Tom Barker was born on 3 June 1887 at Crossthwaite, Westmorland, England, eldest child of Thomas Grainger Barker, farm labourer, and his wife Sarah, née Trotter.
As a boy he worked on farms, ran away to Liverpool, then enlisted in the army, under age. Discharged as medically unfit after three years service, he migrated to New Zealand in 1909.
In Auckland he was a tram conductor, active trade unionist and secretary of the New Zealand Socialist Party, working with future leaders of the Labour Party, such as H. E. Holland, Michael Savage, Peter Fraser and Robert Semple. Attracted by industrial unionism he became an organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World. In Wellington during the violent strikes of 1913 he was arrested, charged with sedition and released on a bond.
Early in 1914 Barker arrived in Sydney where he was soon editing the I.W.W. paper, Direct Action. After August 1914 the I.W.W. was the most determined and vociferous opponent of the 'capitalist war'. Barker, who had escaped gaol on a technicality in 1915, was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment after his arrest in March 1916, but released in August after an aggressive campaign to free him.
Meanwhile the deep and bitter divisions over conscription were coming to dominate Australian life. The I.W.W., glorying in its stance of vanguard opponent to conscription, attracted militant and radical support; Prime Minister W. M. Hughes branded it as a set of vicious traitors. Barker, still at liberty after the arrest and imprisonment of twelve members on charges of treason, personified the I.W.W. propaganda which continued defiantly after the organization was declared unlawful in December 1916. His most-famous anti-conscription poster, the subject of a serious charge, read:
He and the remaining members were arrested next year at the time of the general strike in New South Wales and before the second conscription referendum in December. Barker was held in gaol until deported to Chile in 1918.
In South America he organized seamen; in Moscow he was enthused by Lenin to work for the Kuzbas project of industrialization in Siberia and recruited technicians for it in the United States of America for five years to 1926.
Later he worked for the Soviet petroleum export organization, visiting Australia briefly in 1930-31, and settled in London.
As a member of the Labour Party, councillor and in 1959 mayor of St Pancras Borough, he was energetic in political, welfare and cultural fields until his death on 2 April 1970. He was survived by his wife Bertha, a Polish-born ballet-dancer.
Barker roamed the world as a worker and organizer, basing himself on the simple tenets of class struggle and socialism. In Australia, a time of crisis thrust him into prominence. Elsewhere he served the cause at hand selflessly. He was a slightly built man, lively in speech and manner, fighting his battles with laughter.
The People Sydney, NSW Sat 25 Jun 1910 Page 3.
I.W.W. Notes.
The Industrial Workers of the World Clubs in Australia are plugging steadily. away. While there has not been a rush of membership to their ranks, they are undoubtedly preparing the way for revolutionary unionism on this side.
In England and America, on the continent of Europe, even among the workers of Japan and China, industrial unionism finds earnest missionaries. When the workers of the world under
stand what industrial unionism means to them as a class, and the might- as a force it will give them to combat the capitalist class, there'll be no more hesitating, hailing, backing and filling.
Education is the preparatory work to organisation. To propagate I.W.W. unionism the function of the Clubs, join the Club and aid in the spread of its propaganda - you who profess it.
Emancipation and Economic Freedom can only be won and maintained by intelligence and organisation displayed on the part of those enslaved.
Quite a number of men express them selves as being in accord with the prin ciples of the Preamble of the Industrial Workers of the World, but apparently lack the courage to organise to hasten its achievement.
The germ of I.W.W. Unionism is in the above-mentioned Clubs, and not in the craft or sectional union. If you are convinced, that is your place.)
An industrial union must fight shy of all political bounders, adventurers, and fakirs. Never let the tail wag the dog.
Fellow workers Kitchener (chair), Ring and Judd held a good meeting at Newtown last Saturday night. There was plenty of swing and go in the speakers, and things were made fairly interesting.
Last meeting Sydney Club was held in No. 5 Room, Queens Hall, Pitt-street, H. Dobson in the
chair.
It was decided, among other things, that Judd and Kitchener visit Woollongong this Saturday.
W. Gail delivered an address, which caused some discussion. Next meeting above place Wednesday, June 29 at 8.
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