The Tottenham Rebels: Radical Labour Politics in a Small Mining Town During the Great War
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The Tottenham Rebels: Radical Labour Politics in a Small Mining Town during the Great War Rowan Day A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Western Sydney 2014 Rowan Day, University of Western Sydney Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Drew Cottle and Carol Liston, who supervised this thesis. Without their enthusiasm and support this thesis would never have got off the ground, without their advice it would have wilted. They have both been inspiring mentors. Having as it does a focus on Tottenham, locals of that community have been a tremendous aid. The Tottenham Historical Society, especially, has been of great assistance, and special mention goes to the tireless Diana Chase. Another expression of the generosity that swells in Tottenham is my having been in the fortunate position of having proof-readers offer their services. My mother Jenny and brother Dave volunteered well before conscription was necessary, as did Nicola Eggleton. A century later Tottenham is still a remarkable community. Valuable insights into the Kennedy family were provided by Peter Kennedy and John Hamblin. The staff working at the NSW archives, Kingswood, were especially fastidious in their assistance. If one can thank a building—nowhere did the mind and the pen flow more freely than in that cathedral to knowledge, Sydney’s Mitchell Library. Fellow UWS postgraduate students have made the PhD experience somewhat less Kafkaesque. Susan Barclay has stoically endured the smell of my daily curry and other distractions for the best part of five years, all the while being a constant source of advice. Last but not least, danke schön, Caitlin, für Ihrer liebe. Rowan Day, University of Western Sydney The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, original except as acknowledged in the text. I hereby declare that I have not submitted this material, either in full or in part, for a degree at this or any other institution. ............................................................................................................ Rowan Day Rowan Day, University of Western Sydney Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................... i List of illustrations ......................................................................................................... ii Abbreviations ................................................................................................................. 3 Glossary ......................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction and Overview of Literature ....................................................................... 1 1. Overview of Australia 1890-1916: Labour, Politics and the Great War ................. 18 2. Tottenham ................................................................................................................ 33 3. The Rise of the IWW Internationally and in Australia ............................................ 65 4. The Kennedys: A Rebel Family ............................................................................... 81 5. The Tottenham IWW ............................................................................................. 103 6. The Navvies ........................................................................................................... 121 7. Further on the Tottenham IWW ............................................................................. 131 8. Suppression of the IWW: Nationally and in Tottenham ........................................ 156 9. The Killing of George Duncan .............................................................................. 189 10. The Trials and Executions ................................................................................... 203 11. The Cobar Conflagrations: The Struggle Continues ............................................ 235 12. Twilight of the Wobblies in Tottenham and Australia ........................................ 248 13. Local no. 9: ‘The Australian Legend’ or ‘Devils’? .............................................. 260 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 290 Timeline 1907-1917 ................................................................................................... 294 Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 297 Rowan Day, University of Western Sydney Abstract This thesis looks at an Australia after the defeated strikes of the 1890s but before the defeated great strike of 1917, where contrary to the standard view workers had not contented themselves with parliamentary politics and reform. The setting is the raw mining and agricultural centre of Tottenham in western New South Wales. It focusses on the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), seeking to explain the appeal of the movement in the area, and what drove some of its members to take up arms against the police—resulting in the deaths of a police officer and two members of the Tottenham IWW Local. The thesis offers for the first time a deep analysis of the IWW in an Australian rural setting, at the same time arguing that a previous focus on urban Australia, especially Sydney, has been unwarranted and misleading. The thesis documents the lives and struggles of a ‘rebel family’ of working class agitators, whose roots were in Tottenham but who carried their revolutionary flag across Australasia and North America. It examines how the state and employers responded to the activities of the IWW in Tottenham, and to what extent the IWW used sabotage as a tactic in their class struggle. The hastily carried out executions of two ‘Wobblies’ provoked a storm of debate, not least surrounding the unprecedented execution of a crown witness. The response to the murder and the executions accentuated the split within the labour movement; the actions of the Tottenham IWW infiltrated the national debate over conscription and the crackdown on the IWW throughout the country. The events and individuals at Tottenham influenced the fate of the IWW in Australia and beyond. Reflecting on these events, together with a consideration of non-urban work and culture, makes the Australian ‘Wobbly’ more explicable. Rowan Day, University of Western Sydney List of illustrations Figure 1: New South Wales ........................................................................................ 33 Figure 2: Tottenham and its region. ............................................................................ 34 Figure 3: Camp site in the Central Copper Belt at the turn of the century. ................ 36 Figure 4: Tottenham miners, early twentieth century ................................................. 51 Figure 5: New Zealand ............................................................................................... 84 Figure 6: Roland Kennedy and the Tottenham Brass Band, 1916. ............................. 92 Figure 7: Arthur Graham. ......................................................................................... 104 Figure 8: Concentration Camp Letter from Albert Krist. ......................................... 165 Figure 9: Frank Franz, Roland Kennedy, Michael Kennedy. ................................... 203 Figure 10: Roland Kennedy ...................................................................................... 209 Figure 11: Frank Franz ............................................................................................. 210 Figure 12: The Wobbly and the bushranger ............................................................. 229 Rowan Day, University of Western Sydney Abbreviations AFL: American Federation of Labor AMA: Amalgamated Miners’ Association AWU: Australian Workers’ Union DA: Direct Action BHP: Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited CIB: Criminal Investigation Branch CPA: Communist Party of Australia CSA: Cornish, Scottish and Australian mine FMEA: Federated Mine Employees’ Association GCC: German Concentration Camp, Liverpool IWW: Industrial Workers of the World NAA: National Archives of Australia NSW: New South Wales NSWSR: New South Wales State Records NSWBDM: New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages OBU: One Big Union PFA: Pastoral Finance Association PLL: Political Labour League SMH: The Sydney Morning Herald THS: Tottenham Historical Society ULU: United Laborers’ Union WFA: Western Federation of Miners WPA: War Precautions Act 1 acre = 0.405 hectares 1 mile = 1.61 kilometres 1 foot = 30.48 centimetres 1 yard = 0.9144 metres Currency: In Australia until the 1960s, a shilling (s) consisted of twelve pence (d); twenty shillings made up one pound (£). A sum such as 2s 6d was often written as 2/6. Rowan Day, University of Western Sydney Glossary Chicago: The anti-political, direct actionist strand of the IWW was based in the U.S. city of Chicago, and was often referred to simply by the city’s name. Detroit: Following the split within the IWW, Daniel De Leon’s followers headquartered themselves in Detroit. As with Chicago, this strand of the IWW was given their home city’s name. Local: An IWW branch. The term Local was used to distinguish the Chicago strand of the IWW from the Detroit IWW’s ‘Clubs’. The Local in Tottenham was referred to as Local no. 9. The Sydney