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Translating Anti-Capitalism Throughout the Empire: Tom Mann and John Curtin as Transnational Activists, 1902–1916

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The Transnational Activist

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements ((PSHSM))

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Abstract

In the early twentieth century, socialist activists within labour’s transnational network organised against imperialism and global capitalism. Tom Mann and John Curtin were two such transnational activists who spread dissent within the British Empire. Through a study of their thoughts and activism, this chapter demonstrates the utility of key insights from social movement theory in understanding previous periods of transnational radical opposition to systemic forces. Adapting the concepts of ‘diffusion,’ ‘translation,’ and Sidney Tarrow’s ‘rooted cosmopolitans,’ it demonstrates the basis of interaction and interchange between histories of transnational activism and contemporary social movement literature.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    ‘Report of the Public Meeting Held In Celebration of Tom Mann’s 80th Birthday,’ Sam Merrifield Collection, State Library of Victoria , Manuscripts, MS13045, Box 15, pp. 4–5.

  2. 2.

    ‘Letter from Tom Mann to John Curtin 23 September 1937’, John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library, 00398/28, available [online]: http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au/R/XLI91XRVFSJRYC2GSH92G3F5JE4HE7RB32G86TMYTMHAUTFU4R-01273?func=results-jump-full&set_entry=000005&set_number=002654&base=ERA01JCPML [Access Date 1 February 2015].

  3. 3.

    James Curran explores and refutes this mythology: Curtin’s Empire, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 1–25.

  4. 4.

    Jürgen Tampke, ‘“Pace Setter or Quiet Backwater?” German Literature on Australia’s Labour Movement and Social Politics’, Labour History, Vol. 36, May 1979, pp. 3–17.

  5. 5.

    Ross McMullin, So Monstrous a Travesty: Chris Watson and the World’s First National Labour Government, Melbourne: Scribe Publications, 2004.

  6. 6.

    Ibid., pp. 68–72. John Fitzgerald, Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia, Sydney: UNSW Press, 2007, p. 124.

  7. 7.

    Vladimir Lenin , “In Australia,” Marxist Internet Archive, available [online]: https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/jun/13.htm [Access Date 24 August 2016].

  8. 8.

    ‘Where Labour Rules,’ Labour Leader, 28 April 1911, p. 205.

  9. 9.

    Stuart Macintyre, The Labour Experiment, Melbourne : McPhee Gribble Publishers, 1989, pp. 35–36.

  10. 10.

    Ibid.

  11. 11.

    Donatella della Porta , Social Movements in Times of Austerity: Bringing Capitalism Back into Protest Analysis, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015.

  12. 12.

    Donatella della Porta, Can Democracy Be Saved? Participation, Deliberation and Social Movements, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2013.

  13. 13.

    Sidney Tarrow , The New Transnational Activism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 18. See also the influential theorist Nancy’s Fraser’s critique of national models of the public sphere and counterpublics, including her own work: Nancy Fraser, Scales of Justice: Reimagining Political Space in a Globalizing World, New York : Columbia University Press, 2009. Despite outlining that there were some transnational movements prior, David West also considers the distinctive nature of this globalised period, while challenging many assumptions of the “newness” of new social movements as opposed to the “old,” the idea that the old social movements were innately national reactions is embedded into his discussion: this contrasts with the globality of the new politics of exploitation under globalisation, and those who resist it, David West, Social Movements in Global Politics, Cambridge: Polity, 2013, pp. 27–149. Andrés Solimano, Economic Elites, Crises, and Democracy: Alternatives Beyond Neoliberal Capitalism, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 139–140.

  14. 14.

    Donatella della Porta and Hanspeter Kriesi , ‘Social Movements in a Globalizing World: An Introduction,’ in Donatella della Porta , Hanspeter Kriesi, and Dieter Rucht, eds., Social Movements in a Globalizing World, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999, pp. 17–18; Donatella della Porta and Sidney Tarrow, ‘Transnational Processes and Social Activism: An Introduction,’ in Donatella della Porta and Sidney Tarrow, eds., Transnational Protest and Global Activism, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005, pp. 1–2, 12–13.

  15. 15.

    See the particularly important study on the transnational experience of race and racialism: Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds, Drawing the Global Colour Line: White Men’s Countries and the Question of Racial Equality, Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2008.

  16. 16.

    Such historical lineages to contemporary movements have been recognised in some accounts, for example, Jackie Smith, Social Movements for Global Democracy, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2008, p. 5.

  17. 17.

    della Porta and Tarrow, ‘Transnational Processes and Social Activism,’ p. 2.

  18. 18.

    Ibid., p. 3.

  19. 19.

    Ibid.

  20. 20.

    Donatella della Porta and Hanspeter Kriesi , ‘Social Movements in a Globalizing World,’ p. 6.

  21. 21.

    Ibid.

  22. 22.

    Ibid.

  23. 23.

    For one brief example of many, see the warning of the Argus against Tom Mann’s socialist teachings, and their ‘non-British nature and origins.’ The paper warned that “It is manifestly to continental agitators and revolutionaries that we must turn for the sources of his inspiration.” See ‘Mr Mann’s Inspiration,’ Argus, 17 September 1904, p. 4. Or the fear shown in the same paper of the growth of German Social Democrats, who were allegedly “Bolder and more frank than our own socialists:” ‘German Socialism,’ Argus, 19 November 1910, p. 6.

  24. 24.

    Notably critiquing the trend of thought that considers global activism as a purely recent phenomena: Sean Scalmer , ‘Translating Contention: Culture, History, and the Circulation of Collective Action,’ Alternatives, vol. 25, 2000, pp. 491–514.

  25. 25.

    Ibid., p. 495.

  26. 26.

    Ibid., p. 492.

  27. 27.

    Donatella della Porta and Hanspeter Kriesi , ‘Social Movements in a Globalizing World,’ p. 8.

  28. 28.

    Ibid., pp. 9–10.

  29. 29.

    Joseph White, Tom Mann, Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1991, p. 124.

  30. 30.

    Tarrow , The New Transnational Activism.

  31. 31.

    Ibid., p. 28.

  32. 32.

    Ibid., p. 29.

  33. 33.

    Ibid.

  34. 34.

    Ibid.

  35. 35.

    Ibid., p. 51.

  36. 36.

    Ibid., p. 53.

  37. 37.

    White, Tom Mann, p. 38.

  38. 38.

    Ibid., pp. 111–115.

  39. 39.

    Socialist, 20 April 1906, p. 5.

  40. 40.

    ‘Keir Hardie in Australia,’ The Worker, 19 December 1907, p. 11. The similarity of terminology with that of Tarrow is of course striking, but incidental.

  41. 41.

    White, Tom Mann, pp. 151–152.

  42. 42.

    Tom Mann , Tom Mann’s Memoirs, London: Macgibbon & Kee, 1967, p. 143.

  43. 43.

    Ibid., pp. 155–170. Ralph Miliband, Parliamentary Socialism: A Study in the Politics of Labour, New York: Monthly Review Press, 1964, pp. 14–15; Perry Anderson , ‘Origins of the Present Crisis,’ New Left Review, Vol. 23, 1964, p. 44.

  44. 44.

    Mann’s biographer describes it as representing ‘his shift from labourism to independent socialism.’ White, Tom Mann, p. 134.

  45. 45.

    Tom Mann , Socialism, Melbourne: Tocsin Office, 1905, p. 10.

  46. 46.

    Ibid., p. 9.

  47. 47.

    Ibid., p. 31.

  48. 48.

    Ibid.

  49. 49.

    Ibid.

  50. 50.

    Ibid., p. 32.

  51. 51.

    ‘The New Party,’ Socialist, 2 April 1906, p. 4.

  52. 52.

    Graeme Osborne, ‘A Socialist Dilemma,’ Labour History: Who Are Our Enemies? Racism and the Working Class in Australia, no. 2, 1978, pp. 112–128. Verity Burgmann, ‘Revolutionaries and Racists: Australian Socialism and the Problem of Racism, 1887–1917,’ Ph.D. dissertation, Australian National University, 1980, pp. 162–176.

  53. 53.

    Osborne, ‘A Socialist Dilemma,’ pp. 113–121; Burgmann, ‘Revolutionaries and Racists,’ pp. 162–176.

  54. 54.

    ‘The New Party,’ Socialist, 2 April 1906, p. 4.

  55. 55.

    Mann, Tom Mann’s Memoirs, p. 157.

  56. 56.

    Geoffrey Charles Hewitt, ‘A History of the Victorian Socialist Party, 1906–1932,’ Masters thesis, La Trobe University, 1974, p. 21.

  57. 57.

    See coverage by the VSP of this motion’s adoption: ‘Armaments and Arbitration,’ Socialist, 4 November 1910, p. 4.

  58. 58.

    Ian Turner provides the authoritative account of this destructive contest: Ian Turner, ‘Socialist Political Tactics: 1900–1920,’ Bulletin of the Society for the Study of Labour History, no. 2, May 1962, pp. 5–25.

  59. 59.

    David Day, John Curtin: A Life, Sydney: Harper Collins, 1999, p. 115.

  60. 60.

    Lake and Reynolds, Drawing the Global Colour Line, pp. 196–209.

  61. 61.

    ‘Socialist Welcome to the American Fleet,’ Socialist, 7 August 1908, p. 2.

  62. 62.

    Socialist, 28 August 1908, p. 1.

  63. 63.

    ‘Socialist Welcome to the American Fleet,’ p. 2.

  64. 64.

    Ibid.

  65. 65.

    Mann , Tom Mann’s Memoirs, p. 163.

  66. 66.

    Marilyn Lake, ‘John Curtin: Internationalist,’ John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library, 9 October 2003, available [online]: http://john.curtin.edu.au/events/speeches/lake.html [Access Date 23 May 2015].

  67. 67.

    Liam Byrne , ‘Constructing a Socialist Community: The Victorian Socialist Party, Ritual, Pedagogy, and the Subaltern Counterpublic,’ Labour History, Vol. 108, 2015, p. 118.

  68. 68.

    ‘Speakers Class,’ Socialist, 5 May 1906, p. 7. ‘The International Spirit,’ Socialist, 1 September 1906, p. 5.

  69. 69.

    ‘The International Spirit,’ Socialist, 1 September 1906, p. 5.

  70. 70.

    ‘Australian Defence,’ Socialist, 8 October 1909, p. 2.

  71. 71.

    White, Tom Mann, p. 153.

  72. 72.

    ‘The People’s Armament,’ Socialist, 29 October 1909, p. 1.

  73. 73.

    Mann , Socialism, pp. 31–32, pp. 52–56.

  74. 74.

    “Australian Defence,” Socialist, 22 October 1909, p. 2.

  75. 75.

    Geoffrey Foote, The Labour Party’s Political Thought: A History, third edition, Houndmills: Macmillan Press, 1997, pp. 125–135. Vladimir Lenin , Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, a Popular Outline, Marxist Internet Archive, available [online]: http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/pref02.htm [Access Date 16 March 2016].

  76. 76.

    ‘Capitalist Politics,’ Socialist, 2 April 1909, p. 1; ‘Australian Defence,’ Socialist, 22 October 1909, p. 2; ‘Back to the Abyss,’ Labor Call, 22 October 1914, p. 9.

  77. 77.

    ‘Back to the Abyss,’ p. 9.

  78. 78.

    ‘Australian Defence,’ p. 2; ‘Our Navy,’ Socialist, 2 December 1910, p. 4.

  79. 79.

    ‘Australian Defence,’ p. 2.

  80. 80.

    See, for instance: Rosa Luxemburg, ‘Our Broadsheet on Morocco ,’ and ‘Peace Utopias,’ in Richard B. Day and Daniel Gaido, eds., Discovering Imperialism: Social Democracy to World War I, Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012.

  81. 81.

    ‘My Country Right or Wrong,’ Socialist, 23 December 1910, p. 1. Hervé would later fall from grace with his belligerent support of the French war effort in 1914.

  82. 82.

    Ibid.

  83. 83.

    Ibid.

  84. 84.

    ‘The Triennial Conference,’ Labor Call, 11 January 1912, p. 5.

  85. 85.

    Ibid.

  86. 86.

    ‘Trades Hall Council,’ Labor Call, 4 June 1914, p. 2.

  87. 87.

    Minutes of the Trades Hall Council Meeting, May 28, 1914. UMA. 1/1/1/11. Box 1. Minutes, Council, Proper, 15 January 1914 to 15 September 1921, p. 41.

  88. 88.

    Minutes of Council Meeting Held May 4, 1916, Trades Hall Council, University of Melbourne Archives, 1/1/1/11. Minutes, Council, Proper, 15 January 1912 to 15 September 1921, pp. 201–202.

  89. 89.

    See, for instance: ‘The Conscription Curse,’ Labor Call, 5 October 1916, p. 4; ‘Ten Reasons for Voting “NO,”’ Labor Call, 26 October 1916, p. 9; ‘Trades Unionism and Conscription,’ Labor Call, 19 October 1914, p. 9; ‘Vote NO,’ Australian Worker, 21 September 1916, p. 1.

  90. 90.

    For examples of coverage of the conscription campaign in the British labour press, for instance, see ‘Open letter to Rt. Hon. William Morris Hughes,’ Labour Leader, 4 May 1916, p. 3; ‘Australian Workers and Conscription,’ Labour Leader, 3 August 1916, p. 5; ‘A Referendum on Conscription,’ Labour Leader, 7 September 1916, p. 5; ‘Australia and Conscription,’ Labour Leader, 14 September 1916, p. 2; ‘The Conscription Referendum,’ Labour Leader, 21 September 1916, p. 5.

  91. 91.

    ‘Review of the Week,’ Labour Leader, 3 January 1918, p. 1.

  92. 92.

    Isabel Oritz et al., ‘World Protests 2006–2013,’ Initiative for Policy Dialogue and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung New York, Working Paper 2013, p. 6.

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  1. University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Liam Byrne

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  1. Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Stefan Berger

  2. University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Sean Scalmer

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Byrne, L. (2018). Translating Anti-Capitalism Throughout the Empire: Tom Mann and John Curtin as Transnational Activists, 1902–1916. In: Berger, S., Scalmer, S. (eds) The Transnational Activist. Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66206-0_5

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