Events leading up to the collapse of Brisbane IWW in 2020

Before the entryist “Unity” faction from the Socialist Alliance Trotskyist microcult targetted the Australian IWW for Marxist-Leninist colonisation, the union was growing; the Brisbane GMB had participated successfully in a variety of industrial actions and had over 100 members. By the time “Unity” was done, the branch was dead. The Australian IWW no longer has a single functioning branch; master manipulator, ability supremacist deadshit and general pig fucker Tristan Bunner has had to recruit wobs from New Zealand to help run the Australian Regional Organising Committee, since no one in this country wants to work with him anymore. More on this to come.

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October 2018 –

• Members from the group called Unite! approached Brisbane IWW to offer to join, and we begin having meetings in their office at Common House, 74b Whickham Tce, Fortitude Valley.

• Unite! was formed when the Brisbane branch of the Democratic Socialist Party split and left the Party, with many members announcing they were now anarchists. Brisbane IWW accepted the proposal. This basically tripled the size of the branch, and we permanently moved to Common House.

January 2019 –

• Brisbane IWW formally charted as a General Membership Branch with Aus-ROC.

November 2019 –

• Brisbane IWW membership is approaching 100 people. The dual card unionists were a significantly large block within the union, with about 20 members from the CFMEU, about 12 from MWU, about 20 members were also Unite! Members.   

• Fergal McGovern is the current delegate, he is also a member of Unite! Fergal announces he is moving the the UK in January 2020. As a result a new office bearers election is announced for the branch meant in January 2020.    Nominations are called for, and Steve the delegate from CFMEU is the most popular option.

December 2019 –

• I receive a phone call from a past member of Brisbane Solidarity Network (BSN). She tells me about a drunken fight between her partner and another IWW member JS (who was also an ex-BSN member). She briefly describes the event to me, says she won’t have anything more to do with the IWW member in question, but doesn’t want he excluded from the Union. I say OK, and think nothing more of the event.

January 2020 – The branch held its meeting on 9 January at Common House. Fergal did not attend.

• After the meeting began a Unite! member named Andrew Stanbrough tapped JS on the shoulder and quietly told him he had to leave the building of Common House, that he had been banned from being in Common House. JS quietly told Steve CFMEU, who talked to Andrew and Andrew insisted Joseph leave. This happened while the meeting continued.

• This situation upset Steve who then told me quietly and he then left the meeting, as did the other CFMEU members at the meeting. I told Andrew I was upset and would talk to him after the meeting.

• At this time the meeting had received nominations for delegate positions, but voting didn’t happen since there weren’t any competitive nominations.

• After the meeting I took Andrew S aside to talk about what happened. This was when Andrew told me that during the December meeting of United! they had decided to ban JS from being in Common House due to an allegation of sexual assault.
  • I asked why no one else within the IWW branch had been told about this before hand, and Andrew said he didn’t think he had to.

• I explained Andrew actions in effect bans JS from participating in the IWW since our meetings were in Common House; that it is outrageous for Unite! to arbitrarily ban IWW members from participating in meetings without warning or explanation; that IWW had a grievance procedure to deal with these types of situations; and it is just good process and respect to bring such a serious issue to the attention of other office bearers first; that he wasn’t in any position to make any arbitrary judgements about other members.

• Andrew began losing his temper, and began ranting about various random issues, including how Unite! wasn’t obligated to discuss their internal decisions with the IWW delegates; that he wanted to kick out all the CFMEU members claiming they were intimidating the transgender members by just being there; that we had too much Class Politics and he wanted to introduce more Identity Politics into the IWW; that he wasn’t going to ever let JS back into Common House.

• I did ask Andrew about the details of the sexual assault allegations against JS, and he refused to give any, again saying that he didn’t have to.

The Rest of January 2020 –

• In the weeks after the January 9 meeting I tried to talk to as many Unite! members as possible to get details about their December 2023 meeting and the banning. I was only able to talk to 4 people, these included Bill of RAFFWU and Jeremy of XR. Everybody said the same thing; that they didn’t know anything; that the proposal was put forward during that meeting without details; that they just voted yes without a discussion; and no one thought a second more about the issue until the IWW meeting in January 9.

IWW Brisbane held a Grievance Committee meeting on a Sunday late January.

• Members were invited to make a written submission, especially Andrew and his friends. Andrew was explicitly invited to participate and told he could invite others to participate.
• On the day of the Grievance Committee meeting Andrew decided he wanted to go up the Sunshine Coast instead, so he didn’t attend. Andrew also he didn’t submit any written statement or any verbal information at all prior to the meeting.

• 4 people attended the Grievance Committee meeting. Evidence was provided about two behaviours including the drunken fight with his friend in December 2023.    JS had apologised for his behaviour and made statements to not repeat these behaviours; that he had given up drinking; that he had been attending a Physiologist who wrote a letter to vouch for his behaviour; that fellow worker Steve also vouched for his future behaviour. No evidence or allegation was presented of a sexual assault or any other serious behaviour or concerns.

• As a result the Grievance Committee meeting did not find any reason to ban or discipline JS, and was happy to allow him to continue to participate in the IWW.

February 2024 –

• Following the Grievance Committee Meeting the general membership was informed of the outcome. I tried to talk to Andrew about this, and about getting meetings going again in Common House. But Andrew refused, still saying the Unite! decision from December 2023 was still in effect. I did argue that Unite! had shit process for that decision, that no one could actually back-up the allegation, and that Andrew himself couldn’t present any information to the Grievance Committee. Regardless Andrew continued to say he would never allow JS into Common House.

• As a result, the IWW Brisbane Branch would either have to effectively support banning JS from meetings to keep attending Common House, or find somewhere else to hold meetings. The Branch Officials had informal discussions about what to do, and it was decided to move the meetings to a different location. The monthly meeting for February 2024 was then cancelled.

• By this point in time it became obvious that a faction had developed around Andrew, and they were working together. This included Sienna, Shaun, Nick, Melody. All these people were good friends with Tilda from Melbourne. That other Unite! Members didn’t not seem to be in this faction.

March 2024 –

• Darryl had arranged to have the March branch meeting in The Greens Office on Annerly Rd, Mater Hill. The time and date was announced as 12 March. However there was a very low turn-out with less then 10 people. Steve of CFMEU and JS did not attend.
  • Melody had set-up a video conference for the event as she was in Melbourne. Tilda unexpectedly appeared on this video call, and began simply berating us for the events of the past two months. This was fairly shocking, but everyone tried their best to remain civil and reconciliation. I’ll note she did not say a thing about Andrews role or behaviour in all of this, nor acknowledge the Grievance Committee process, nor did she contact myself, Darryl or anyone participating in the Grievance Committee prior to this meeting.

• Following this meeting, Tilda began an email argument between myself and Steve from the CFMEU in which she was overtly bullying, being derogatory and insulting to the CFMEU members. This behaviour lead directly to Steve quitting and taking many of the dual unionists with him. I had criticised Tilda about this behaviour, and she explicitly stated something to the effect that she ‘had to get her big boots on to clean-up the Union’.
• I cancelled the proposed National Conference in May due to lack of support and ongoing conflicts.

May 2024 –

• I find out that via a text messaging discussion with Shaun on 14 May (who is in Andrews faction) that they had been planning to hold a branch meeting at a different time, date and location to the one agreed in the last meeting. That a number of IWW members had received a personal invitation, while numerous members (including myself and many remaining dual unionists) did not receive this invitation.

• Andrews faction holds an IWW branch meeting on 6 May 2020. I receive a copy of the minutes in which they acknowledge 11 resignations in the past 5 months and current membership of 86 people. Only 6 people attend that meeting, and they are all Unite! Members friendly to Andrew S. Copy of these minute available.

The Rest of 2024       

• In early June 2024 I send a public email to the Brisbane IWW mailing list, detailing all the events that went on over the past several months, including the recent attempt to hijack the April meeting by Andrews faction. I encourage others to stop paying their dues in protest. By this stage I’m completely exhausted by these conflicts and publicly resign.

• I receive feedback that Andrew’s faction had been phoning members asking them to continue paying dues and to attend future meetings.

• There are no more Brisbane Branch meetings.

• Later in the year I am told Unite! had broken up as an organisation. Andrews faction then forms Anarcho-Communism Meanijin (ACM). They take over total control of Common House, and make an announcement stating the IWW is irrelevant to organising in current times. This group then goes on to form South East Queensland Union of Renters (SEQUR) which continues to operate.

• By the end of the year I find out members of ACM are told to not to talk to me by Andrew S. About a year or 2 later I find out that Andrew S and his group are telling people that I’ve bashed up transgender people and am transphobic.