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The Sydney Twelve were members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) arrested on 23 September 1916 in Sydney, Australia, and charged with treason under the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW)[1] which incorporated the Treason Felony Act 1848 (Imp). They were John Hamilton, Peter Larkin, Joseph Fagin, William Teen, Donald Grant, Benjamin King, Thomas Glynn, Donald McPherson, Thomas Moore, Charles Reeve, William Beattie,[3] and Bob Besant. The treason charges were dropped prior to trial and replaced with three conspiracy charges: (1) conspiracy to commit arson (2) conspiracy to procure the release of Tom Barker from gaol by unlawful means and (3) conspiracy to excite sedition.[4][2]

Background

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Ref.[5]

When Britain declared war on Germany and the Central Powers in August 1914 there was broad community support for the patriotic, pro-Empire stance of Australian politicians. In September 1914 the Labor party was swept to power with a majority in both houses of parliament under their leader Andrew Fisher, who had pledged that Australia would support "the mother country... to the last man and to the last shilling".[6][7] Whatever initial opposition to the war that existed in Australia came from within the radical fringes of the labour movement. One group united in their opposition were Australian members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), an international labour union formed in Chicago in 1905. As the war progressed the popular enthusiasm to enlist subsided. Rising unemployment and prices on the home-front, together with mounting casualties and stalemate on the battlefields of the Western Front, resulted in falling enlistments, to which the government responded with recruitment campaigns and a threat to introduce conscription. By 1916 a groundswell of community sentiment had begun to align with the anti-war stance of the IWW (whose members were known as 'Wobblies').[8]

The trial

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John Benjamin King (prisoner 15318).
Charles Reeve (prisoner 15391).
Thomas Glynn (prisoner 15392).
Peter Larkin (prisoner 15393).
John Hamilton (prisoner 15394).
Bob Besant (prisoner 15395).
Prisoner identification photographs
Thomas Moore (prisoner 15396).
Donald McPherson (prisoner 15397).
William Teen (prisoner 15398).
William Beatty (prisoner 15399).
Morris Joseph Fagin (prisoner 15400).
Donald Grant (prisoner 15401).

In November 1916 twelve members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were charged with three separate conspiracy charges and tried before a jury at the Central Criminal Court in Darlinghurst by the Supreme Court judge Justice Robert Pring. The twelve men became known as the 'Sydney Twelve' or 'IWW Twelve'. On 1 December the jury returned verdicts of guilty to each of the accused men on some or all of the conspiracy charges.[9] The following day Justice Pring passed sentences on the prisoners. Seven of the men were found guilty of all three charges and sentenced to imprisonment of fifteen years with hard labour.[10][D] Boote's response to the verdicts, with the headline 'Guilty, or Not Guilty?', was published in The Australian Worker on 7 December 1916. Described as "a characteristically trenchant piece of journalism", the article was a rallying call to the labour movement as exemplified by Boote's closing sentence: "Organised Labor especially should not rest until the prisoners are set free, or their criminality established on testimony less grotesque, less tainted, and less obviously twisted and distorted to the needs of an unscrupulous prosecution.[11][12]

The jury found Glynn, McPherson, Teen, Beattie, Fagin, Grant and Hamilton guilty of all three charges while Reeve, Larkin, Besant and Moore guilty of the arson and sedition conspiracies and King was guilty of the sedition conspiracy.[13] Justice Pring handed down sentences of fifteen years to Hilton, Beatty, Fagin, Grant, Teen, Glynn and McPherson; ten years to Moore, Besant, Larkin and Reeve; and five years to King.[14][15] Grant remarked after his sentence was passed: "Fifteen years for fifteen words". The actual words which were quoted in his trial were: "For every day that Tom Barker is in gaol it will cost the capitalist class £10,000."[16][17] The twelve lodged appeals against their convictions, however these met with limited success - the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed the convictions of Glynn and McPherson for the Barker conspiracy and reduced their sentences to ten years - however the majority of the convictions and sentences were confirmed.[2]

There was an active campaign for the release of the Sydney Twelve and other IWW members held in prison. The Defence and Release Committee was established at the behest of Henry Boote, editor of the Australian Workers' Union weekly paper, The Worker, and of Ernie Judd, delegate from the Municipal Workers Union on Labor Council of New South Wales. Supporters included Percy Brookfield, the member for Sturt (Broken Hill) in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, and the poet Lesbia Harford. Unions such as the Ship Painters and Dockers Union were active in the campaign.

The appeals

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On 8 December 1916 the twelve men lodged notices of appeal. On 14 December an article by Boote was published in The Australian Worker, singling out the case of Donald Grant, one of those sentenced to fifteen years. The article expressed astonishment that Grant had "got fifteen years for fifteen words". The jury at his trial was described as being "as stupid as it was vindictive"; of Justice Robert Pring it was remarked that "only a Judge as insolent as he was bitterly biassed could have handed out fifteen years". Boote described the case as "one of the most ghastly atrocities that the Law has ever been guilty of".[18] In late December 1916 Boote and John Bailey, the president of the Australian Workers' Union and registered proprietor of The Australian Worker, were instructed to show cause "why they should not be committed to prison for alleged contempt of court". The application, made by Justice Gordon, submitted that the 14 December article "was objectionable and punishable as being an attack upon the judge and jury, and that such article contained comments which amounted to a contempt of court as tending to interfere with the due course of justice".[19] In a judgment of the New South Wales Full Court in March 1917 no order was made in the case of alleged contempt of court, except that the respondents were required to pay the costs of the proceedings.[20] Boote continued to argue strongly that the prosecution case against the twelve IWW prisoners was deeply flawed. He was the author of pamphlets in June and July 1917 questioning the evidence given by witnesses for the Crown.[21] In August 1918, after revelations in the press about police informants seeking more money, the New South Wales government appointed Justice Street to conduct a Royal Commission into the matter. In early December 1918 after Street concluded that "no fresh facts have been elicited before me raising any doubt in my mind as to the guilt of the convicted men", Boote began a series of seven detailed articles, published weekly in The Australian Worker, critically examining Street's report and analysing the evidence and allegations of bribery.[22] The collected articles were published as Set the 12 Men Free in late February 1919 by the Labour Council of New South Wales.[23] After the Storey Labor government was elected in New South Wales in April 1920 a second Royal Commission made adverse findings against the police informants and recommended the release of most of the twelve men. Ten were released in August 1920 and the remaining two were released shortly afterwards.[24]

Some within the Australian labour movement claimed the men were framed for their strong anti-war views and their opposition to conscription during the First World War.[25] Former Labor Prime Minister (and later Nationalist) Billy Hughes forced through the Unlawful Associations Act (1916) through Federal Parliament in five days during December 1916, then had the IWW declared an unlawful association.[26]

The case against the Twelve was assisted by the Government hysteria against the IWW. This was typified in the Tottenham murder case involving three members of the IWW and the murder of a policeman at Tottenham, New South Wales, on 26 September 1916. The prosecution made every effort to connect the murder with the charges against the Sydney IWW men.[4][27] Frank Franz and Roland Nicholas Kennedy were found guilty and executed on 20 December 1916 at Bathurst Gaol, the first executions in New South Wales after a decade. Herbert Kennedy was acquitted.[28]

The Labor Council of New South Wales commissioned a report into the case in 1918, and an enquiry into the case was also conducted by Justice Philip Street. Both the trade union report and the judicial report found problems with the case, for example the chief witness, Scully, had concocted evidence which he gave at the trial.[4]

Inquiry

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After the Storey Labor government was elected in New South Wales on 20 March 1920, Justice Norman Ewing was appointed to inquire into the trial and sentencing.[29] The judge found that Grant, Beattie, Larkin and Glynn may have been involved in conspiracy of a seditious nature, but recommended that they be released. Six of the men, the judge found, were not "justly or rightly" convicted of sedition: Teen, Hamilton, McPherson, Moore, Besant and Fagin. King was considered rightly convicted of sedition, but recommended for immediate release. Reeve was found to have been rightly convicted of arson. However the judge also rejected any suggestion that the men had been framed.[30][31] Ten of the men were released in August 1920, and King and Reeve slightly later.[32]

Ref.[33]

The 'Sydney Twelve'

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  • William Beatty was born in 1886 in England; he arrived in New South Wales in 1909 aboard the Glen Doon; employed as a "wharf labourer".[34]
  • Bernard Bob Besant, born in England in 1890. Worked on the railways in Melbourne; arrived in Sydney in about June 1916.[35][36]
  • Morris Joseph Fagin, born in Russia in 1875.[37]
  • Thomas Glynn was born on 6 January 1881 in county Wexford, Ireland. He was a blacksmith by trade. Tom Glynn arrived in Australia aboard the Ophir in 1900, where he also worked as a journalist and edited Direct Action for a period. In 1916 he was secretary of the Sydney branch of the IWW. Amongst his colleagues Glynn was known as a scholar and "the intellectual of the bunch".[36][38]
  • Donald Grant, born in 1889 in Scotland. He joined the Independent Labour Party in Britain. Grant arrived in Australia in 1910 and became a leading propagandist and orator for the I.W.W. He had travelled to Broken Hill to agitate against conscription where he was arrested on 29 September 1916.[39][40]
  • John Hamilton, born in Victoria in 1873. Worked as a miner.[36][41]
  • John Benjamin King, born at Windsor, Ontario, Canada in 1870. He joined the I.W.W. on the American west coast. King arrived in Australia in about 1910 where he became a leading propagandist and organiser for the I.W.W.[42][43][44]
  • Peter Larkin, born in Ireland in 1871, the older brother of the Irish trade unionist Jim Larkin. Arrived in Australia in about 1915 as a seaman.[36][45]
  • Donald McPherson, born in Scotland in 1887.[46]
  • Thomas Moore, born in 1881 in New Zealand. At the time of his arrest he earned a casual living in Sydney as a kitchen-hand and stableman for racehorse trainers.[47][48]
  • Charles Reeve, born in England in 1887.[36][49]
  • William Teen, born in Tasmania in 1886.[50][51]

Cultural resonances

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The folksinger Andy Irvine composed a song memorialising the Sydney Twelve, called "Gladiators", released on a record in March 2001.[52]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) Treason-Felony.
  2. ^ a b c R v Reeve and others [1917] NSWStRp 9, 17 SR (NSW) 81 (1 March 1917), Court of Criminal Appeal (NSW).
  3. ^ The appeal judgment spells his name Beatty.[2]
  4. ^ a b c Head, Michael (2016). Crimes against the state: from treason to terrorism. Routledge. ISBN 9781317157922. OCLC 1062331708.
  5. ^ Sydney's Burning
  6. ^ Federal Politics, Wangaratta Chronicle, 5 August 1914, page 3.
  7. ^ Ian Turner (1967), pages 3-5.
  8. ^ Ian Turner (1967), pages 3-13.
  9. ^ I.W.W. Case, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 December 1916, page 13.
  10. ^ I.W.W. Case, The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 December 1916, page 8.
  11. ^ Ian Turner (1967), pages 64-65.
  12. ^ Guilty, or Not Guilty?, The Australian Worker (Sydney), 7 December 1916, page 3.
  13. ^ "I.W.W. case: guilty of conspiracy". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2 December 1916. p. 13. Retrieved 2 November 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ^ "I.W.W. case. Heavy sentences imposed. Judge's remarks". The Sydney Morning Herald. 4 December 1916. p. 8. Retrieved 2 November 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ^ "Conviction of I.W.W. members". The Australian Worker. 7 December 1916. p. 2. Retrieved 2 November 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ^ "Fellow Worker Tom Barker". Industrial Workers of the World: A Union for All Workers.
  17. ^ "Treason Case". The Telegraph. 11 October 1916. p. 7. Retrieved 2 November 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ^ The Case of Donald Grant, The Australian Worker (Sydney), 14 December 1916, page 3.
  19. ^ "The Case of Donald Grant", The Australian Worker (Sydney), 28 December 1916, page 7.
  20. ^ "Worker" to Pay Costs, The Herald (Melbourne), 30 March 1917, page 10; "The Worker" Prosecuted, The Australian Worker (Sydney), 5 April 1917, page 21.
  21. ^ Stephen Gray (2018), page 422.
  22. ^ Set the 12 Men Free, The Australian Worker (Sydney), 26 December 1918, page 5; Reasons for Release, The Australian Worker, 6 February 1919, page 5.
  23. ^ "Set the 12 Men Free", Daily Standard (Brisbane), 28 February 1919, page 3.
  24. ^ Stephen Gray (2018), page 424.
  25. ^ People's History of Australia (9 April 2020). "People's History of Australia Podcast. Episode 9 – The Industrial Workers of the World in Australia". The Commons Social Change Library. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
  26. ^ "Unlawful Associations Act 1916". To our last shilling. Parliamentary Education Office. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  27. ^ "I.W.W. treason charges". The Sydney Morning Herald. 11 October 1916. p. 12. Retrieved 2 November 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  28. ^ "The Tottenham Tragedy: Roland Kennedy and Frank Franz, two Australian I.W.W. workers executed in 1916". takver.com. Retrieved 1 May 2005.
  29. ^ "Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Matter of the Trial and Conviction and Sentences Imposed on Charles Reeve and Others". NSW State archives & records. 1920. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  30. ^ "I.W.W. prisoners: text of the report". The Sydney Morning Herald. 31 July 1920. p. 13. Retrieved 2 November 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  31. ^ I.W.W. Cases: Mr. Justice Ewing's Report, Northern Star (Lismore), 31 July 1920, page 5.
  32. ^ "At last ... Charles Reeve released from jail". The Socialist. 2 December 1921. p. 1. Retrieved 2 November 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  33. ^ The I.W.W., the Judge and Cement, Truth (Sydney), 13 June 1954, pages 34-35.
  34. ^ William Beatty, Museums of History NSW website, New South Wales Government; accessed 27 February 2025.
  35. ^ Bernard Bob Besant, Museums of History NSW website, New South Wales Government; accessed 2 June 2025.
  36. ^ a b c d e Ian Turner (1967), page 30.
  37. ^ Morris Joseph Fagin, Museums of History NSW website, New South Wales Government; accessed 2 June 2025.
  38. ^ Thomas Glynn, Museums of History NSW website, New South Wales Government; accessed 7 March 2025.
  39. ^ Ian Turner (1967), page 32.
  40. ^ Donald Grant, Museums of History NSW website, New South Wales Government; accessed 2 June 2025.
  41. ^ John Hamilton, Museums of History NSW website, New South Wales Government; accessed 2 June 2025.
  42. ^ Ian Turner (1967), page 35.
  43. ^ John Benjamin King, Museums of History NSW website, New South Wales Government; accessed 2 June 2025.
  44. ^ "Three I.W.W.'s": Printer in Trouble, The Sun (Sydney), 4 September 1916, page 5.
  45. ^ Peter Larkin, Museums of History NSW website, New South Wales Government; accessed 2 June 2025.
  46. ^ Donald McPherson, Museums of History NSW website, New South Wales Government; accessed 2 June 2025.
  47. ^ Ian Turner (1967), pages 31-32.
  48. ^ Thomas Moore, Museums of History NSW website, New South Wales Government; accessed 2 June 2025.
  49. ^ Charles Reeve, Museums of History NSW website, New South Wales Government; accessed 2 June 2025.
  50. ^ Ian Turner (1967), pages 33-34.
  51. ^ William Teen, Museums of History NSW website, New South Wales Government; accessed 2 June 2025.
  52. ^ Andy Irvine, Gladiators (lyrics) Archived 13 February 2005 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 1 May 2005.
Sources
  • Ian Turner (1967), Sydney's Burning, Melbourne: William Heinemann Ltd.

Further reading

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