ciency in the work of the organization," and he approvingly quotes one delegate as exclaiming, "The I. W. W. is passing out of the purely propaganda stage and is entering the stage of constructive organization.1

The most recent official report says that the organization now (January 1, 1917) "consists of six industrial unions: Marine Transport Workers, Metal and Machinery Workers, Agricultural Workers (A. W. O.), Iron Miners, Lumber Workers, and Railway Workers, having fifty branches and 200 unions in other industries, together with 100 recruiting unions directly united with the general organization." 2 The paid-up membership is put at 60,000 on January 1st, 1917, up to which date it is claimed that an aggregate of 300,000 membership cards had been issued since 1905. The bulk of the present membership is distributed among tthe following industries: textile, steel, lumber, mining, farming, railroad construction, and marine transportation. Except in the textile industry, the majority of these workers are migratory unskilled laborers.*

3

The activities of the I. W. W. are by no means confined to the United States and Canada. The organization has been gradually extending its propaganda in most Englishspeaking countries. This study is primarily concerned with the I. W. W. in the United States. But in any case it would be impossible to present any adequate record of its work in other countries because of the difficulty of getting at the

1 Solidarity, Dec. 2, 1916, p. 1.

2 St. John, The I. W. W., History, Structure and Methods (1917 edition), p. 23.

3 Ibid., p. 24. Charters were issued to 116 locals (in 27 States and 2 Canadian provinces) during the two years ending Sept. 1, 1916. These included 8 recruiting unions and 9 Propaganda Leagues. (Vide Report of General Secretary, Proceedings, Tenth Convention [1916], pp. 33-36, where there is a list of these new locals.)

'St. John, op. cit., p. 23.

facts of the situation. The announcements from the Chicago headquarters make reference to four foreign jurisdictions, viz. its British, New Zealand, Australian and South African “administrations." It is unlikely that the “British Administration" amounts to anything. The writer has happened upon vague references to an "I. W. W. local" in London, but has not been able to either disprove or verify them. It is in the British colonies of South Africa1 and Australia that the I. W. W. has made headway with its propaganda and organizing work. After the outbreak of the European War the I. W. W. in Australia became the object of no little attention on the part of the government because of their anti-militarist agitation. Finally in Australia several of the Wobblies were arrested, tried and convicted on charges of high treason.

All the machinery of the capitalist state has been turned loose against us [says an I. W. W. paper published in Sydney]. Our hall has been raided periodically as a matter of principle, our literature, our papers, pictures, and press have all been confiscated; our members and speakers have been arrested and charged with almost every crime on the calendar; the authorities are making unscrupulous, bitter and frantic attempts to stifle the propaganda of the I. W. W.2

Some idea of the nature and seriousness of that propaganda may be had from the meagre reports which have reached this country. A writer in the Sunset Magazine 3 says that the striking coal miners

had Australia at their mercy.

In vain did the gov

In the summer of 1918 it was reported in a press dispatch from Johannesburg that a branch of the I. W. W. had been established among the natives at Durban (New York Times, July 19, 1918, p. 15, col. 5).

2 Direct Action (Sydney), reprinted in Solidarity, Mar. 17, 1917, p. 4. * March, 1917, p. 11, col. I, "The Raised Fist of Labor."

ernment plead with the strikers for coal to start troop and wheat ships. . . . As a last resort, the leaders . . . were arrested. . . . The Industrial Workers of the World, the militant aggressive organization whose doctrine of a general rebellion is rapidly spreading through the "paradise of labor," demanded the release of the miners [and] threatened to burn down Sydney if their demands were not complied with. They made good. Night after night the incendiary work went on in Sydney. . . . Terrorized by the handful of industrial rebels, the commonwealth was forced to yield. The strike leaders were finally released [and] the demands of the strikers were granted.

A month later the New York Times published some special correspondence on the subject. It appears that in October, 1916, charges were preferred against 15 I.W.W.s in New South Wales. These charges involved, according to this report, treason and wholesale arson in Sydney, amounting to $1,250,000. The chief issue involved was the conscription policy of the government, to which the I. W. W. was opposed. They were brought to trial on October 10th. The warrant against them charged that they were preaching sabotage by means of surreptitious pamphlets and openly upon the streets. Further, the warrant alleged, says the Times correspondent, "that they plotted rebellion against the King; that they conspired to burn down buildings in Sydney. . . endeavored to put force or restraint upon the Parliament of New South Wales, [and that] they endeavored to intimidate and overawe Parliament."

1

Their anti-war campaign at last became so obnoxious to the government that the House of Representatives, in December, 1916, passed a statute, called "The Unlawful Asso

1 One of them was the editor of Direct Action, an I. W. W. paper published in Sydney.

2 New York Times, April 14, 1917, p. 6.

ciations Act," which practically made it a criminal offense to be a member of the I. W. W.; the apparent intention of the authorities being to arrest all prominent I. W. W. speakers and hold them for the duration of the war.1

2

The Australian Unlawful Associations Act is to "continue in force for the duration of the present war and a period of six months thereafter, but no longer." Section 3 runs in part as follows: "The following are hereby declared to be unlawful associations, namely: (a) the association known as the Industrial Workers of the World; and (b) any association which, by its constitution or propaganda, advocates or encourages, or incites or instigates to, the taking or endangering of human life, or the destruction or injury of property. . . ." The act imposes the penalty of imprisonment for six months upon any person who "continues to be a member of an unlawful association," who "advocates or encourages [or who " prints or publishes any writing advocating or encouraging "] . . . the taking or endangering of human life, or the destruction or injury of property," who "advocates or encourages . . . any action intended or calculated to prevent or hinder the production, manufacture or transport . . . of troops, arms, munitions or war-like material," or who "knowingly gives or contributes money or goods to an unlawful association."

In Australia as in the United States there were prior to the war two I. W. W. organizations in existence: a political I. W. W. and a non-political I. W. W. In that country, however, the political group (counterpart of the Detroit

1 Cf. letter from the General Secretary of the Australian Administration, in Report of General-Secretary-Treasurer to the Tenth I. W. W. Convention (1916), Proceedings, pp. 42-43. Vide, also, New York Times, Dec. 20, 1916, p. 5, col. 2.

'The Unlawful Associations Act (No. 41 of 1916), assented to Dec. 21, 1916, and amended by the Unlawful Associations Act (No. 14 of 1917), assented to July 27, 1917.

wing in the United States) has been by all odds the more influential. Although both these groups were pretty well smothered by the war and the Unlawful Associations Act, the I. W. W. industrial union idea made its appearance in another form in the summer of 1918. In July of that year representatives of some of the most powerful unions of New South Wales held a conference in Sydney. This socalled "Industrial Conference Board" drew up a constitution for an organization on the I. W. W. model, adopted the I. W. W. preamble almost word for word, and launched "The Workers Industrial Union of Australia." Four of the six clauses of the preamble are almost identical in phrasing with that of the American I. W. W. The other two clauses are worded as follows:

Between these two classes [proletarian and capitalist] the struggle must continue until capitalism is abolished . . . by the workers uniting in one class-conscious economic organization to take and hold the means of production by revolutionary industrial and political action. Revolutionary action" means to secure a complete change, namely the abolition of capitalistic class ownership of the means of production-whether privately or through the state and the establishment in its place of social ownership by the whole community. . . . We hold that, as the working class creates and operates the socially operated machinery of production, it should direct production and determine working conditions.2

1 Christian Science Monitor, October 4, 1918.

The preamble is printed in full in The World (Oakland, Cal.), October 18, 1918, p. 3. (Reprinted from the British Columbia Federationist, Sept. 27, 1918, article by W. Francis Ahern, Australian correspondent). Mr. Ahern gives a detailed description of the structure of the new union and shows that in this respect, also, it follows the American I. W. W. very closely. Other meetings in furtherance of this project are reported to have been held in the fall of 1918 in Brisbane and Melbourne. (Ibid.) This recrudescence of militant industrialism in Australia appears to be an indirect outcome of the defeat of the Labor party in the federal election of 1917.