Unfortunately as of July 2024, South-East Queensland IWW (SEQLD IWW) is in dispute with Australian Region Organising Committee IWW (Aus-ROC). SEQLD IWW have followed proper process, filed formal complaints that remain unanswered, while being on the receiving end of various of public misleading posts. So unfortunately we find it necessary to publicly publish the reasons for this dispute.
In summary, Aus-ROC is saying SEQLD IWW is illegitimate and should not exist because current members have not been formally accepted by Aus-ROC. Therefore SEQLD IWW doesn’t have the legitimacy to use the IWW logo, or organise under the IWW name.
Aus-ROC has been publishing this statement and telling people not to associate with SEQLD IWW in various public forums. Just note, it’s the ONLY thing they ever published on their instagram account. https://www.instagram.com/iwwaustralasia/
In brief, SEQLD IWW then says Aus-ROC is illegitimate and should not exist, because they have repeatedly broken the Constitution on various issues, including refusing to process membership applications ON MASS. Because they should only function as a representative delegation from General Membership Branches (GMB), yet the only functioning GMB is Adelaide. That there has been a mass resignation from the Australian IWW in the past few years … for reasons related to the current Aus-ROC. The rewritten Constitution of 2021 reforms them into a type of Central Committee for a Socialist Party.
SEQLD IWW says that since at least November 2023 the present office bears of the Aus-ROC, they have been systematically ignoring or refusing to process membership applications on mass from Queensland. They have also told WISE-RA to not process any membership applications from Australia. That about 20+ membership applications submitted to Aus-ROC since November 2023 have just been ignored, the applicants ghosted. That there may be many more ignored applications that SEQLD is unaware of.
The two membership applications that were addressed and rejected by Aus-ROC had no merit to be rejected, and went against their own constitutional processes. This includes making false defamatory claims that maliciously harm the personal reputation of one of the applicants. The other was an officious Catch-22 reasoning with a falsely attributed act of organising an IWW information stall (how outrageously anti-union).
One of the many membership applications ignored includes one from Paula DeAngelis. She is an internationally published IWW historian made most famous for her content on Working History podcast. See https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e19-the-iww-in-australia/
After waiting 2 months for a reply to her application and questions, Paula gave up in frustration and posted this message. We have included this screen shot to demonstrate that our claims are real and with substance. This is not just the isolated rantings of a couple of disgruntled individuals ->
Aus-ROC Rewrites the Constitution
In late 2021 Aus-ROC changed the Constitution in a very fundamental way.
Prior to this Constitutional rewrite there was a large, country-wide drop in IWW membership. Sydney and Brisbane GMB had internal splits, while Melbourne GMB just stopped meeting as individuals stepped away. There is a theme and a connection to these events, including PC bullying from a network of individuals misusing Identity Politics. So not alot of existing Wobblies stuck around for the 2021 vote.
One of the Constitutional rewrites was to say that any member who had been in bad-standing for more than 3 months had to reapply for membership. This includes Paula as mentioned, and about 75% of Australian IWW. Now three months is not long considering the traditional transient nature of wobblies. Beforehand a wobbly would just repay what they thought they owed, and pick-up from where they left off, even if it was a year or two in passing.
After late 2021, existing members in Bad Standing are having to reapply to rejoin the IWW. And then their applications just get ignored by Aus-ROC until they get the shits and just walk away. As demonstrated above. In July 2024, IWW membership in Good Standing across whole Oceania region is about 40 people. In 2020 it would have been closer to 200 people. Aus-ROC are continuing to use this method to refuse membership to past wobblies, preventing the reestablishment of General Membership Branches.
Reasons SEQLD IWW Reject Current Aus-ROC Tactics
SEQLD IWW says that the IWW was founded on principles of autonomous branch organising, within a democratic, non-hierarchical federation of Industrial Unions (IU’s). A Regional Organising Committee (ROC) exists to facilitate communication between General Membership Branches (GMB), and perform basic administrative functions for a region.
The current situation is that there is only one functioning GMB in Australia – Adelaide GMB. Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney stopped having meetings a while ago, and New Zealand doesn’t have enough members to form one.
SEQLD IWW says that you can’t have a viable ROC in a region with only one active branch. That the present office bearers are actively preventing the growth of the union, and behaving like the central executive committee of a Socialist Party. SEQLD IWW can publish copies of written statements were individuals involved in Aus-ROC openly argue against taking on new members, and are opposed to having dual union members.
SEQLD IWW Reaches Out to WISE-RA
In the beginning of February 2024 SEQLD members contact WISE-RA to complain about the situation asking what can we do. In early June 2024 the branch submitted a special request to WISE-RA to resolve this dispute. As of mid-August 2024 we have not heard a response.
In the meantime, with the housing and climate crisis there is urgent need to begin organising. As such, SEQLD IWW has voted to begin issuing our own temporary membership cards until the issue is resolved. Doing this is within the rights of a General Membership Branch, as we had enough members to fill this criterion. From now on, we are just waiting of the formal approval from WISE-RA. And then we will transfer the details over.
SEQLD IWW has done its best to follow the formal procedures. But we are no longer willing to wait on formalities. We believe Aus-ROC has been taken over by malicious individuals in an act of entryism. That Aus-ROC currently does not have an actual organisational basis for existing as a genuine Regional Organising Committee.
Especially since Aus-ROC can’t even organise enough people in Brisbane to have a GMB as they tried to do in July 2024. The situation is just ridiculous when we had enough people in the area to form SEQLD IWW. There are genuine societal problems that an organised working class needs to address. As far as SEQ IWW can see, there is no rational reason for the behaviours of the current Aus-ROC office bearers, unless it is to maliciously white-ant the One Big Union.
SEQLD IWW believes that:
1] Au-ROC should be disbanded, with its funds held in trust by WISE-RA to be redistributed to Australian GMB’s as they are reformed.
2] WISE-RA should create a special international delegate to process At Large membership applications from the Oceania region.
3] Existing wobblies need to try to reform GMB in their area. When there are several viable GMB’s existing, we then negotiate a new ROC from the grassroots up.
4] GMB’s in South East Asia should organise their own ROC, and not be managed from Australia.
5] Until there is a resolution to this dispute, SEQLD IWW will issue our own temporary membership cards to new people. We are willing to accept member applications from other At Large wobblies in Bad Standing around Australia. And will organise our own events.