Note on the Industrial Workers of the World

The genesis of the Chicago tendency of the I.W.W.?the union as opposed to the clubs?has an important place in Australian labour history. As Ian Turner states,1 I.W.W. ideas began to make a signifi cant impact in Australia in 1907. The conference of socialists which inaugurated the Socialist Federation of Australia in 1907 adopted a resolution on industrial unionism with specific advocacy of the I.W.W. The socialists had immediate success in several centres, particularly Newcastle, Broken Hill, Sydney and Melbourne, and the I.W.W. preamble, as adopted in 1905, with the political clause, became a live issue in the trade union movement

Political science · Sociology · Australian History and Society · Engineering · Labor Movements and Unions