This article is about the famous British socialist and unionist, Tom Mann, who contributed so much to unionism social justice and socialist thought during his stay in Australia in the early years of the 20th century. donsuth1@gmail.com )Who was Tom Mann? And what does he mean for unionists in thest Century?By Don SutherlandThis article draws upon an article by Laurie Carmichael, then the Assistant National Secretary of the Amalgamated Metal’s sources, other books and articles and various library sources that are acknowledged in the article. In particular,’s biography of Tom Mann covers in detail the period before and after his years in Australia, including the constantMany AMWU1 members and other members of the public have at some time walked through the– the Tom Mann Theatre. Many people would have’s intention has been (and remains) to cultivate and’s commitment to art and theatre, including the professional, union and communityWhy should the AMWU remember Tom Mann’s legacy inIn brief, Tom Mann was a towering figure in the international union andth century and in the first 3 decades2 who never aspired to aFormative yearsTom was born in Warwickshire, England, in 1856 but his mother died when he was 2. At1The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union.2Tom Mann as an orator can be seen at: http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=15543 , and associated2“mullock overburden from coal mine ventilation shafts in steel boxes made… these were pulled on ‘all fours’ with a chain attached to a belt around”3“At 14, after a colliery fire, he was ‘bonded’ in apprenticeship for 7 years to a”4His education, aside from his trade learning, was steeped in religion and“an encyclopaedic self education stimulated by a”5. He embraced astronomy and played the violin. He co-founded the“Astronomy” and “Progress and Poverty”.– as an activist–Sweden, America, South Africa, NZ, China, Ireland, Canada and the USSR.The union in his life“Throughout his long life he retained the closest association with the Amalgamated Society of“ 6 Joseph White describes him as a “Society man”7 Some years after his return to England he became its General Secretary for 3“depression” he created 2 ASE Branches“Australia Council” of the union, then the membership’s peak8.9Laurie Carmichael, AMWU Monthly Journal (pp 8-11). 1976, p. 84Ibid, p. 95Ibid., p 96Ibid., p. 97Joseph White, Tom Mann, Lives of the Left, Manchester University Press, 19918Tom Mann, Memoirs, MacGibbon and Kee, 1967 edition, p. 1779Ken Buckley, The Amalgamated Engineers in Australia, 1970.3“agitational”organising focussed on the smelters at Port Pirie, and the iron ore mines at Iron Knob and Whyalla:“In three weeks at Broken Hill Mann persuaded 1600 to join the union and at Port Pirie” 10Social consciousness in action: some of Tom Mann’s activitiesIn his memoirs Tom traces the beginning of his social consciousness to 1880. Soon he committed’ struggles wherever he was, and wherever he was invited, to assist through11, alongside Ben Tillett,“docker’s tanner” – sixpence a day. The12 After the strike he was elected president of the’ Union.“There was great police brutality and 2 gunboats were anchored in midstream in the Mersey off” 13Jim Moss, Sound of Trumpets, History of the Labour Movement of South Australia, Wakefield Press, 1985,11For more on the Dockers Strike and the contribution of Australian unionists,http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ConNarrative.77/chapterId/1857/The-Great-Dock-.12See “Australian Unionists Support the London Dockers, 1889” in Noel Ebbels, The Australian Labour13Carmichael, p. 9Comment [a1]:Just to confirm’s no first name here?4‘incitement to mutiny’ because from a meeting platform during that“at the age of 77 for unemployed agitation during the Great Hunger March of 1932”.14Tom Mann in AustraliaAccompanied by his second wife15, Elsie, and their two children, Tom arrived in Australia in 190216Bertha Walker describes his arrival in her sadly neglected book“Solidarity Forever”17:“Two days before polling day in the Victoria State Elections of 1902, an Englishman who… in those seven years (he) leftthbirthday, large celebrations were held in Melbourne to coincide with other celebrations”On arrival he was invited and accepted the post of paid organiser for the Labor Party up to 1905.“put up posters, promote the meeting, take the chair, speak, sell literature and”. 18He was also a regular speaker at the Sydney Domain, especially when invited“barnstorming tour” of the state.19Ibid.15Elsie Harker, who he met while organising in Newcastle on Tyne. It appears that Elsie and Tom were not16For more on the New Zealand activity see his Memoirs and also Joseph White, Tom Mann.17About the life and times of Australian labour leader, Percy Laidler18Ibid., p.1019The Bitter Fight, a Pictorial History of the Australian Labor Movement, by Joe Harris, Page 143.5“socialist” tea that“Bijou Theatre Sunday”.20The Bijou Theatre– towards the eastern end of BourkeFrom his English experience he reproduced creative recreational activity: a band, orchestra and“operatic voice of Elsie Mann, Licentiate of the Academy of Music”21. These were a part of‘magic lantern’.The struggle for“free speech” in PrahranMann was a fearless champion of free speech and this came to a peak in the“Public meetings were often held by““The VSP encouraged all who were arrested to refuse on principle to pay fines and continued to” Amongst those imprisoned were Tom Mann, sitting on the right, Joe22For more on the Victorian Socialist Party, read Noel Ebbels, The Australian Labour Movement, 1850-1907,21In our Time, Socialism and the Rise of Labor 1885-2005, by Verity Burgmann, George Allen and Unwin,22National Library Note: This asset indicates that women were in the forefront of the socialist movement and the free6“packed Melbourne Town Hall”23The Broken Hill Lockout of 1908-9Laurie Carmichael describes the Broken Hill Lockout of 1909 as“the most famous episode of his’s) life in Australia.” In this dispute, just a couple of years after the new commonwealth“declared that a”24Like many workers from several countries before and after, the mine workers asked Tom Mann to“his closest associate in the”25At his first meeting with 3000 mine workers he said:“Organise the’t get through.”26 Carmichael says’s he saw in the old AEU“the original Tom Mann drawings of the picket lines in‘line of lode’ taking every detail of”27 Hundreds of police had to be brought in to’ scab labour to get through.28The story unfolds, firstly in the words of George Dale and then in those of Tom Mann himself:29In September, BHP Chairman, Mr. John Darling announced an effective wage cut of 12.5% for staff across all BHP enterprises.23These postcards are from the ‘Melbourne Gaol Series’ published by the Victorian Socialist Party (VSP) as24Carmichael, p.1025Carmichael, p. 1126Ibid., p.1027Ibid., p.10: Carmichael adds “I was transfixed by the conception and its brilliant execution that must have”28For more on these picket lines, and also on membership growth methods read Chapter 2 of Strikes: Studies29All of this from http://www.abc.net.au/federation/fedstory/ep3/ep3_places.htm7flourishing revolvers in one hand and striking with batons with the other.”…everything was orderly and the line of routeTom was charged with unlawful“Hill” – 3,000 to 4,000 people -“The Tom Mann”. There Mann addressed the’s trial was conducted in Albury, a rural city surrounded by the lands of rich farm“before a notoriously anti working class judge. But he won acquittal from the jury to be”30Tom left Australia with Elsie and his children in late 1909 for 4 months of lectures in South Africa“Tom had taught Australia a great deal. He had pioneered mass organisation, showed‘continental’ but applied to all countries. He broke down….”31He tried on 2 occasions to return to Australia. In 1918 he was refused by the Hughes (Labor)30Carmichael, p. 11.31Bertha Walker, Solidarity Forever!, the National Press, 898What does he mean for unionism“in our own times”?Tom Mann’s ideas have been captured in his own Memoirs and also in Tom’s Social and Economic Writings, edited by John Laurent and jointly32. The 6 pieces in’s collection cover the 8 Hour Day, religion, socialism, class conflict andThe Way to Win.“the metabolic rift” between– more international than ever – drives’s efforts, just prior to setting’s“The Way to Win” was published by Broken Hill’s Barrier Daily Truth in May 1909, not long after the‘organisation’, a ‘vision’ if you like. The detail of this“Socialism” (see below) and in his many speeches. This article is much more“machinery” for achieving this object and specifically tackles the problem of sectionalism in“Sectionalism must disappear, and the industrial organisations must be equal to State,”33To a certain extent, Mann’s proposals now take their modern form in the state labour councils and32This important book can be found in some AMWU office storerooms and on the bookshelves of some’s National Library. It is possible to find a copy here9“the ideological perspective”, specifically he discusses the“Experience in all countries shows most conclusively that industrial organisation,for entirely”34Everything he did was to encourage“rank and file” unionism. He was strongly opposed to“he considered it robbed the workers of their independence and their capacity to”35In around 1902, he wrote:“whatever may be said by arbitration courts, the only rightful reward to… and Act or no Act, the standard won’t be high”36And then later in his memoirs he reflected on Australian arbitration,“As a result of the working of”37H.V. Evatt, in his outstanding Australian Labour Leader, about the origins of the Australian Labor’s advocacy of the “industrial unit” as the basis of union organisation, and“in an important Pamphlet”, The Way to Win, and which he points out“Solidarity Forever”. Evatt points’s thinking about both industrial unionism and arbitration in the“After fighting on ‘constitutional lines the unions obtained a satisfactory award from38. But the Full High Court unanimously upset a vital part of the awardThis experience, said Mann, of the admittedly most perfect Arbitration Court….”3934Tom Mann, “The Way to Win”, in Social and Economic Writings, p. 14635Carmichael, p. 1036Cited in K.D. Buckley’s The Amalgamated Engineers in Australia, 1852 – 1920, 1970. Buckley is citing Mann’s Monthly Report, of November 1902.37Cited in Buckley, page 167.38He of the Harvester Decision that established the basic wage – DS’ note.39H.V. Evatt, Australian Labour Leader: The Story of W.A. Holman and the Labour Movement, Angus and10– especially the unskilled. 40He added to this, arguing inside the councils of the union for“industry unionism”:“…the broadening of the basis (of trade unionism), the merging of sectional unions, the…. The needs of the hour are for all… and never have a strike that is not backed by the”41There is a vivid description of his organising method in his own words in Graeme Osborne’s“Town and Company”42. His method involved planning, identifying the central issues of concern for’s ideas about worker and industrial organisation continued to develop in the decades after his’s 1976 article coincided with a genuine mass movement around“workers control” in Australia. Including what became known as the “green bans”. He points out“We aim at applying the principle of workers control in the shops, factories, mills, mines,”43Mann’s Australian experience confirmed his commitment to “syndicalism” as the best form of44 For Mann, “syndicalism involves direct” Unlike “syndicalism” in general, Mann’s approach included the’s approach’s advocacy of “syndicalism” was driven by educational activity. He helped to form“Industrial Syndicalist Education League” and through it sought to win popular“platform work”), pamphlets and its40Graeme Osborne, ‘Mann, Thomas (Tom) (1856 – 1941)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, Melbourne, 1986, pp 395-396.41Cited in Buckley, p. 18142Strikes, page 3543Carmichael, p. 1144Memoirs, pp 203-21311’s efforts to develop a “pit to port”,’s account is his willingness to critique his experience and forms of’s ecology?”Mann and Socialism“Socialism” is the longest essay in Social and Economic Writings. It was first published by “Tocsin”,’s thinking out of his lived“an immense store of energy was released”,45 including’s daughter, Eleanor, herself a popular’ leader in England and Europe. However, his approach to socialism sought to “link the….”46Mann’s “Socialism” recommends that understanding it proceeds from independent and critical“poverty”its extent, its effects and its causes, and how it might be abolished. His stand for ‘socialism’ is “not‘ism’ or ‘ology’ but THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY …”47He places great emphasis – correctly – on the reality and economics of“exploitation” and“appropriation” as the core of capitalism, and then addresses its morality, and the alternative’s “Socialism” places emphasis on the ‘cooperative’dimension relative to the“state’ or ‘governmental’ socialism. He argues for workers being in“not”. He shows how ‘socialism’ works in the present, and is not just a dream for a (much48 This invites us to think about “twenty first century socialism”.– and the others in Laurent’s collection – demonstrate Mann’s passionate45Carmichael, p. 1146J. N. Evans, Great Figures in the Labour Movement, p. 49.47Tom Mann, “Socialism”, in Laurent, p. 8248Ibid., pp 94-9812“It dawned on me that I had missed something in the education” 49In conclusionWhen Tom Mann died,“red flags were hung at half-mast over many public and Labour buildings in”50 Carmichael concluded, in 1976:“…the workers of the world and of Australia in particular owe a great deal to this“He stands as a giant in our reflections upon those who created our movement and there”51For all of us joining together in acts of solidarity and struggle against all forms of injustice and’s potential as a learning, intellectual’s union activist is a person who converses outside of his or her own circle of friends, reads“blue collar” to being “not well read and proud of it”.’s union activist harnesses the ongoing acquisition of knowledge‘socialist’ or ‘communist’. Who49Tom Mann, Memoirs, Macgibbon and Kee, 1967, page 450Ibid., p. 55.51Ibid., p. 11
The article is written by Don Sutherland, who is the National Industrial Officer of the AMWU (Australian Manufacturing Workers Union). Don has been a teacher and has worked for the ACTU before working at the AMWU.
I believe that Don’s article is a very important one as it gives us a valuable insight into the history of Australian unionism and progressive politics.
© Don Sutherland August 2010 (
early 21
©
August 2010
Workers Union, in the June 1976 edition of the AMWU Monthly Journal (pp 8-11). Additional material has been drawn
from Laurie
Joseph White
evolution of his approach to unionism and politics.
foyer of the old AMWU headquarters at 136 Chalmers St, Surry Hills, (Sydney) and seen on their
left a hardy and well used, popular theatre
participated in public meetings, mass meetings of members, film nights, university lectures, and
plays in this theatre. Many others would have seen the occasional reference to the theatre in union
journals and leaflets.
In 1976, in opening its new national headquarters, and to its great and lasting credit, the National
Council of the AMWU named the theatre after Tom Mann, one of the great figures in Australian,
British and international unionism. The union
express it
organisations that bring this to life.
such a permanent and visible way?
socialist movement at the end of the 19
of the twentieth century. He was a metal worker and an outstanding union
organiser and educator, an inspirational leader for workers in several
countries, a life long learner and powerful orator
parliamentary career. From 1902 he worked as a union organiser and
political activist in Australia and New Zealand. He developed and held a
cosmopolitan and socialist world outlook, settling with ease wherever he travelled.
links.
age 9 he went to work in the underground coal mines. For 4 years he dragged
like sledges (without wheels) 30 inches long, 18 inches wide, and 18 inches
deep
his waste and thighs. A candle on the box lit his way.
toolmaking firm in Birmingham, starting with a 60 hour, 6 day week and
frequent 2 hours overtime of an evening with no penalty rates.
temperance. But from his early twenties he pursued
desire for social change
Shakespeare Mutual Improvement Society in London, attended science and art classes, and gave
lectures himself on
He visited France and worked in the USA, and remained a life long traveller, visiting
Engineers (later the Amalgamated Engineering Union, and leading through important
amalgamations, ultimately to the AMWU as it is known today). He represented branches and
districts everywhere and held every branch office.
if ever there was one.
years or so. In Australia he represented the union on the Trades Hall Council in Victoria, organised
for it in Tasmania, WA, Queensland, and SA, and met with union members when travelling through
each of the states.
In 3 weeks of organising in Tasmania, during an economic
in Zeehan and Queenstown, only possible because of significant membership growth, and
submitted 7 written reports to the
body. His account of his Tasmanian organising includes a short, vivid account of environmental
damage brought on by mining activity
In 1904 he visited the Kalgoorlie Branch of the union, which was soon in full struggle with the gold
mine owners over overtime rates and poor arbitration decisions.
3
He visited SA in 1904 to give lectures, and then in 1907 and 1908, in association with the Broken
Hill Lockout dispute, he brought the SA labour movement to life with systematic
he had proportionately better results.
himself to workers
lectures and organising activity.
He worked for a brief period as a production worker or cleaner to learn how to build the struggle
against the severest conditions, for example the 7-day 12-hour shifts in a Cheshire factory.
Famously, he was in the leadership group for the
London Dock Strike of 1889
Henry Champion, John Burns and others. The strike
was for the
conduct of this strike can be read as a master class in
union organising, with international solidarity an
essential element, and Australian unions playing a major
role.
Dockers
He edited newspapers and wrote for many more, and in
addition he wrote and published pamphlets, lectures and speeches.
In 1884 he joined the Battersea Branch of the Social Democratic Federation, his first political party.
He urged it to support the fight for the 8 hour day so that it might connect to the union movement.
When Tom returned to England after his years in Australia he became Chairman of the Liverpool
Transport Workers Strike Committee in 1911. This was a very tough strike that lasted 72 days.
Birkenhead with their guns trained on Liverpool. 7,000 troops and 80,000 specials were organised
against the strikers.
10
page 217
Strike-of-1889.html
Movement, 1850-1907, Australasian Book Society, 1960.
there
The strikers won, but Tom was being watched closely by the secret police of the day, and a year later
he was gaoled for 6 months for
struggle he read from a leaflet urging the soldiers not to shoot at their brothers.
He was gaoled many times for his activities, or charged unsuccessfully (in Australia, see below),
including
and left in 1909. Elsie was a singer and writer and, like Tom, a socialist, and they remained lifelong
partners.
Just before arriving in Australia, Tom and his family lived in NZ for several months. There he was
active in the Socialist Party and made a detailed study of the much lauded industrial utopia that the
English at home believed was in place.
was to leave a greater impact than any other, came to Melbourne. He went from the boat
and addressed 12 meetings before the Poll, in support of the Victorian Labor Party. The
labour movement was won by his personality, ability as an orator and the downrightness of
the principles he enunciated. His name was Tom Mann and
so big an impression that in 1936 (27 years after his departure) on the occasion of his 80
throughout the world.
He travelled to every town he could, big and small, creating Labor Party branches wherever it was
necessary. Laurie Carmichael (pictured) said in 1976 that many of these still existed at that time.
Maybe they still do. He was often a one person organising force, he would
win over the audience finishing with an ovation
by the miners to help organise a major struggle they were engaged in at the
time. He is also credited as a major contributor to the adoption of the
socialist objective at the Queensland Labor in Politics Convention of 1905,
following a
14
legally married at that time, and they remained lifelong partners..
He formed the Victorian Socialist Party in 1905
and led it with a vigorous and all round approach
to political life: Sunday morning lectures at Port
Melbourne Pier, in the afternoon speeches at the
Yarra Bank, a Socialist Sunday School that spread
interstate, a Sunday evening
was capped off by the
Night Lectures, regularly attracting 1000 in
attendance
Street, Melbourne
choir were formed with dozens of concerts joined by poets and writers. The concerts were treated
to the
the lectures that covered social action, science, philosophy, sociology, economics, art and politics.
Leading Labor Party figures like John Curtin and John Cain were also prominent lecturers. His
lectures included pictures of the London Dockers Strike and other important events and
phenomena projected onto a screen from a
famous Prahran (Melbourne suburb) free speech struggle of
late 1906. The Victorian Socialist Party produced postcards to
rouse support for the campaign. As the National Library note
to these postcards says:
Socialists, the Salvation Army and other bodies in side streets
in Prahran but a campaign of public persecution took place
from October to December 1906 when Socialists were refused
permits to speak by the Prahran City Council and were singled
out for arrest and imprisonment.
organise public meetings in defiance of the police action. Over twenty Socialists were fined or
imprisoned, half of them refusing to pay the fine and serving periods from ten days to five weeks in
Old Melbourne Gaol.
Swebleses, Frank Hyett and Lizzie Ahern, probably the woman in front.
20
Extracts from Contemporary Documents, Australasian Book Society, 1960.
Sydney, Page 131
speech fight – four women, Miss Ahern, Mrs Anderson, Mrs Jarvis and Mrs Edwards, were arrested for speaking at
public meetings and all chose to go to prison rather than pay fines; the woman in the postcard is probably Lizzie Ahern
(1877-1969), who joined the VSP in 1905 and whose speeches on the banks of the Yarra River were said to have been
so popular that women would happily lose a day’s pay to hear her views.
In one dramatic action (one of several during this campaign) at a
meeting he led 14 others onto the stage to speak in prison garb.
(Mann
Conciliation and Arbitration Act that dominated Australian politics for nearly a hundred years, the
mine owners who were making their fortunes had locked out the workforce and
return to work would be only on a twelve and half percent wage cut.
come and help them in their struggle, and of course he did. Harry
Holland was also involved and was
Hill dispute. He later became Prime Minister of New Zealand.
picket lines so tight a rabbit won
that on a visit to Broken Hill in the 1960
offices
staggered formation around the
terrain into account.
break these lines for the owners
Workers in the highly unionised town of Broken Hill rejected this cut. An application was made to settle the dispute before the
Federal Arbitration Court and a hearing was set for February 1909.
On December 7, 1908, BHP General Manager, Guillaume Daniel Delprat, posted notices around the city declaring that only men
who accepted the reduced wage would be employed. Workers refused to accept any alteration until the case went before the
Arbitration Court. A lockout was put in place by BHP, assisted by arms, provisions and watchmen. Unionists set up pickets around
the mines.
Between New Year and January 9 tensions were high; an explosion cut a railway line to BHP’s lease and scab workers were jeered
and stoned. Two hundred extra police were moved to Broken Hill from Sydney and Adelaide. The situation came to a head on
Saturday, January 9, 1909 when police blocked a picket procession led by union leader, Tom Mann.
“In a thrice all was confusion, consternation, disorder, violence – men (and women too) were being batoned in all directions. Tom
Mann was struggling with at least 15 policemen. Arrests were being made in all directions. Police, in the excitement, were
propaganda for the ‘Fight for Free Speech’ in Prahran, Melbourne. Original held by National Library of Australia MS
3939, Series 15, Box 67
entailed the most detailed study.
in Twentieth Century Australian History, ed by John Iremonger, John Merritt, and Graeme Osborne,Angus
and Robertson and the ASSLH, 1973,
George Dale, ‘The Industrial History of Broken Hill’ 1965, p.117
Tom Mann wrote:
“The mounted men, like their predecessors, were armed with carbines and revolvers
was the same we had traversed many times before. As the procession approached the thoroughfare on the far side of which was
the company’s property, we found the way blocked by police. They made a dash for the union banner, tore it off the poles and used
the latter on the heads of the men including the bandsmen. For 10 minutes there was as lively a time as I had ever experienced,
and I was in the middle of it. At the end of the fray, I was marched off to the police station, together with 20 of my comrades. We
were all bunged into one large cell.”
Tom Mann, ‘Memoirs’, London 1923
assembly and sedition. A condition of
his bail was that he could not enter
NSW. So, on January 31 and April 11
the
travelled by train and other means to
Cockburn, a town 30 miles away just
across the border in SA. One train
carried a huge banner:
Train
crowd from a buggy in a picnic
atmosphere. On request of the mine
owners, who did not want to be in
Broken Hill, Mann
owners, and
carried out of court to a tumultuous crowd which he then addressed from the balcony of the
George Hotel.
and then to England. His Australian experiences were central to the further development of his
thought and practice over the next 30 years or so of union and socialist activism in several countries.
Writing some years later Bertha Walker summed up his influence in Australia:
that socialism was not purely
(national) chauvinism and introduced internationalism; he taught the necessity of militant
class struggle
government as it dealt with the impact of the 1917 NSW rail strike and the mass anti-conscription
movement of World War 1.
In 1913 he toured the USA, lecturing and organising (it seems that the 2 always went together)
visiting over 70 cities.
Back in Britain he became the first General Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union in
1919, and in that time probably would have overseen the first great amalgamation of the union.
Mann
published by the AMWU and Spokesman Books in 1988
Laurent
the oft quoted
All of them provide insights useful for unionism of the twenty first century. Of
course, in reading or re-reading these works, we must remember that much has
changed in the intervening years, the rise of finance capital and the changed
composition of the working class, for example, and especially the
humans and nature is at a global crisis point. The works must be read in that light to grapple with
key concepts rather than to bicker over fine detail.
But, it is also true that amid all of the great change there is profound continuity: the relationship
between workers and employers remains based on exploitation whether in China, the USA, Brazil or
Australia; production exists for profitability and private ownership before all else, there is great
poverty amid plenty, and competition between employers
down wages and conditions in the absence of solidarity among workers. On this latter point, in his
biography of Tom Mann, Joseph White describes in some detail Mann
out for Australia, to establish international union organising in the transport industry. Mann
rationale is remarkably consistent with our contemporary understanding of corporate globalisation.
Two articles in the Laurent collection demand further comment.
bitter dispute described above. It is about union organisation, organising and also about strategy. It
starts with just 2 paragraphs about the object of
vision is dealt with in
about the
Australian unionism in the form prevailing at the time, and his recommended strategy to build
working class strength:
national, and international action, not in theory only, but in actual fact.
the ACTU. But is sectionalism dead in contemporary unionism? What form does it take in our
times? What sort of problems does the contemporary form of sectionalism present to workers and
officials of the union. There are a few copies in the union
and there in decent second hand bookshops. Contact the writer of this article if you have trouble finding a
copy.
their unions? What might be done within our present movement to defeat sectionalism and replace
it with a more powerful unity?
Mann also deals with what might be called
primary role of unionism independent of political parties. He is not against parliamentary
participation and intervention at all. But he lays out the essential economic and social learning that
must be developed as a pre-condition for effective parliamentary intervention:
intelligently conducted, is of much more moment than political action,
irrespective as to which school of politicians is in power, capable and courageous industrial activity forces
from the politicians proportionate concessions.
arbitration because
act for themselves.
the workers is the full produce of their labours
unless there is powerful organisation.
these Acts, the unions grew in membership, but lost fighting efficiency.
Party, comments on Mann
the elaboration of his ideas
are also captured in the classic and still widely loved union song,
out the confirmation of Mann
Broken Hill dispute:
Justice Higgins
upon the ground that such part was outside the ambit of the original dispute, or, in other
words, the employees in their log of claims had not formally asked for the particular
concession granted.
in existence, damped any enthusiasm I might have felt for such an institution
from the union
Robertson, Sydney, 1942.
In organising, his primary concern was to organise all classes of workers
separation of the economic or fighting fund from the friendly society portion, and the
trend towards unity of action over the whole industrial field, is receiving attention now in
NSW, Victoria and New Zealand more particularly
unions to pool their fighting funds
whole of the kindred trades. Because compulsory arbitration would make this impossible,
I repudiate compulsory arbitration.
workers and the impact these have on their lives, defining the best claim(s), a continuous
educational effort, building to high density (98% in the example he describes), and then action.
Mann
Australian experience. Carmichael
that Mann remained true to this dynamic dimension of union activity until his death. At the age of
71 he wrote:
ships and railroads until we get complete control.
worker organisation, from the point of view of workers.
action by workers themselves through industry federations of unions to take control of how work
should be done in each industry.
involvement and participation of well established unions. It was not be sectarian.
Syndicalist organisation works independently of parliamentary activity. However, Mann
stresses independent worker organisation that is the pre-requisite and foundation of effective
political activity, not necessarily a replacement for it.
Therefore, Mann
and chaired the
support for the syndicalist approach through public speaking (
newspaper.
University Press
One contemporary example of this is the AMWU WA Branch
multi union approach to organising and bargaining. One can suspect that Mann would be nodding
from his grave in strong approval of this effort.
What is refreshing in Mann
organisation, and to experiment with new forms and to pursue such possibilities in a non sectarian
manner. Worker organisation at any given time is never perfect or totally adequate for the challenges
thrown in front of it by employers (as they evolve themselves) and the development of capitalism
itself. From a hundred years ago he urges us, in our times, to ask ourselves: Are unions, as they are
currently formed, adequate for the challenges faced by working people, the life defining challenges
of globalised mega exploitation of both billions of people and the globe
a left wing newspaper of the Victorian labour movement, in Melbourne in 1905. It is an essay of
great importance. Above all, it reveals the development of Mann
experiences complemented with deep and wide background reading, and sets the tone for a new
stage in his practical activity.
Mann became a socialist at the age of 30 and
a comprehensive study of Marxism. He was friends with Marx
workers
theory of socialism with the need to bring new life into the day-to-day struggles of workers. Trade
unionism by itself was not enough, socialism must become its inspiration
thinking, including understanding the arguments against it. This process must focus upon
–
the backing up of an
morality that socialism must stand for. Mann
collective command of their workplaces and industries. The role of government and the broader
state is to enhance not dominate over this process.
In a memorable section he declares point after point what Socialism stands for, and then briefly
what it is
deferred) future.
Both of these essays
embrace and advocacy of lifelong learning and cultural development. This grew directly out of his
apprenticeship years when he benefited from the great national strike that reduced engineering
hours to 9 hours per day in 1872:
line; I realised that, by the Education Act of 1870, all boys under 14 were now required to attend
school.
Australia.
incredible man who created Prime Ministers and dozens of MPs but who kept his own
efforts exclusively for union action and the socialist movement.
is no honour we can pay to the memory of this great metal worker in Australia that is too
high.
exploitation, Tom Mann shows the significance of each worker
being; including as an active union member. Not an academic intellectual. Rather, an intellectual
where the workplace and industry is the university, workmates are our tutors, constantly learning
why and how to conduct struggle against exploitation by doing it together; for whom the kitchen
table is a site for personal, more systematic learning, using books, newspapers, magazines (and now
the internet).
Mann
beyond the immediate requirements of day to day work, thinks critically, and expresses ideas in
voice and writing and does not reduce worker and union communication to slogans and
exhortation. Who definitely does not equate
Who engages in debate, and learns and applies comradely critical analysis to self and others. Who
allows union and political belief and practice to evolve from experience. Who advocates what
should happen instead, not just what is wrong now. Who speaks and acts beyond slogans and seeks
to educate, as well as agitate. Mann
to the mobilisation of the workers and others against the capitalist system of exploitation and all of
the forms that it takes, old and new. Who has no fear of labels like
learns the difference between exploitation and injustice and also their causal relationship. Who
opposes individualism with personal and collective thought and action, but respects and advances
individuality, the development of each of our unique personalities and capacities in harmony with
others and with nature.
