Irish Centre for the Histories of Labour and Class Conference – ‘Ireland and the Wobbly World’

IRISH LABOUR RADICALS AND THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

‘One Big Union’ was a motto of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), founded in Chicago in 1905. Reflecting disappointment with the achievements of political Labour, the IWW was ‘syndicalist’ in advocating that working people rely on militant trade unionism (and not politics) to create a fair society. Prominently associated with the IWW’s revolutionary ‘Wobbly’ wing were Cork-born Mother Jones, Tom Glynn of Gurteen, Co. Galway, and James Connolly, an IWW organiser in New York. ‘Big Jim’ Larkin gave a graveside oration for Joe Hill, best-known of the Wobbly martyrs.

This conference will examine the contribution of Irish people to the IWW in America, Australia and South Africa, and consider the influence of the IWW’s syndicalism on bodies like the Irish Transport & General Workers’ Union and the Irish Citizen Army.

IRISH CENTRE FOR THE HISTORIES OF LABOUR AND CLASS

NUI Galway

11-12 November 2016

In association with the 1916-2016: The Promise and Challenge of National Sovereignty conference

FRIDAY, 11 NOVEMBER, Hardiman Building, GO10

Panel 1, 2.00 pm: Chair: Sarah-Anne Buckley, ICHLC

Jim Larkin, Jack Carney and the American Irish Worker (1917), James Curry

Patrick J. Read’s ‘Irishness’ and the creation of the Wobbly mythos, Matthew White

Joe Hill and Ireland, Francis Devine

Panel 2: 3.45: Chair: Prof. Terrence McDonough, ICHLC

The rebel Irish and the IWW: the roots of American syndicalism, Kristin Lawler

Sacco and Vanzetti and the radical Irish world, Niall Whelehan

From socialist to syndicalist, to communist: the political development of William Z. Foster, 1904-1922, Liam Ó Discín

8 pm Function Room, John Keogh’s, Upper Dominick Street

‘Rebel Voices: Galway Wobbly Connections‘. Chair: Catherine Connolly TD

Peter Yorke: A Galway priest and the San Francisco labor movement, Tadhg Foley

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: a Galway rebel girl, Meredith Meagher

The syndicalist trajectories of Tom Glynn and Mary Fitzgerald, John Cunningham

SATURDAY, 12 NOVEMBER, Hardiman Building, GO10

Panel 3, 10.15 am. Chair: Jamie Canavan, NUI Galway

Connolly the Marxist socialist, but what sort? Bolshevik, Menshevik or Industrial Democrat? The ideological impact of the IWW, Manus O’Riordan

Industrial unionism and social democracy: Connolly as vector of organising principles, Gavin Mendel-Gleason

‘We Irish are a working race’: Connolly and Flynn in the United States, Stephen Thornton

Panel 4, 12.00, Chair: Mary Gibbons, Galway Council of Trade Unions

Captain Jack White: syndicalist? Leo Keohane

Syndicalism as a dirty word: press coverage of radical trade unionism in early twentieth century Ireland, Donal Fallon

Patrick Quinlan: nationalist or militant IWW member? Gerry Watts

Keynote address, 2.15 pm: Chair: Tish Gibbons, Siptu

‘Romances and erasures’, David Howell

Panel 5, 3.30 pm Chair: Jackie Uí Chionna, NUI Galway

American reactions to the 1916 Rising, Luke Gibbons

Rebel women and the IWW, Teresa Moriarty

The Irish and the Mooney case: a miscarriage of justice in California, John Borgonovo

Full Conference Programme available on https://ichlc.wordpress.com