'Bastards from the bush' : forgotten IWW activists

Drew Cottle, Rowan Day

    Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperConference Paperpeer-review

    Abstract

    ![CDATA[Virtually all analysis of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in Australia has placed an emphasis on the Sydney ‘Local’. While there is no denying the importance of city Locals – the Sydney Local especially – to the IWW in Australia this paper will argue that the rural dimension of the IWW in Australia was no less important, and that in fact the majority of Wobblies in Australia worked in the bush. Rural workers have long been identified as at the centre of the IWW in North America; there has been no similar attempt in Australia. Urban explanations of radicalism have overwhelmed the mixed experience at the turn of the twentieth century. Consequently, that sizeable section of the IWW composed of men, either from the bush or who ‘went bush’ from time to time in search of work, has been given little attention. In some ways they were the last expression of Russel Ward’s ‘nomad tribe’. Their work was of the kind to be found in the rural interior. They were generally engaged in tough, physically laborious work (where ‘the go slow’ tactic can be quite tempting for a weary body); it was often seasonal work, and more often than not of a pre-industrial nature: hard-rock mining, tree-felling, shearing. The emergence of the urban occupational pattern, which eventually culminated in sustained full employment, was not complete until after the 1930s Depression. Before then the bush was still episodically important to the IWW narrative. This paper aims to shed light on the rural Wobblies in Australia.]]
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationLabour History and its People: The 12th Biennial National Labour History Conference, Australian National University, 15-17 September 2011
    PublisherAustralian Society for the Study of Labour History
    Pages144-152
    Number of pages9
    ISBN (Print)9780909944100
    Publication statusPublished - 2011
    EventNational Labour History Conference -
    Duration: 15 Sept 2011 → …

    Conference

    ConferenceNational Labour History Conference
    Period15/09/11 → …

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