[lbo-talk] "Green Left Weekly" reviews Wobbly Lit...

[Mike Ballard]

Alex Salmon14 September 2007


Fanning discontent's Flames: Australian Wobbly Poetry, Scurrilous Doggerel and
Song, 1914-2007 
Corrosive Press, 2007
entropy4 at gmail.com 
43 pages, $2 

He claims to be the bosses foe. On workers friendship doting. He says 'Don't
fight on the job, But do it all by voting.' 

Written in 1916, this line comes from a song entitled "Hey Polly" criticising
the pro-capitalist Australian Labor Party and its reliance on parliament. It is
one of many songs and poems in the pamphlet Fanning Discontent's Flames written
by members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). 

Founded in the US in 1905, the IWW was formed with the aim of organising all
workers into one big union in order to take control of the means of production
and overthrow capitalism. In Australia, preaching their message to people
through street meetings, articles, songs and poems in their newspaper Direct
Action, the Wobblies were vocal in their opposition to the First World War,
seeing it as a means to divide workers of different countries against each
other for the benefit of rival capitalists seeking to make more profits. When
war was declared in August 1914, an anti-war sticker printed by the Wobblies
started appearing on the streets of Sydney with the following message: 

"To Arms! Capitalists, Parsons, Politicians, Landlords, Newspaper editors and
other stay at home patriots. Your Country needs you in the trenches!! WORKERS
Follow your masters." 

By 1916 this anti-war propaganda had begun to strike a chord with many
Australian workers beginning to be disillusioned with the slaughter that was
occurring. When the ALP-led government of Billy Hughes tried to introduce
conscription in 1916, the Wobblies played a leading role in the campaign
against it. On the eve of the first referendum Direct Action published a poem
entitled "Beware". 

"The way for Prussian tyranny, Conscription will prepare. O! as treasure
freedom BEWARE, BEWARE, BEWARE!" 

The government was so worried about the influence of IWW propaganda that on the
eve of the first referendum in October 1916, 12 of their leaders were framed up
for various crimes by the authorities and railroaded to prison. However, the
Australian people rejected conscription. The pro-conscriptionists in the ALP,
including Hughes, split and formed a nationalist government. By 1917 the
government had made it illegal to be associated with the IWW. 

Despite the suppression of the IWW, conscription was again defeated in December
1917 and a successful release campaign for the 12 imprisoned leaders resulted
in their eventual 
release from jail in 1920. 

In 2006 a song was written by a Wobblie in response to the Australian Wheat
Board Iraq kickback scandal entitled "Once an Aussie Bagman": "Once an Aussie
bagman, Travelled to the Middle East, Under the name of the AWB, And he sang as
he put the money in their moneybags, 'I don't remember a thing says he.'" 

This collection spanning from 1914 to the present day gives a good idea of the
colourful ways the Wobblies have used to convey their ideas. With continuing
attacks on workers' rights by the Howard government, and an ever
rightward-moving ALP and the continuation of an illegal and unpopular war in
Iraq, this pamphlet may continue to help fan discontent's flames.

From: Cultural Dissent, Green Left Weekly issue #724 19 

Macht kaputt, was euch kaputt macht!
http://www.iww.org/culture/official/preamble.shtml


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