A world to win, a hell to lose : the Industrial Workers of the World in early twentieth century New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Politics at Massey University, New Zealand

Abstract

In the early twentieth century the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were influential in a series of disputes between labour and employers in New Zealand, culminating in what has become to be known as the Great strike of 1913. Although influential, little has been written about the ideology of the IWW in New Zealand and how it was adapted for New Zealand. An appraisal of their organisation, and the impact they had on their members and followers, and other organisations has also not been explored greatly in existing research. This research begins with a brief illustration of the rise of IWW ideas in New Zealand, the formation of a number of branches of the IWW, and the groupʼs relationship with the existing organisations in the New Zealand labour movement at the time. The next section discusses the use of existing social movement theories to study an organisation such as the IWW, and highlights the need to use a specially devised framework, such as that drawn up by Fitzgerald and Rodgers (2000), to analyse a Radical Social Movement Organisation. Using the Radical Social Movement Organisation framework devised by Fitzgerald and Rodgers, this research aims to gain an understanding of the organisation, ideology, tactics, and methods of communication of the IWW, and how they differed from the contemporaneous bodies of the New Zealand labour movement. In the final section, different ideas of what constitutes success in terms of the aims of a social movement are examined, and used to assess the impact and influence of the organisation in New Zealand.