigns with something happening every day. In the nine months from the date of my election as Branch Secretary on 1st March, 1938, we destroyed the vicious “Bull System” of job selection: We kept setting short programs of immediate demands. We established rosters of employment for both union and casual workers. We established bus transport from Wollongong/Kembla, no work in rain, safety, job delegates, and conditions too innumerable to mention here. We were not satisfied in winning a new condition for the sake of it, but ensured that collective discussion to draw the necessary conclusions took place and thus preparing for the next steps. We linked strict discipline with 459 Gary Griffith, “Obituary: Ted Roach (1909-1997), Illawarra Unity, Volume 1, Number 2, June 1997, p.33 460 Greg Mallory, Roach Interview, September, 1990 quoted in “The 1938 Dalfram Pig-iron Dispute and Wharfies Leader, Ted Roach,” The Hummer Vol. 3, No. 2 – Winter 1999, accessed 13 May 2016, http://asslh.org.au/hummer/vol-3-no-2/dalfram-pig-iron/ 197 policy to ensure that policy, after being determined, was carried out by every member. In this way we were able to develop a high level of politico-militant industrial understanding.461 And just as Bill Casey was praised by one of Australia’s foremost legal brains, Sir Isaac Isaacs (High Court judge and the first Australian-born Governor General) had this to say (in his booklet Australian Democracy and the Constitutional System) about the example set by the leadership of Ted Roach at Port Kembla. It is wholly contrary to British Democracy to coerce a private citizen to do something not requested of him by law, simply because it is the policy of the Government – however unconscientious that may be that is a dictator’s rule. The Government had used the economic pressure of possible starvation to force the men to act against their conscience.462 Sir Isaacs Isaacs' admiration for the principled stand taken at Port Kembla could hardly have been greater. So surprising was his vehemence that the Illawarra Mercury quoted Isaacs’ views at considerable length. ECHO OF DALFRAM DISPUTE OPINION OF SIR ISAAC ISAACS SAYS IT WILL RANK WITH EUREKA STOCKADE A former Governor-General and Chief Justice of the High Court, Sir Isaac Isaacs, has had published a booklet, 'Australian Democracy and Our Constitutional System.'463 In it, Sir Isaac writes: '1 believe that Port Kembla, with its sturdy but peaceful and altogether disinterested attitude of the men concerned, will find a place in our history beside the Eureka Stockade, with its more violent resistance of a less settled time, as a noble stand against Executive dictatorship and against an attack on Australian democracy. 'When all its bearings are taken into account, this incident is, in my opinion, one of the most regrettable in the whole history of the Executive Government of the Commonwealth. 'The facts are well-known. Water side workers at Port Kembla, not bound by law or contract to load pig iron, refused to contract to put on board the Dalfram, a British ship bound for Japan, with 7000 tons of pig iron. It was part of 23,000 tons of Australian pig-iron purchased by a Japanese firm during the present war between Japan, and China. The iron was consigned to the Japanese firm but the Federal Government, as well as the Waterside Workers' Federation, fully realised (and, indeed, as the Government's reasons for refusing prohibition admit) that the iron was destined not for trade purposes but to the Japanese Government for war purposes. 'The men refused to engage to put the iron on board solely because they would, as they conscientiously believed, thereby become accessories in helping Japan in a war of aggression and in bombing inoffensive Chinese civilians. 'The Government intervened to force them to load the pig-iron under a statutory power, which I cannot believe an Australian Parliament ever intended to be used for such a purpose, the Government applied to the men and their families what I would describe as the economic pressure of possible starvation — unless, contrary to their conscience, the men helped to despatch the pig-iron for the use of the Japanese Government. 461 Edward (Ted).C. Roach, “Menzies and Pig Iron for Japan”, Talk given at the Labour History Conference, Newcastle, 26 June 1993 published in The Hummer Vol. 2, No. 2 – Winter 1994, p.7 accessed 29th April 2016 at http://asslh.org.au/hummer/vol-2-no-2/pig-iron/ 462 Quoted by Roach himself, ibid. 463 Isaac Isaacs, Australian Democracy and Our Constitutional System, Melbourne: Horticultural Press, 1939 198 'How is the penalty, morally to be justified in accordance with the democracy we are rightly asked to defend? 'After a gallant resistance, the men have yielded to a form of force that, I have sufficient confidence in Parliament to say, would not in spite of party ties have been allowed to prevail had that body been permitted to function. 'For myself, I honor the men who stood out as long as they could and those who supported them. They went far - and, with sincerity of heart and purity of motive, sacrificed much to vindicate, for the whole Australian community, a general humanitarian sentiment and the right-to insist on personal freedom of conscience where unrestrained by law. 'The attempted justification put forward by the Government was that it was Government policy that the iron should be despatched, and that the men in refusing to carry out that policy were justly open to the penalty. DICTATOR'S RULE 'That is a dictator's rule. Let us test it by an example or two,' Sir Isaac continued: 'Suppose some Japanese firm had wished during the war to advertise in some newspaper for pigiron and the proprietors of the newspaper had conscientiously refused to insert the advertisement? Would then the Australian Government be morally justified to enforce its policy by declining to carry the journal in the mails? Should we then not have an outcry against dictatorial tyranny, to say nothing of the assault on the conscience? 'Is there to be a different measure for a humble worker whose only capital is his labor, and whose only resources consist of his daily or hourly wage? . ? ' The 'policy' as stated in the official statement given by the representative of the Government is gravely disappointing, affording no moral or legal excuse for the dreadful consequences of that 'policy' as carried into execution. As a 'sop' by way of appeasement, it appears both humiliating and futile and when we remember that we are told that peace, is hanging by a thread it becomes conceivably dangerous to ourselves.' ' Sir Isaac considered that the Government's policy was 'not to prohibit but, on the contrary, to compel the supply of pig-iron-to Japan for war purposes. The Government's references to the need for' preserving the 'ordinary flow' of 'trade' and the suggestion that 23,000 tons of pig-iron can have no material effect on what it euphemistically calls a 'dispute' —though the Council of the League of Nations has decided that it is war, and the facts prove it to be war of dreadful character— would, with all respect, better have never been made. ' Does any Australian who contemplates what 23,000 tons means in the way of bombs, on civilians consider it satisfactory or in consonance with the noble standards, of democracy? 'The Port Kembla coercion was an act of the Commonwealth in its corporate capacity and was an unequivocal intervention on the side of Japan. It was, as I view it, a direct aid to that country,' Sir Isaac wrote.464 Principled radicalism like that displayed by Ted Roach and Bill Casey and even—in his own very quiet Presbyterian way by James Sproston—are sadly pretty thin on the ground in Wollongong today. 464 Illawarra Mercury, 14 April 1939, p.6 199 But it’s easy to understand why—for the personal toll of challenging the State and engaging in activism with the aim of threatening capitalism is usually considerable. What’s more extraordinary, however, is that today a dismal complacency seems to have set in. The Labor Party now has leaders who pose zero threat to the capitalist system and operate under the delusion that a presumed widespread increasing affluence, social peace and equality of opportunity (although certainly not any notion that equality per se—rather than just opportunity— is the ‘light on the hill’) is now a permanent feature of Australian capitalism, rather than the relatively brief historical aberration it almost certainly is or was. The Wobblies and their supporters in northern Illawarra might have thought that a better world than simply a mildly reformed laissez faire capitalism was possible (and even had a go at fighting for one) but their great grandchildren—if they can still afford to live in what are now very expensive beachside suburbs—show little such enthusiasm. Worse still, they often display an uncritical satisfaction (or at least passive acceptance) with being burdened and indebted for useless university degrees, non-union workplaces, zero-hours employment contracts and a lifetime of paying such incredibly excessive inner city rents close to where most of the jobs are that they will be precluded from home ownership for ever. To add injury to insult, the baby boomer generation which benefitted most from the long boom in Australian capitalism from about 1954 until about 1972 has sat idly by while the security that either the possibility of outright home ownership (or at least access to State funded housing commission rentals) has been stripped away from their children. One would have thought that at least some of the real human advances of the post-war era in Australia would have seeped into the consciousness of all: universal free public education, free merit-based university tuition, generous defined-benefit superannuation schemes for public servants and progress to a liveable old-age pension at age 60 for those without access to super. For a while there it was even mooted that capitalist technological progress would be of such magnitude that work would need to be rationed so that everyone would be able to work part-time as the needs of society could be met without the need for a 40 hour five day week. Instead – event the notion of the eight hour day seems fanciful to a large proportion of Australian workers in an economy where being seen to be the first to arrive and the last to leave a workplace is somehow considered a measure of virtue. Indeed, most people (if they have even heard of them, that is) would probably assume the Wobbly ideology is almost completely dead—yet one has only to think of the fiercely independent intelligence of Edward Snowden and Australia’s own Julian Assange to see that there are still some today who, while not actually Wobblies, do not support the status quo and are willing to challenge it in dramatic ways which open them to both persecution and prosecution throughout the world. WORKINGMAN, UNITE! By E. S. Nelson (Tune: "Red Wing.") 200 Conditions they are bad, And some of you are sad; You cannot see your enemy, The class that lives in luxury, You workingmen are poor, Will be forevermore, As long as you permit the few To guide your destiny. Shall we still be slaves and work for wages? It is outrageous—has been for ages; This earth by right belongs to toilers, And not to spoilers of liberty. The master class is small, But they have lots of "gall." When we unite to gain our right, If they resist we'll use our might; There is no middle ground This fight must be one round To victory, for liberty, Our class is marching on! Workingmen, unite! We must put up a fight, To make us free from slavery And capitalistic tyranny; This fight is not in vain, We've got a world to gain. Will you be a fool, a capitalist tool, And serve your enemy? Some people, like Snowden and Assange, are willing to do great and brave things in the face of oppression. Today, however, they both face fates much worse than the simple deportation to which individuals such as IWW member Tom Barker and many other Australian residents were subjected. Both Assange and Snowden have been rendered Stateless (in defacto if not dejure terms) and Snowden may never be able to leave Putin’s Russia while Assange may be left to rot forever in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Some others simply write songs and a few pamphlets. One of the latter was the American Wobbly, E.S. Nelson - a Swede who wrote the words “Workingmen Unite” and was active in the north west of the Unites States in the eight-hour day campaign. Nelson’s legacy is the song printed above, written in 1908 and published in the first edition of the IWW songbook—and also his two once popular pamphlets: The Eight Hour Day and Appeal to Wage earners: a statement of IWW principles and methods or Appeal to wage workers, men and women by E.S. Nelson.465 Some Australians, however, might even consider the 1960s struggle against conscription as the last gasp of Wobbly influence in Australia. Or perhaps the ‘dropout self-sufficiency movement which began to develop on hippie communes in northern NSW and the United States is a better parallel. 465 The latter was also published in 1913 by the American IWW Publishing Bureau as a four-page leaflet Appeal to Wage Workers, Men and Women in Swedish, Hungarian, and Slovak translations. 201 But even that now seems long ago and far away in both Australia and America. It’s hard to imagine today what would cause a group of five very respectable Wollongong women to chain themselves to the railings inside Parliament House as occurred during the antic-conscription campaign in 1970.466 And back in the 1970s there were even elements in the trade union movement who seemed to be motivated by what might be seen as Wobbly principles. In industrial disputes, Norm Gallagher’s Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) became notorious for its “guerrilla tactics”. Mostly the union's members would simply walk off the job in the midst of a concrete pour, resulting in the immediate loss of millions of dollars to the developers. Terry Cook argues that Gallagher “helped to convince workers that they simply had no need of politics—any problem could be overcome by going on strike.”467 The building companies soon learnt it was cheaper to play ball with Gallagher than to quibble over concessions. And, perhaps, a more noble example of a man apparently inspired by Wobbly principles is Joe Owens of the NSW BLF. Like Tom Barker he left England as a merchant seamen and ended up an activist in New Zealand. Later he worked in the building industry in Queensland. By 1970, Owens became assistant state secretary of the BLF NSW branch on a grassroots team with president Bob Pringle and secretary Jack Mundey. They were determined to democratise the union and give members a greater voice through limited tenure for the executive—a move that not only worried big business and government, but other union leaders (and also ensured their own demise). Jack Mundey described Owens, who succeeded him as BLF NSW secretary in 1973, as a ''great believer'' in workers' rights and ''that ordinary people have a say in society''. Green bans activist and conservative Labor Party MLC, Dr Meredith Burgmann suggests that, ''Although the philosophical force behind the green bans was certainly Jack Mundey, the actual physical struggle was largely commanded by Joe Owens … Joe being arrested on picket lines or during occupations was a familiar sight during this time.'' Ironically, Owens was blacklisted—not by the employers— but by the federal branch of the BLF, led by Norm Gallagher, who removed Owens and his executive, claiming they had overstepped the bounds of traditional union business.”468 In Illawarra’s northern suburbs the only spark of resistance in recent times has been the brilliance with which Jess Moore has acted as the public face and co-founder of the “Stop CSG Illawarra” campaign. “After arriving from Sydney to study psychology, Ms Moore later switched to philosophy and politics at the University of 466 “Women in chains protest”, The Canberra Times, 12 June 1970, p.1. Terry Cook, “A lesson in the failure of syndicalism: Australian union leader Norm Gallagher dies at 67”, 6 January 2000. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2000/01/gall-j06.html Accessed 20 March, 2016. 468 Dani Cooper, “Joe Owens (1935-2012): Front-line fighter for workers' rights”, Sydney Morning Herald, September 29, 2012 467 202 Wollongong in 2005 and soon became involved in campaigns and was elected president of the student union.469 Impressively, she has to date refused a mainstream political career despite being courted by the Australian Labor Party and putting herself up as an unwinnable Socialist Alliance candidate for the Cunningham electorate. While blotting her copybook in terms of Wobbly street-cred - in that she was willing to run for parliament - Jess Moore still argues that “the Stop CSG movement was not about political advancement but about campaigning for policy change, and that interest in her showed that the movement was successful.” She says, “It tells me that major political parties are desperate to be associated with such a vital campaign.’”470 Ms Moore now lives in the northern suburbs with her partner, Chris Williams (also a leading CSG campaigner)—and earns a basic living from teaching, tutoring, lecturing and organising a migrant-led recycling program. The rest of her time is devoted to stopping Apex Energy drilling for gas on water catchment land from Darkes Forest to the escarpment behind Coledale and Austinmer and, for the moment at least, she has been successful. Sadly, however, history teaches us that while it is possible for radicals to sometimes delay things it is often difficult to stop them dead in their tracks. One of the few successful campaigns in more recent times was the ‘Stop Clutha’ protest, headed up by a right wing Labor Party member, Jim Hagan, which succeeded in preventing a coal jetty being built off Coalcliff near Stanwell Park when the building unions declared all work on the project black—even before it got started. It was a pioneering environmental campaign –predating the BLF Green bans— but has also had the unintended undesirable side effect of far removing the local real estate (with its million dollar ocean views) from the possible reach of the impoverished wage slaves of Illawarra. Some might argue that the Wollongong Socialist Workers Party-inspired ‘Jobs For Women” campaign was a great success – and it did indeed result in a very significant High Court victory.471 Unfortunately, however, the greater dream of ‘equal pay for women’ has met with much less success. In 2016 the gender pay gap remains a wide one— with a full-time earning difference of some $277.70 per week amounting to a pay gap of 17.3%.472 A surprising (and reasonably recent) local grassroots example of the triumph of community as opposed to parliamentary politics was the Cringila Coal Dump campaign in the 1980s—a struggle that may have won some additional support had the Wobblies still been around.473 And even more impressive underground campaign 469 Illawarra Mercury, March 17, 2013. Illawarra Mercury, December 20, 2011 471 See Diana Covell, “History making - participants beware!: The Wollongong jobs for women campaign”, The Oral History Association of Australia Journal, No. 24, 2002: 72-75 472 Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016), Average Weekly Earnings accessed 27th April 2016 at https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/Gender_Pay_Gap_Factsheet.pdf 473 The Sydney Morning Herald, February 1, 1983, p.11. See also Glenn Mitchell, “The Cringila Coalwash Dump. Industrial Waste Disposal and the Port Kembla Steelworks: The Triumph of 470 203 which is likely to have won Wobbly approval was the smuggling of Wollongong Draft Resisters during the Vietnam War—something for which I had to sometimes to be kicked out of my bedroom so it could be occupied by a draft resister whom my father would arrange to take to the Port Kembla wharves in the early hours of the morning to stowaway to Melbourne where they would be taken to yet another house and then on to Adelaide, Fremantle or other Australian ports in order to escape arrest. The international IWW legacy today (if it even exists) would seem to be a very patchy, unorthodox and largely ungovernable one. It might even, possibly, be seen to be present in the antics of an internationally famous celebrity comedian like Russell Brand (the man who described his former wife, pop star Katy Perry, as “'vapid, vacuous and plastic”) but who himself very publicly became politicised and adopted something very close to a Wobbly-inspired political philosophy. The more people have access to their own communities, their own resources, running their own places of work, running their own residences — the better it is. These machines are here to serve us. If the machines don't serve us, switch the machines off. By 'us,' I mean the vast majority of people. 474 I think, in a sense, we are all in politics, we are all responsible for our communities, we are all responsible for own lives. I don’t think we can outsource the management of our communities. I think the last century has demonstrated that when we outsource our interests to economic elites they will not treat us well. This is what has been proven. The situation in your country, the situation in my country or in America – to varying degrees we are all suffering because ordinary people have no access to power. We are being divided and invited to dislike each other on the basis of gender, religion, race or creed. We are one planet, one people and we must create our own communities and our own politics.475 But we are not one parliament right [asked interviewer Walid Ali rhetorically] so would you do the parliament thing? Russel Brand responded: “I don’t like that bit.” And while thinking of comedians, some slight legacy of the propagation of Wobbly ideology in Wollongong today may actually have been present within the comic creation, Norman Gunston, who once sang the following lyrics in a very wobbly way. You may laugh - say we pong But to me it’s Wollongong Wollongong the brave476 The point of all that has been related in this study, however, is not simply to tell a tale of an old working class community. Community Politics or the Failure of Environmental Consciousness?”, Ecopolitics II, Centre for Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania, 23 May 1987. Published in Conference Proceedings. 474 Vandita, “Russell Brand Calls For A Revolution”, We are Anonymous, 31 July, 2015;, http://anonhq.com/russell-brand-calls-for-a-revolution/ website and video accessed 20 March 2006. See also his manifesto: Russell Brand, Revolution, Cornstone Books, 2014. 475 Russell Brand interview on Australian TV Programme “the Project (16/10/2015) at 9.28-1024 minutes, accessed 14 may 2016 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_igJXczO9w 476 From “Wollongong the Brave”, lyrics by Grahame Bond, Rory O'Donoghue and Maurice Murphy 204 I can see no point in celebrating the Scarborough and Coledale Wobblies and their historically atypical context—and then trying to pass it off as another great moment in Wollongong’s supposedly radical working class heritage. If anything approaching the Wobbly vision is ever to be built again in Illawarra then it will probably be by those who have no real investment in the past, and no fond memory of it. That, of course, is not to say that they will be building on nothing. There is still, perhaps, something of the radical anti-capitalist Wobbly vision which might be conserved. It is uncertain, however, precisely how that will play out amid the rampant individualistic non-unionised capitalism of the world of ‘Uber’ and the new ways of making money heralded through start-ups like ‘Airtasker’ that try to strike a balance between the supply and demand of time and jobs in modern capitalism society. Maybe the ‘Uber’ slogan of “Drive Your Car & Be Your Own Boss‎” somehow encompasses a tiny kernel of the IWW’s dislike of bosses and the need for practical on-the-job solutions to the dilemmas of working lives. But it’s very hard to see it. Society has become so radically atomised—yet then again it possibly always was. Men and women are social creatures— but the society they have created is made up of competing individuals. That small window of opportunistic solidarity and the polemical political peer-pressure that could be exerted by a handful of Wobbly activists in the two south coast coal mining townships between 1914 and 1919 is unlikely to ever be repeated in the northern suburbs of Wollongong. Indeed, the exorbitant prices which the land on which the former miners’ squats and hovels once stood now fetches has forced out all but the very wealthy— or their fortunate children who inherit sufficient funds from their parents to either retain or buy it. With trade unionism now moribund, the rich legal eagles who work on the ‘Fair Work Commission’ and their affluent trade union leader lovers are now much more likely to wash up in Scarborough than a bunch of itinerant members of Illawarra’s underclass. Just a few days ago, in April 2016, I sighted my first homeless person in Illawarra’s northern suburbs—a middle aged woman with her shopping trolley and bags - rather wet and seeking refuge from the rain. And yet the northern suburbs of Illawarra today also boasts a range of sometimes unoccupied bed and breakfast and holiday accommodation. With the distressed Australian welfare state now in disarray and sometimes in compete tatters, it is hard to know if the day will ever come again when a tiny group of individuals inspired by an anti-capitalist ideology will again extol their views in a northern Illawarra community. With so many of the young now lumbered with debts for useless university degrees along with hire purchase repayments for clapped out consumer items and cars, it’s hard to see how they will ever get a rung back on that inspirational aberrant ladder 205 which characterised the long boom of capitalism when it was sometimes possible for even common labourers to attain home ownership. Few today seem to care for the homeless and vulnerable. It seems they are just not rich enough to matter in this wonderful society of ours. It would seem that - to the neo-coms - such individuals simply don’t make financial sense. And I am reminded of this every time I see a house empty - or only available for holiday-rentals and now far out of the economic reach of ordinary people. I once saw a slogan that read, “People Need Homes. Homes Need people.” It’s trite but true. Yet the gap between the haves and the have-nots of Australian society seems today as wide as ever – if not dramatically wider than in the early 1970s. But it is not enough for Jaffas like myself (Jaffa for those not in the know is an acronym for ‘Just Another Fucking Academic') to - as Shakespeare expressed it in Richard II - “sit upon the ground and tell sad tales” of the almost complete demise of whatever was still left of the Wobbly spirit in Wollongong. But I know not the answer—or what else to do? Capitalism, as Marx himself recognised, is so dynamic it seems capable of both surviving and reinventing itself with each successive crisis. That period between 1914 and 1919 in northern Illawarra has almost passed its centenary— and its industrial strategies may now be also well past their use-by date. I thus remain unsure whether there was even much point in charting those long lost days of wonder when spirits still flew and a handful of Wobblies conspired in halfdarkened rooms in northern Illawarra—a time when in the mines and in the bush and on the beaches some few ordinary (yet extraordinary) men and women momentarily sought both solace and a better non-capitalist life for themselves and their families. Their dream of equality, however, seems as elusive as ever. What’s more, very few people today seem sufficiently appalled about the fact that some still have the right—and the power and the privilege—to exploit the labour of others. Perhaps there is some slight comfort in remembering the handful of individuals who once dreamed of a more equal society and were willing to fight those who chose to exploit the labour power and the creative energies of others—in order to extract the surplus value that enables entrepreneurs to amass capitalist profits. But if there is, then it is a very slight—and a very cold comfort indeed. For who today is capable—or even dreams of being capable—of expropriating the expropriators? 206 / Illawarra Miners making a show of force near the corner (and just to the west) of Crown and Church Streets on the day of the Trial of Frederick Lowden and James McEnaney in September 1917 (private collection) APPENDIX 1 Police Station Helensburgh 207 Subject:- Further Report as to whether IWW doctrines have made much headway at Helensburgh I beg to report that at the time of taking charge over Helensburgh in November 1917, the “Big Strike’ had terminated, but rumour was current that up to, and during the strike, expressions of sympathy with IWW doctrines were freely uttered. The ringleaders in these utterances were said to be the brothers, William and Thomas Williams,477 together with Max Beresford Ferguson, John Minahan, Samuel Heasley (known as Yankey Sam), William Suscavage (Russian), Alexander Kirkwood (known as Sandy Kirkwood) and Charles Josland. These men were not allowed to re-start after the trouble, owing to their attitude and influence over the younger men during the strike; but they remained at Helensburgh for some time drawing victimized pay from the Miners Union, eventually leaving the district. The Williams Bros. going to Bulli (where Thomas is still working, William having gone to Queensland), Max Ferguson to Sydney, (he has a property in Petersham) J Minahan and Samuel Heasley, to Queensland; William Suscavage,478 to Newnes; Alex. Kirkwood to South Kensington where he is keeping a fruit shop.479 Charles Josland returned to Helensburgh and is now back at the mine, having promised the manager to refrain from again taking part in, or attempting to cause trouble at the mine.480 From the time of the departure of these men from the district, up to the present, very little has been heard of the I.W.W. doctrines, but still there is amongst the miners a 477 Thomas Williams was convicted of being “riotous” at Helensburgh in June 1913 and also of being “drunk and disorderly” in the same year and fined 10 shillings and 20 shillings respectively (South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 20 June, p. 11 and 15 Aug 1913, p.12) 478 Suscavage was almost certainly not a member of the IWW. He eventually ended up in Tasmania and applied for naturalisation in 1925: “I, WILLIAM SUSCAVAGE, of Lithuanian nationality, born at Wilkaviskl, and resident for 13 years in Australia, now residing at Catamaran, Southern Tasmania, intend to apply for naturalisation under the Commonwealth Nationality Act, 1920-1925” (The Hobart Mercury, 4 August 1927, p.1). He had left for Hobart from Brisbane on board a ship named “Hobson’s Bay” (bound for London) in May 1925 (The Brisbane Telegraph, 21 May 1925, p.3). The Hobson’s Bay was an Australian Commonwealth Line vessel and arrived in Hobart on 23 May, 1925 (The Hobart Mercury, 23 May 1925, p.4 479 This is an even better example of how wrong the police’s information could be. Even though Kirkwood was a miner’s union delegate in 1916, he was a total conservative (and soon to become a fruit shop proprietor to boot) and had actually been President of the “Helensburgh Patriotic Committee” which “welcomed the men who had made a name for themselves in doing their duty to their country and Empire” (South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 12 January 1917, p.9). Moreover, it was Kirkwood himself who had gone character witness for Suscavage and travelled back to Helensburgh from Kensington in order to point out to the court that he “was sure” Suscavage was not only not a member of the IWW but did not even “understand what I.W.W. meant” (South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 22 February, 1918, p.9) 480 Josland remained President of the Helensburgh Workmen’ Club at the time of this police report. He lived on at Helensburgh, and even became a respected conservative on Bulli Shire Council, until his death in 1952 (South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 3 September, 1943, p.11). If he ever was an IWW sympathiser it did not last long. He also managed to become “returning officer “ for the “Southern District Branch of Miners' Federation” (South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus, 26 November, 1937, p.24). It is possible that he may even have become a paid police informer as a condition for his reinstatement at the mine. 208 small minority with a leaning towards the doctrines as well as a strong sympathy with Sinn Fein aims and objects. Whatever may have been implied or expressed prior to and during the strike, I can safely say that from November 1917 up to the present, I.W.W. doctrines have been rarely discussed at Helensburgh, which will go to show that the leanings towards the Organisation have diminished since the departure from the district of the ringleaders referred to. The Officer in Charge of Police Parramatta. Signed Wm Loftus Sergeant 3/c. Police Station Helensburgh, 17th June, 1919 Subject:- Second Confidential Report re. Helensburgh I beg to again report fro the information of the Inspector General of Police:I am pleased to be able, after a further twelve months experience as C.I.C. of Police at Helensburgh, to fully justify the favourable comment contained in my first report of 2-6-1918. The social temperament of the community, as a coal mining centre with a prosperous industry absorbing about 500 employees, highly paid, under good working conditions, out of a population of about 3000, might best be gauged from the strength of the following Organisations established viz:Australian Protestant Alliance – Members – 220 Grand United Order of Odd-fellows 150 Loyal Orange Lodge 50 Irish National Foresters 50 Ancient Order of Druids 40 A big majority of the members of these Societies may be classed as well-behaved law-abiding townsmen. The small minority, coming principally from the ranks of the Irish National Foresters, are of the dissatisfied class, but show no inclination to defy law and order, but have no desire to recognise King or Country, due mainly to ignorance. Social loyalty is very pronounced, considering the mixture of religious persuasions viz:- Church of England, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Roman Catholic. Each help the other when occasion arises, but this feeling of harmony was temporarily disturbed in July of last year when the financial results of the three day Bazaar did not come up to expectations due, it was said, to the public utterances of Arch-Bishop Mannix, at about that time. Other associations, clubs &c. hold well together with an approximate membership as follows:- 209 Workmans Club (with liquor license) Rifle Club School of Arts Town Band Thistle Football Club Boy Scouts Surf Club 260 40 50 30 35 25 25 During the past year two short strikes occurred each of 6 days duration in January and February. On each occasion the trouble arose amongst the wheelers, and was not countenanced by the miners to whom credit is due for on each occasion passing resolutions at meetings, thus forcing the boys back to work. The recent Pneumonic Influenza restrictions had to be applied whereby the miners were compelled to wear masks in public places, in addition to having to forego visits to hotels, and comply with all restrictions in common with other places within the County of Cumberland, and I must say I was most agreeably surprised at the loyal manner in which all Proclamations were obeyed when made known and explained; As an instance, when the mask Proclamation was issued, many miners thought it unnecessary to wear a mask when going to, and returning, from work, in consequence of which, I paid a visit to the mine entrance off the main road at knock off time. About 200 miners were taken as they came out, and not one refused, or showed any opposition when asked civilly for his name. I visited the same place again the following evening, and found each man properly masked as he came out on to the road, and no further need of caution was necessary as to their wearing a mask. Under the restrictions (which were enforced to the letter) I have to report that the conduct of Helensburgh inhabitants was excellent throughout. During the year Patriotic functions were always well attended, as an instance, a concert was arranged to provide £20 for a life policy for a local school recruit who had volunteered for the front, - 600 attended, and £37 was raised. Support was afforded the Police “Jacks Day” Art Union when 400 tickets @1/- were purchased, and again 402 tickets in the recent Police and Firemen’s Hospital Art Union. During October last, the “Tank” arrived on the 7th War Loan tour of the Coast; the speakers received a patient hearing, but were disappointed at the poor result until it was explained that the town had been canvassed, and nearly £4000 subscribed up to that date. The Miner’s Club Liquor Licence, which lapsed in December of 1917, was applied for, and granted, in July 1918, and the conduct of the Club with a membership of 260, is everything that can be desired. Soldiers returning from the front, are given a hearty welcome home as they arrive, and publically presented with a gold medal by the local Patriotic Association [led by the aforementioned ‘radical’ Charles Josland] and the recipients former positions readily made available to them at the Colliery where matters generally appear to be working smoothly between the men and the management. The Inspector General of Police Sydney signed Wm Loftus Sergeant 3/c. 210 APPENDIX 2 WICKHAM ELECTORATE. MR. PATTINSON’S CANDIDATURE. Mr. C. Pattinson, the selected P.L.L. candidate for Wickham, commenced his campaign in the school of arts, Wickham, last night. Mr. A. L Marshall, secretary of the Newcastle Federal Electorate Council presided. Mr. Pattinson said that though he was the selected candidate, he had not sought it. He had been living in Helensburgh when the non-conscription fight was on, and took a little part in that. When he returned to Helensburgh his work had gone. He had been asked to stand for Wickham, and had secured endorsement. He was an Industrialist member of the P.L.L. [Labor Party] and belonged to the C.E.F. [Collieries Employees Association]. He belonged to no other organisation, and he held positions of trust in the unions. That much he desired to say personally. As to the political situation, Mr. Grahame had not delivered any policy speech, and all that he had said so far was that he did not want to see the conscription issue again raised. Mr. Holman, in his opening at Gunnedah, was said to have outlined a safe middle-course policy that all could follow. The same man had said that he had become a labour man. but was so no longer. It did not need Mr. Holman to tell them that. When Parliament had been prolonged, the people were told that this was desirable in order to have the prejudices that had been raised by the conscription issue have time to die down. The people were. it was said, not in a frame of mind that would enable them to have an election. This was so much "guff." Neither Mr. Wade nor Mr. Holman were considering the welfare of the people when they arranged the prolongation of Parliament. It was done for reasons of expediency to enable these men to save their skins and billets. Mr. Holman had sprung the election on them, knowing that thousands of people would be disenfranchised. Mr. Holman had tried to take them unawares, but he would find himself mistaken. He would not succeed. The Labour party were quite optimistic. They felt they were going through with the fight, and would win right out. The Nationalist Party had been formed specially to find a refuge for Mr. Holman, Mr. Hall, Mr. Grahame, and others. There could be no more despicable object on earth than a Labour leader selling himself for place and pay to those who had been his lifelong opponents. Could such a man be trusted - a man who would go over to his enemies whom he had for twenty years been fighting. See what had been brought about. There was Mr. Cann, pitch-forked into a Railway Commissionership; Mr. Wade, too ill to take office, but not to take the Agent-Generalship; and Mr. Beeby, put in the Upper House with a portfolio. So of others. The real intrigues that went on in the Cabinet possibly never would be known. Yet these people were being held up by the press as men of integrity, who could be worthily followed. The workers could be properly and adequately represented only by the workers, from whose ranks the representatives should be elected. The majority of the members of the Nationalist party were Liberals, and the Labourites, who had joined them, were the enemies of 211 Labour. Mr. Holman's policy speech was one that any Liberal could have put forward. There had been a lot of talk of freedom, but the greatest fight put up for freedom was that against conscription last October. (Applause.) Nor was that battle over yet. The question was not dead, as Mr. Holman, and a few others, would try to have them believe. If it were, he would leave it alone, but he could see it raising its ugly head in a new form, and he would do his best to see that was settled in the way they wished. The representation at the Imperial Conference did not give the Democracy confidence. When the people voted against conscription, they voted against conscriptionists too; and the man who, on the 24th of March, voted for a Nationalist, nullified the vote he gave on October 25, if that vote was against conscription. There was a danger. This fair land must be kept free from conscriptionist control. The Nationalists were saying the Labour party were identical with the I.W.W. Some of Mr. Holman’s supporters had been going about saying, 'Don't vote for Pattinson; he belongs to the I.W.W. He did not know whether Mr. Grahame knew this or not, but if he (the speaker) could get the names of those who were uttering this, he would proceed against them for libel. The same thing had been said during the conscription campaign, and the people took it for what it was worth. He took exception to the way the I.W.W. men were tried and convicted, and contended that the right to a fair trial could not be denied any person in the country. He intended to fight the election clean and above board. He had a clear reputation and a good character, and did not want to get into Parliament by means of gutter politics. He would sooner go back to the pit. (Applause.) Continuing, Mr. Pattinson said that policy for policy, the Labour party would win out. They could afford to fight clean. Mr. Holman had said that his party must guide the workers. 'Not at all. The opposite was the case. The Nationalists would not legislate for the workers. They did not understand what they wanted, therefore could not give it to them through the Parliaments of the country. Mr. Grahame has attached to the centralization party of Sydney, where every thing had to be centralized to suit those who belonged to it. Newcastle could only become the big shipping port she should by getting fair play, and this the Nationalist centralised body would never give. Dealing with land settlement, the candidate instanced the fact that of the 10,000 soldiers who had returned, 240 had been placed on the land. There was a 'go slow’ policy if they liked. Was this the sort of policy that would meet the exigencies of the future when the men commenced to return from the war in great numbers? They are far behind Queensland, which was at least doing something in the way of opening up the land and teaching the proper uses of the land. The land must be developed and properly utilised. The Nationalist would do nothing in this direction. Then there was the unionists' question. Mr. Holman had said he had always been friendly to the unionists. So had Mr. Wade. Some of the Newcastle miners could testify to that fact. (Laughter.) The unionists had been given the right to strike and not to strike—a sort of yes-no privilege. (Laughter.) It was a concession of Mr. Beeby's that they did not want. The Arbitration scheme, as set forth by Mr. Holman was an absolute danger to unionism, and it was up to the people to defeat the Nationalists, at 212 the coming elections. He was the last man in the world to advocate strikes, but unionists must retain the strike weapon. Heavy penalties would be imposed under the new arbitration law, and the unions could be crippled. The butchers' case was one in point. It indicated what was possible if the Nationalists got back in sufficient strength. Mr. Pattinson explained that he favoured the federalising of unionism getting together in large solid bodies. The day of the small union fighting its battles in its little way had gone boy. He was a unificationist, not only politically; but industrially. It was not because he was in sympathy with Labour that was the only actuating motive in his political career. He had been a worker, and was still. He knew their condition from bitter experience. He had faced the poverty struggle all his life, as others in hundreds were still forced to do. He had only just thrown aside his shovel, and if not returned to Parliament to represent the Workers—well, he could go back to his work. (Applause.) If, however, he was returned, he would honestly and energetically fight their cause, and endeavour to uplift the working class in the community. They were entitled to fair and reasonable conditions, and he would do his best to see that they got their rights. Mr. Pattinson contended that the working man or woman was entitled to the full product of their toil. Mr. Holman had said something about "Idleness and shirking," but the Labour party could never be accused of standing for the idler and the shirker. It was the other class that was guilty of that—the class that toiled not, neither do they spin. Hundreds of the workers had been laid idle in the interests of economy, but surely that was not economy. In a young country like this—with its great undeveloped resources— [it is wrong] to deny its people the right to work these to their fullest possible extent. There had been a great deal of talk about throwing open the gates of the Commonwealth to immigration, even while those already here were unable to find employment. Hundreds of railway workers were at the present moment face to face with starvation. Why should that be so? It was done for a purpose, which observant people could easily see. The first duty of a Labour party was to see that every man was given the right to earn a livelihood, but by the despotic action of the Holmanites had robbed them of his right. As soon as the Government was formed, the cry of “Economy" was heard. Works were everywhere stopped, and only the high salaried officials escaped; they were still in their positions. A voter: And the members of Parliament? Mr. Pattinson: Yes. But this would be put right by the new Government, which would be a real Labour Government, not a Cabinet clique. (Applause.) The Upper House would have to get out of the way. Little good for the workers could be done while that Chamber stood ready to block everything. 213 The candidate also touched briefly on the housing question, health laws, equitable taxation of the idle wealthy, and stressed the importance of maintaining the preference to unionists plank, which was threatened by the Nationalists. Answering questions, Mr. Pattinson said he had been in Australia long enough to understand the conditions of the workers, and was confident that he could justify his selection by good work if elected. He was in favour of the erection of grain elevators in Newcastle Mr. J. M. Baddeley, president of the Colliery. Employees' Federation, speaking in support, said the candidate was a young and promising member of the great army of industrialists whom he would deem it a pleasure and privilege to assist in the campaign. He hoped the electors of Wickham would give him an attentive hearing throughout, and return him in triumph on election day. (Applause.) A vote of confidence, moved by Mr. Dooley, organiser of the railway workers, and seconded by Mr. W. N. Fraser, was carried. Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, 28 February 1917 / BIBLIOGRAPHY ARCHIVES ANU, NBA, ACSEF Papers, E165/15/2, ACSEF records, ‘Statement of Accused F. Lowden regarding Coledale shooting.’ Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016), Average Weekly Earnings accessed 27th April 2016 at https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/Gender_Pay_Gap_Factsheet.pdf Leonard Boardman – Unemployed Workers Movement 1929-33. 40 minutes. Oral history recordings Collection - UOW Archives Interviewee: Leonard Boardman. Interviewer: Heather Williamson [now known as Heather Bailey] Commonwealth of Australia Parliamentary Debates, LXXX. De Groot Papers Volume 5 SLNSW (A 4949) Government Gazette of NSW Letters from John Simpson Kirkpatrick to his Family, 1910. Collection number: 3DRL/3424, Digitised Collection. https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG0000376/?image=9 Australian War Memorial, Accessed March 7, 2016 Frank McCaffrey Papers held at the University of Wollongong Archives Masters and Servants Act (1902) N.S.W - Act No. 59, 1902. An Act to consolidate the enactments relating to Master and Servants, (4th September, 1902). NSW Police IWW Papers Box 7/5588 SRNSW NSW Police Department, Special Investigation Department, Special Bundle, papers Concerning the International [sic] Workers of the World, Box 7/5592, State Records of NSW. NSW Police Department, Special Investigation Department, Special Bundle, Papers Concerning the International [sic] Workers of the World, Box 7/5592, State Records of NSW. NSW Police Department, Special Investigation Department, Special Bundle. State Records of NSW File 30278, 30 October 1917 Police Special Bundles IWW (1917-1923), SRNSW 7/5596. Police Bundles IWW (1917-1923), 13 October, 1916, SRNSW 7/5590 Police Special Bundles, SRNSW, 25 July 1917, File 275555). 214 “Press Cuttings and Handbills”, SLNSW, Mitchell Library, Q.335. 9/4 Jock and May Wilson Papers”, previously in the possession of the late Illawarra activist, Sally Bowen, and now presumably in possession of her daughter, Margaret. INTERVIEWS Anonymous (Port Kembla wharf labourer), June 2, 1992 Len Boardman (Tracey), Thirroul, 3 August, 1974 Arthur Donald Gray (OAM), Austinmer, 10 January, 2003 Padgy Woods, Park Road Bulli, 3 March, 1972 Ted Roach, Master Builders Club, Wollongong, February 25, 1996 THESES Robert Bollard, “‘The Active Chorus’: The Mass Strike of 1917 in Eastern Australia”, Ph.D Thesis, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts Education and Human Development, Victoria University, September 2007 Rowan Day, “The Tottenham Rebels: Radical Labour Politics in a Small Mining Town during the Great War”, Ph.D thesis, UWS, 2014 NEWSPAPERS Adelaide Daily Herald The Advertiser (Adelaide) Albury Banner and Wodonga Express The Australian Worker (Sydney) The Age (Melbourne) Barrier Miner (Broken Hill) The Bega Budget The Canberra Times The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder The Courier-Mail (Brisbane) The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta) Daily Examiner (Grafton) Daily Herald (Adelaide) The Daily News (Perth) Daily Telegraph (Sydney) Darling Downs Gazette Direct Action (Sydney) Evening News (Sydney) Geelong Advertiser Goulburn Evening Penny Post Illawarra Mercury The International Socialist (Sydney) The Journal (Adelaide) The Kiama Reporter and Illawarra Journal Labor News The Leader (Orange) The Maitland Daily Mercury The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser The Maitland Weekly Mercury The Mercury (Hobart) Molong Express & Western District Advertiser The National Advocate (Bathurst) Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate The Newcastle Sun News (Adelaide) Northern Star (Lismore) 215 Northern Times (Newcastle) People (Sydney), Poverty Bay Herald, (New Zealand) Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus The Sun (Sydney) Sunday Times (Sydney) The Sydney Morning Herald Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills) Tribune (Sydney) Truth (Brisbane), Tweed Daily (Murwillumbah) Wagga Wagga Express The West Australian Western Socialist The Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Observer Worker (Brisbane) The Worker (Wagga) The Workers' Weekly (Sydney) AUDIO VISUAL Sandra Pires, The Dalfram Dispute 1938: Pig Iron Bob, Why Documentaries, DVD, 2015 Vandita, “Russell Brand Calls For A Revolution”, We are Anonymous, 31 July, 2015;, http://anonhq.com/russell-brand-calls-for-a-revolution/ website and video accessed 20 March 2006 Russell Brand interview on Australian TV Programme “The Project (16/10/2015) at 9.28-1024 minutes, accessed 14 may 2016 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_igJXczO9w BOOKS Paul Robert Adams, The Life and Death of Percy Brookfield 1875-1921, Puncher & Wattman, 2010 Daniel Bell, The End of Ideology: On the Exhaustion of Political Ideas in the Fifties, Free Press, 1960 Geoffrey Blainey, The Rise of Broken Hill, Macmillan, 1968 Russell Brand, Revolution, Cornstone Books, 2014 Verity Burgmann, Revolutionary industrial unionism: the industrial workers of the world in Australia, Cambridge University Press, 1995 S.J. Butlin, Foundations of the Australian Monetary System 1788-1851, Sydney University Press, 1968, Frank Cain, The Wobblies at War: history of the IWW and the Great War in Australia, Spectrum Publications, 1993. R. G. Casey, The Worker-Boss Problem, Hawthorn Press, Melbourne, 1949, p. 58. Ralph Chaplin, Wobbly: Rough and Tumble Story of an American Radical, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948, Vere Gordon Childe, How Labour Governs: A Study of Workers’ Representation in Australia, (2nd ed.), Melbourne University Press, Parkville, 1964 [1923] David Clune and Ken Turner, The Premiers of New South Wales, 1856-2005, Federation Press, 2006, Joy Damousi, Depraved and Disorderly: Female Convicts, Sexuality and Gender in Colonial, Cambridge University Press, 1997 Rowan Day, Murder in Tottenham: Australia's first political assassination, Anchor Books, 2015 Department of External Affairs, Social Conditions in Australia, Government Printer, Melbourne, 1915 Don Dingsdag, The Bulli Mining Disaster 1887: Lessons from the Past, St Louis Press, 1993 Antonio Gramsci, Soviets in Italy, Nottingham: Nottingham Institute for Workers Control, 1969 Sally Green, Prehistorian: A Biography of V. Gordon Childe, Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire: Moonraker Press, 1981 Evan Griffiths, Vigilance and Service: The History of Helensburgh-Stanwell Park Surf Life Saving Club 1908-2008, Stanwell Park, 2014 Gary Griffith, “Obituary: Ted Roach (1909-1997), Illawarra Unity, Volume 1, Number 2, June 1997 216 W. K. Hancock, Australia, Jacaranda, Brisbane, 1961 (1930), Alexander Harris (An Emigrant mechanic 1847), Settlers and Convicts, Melbourne University Press, 1964. Isaac Isaacs, Australian Democracy and Our Constitutional System, Melbourne: Horticultural Press, 1939 Garry Kinnane, George Johnston: a biography, Melbourne University Press, 1996 J.T. Lang, I Remember, Sydney, 1956 Henry Lee and Stuart Piggin, The Mount Kembla Disaster, Melbourne University Press, 1997 W.G. McDonald, Captain Waldron Deceased, Illawarra Historical Society, 1972 Peter Mathers, Trap, Cassell Australia, Sydney, 1966; reprinted Sydney University Press, 2003 Fred Moore et al, At the Coalface – The human face of coal miners and their communities: An oral history of the early days, Construction Forestry Mining & Energy Union, Sydney, 1998 Brenda Niall, “Herbert Raine Curlewis”, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 12, Melbourne University Press, 1990 Heather Radi, “John Haynes”, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 4, Melbourne University Press, 1972 Len Richardson, The Bitter Years: Wollongong During the Great Depression, Hale & Iremonger, 1984 Edward (Ted). C. Roach, “Menzies and Pig Iron for Japan”, Talk given at the Labour History Conference, Newcastle, 26 June 1993 published in The Hummer Vol. 2, No. 2 – Winter 1994, p.7 accessed 29th April 2016 at http://asslh.org.au/hummer/vol-2-no-2/pig-iron/ Salvatore Salerno, Red November, Black November: Culture and Community in the Industrial Workers of the World, State University of New York, 1989 Douglas Sinclair and Jim Duncan, Justice ... outraged. The case for the twelve: 'Tis an X-ray on the evidence of the 12 long-sentenced I.W.W. men in N.S.W. prisons / written for the executive of the Industrial Labor Party, 1920 Sydney: I.L.P., - Solidarity Series 2. E.P Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, Penguin Harmondsworth, 1968 Tom Barker and the IWW: oral history – recorded and edited by Eric Fry, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Canberra, 1965; republished by the IWWW Brisbane General membership Branch, 1999 Ian Turner, Sydney's Burning, Heinemann, 1967 [Rev. ed. with additional material: Alpha Books, 1969]; J.W. Turner, “Newcastle Miners and The Master and Servant Act, 1830-1862”, Labour History, Number 16, May 1969 Bertha Walker, Solidarity Forever… a part story of the life and times of Percy – the first quarter of a century, The National Press, 1972 William Robert Winspear, Economic Warfare, The Marxian Press, Sydney, 1915 ARTICLES Jim Allen, 'Childe, Vere Gordon (1892–1957)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/childe-vere-gordon5580/text9521 published first in hardcopy 1979, accessed online 9 March 2016 Ian Bedford, “The IWW in Australia”, Libertarian, No. 2, September 1958. Available on line at http://www.takver.com/history/iww_in_australia.htm Accessed 13 March 2016. Sharan Burrow, Speech to “Australia at the Crossroads, Just Peace Public Forum, Brisbane City Hall. 8 August 2007.A précis available at http://www.actu.org.au/actu-media/media-releases/2007/liberalparty-advertisement-is-insulting-to-working-families-says-actu Accessed 26th March 2016 Vere Gordon Childe, “Retrospect” in Antiquity, 1958, “Retrospect” in Antiquity, Volume 32, 1958 L. G. Churchward, “The American Influence on the Australian Labour Movement”, Historical Studies, vol 5, no 19, November 1952 Terry Cook, “A lesson in the failure of syndicalism: Australian union leader Norm Gallagher dies at 67”, 6 January 2000. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2000/01/gall-j06.html Accessed 20 March, 2016. Dani Cooper, “Joe Owens (1935-2012): Front-line fighter for workers' rights”, Sydney Morning Herald, September 29, 2012 Diana Covell, “History making - participants beware!: The Wollongong jobs for women campaign”, The Oral History Association of Australia Journal, No. 24, 2002 Joseph Davis, "The secret life of Harvey E. Gale: Wollongong's inter-war Health and Building inspector", Illawarra Historical Society Bulletin, September 2005, pp.56-62 217 Warwick Eather, “Organised Labour and Anti-Communism in Wagga Wagga in the 1950s” in Australian Labour History Reconsidered, David Palmer, Ross Shanahan, Martin Shanahan (eds) (Adelaide: Australian Humanities Press, 1999 Greg Mallory, The 1938 Dalfram Pig-iron Dispute and Wharfies Leader, Ted Roach, The Hummer Vol. 3, No. 2 – Winter 1999, accessed 28th April 2016 at http://asslh.org.au/hummer/vol-3-no2/dalfram-pig-iron/ and http://asslh.org.au/hummer/vol-3-no-2/dalfram-pig-iron/ Steve Meacham, “Behind the Anzac myth of John Simpson Kirkpatrick and his donkey at Gallipoli, Sydney Morning Herald, May 17, 2015 Glenn Mitchell, “The Cringila Coalwash Dump. Industrial Waste Disposal and the Port Kembla Steelworks: The Triumph of Community Politics or the Failure of Environmental Consciousness?”, Ecopolitics II, Centre for Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania, 23 May 1987. Published in Conference Proceedings P.J. Rushton, “The American influence on the Australian labour movement”, Historical Studies, November, 1952 Geoffrey Serle, “John Curtin (1885–1945)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography, 1993, accessed online 24 April 2016 http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/curtin-john-9885/text17495 INDEX (N.B. - Due to PDF conversion some pages are one or tow pages earlier than indicated but a search for the name or place in the PDF version will easily solve any discrepancies) Aberdare Extended Coalmine 163-164 Aberdare Miners Lodge, 164 Abermain Colliery 25 Abigail, Mr (Solicitor) 66 A.I.F. 29, 44 Airtasker 207 Allan, David 84 Allman, Francis (Captain) 85 Amalgamated Miners Association (AMA) 77 Anderson (Captain) 165 Anderson, W. J. (Police Inspector) 37, 66, 179, 180 Anti Arbitration 30, 114, 118, 119, 130, 189 “Anti Bet Noir” (Woonona IWW member) 19 Anti-Conscription 12, 18, 23, 43, 48, 51 172-174, 189, 203, Appendix 2 Anti-German Hysteria 116, 117 Anti-Strike Association 95 Apex Energy 206 Arbitration 11, 12, 32, 43, 75, 95, 114, 131, 132, 139, 141, 155, 161, 165, 178-17, 189, 198, 214 Armstrong, Mr (Magistrate) Artis, A.S. (Magistrate) 110 Assange, Julian 202 Atkinson, David (married into the Roach family) 170-171 Austinmer 34, 99, 101, 102, 104, 105, 108, 111, 140, 145, 180, 205, 145, 180 Australian Socialist Party 15 Australian Workers Union 65, 113 Baddeley, J.M. 215 Balmain North 62 Barker, Tom 17, 30-31, 36, 37, 48, 49, 58, 70, 71, 72, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 203, 204 Barrier Daily Truth 188, 189 Barrier Socialist Party 188 Bathgate, Mr (Lawyer for the Crown) 57, 58, 59 Batho, Thomas 155 Beadle, James 86, 87 Beadle, Ann 86, 87 Bedford, Ian 75 Beeby, Sir George Stephenson 161 Bell, Daniel 195, 196 218 Bellambi 51, 93, 105, 103, 105, 106, 108, 109, 110, 140, 178 Bellambi Colliery 109, 178 Bellamy, Edward, 192 Belmore Basin 88 Benas Ms 104 “Bent Axle” (Coledale IWW Direct Action Correspondent) 24, 36 Best, Stephen 63 Beveridge [Beveride], P. (Coledale Empire Hall Proprietor) 180 Bird, Syd (Sid) 172, 175 Blackall (NZ) 163 Blacklisting 26 Blainey, Geoffrey 70 Blantyre Explosion 97 Boardman, Len (aka Len Tracey) 197 Boer War 30 Bollard, Robert 52, 60 Bolshevik(s) 13, 20, 42, 192 Bolshevism 13 Bombo Quarry 45, 46 Boote, Harry 72 Bowling, Peter 50, 69, 136-139, 142-146, 155-157 Bradley, Rachel 167 Breeze (Constable) 155 Brand, Russell Brennan Peter (South Clifton miner) 153 Briemle, Ernest 63 Brock, C. 160 Broken Hill 143, 193 Brookfield, Percy 74, 75, 119, 120, 189, 191, 192 Brooks, John G. 13 Broken Hill 70, 74, 77 Brown Ms 104 Browne, Merchant 84 Builders Labourers Federation 203 Bulli 27, 68, 96, 104 Bulli Coal Tramway 90, 97 Bulli Colliery 68-69 Bulli Explosion 97 Bulli Jetty 96 Bulli Park 108 Bulli Police Court 106, 108, 110 “Bump me into Parliament (song), 11 Burgmann Verity 15 Burnett, James 11 Burraneer Bay 47 Butler, Samuel 14 Cain, Frank 15 Calladine, James (Coalcliff) 161 Campbell, Archibald 100 Carruthers, Sir Joseph 95, 96 Casey, Bill 12-13, 47, 196, 198, 199, 201 Casey, R.G. 194 Cater, Thomas 149 Cessnock 35, 36, 39, 41, 164 Cessnock IWW Club 165 Cessnock Miners Lodge members (various) 163 Chaplin, Ralph 76, 79 Chapman, Henry (Professor) 190 Charlton, Joseph 163-165 Childe, Harriet Eliza 47 219 Childe, Rev. Stephen Henry 47 Childe, Vere Gordon 30, 44, 46-49 Cinderella Club (Coledale) 160 Clarke, Robert 111 Clift, Charmian 46 Clift, Syd 46 Clifton 64, 101, 103, 146, 150, 161 Coal Commission 25 Cobar 70 Coal Lumpers Union 142 Coalcliff 205 Coalcliff Colliery 103-105, 156, 161, 177, 178, 196-197 Cobar 70, 71, 74 Coercion Act 143 Cogan, Jack 187-192, 193-195 Coledale Branch of the Unemployed Workers Movement 197 Coledale Citizens Defence Association 188 Coledale (North Bulli) Cokeworks 37, 159, 169 Coledale Dam 157 Coledale Empire Hall 172, 180 Coledale Heights 157 Coledale (Illawarra District) Cottage Hospital 16, 20, 22, 159, 178, 180 Coledale Masonic Lodge 160 Coledale Pigeon Homing Society 160 Coledale Post Office 27 Coledale Progress Association 159, 160 Coledale Rock Pool 158, 160 Common Cause 187 Communist Party of Australia 10, 12, 13, 119, 167, 188, 197, 198, 199 Communist Party of Great Britain 47 Conscription Exemptions 173 Conscription Referenda 22, 172-173, 189, 193, 203, 212, 213 Connors, Constable 151 Conroy, Luke 91 Considine, Mick 189 Cook, Terry Co-operative Store Coledale 21, 26 Corrimal 15, 64, 101, 105, 115, 116 Corrimal-Balgownie Colliery 38, 105, 109, 110, 178 Counterfeiting 158 Cowper, Sir Charles 104 Cram, George 110 Cranston , John 63 Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) 37 Cringila Cola Dump Cummings, R (miner) 115 Curlewis, Sir Adrian Herbert Frederic 179, 183 Curtin, John 39-40, 44 Curtis, John 146, 155 Daily Telegraph 56, 57 Dalfram Dispute 156-157, 167, 197-198 Damousi, Joy 86 Darkes Forest 204 Davies W. (Billy) MLA & MHR 25, 28, 163, 171, 176 Day, Rowan 15, 18, 49, 60, 70 Deed, Sam 189 Defence Act Regulations 165-166, 172 Dennis, Richard 158 Department of External Affairs 193 Devlin, Sergeant 66 220 Dibbs, George 95 Dickensen, Ted 10 Dickson’s Hotel (Bulli) 108 Dingwall, Constable (of Kiama) 151, 155 Direct Action 17-18, 21, 31, 37, 48, 49, 50, 58, 66-67, 71, 72, 73, 79, 116, 117, 167, 185, 187 Dobbie, W. 120 Dobbins [Dobing], William 98, 99 Dog Collar Act 168 Domain (Sydney) 33, 34, 67, 80, 116, 117, 120 Domain (Thirroul) 19 Draft Resisters 205 Duffy (Mayor) 71 Duncan, Andrew 98 Duncan (Police Constable) 73 Duncombe, D. 178 Dutt, Palm 47 Dylan, Bob 86 Eather, Warwick 113 Edmunds, Justice 68, 69, 148, 179, 182 Edwards, Mr (Magistrate) 56, 57 Edwards, William (Pilot) 90 Eather, William 113 Elliot, Eliot V. 12 Eureka Stockade 200 Evans, John (Manager of Old Bulli Mine) 108 Evatt, Dr H.V. 13 Ewart, May (Hewitt) 33 Fabian Society 30 Fairlie James 167 Fairy Meadow 120 Federated Engine-Drivers and Firemen’s Association 191 Fenton, George 151, 153 Ferguson, Judge 65 Ferguson, Maxwell (miner) 117 Fish 26 Fisher, Money Captain 100 Fitzhardinge (Judge) 163 Flanders Field 119, 174 Flanagan, Mervyn Ambrose (Striker) 64 Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley 76 Foley, Joseph 110 Foster (Judge) 197 Franz, Frank 64 Fraser, Peter (NZ PM) 82 Fraternity Club 61 “Freedom of Contract” 79, 83, 95, 96, 99, 115, 196 Fukuyama, Francis 196 Gale, Harvey (Wollongong Health and Building inspector) 63 Gallagher, Norm, 203, 204 Galloway, 93 Gardiner, Albert MLA 96 Garlick Street Coledale 28 General Strike 22, 30, 44, 46, 54, 66, 67, 72, 95, 136, 143, 147, 180 Gibbons, Mr 88, 89 Gill, John 178 Glynn, Tom 31, 37, 80 Goudie, T. (miner) 115 Gramsci, Antonio 42, 131, 135, 194 Grant, Donald 70, 71, 72, 80 Grace Ms 104 221 Gray, Vivian 120 Green, Alfred Vincent (scab train fireman) 52, 53, 54, 63-64 Griffiths, Gary 197 Griffiths, Mrs 173 Griffiths, Robert 115 Grills, R. 160 Gunston, Norman 206 Guthrie (Senator) 143 Hagan, Jim 206 Haining, James 110 Hamilton, James 98, 99 Hancock, W.K. 193, 194 Hansard 58 Hardy, Thomas 86 Harris, Alexander 84, 85, 86 Hasselhurst, Mr (organist) 166 Hawes (Detective) 33 Hayward, Big Bill 76 Healy, Big Jim 168, 197 Heffron, Bob 82, 193 Helensburgh 37, 95, 116, 117, 121, 209-212 Helensburgh Court 197 Helensburgh Workmen’s Club 38 Hensen Motors 61 Heydon, Judge 162 Hicks, Henry Thomas (magistrate) 110 High Court of Australia 13 Hilda S.S. 104 Hiles, John J. (Bulli Shire Health Inspector) 175 Hill, Joe 32 Hobbs, John Holland, Harry 145, 146 Holloway, E.J. 43 Housing conditions (Scarborough, Coledale, Clifton) 174-177 How Labour Governs 44, 48 Hughes, William Morris 30, 45, 69, 70, 73, 74, 75, 142, 143, 144, 145, 172, 189 Illawarra Colliery Employees Association 28, 50, 139, 151, 158, 161, 172 Illawarra Colliery Proprietors Association 171 Industrial Disputes Act 96, 143, 144 Inspector General of Police NSW 37 Industrial Labor Party 191 International Socialist 147 Isaacs, Isaac Sir 199-201 Italian Community 60 IWW (“Coledale element”) 22 IWW Chicago faction 30, 70, 107 IWW Detroit faction 30, 69. 70 IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) 9 passim IWW made illegal 14, 37 IWW Twelve 71, 74, 78, 79, 80, 112, 115, 120, 122 Jackson, Edward Eskett 29, 179 Jackson, Robert 110 Jaffas 208 James, William 110 Jarvie, J. 178 “Jobs for Women Campaign” 205 Johannsen, Jacob 13 Johnson, Alex (Berry) 154 Johnson, J. 160 Joint Coal Board 61 222 Jones, Jacob Carlos 179, 180 Jones William Ewart (Manager Corrimal-Balgownie Colliery) 38 Kearsely (near Cessnock) 35, 39, 41 Kelly, Patrick 116 Kembla Heights 155 Kerr, George 190 Kiama 45, 46, 95 King. J.B. 49, 70, 71, 78, 79, 80 Kinnane, Garry 46 Kirkwood, Alexander (Sandy) 117, 176, 209, 210 Kirkwood, Fred 166 Kirton, John Stephen 29, 176 Knight H. 29, 176, 183, 184 Kurri Kurri 25-26, 35, 41 Labor Party Labour Defence Committee 100, 101, 102 Lahiff, Mr 105 Lamb, Paddy 189 Lang, Jack 47 Lantern, George 152 Lees, Andrew (Woonona IWW Secretary) 16, 19, 28, 29, 176 Linda (Tasmania) 17-18 Lithgow 146 Lithuania 116 Liverpool Military Training Camp 160 Long Bay Gaol 33, 159, 198 Louise, Les 168 Lowden, Frederick 52. 54-61, 63, 64-66, 73, 153, 197 Lundie, F.W. 114 Lynch, Ellen Sarah (Lena, Eva) 33-34 Lynch (Senator) 78, 79 Lyons, Noel 10 Lyell, George Edwin 38 Lysaght, A.A. 20, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 115, 116, 117, 153 Lysaghts 170 McCaffrey, Frank 86, 87 McCombie, Donald McCrae (Constable) 116 McDonald, Mr M. 178 McDonald, W.G. (Bill) 86 McEnaney, James 52, 54-66, 73 McEnaney, Kathleen, 63 McEnaney, Lilian 63 McEnaney, Thomas 62 McGee, W. (Scarborough miner) 174 McGhee, Dugald 19, 22-26, 28, 35, 36, 37, 39, 176 McGregor, Sarah 85, 86 McHenry, Pat 63 McKell, Bill 81 McNaught, W.A. (Archibald) 113, 114 MacCabe, H.O. 99 Mackenzie, Colonel 99, 102, 104, 180 Maitland 35, 163 Maitland District Court 164 Mallory, Greg 168, 197 Maloney, Mary 85, 86 Maloney, Mr (anti-eviction campaigner) 8-10, 12, 13, 190 Mann Tom 81 Maoriland Worker 144 “March to Freedom” 120 223 Maritime Strike 44, 141 Marquet, Claude 43 Marrickville 63 Married Women’s Property Act 87 Marshall, T.H. 29 Marshall, William 110 Marx & Engels 20, 190 Master and Servants Act 83, 91, 94, 161 Mathers, Peter 31 Mayor of Casterbridge 86 May, William 91, 92, 93 Melrose, H (Broken Hill miner) 37 Merksworth, S.S. 96 Metropolitan Mine (Helensburgh) 117, 178, 196, 197 Milburn, Frank 120, 121 Miles Franklin Award 31 Millen, Edward (Senator) 73 Miller, Alexander J. (North Bulli – Coledale - Mine Manager 15-16, 37, 38, 158, 160, 172, 179, 180, 183, 184 Miller, J.H. (Detective Sergeant) 38 Miller, Monty 112 Miller, Mrs 181 Mitchell, Joseph MLA 103, 105, 106, 108, 109, 110 Mitchell’s Colliery Tramway 108 Moffitt, James (alias of James McEnaney) 62 Moon, William 110 Moore, Jess 204, 205 Moore, Nicolas (Detective) 37, 74 Mount Keira 98, 99, 109, 110, 140, 141, 178 Mount Keira Miners Lodge 140, 155, 156, 178, 185 Mount Kembla 20, 29, 96, 98, 102, 103, 110, 135, 136, 140, 141, 155, 156, 158, 177, 178 Mount Pleasant 101, 102, 104, 110, 141, 156, 178 Morgan, William 154 Morgan Thomas Richard 135-137, 139, 171, 177, 178 Mundey, Jack 204 Nathan, Captain 99, 102 National Security (Coal Control) Regulations 195 Navvies 160 Nelson, E.S. 201-202 Newcastle 67, 88, 154 New Zealand 10, 20, 62, 71, 81, 116, 117, 125, 126, 145, 163, 183, 184, 189, 204 Nicholson, John Barnes 25, 100, 101, 162, 163, Nies (Senior Constable) 111 Nixon, Robert 117 North Bulli Colliery (Coledale) 15-16, 99, 116, 145, 146, 150, 157, 158, 160, 166, 169, 176, 179, 181 North Mount Lyell Mining & Railway Co. 17-18 North Bulli (Coledale) Miners Lodge 151 NSW Coals and Shale Employees Federation 47 NSW Legislative Assembly 28 Old Bulli Colliery 29 One Big Union (OBU) 19, 30, 32, 36, 47, 50, 51, 74, 113, 114, 123, 142, 143, 163, 193 O’Reilly, J.J. 188 Osborne Wallsend Cola Company 98 Owens, Joe 203 Pankhurst, Adela 13 Parsons, W. 64 Pattinson [Patterson] C. 27, Appendix 2, Patterson, Thomas 98 Payne, H.W. 182, 184 Peacock Ms 104 224 Pemberton, Peter 178 Permanent Artillery 101, 102, 104 Perry, Katy 205 Persecution 24 Phillips (scab) 147, 150, 151-155 Phillips G (Coledale Empire Hall proprietor) 180 Piccinilli, John 117 Poland 116 Police Inspectors, 63 Pooley, Robert (Scarborough miner) 174 Port Kembla 84, 131, 132, 167, 168, 198, 199-201, 205 Port Pirie 67, 190 Pountney (Inspector) 150 Price, Mrs (Coledale) 167 Princess Theatre Woonona 16 Pringle, Bob 203 Pringle. Henry Arthur 109 Rabbits 26 Racism 116 Railway Workers, 142 Rancie, Norman 37 Ratz, Fritz 80 Reardon, A.S. (ASP) 15 Redman, Edward 167 Reeve, Charlie 67, 71 Reeve, George 70 Retired Mineworkers Association 41 Richard II 207 Richards J. 29 Richardson, Len 63 Richmond River 169 Roach, Lucy (cousin of Ted) 170 Roach, Blanche (mother of Ted) 156, 166, 167, 168 Roach, Edward Charles (Ted) 156, 157, 166-169, 198, 201 Roach, Jane (sister of Ted) 169 Roach, John (grandfather of Ted) 166 Roach, Lucy (sister of Ted) 159, 166 Roach, Mary (grandmother of Ted) 166 Roach, Master E. (Ted as a child) 169 Roach, Matthew (father of Ted) 156, 166, 167, 168 Roach, Suzanne (daughter of Ted) 167 Roach, Walter (Uncle of Ted) 166, 167 Roach family 198 Roach family wedding guests 170 Robertson (Policeman) 66 Robertson, Sir John 104 Ronaldson, J.H. 99 Ross, Edgar 187 Ross, Hughie 34 Russell, Charles (Solicitor) 108, 110 Russell James 29, 156, 158, 159, 162, 176 Russia 117, 190 Russian Poland Ryan (Constable) 106 Sabotage 49, 52, 75, 76-79, 81-84, 92, 93, 102, 109, 110, 133, 163 Salkeld, Mr 56 Sandford, William 144 Savoy Hotel 81 Sawtell, Mick 78, 79, 112-113 Scarborough Beach 37 225 Scarborough Miners Lodge 22, 55, 56, 60 Scarborough Palace Hall 160 Scarborough Progress Association 23-24 Scarborough (South Clifton) Colliery 16, 114, 115, 157, 178, Scarborough Town Band 153 Scarborough Tunnel Colliery (South Clifton/Wombarra) 55, 68, 145, 147, 151, 155, 159, 171, 172, 173, 176, 177, 178, 182 Scotland 20 Seamen’s Union 12, 13, 91, 93-95, 143, 131, 132, 143, 198, 204 Selby, J.P. 172 Sellors, E.O. 183 Sexism 32 Shakespeare 207 Sharkeys beach (Coledale) Shearers War 141 Shepherd, Samuel (Coledale miner) 15, 21-22 Shellharbour Public School 38 Simonoff, Peter 193 Simpson, John Kirkpatrick 27 Sinn Fein 33, 116, 117 Small, Mr 104 Smith, Alfred Earnest 151, 152, 154bg Smith, Jim 105 Smith, John 166 Snowden, Edward 201 Socialist Alliance 203 Socialist Labour Party 165 Socialist Party of Australia (pro-Moscow) 187 Socialist Workers Party 204 Somerville, Mr 183 South Bulli Mine 178 South Clifton Coal Co. 115 South Clifton Lodge 154 South Clifton Mine 114, 115, 145, 147, 148, 149, 151, 159, 171, 172, 177, 178, 182 South Clifton (Wombarra) 68, 104 South Coast Trades & Labour Council 60, 63 Southern, A. 29 Soviet Union 12-13 Spence, William Guthrie 113, 114 Sproston, James Potter 29, 34, 36, 39, 41, 53, 54-61, 73, 184, 185-187, 196, 197, 200 Sproston, Ellie 39 Standen, Mr (Coledale) 161 Stanley, Thomas 160 Stanwell Park Surf Life Saving Club 61 Star Stadium (Wollongong) 161 Stokes, William 151, 152 “Stop Clutha” 204 “Stop CSG Illawarra” 204 Storey, John 45, 74 Strong, James 167 Stuart, Sir Alexander 104 Sturt, Dr Clifton 108 Suffragette 13 Surridge (Detective), 63, 66 Surry Hills 9 Suscovage (Suscovige) 116 Sussex Street 33 Sweeney, J.T. 58, 64, 68, 176 Sweeney, W.A. 173 Sydney IWW 17 226 Sykes, William 152 Tea and Toasters (The Trades and Trades Labourers – AMA breakaway) 189-190 The Bitter Years 63 Thirroul 19, 29, 34, 158, 160, 196 Thirroul Excelsior Colliery 176, 178 Thirroul Excelsior Miners’ Victory Smoko 153 Thompson, Constable 90 Thompson, T. Thorburn, Charles David 54-59, 65-66 Timber Workers Union 44 Tomyaoff, Koorman 74 Tottenham NSW 17, 64, 73 Tracey, Len 63 Trade Union Congress (1909) 142 Trade Union Anti-Conscription Congress 44 Transport Workers Act 168 Trap (novel) 31-32 Tribune 9, 10 Trotsky, Leon 174 Truscott (Detective) 33 Truth (Sydney) 54-55 Tuckerman, Claude 160 Tuckerman, Reg 166 Turner, Ian 15 Uber 206 Unemployed Workers Movement 62, 196 University of Sydney 47-48 Unlawful Associations Bill (Act) 58, 70, 73 Van Dyke, Robyn 27 Vegetables 26 Vickery, Ebenezer 104, 105, 175, 179 Victoria 116, 117 Wade, Charles Gregory (Premier) 143, 145, 147, 167 Wages Boards 141 Waite, George 155 Waldron, Charles Vaughan (Captain) 85 Walker, Bertha, 13 (Fn.), 43 Walsh, Tom 12-13 Waratah (Newcastle) 163 War Precautions Act 73, 121 Warren George 117 Waterfall 103 Waterside Workers 168 Waterside Workers Federal Committee of Management 168 Watt, W.A. (Victorian Premier) 144 Wentworth family 84 Westralian Worker 44 West Wallsend 143 West Wallsend Police Court 165 Wharf Labourers 99, 130-132, 142-144, 157, 168-169, 198, 199 White, Patrick 31 Williams, Chris 206 Williamson (scab) 147, 148-150, 151, 153-155 Willis, Albert 47, 178, 191 Willougby (Sydney) 38 Wilson, Briton 172 Wilson (“Free IWW Twelve” campaigner) 37 Wilson Jock 33-34, 37 Wilson, John (South Clifton Mine Manager) 148, 152, 153, 171-173 Winspear, W.R. 43 227 Winstanley, Mrs Amelia 115 Wollongong 54, 155 Wollongong and District Miners’ Co-operative Building Society 61 Wollongong Harbour 89, 90 Wollongong Town Hall 119 Wombarra 55, 68 Women activists 104 Women’s Committee 190 Wonders, John 117 Wood, James 110 Woodward, Francis 100 Woolloongabba 80 Woonona ALP 129 Woonona Colliery 103, 108, 109 Woonona IWW Local 16, 19 Woonona Miners Lodge 108, 184 Workers Compensation Act 26 Workers Industrial Union of Australia 192 Wyalong 116 Wyatt, Captain Henry 104 Yardley Brothers (Coledale Picture Theatre Proprietors) Yalla Lake 84 Zero Hours Contracts 202 BACK COVER PRECIS & REVIEWS Although four full-length books and several academic theses have been devoted to radical political thought in Australia during the WW1, not one has previously identified the adjoining coastal Illawarra townships of Coledale and Scarborough as an epicentre of Australian anti-capitalist activists and activism. 228 This present study is an attempt to rescue some of the previously anonymous individuals involved from what historian E.P. Thompson called “the enormous condescension of history”. It also endeavours to show that in some Illawarra communities during WW1 the ruling ideas were not always those of the ruling class. The study is also particularly interested in what becomes of the families and the individuals who do not share the values of the society in which they live. The book was previously deemed so politically and otherwise unsatisfactory that it didn’t even earn a Highly Commended in the 2016 Wollongong Friends of the Library Local History Prize – despite the fact that there were only 14 entries. Nonetheless, it provides an explanation of why the towns of Coledale and Scarborough remained hotbeds of political dissent for the first 50 years of the 20th century and why, in the person of Ted Roach (the leader of the famed Dalfram Dispute), Coledale was the birthplace of one of the greatest political radicals Australia has known. Wobbly Wollongong also charts the long history of industrial sabotage in Illawarra from the 1830s through until 1919. The book also reveals how the extraordinary police presence in the seaside towns of Coledale and Scarborough provide an example of precisely how thorough-going a police state could be enable to be in supposedly liberal democratic capitalist country like Australia. *** What the critics have said about Davis’s previous books “An absorbing kaleidoscope of local history, literary insights and feet-on-theground detective work” (Richard Hall). “Very nice, dear” (the author’s Mum) “A big boring – except for the bits about food and sex” (the author’s dog, Toto)