Andy Irvine

LABOUR HISTORY IN SONG

Gladiators

That great Army of the tireless, world-tramping, universal I.W.W. They passed from land to land and from continent to continent with as little care as some men cross the street. Down in the coal bunkers of ships, passing frontiers secretly in the dead of night with the World Revolution ever foremost in their minds, ever guiding their footsteps.

So wrote Tom Barker of the Industrial Workers of the World, or Wobblies as they became known. In their brief but vociferous career in Australia, just before, during and after the World War I, they stood up very strongly against the government's plan to introduce conscription. When the people of Australia twice voted against conscription, the government under W.M. Hughes ('The Little Digger') decided to make the IWW illegal. This it did by fair means and foul. Mainly the latter. Barker was, at the time, editor of the IWW newspaper, Direct Action, and he was gaoled for printing a cartoon of a soldier, crucified on a guncarriage while Mr Fat, the Financier, raised his glass to war profits.

I first heard of Tom Barker in London when I was a young man. He was famous for having flown the Red Flag from St Pancras Town Hall while he was Mayor there.

The IWW is still going strong, still striving to "Fan the Flames of Discontent".

I'll tell you all a story that perhaps you do not know
It all happened in Australia quite some time ago.
I'll tell you of Tom Barker, from Westmoreland he came
From an early age he knew that he was born to Fan the Flames.
Oh when many in their youth and prime, they left their own backyard
Back before the First World War when life was tough and hard
By boat and train and road they came, tired legs and blistered feet
And they wound up here in Sydney on Castlereagh Street.

Gladiators of the working class, heroes of mine
Who travelled down this dark road long before my time
Your actions and the words you spoke are shining in my mind
As I'm blowing down this old dusty road.

Tom Glynn and Peter Larkin, they came from Erin's shore
There was Jack Hamilton and J.B. King, Charlie Reeve and many more
And Donald Grant, I see him still in the Sydney Domain
Where Sunday after Sunday thousands thrilled as he proclaimed:
'O the men who made this Empire, they made it for the few
Who feast upon the profits of the labours we all do
And now they want the working man to fight for them as well
Let those who own this Empire go and fight for it themselves'.

Chorus

Prime Minister, Billy Hughes, that 'Little Digger' sod
He was elected by the workers, he thought that he was God
Says he: 'For the mines in Broken Hill and the Queensland shearing sheds
We'll introduce conscription get rid of all these Reds.
Oh Billy was astonished when the Referendum failed
He rounded up the Wobblies and he filled up all his gaols
With all the wealth and all his might he made a pretty show
But he couldn't get away with it when the people voted 'NO'.

Chorus

A cartoon in the Wobbly paper, well it had it cut and dried
It showed the rich man raking in the loot and the soldier crucified
And the editor, he was thrown in gaol and the working folks agreed
That they'd kick up bloody murder until they saw Tom Barker freed.
And the Sydney Twelve stood trial when some buildings were burned down
And the evidence it was stitched up by detectives for the Crown
And the brainless, brutal jury found them guilty with a leer
And the judge says: 'I'll be lenient and give you ten to fifteen years'.

Barker was deported, to Chile was sent away
Where he promptly organised the docks in Valparaiso Bay
And he wound up in London where the people made him Mayor
And on St Pancras Town Hall he raised the Red flag there.
And he sneaked back into Sydney in the year of '32
And he watched the Anzac Day parade and his prophecies come true
For these heroes in their shabby clothes who fought the Hun and Turk
Had come home to find that all they'd won was a lifetime of no work.

Gladiators of the working class heroes of mine
If we only had Tom Barker here in all his youth and prime
His actions and the words he spoke are shining in my mind
As I'm blowing down this old dusty road.

I stood at the foot of your grave, Tom Glynn, here at Botany Bay
In the shadow of Long Bay Gaol where they locked you all away
And I made a vow to your memory as I stood on your burial ground
That I'd write this song and I'd sing it in your native Galway Town.

Chorus

Andy Irvine is folk singer powerfully influenced by Woody Guthrie. His song Gladiators is recorded on the CD, Way Out Yonder.
<www.andyirvine.com>

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