Donald MacLennan Grant (26 February 1888 – 11 June 1970) was a leader of the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...

in Sydney, a member of the Sydney Twelve charged with conspiracy in 1916, and later a member of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

who was elected to

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, appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council, and elected to the Australian Senate in 1943 where he served for sixteen years.

Biography

Born in Inverness,

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in 1888, Grant emigrated to Australia prior to the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and became known as one of their best public speakers, regularly drawing large crowds at

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speaking against conscription, and for militant direct action against the war and capitalism. Tom Barker, the editor of the IWW newspaper ''Direct Action'', was arrested, convicted and sentenced to six months prison for publishing the famous anti-war poster, which said:

To ARMS! Capitalists, Parsons, Politicians, Landlords, Newspaper Editors, and other Stay-at-home Patriots. Your Country needs you in the trenches! Workers, Follow your masters!

Grant is reported to have told the crowd at the Sydney Domain that ''for every day that Barker is in gaol, it will cost the capitalists 10,000 pounds''. These fifteen words formed the large part of the case against him in 1916 when he was arrested and charged as part of the Sydney Twelve with arson, conspiracy to prevent justice and incitement to sedition. He received a sentence of fifteen years, which inspired Henry Boote, editor of ''The Worker'' to write ''The case of Grant, Fifteen years for Fifteen Words''. Agitation for a review of the case and the release of all twelve prisoners started immediately and included a Royal Commission which found that Grant had been wrongly convicted. He was subsequently released in August 1920. Disillusioned with the IWW hostility to parliamentary politics, Grant was the

Industrial Socialist Labor Party The Industrial Socialist Labor Party, Industrial Labor Party and the Independent Labor Party were short lived socialist political parties in Australia in 1919 and the early 1920s. The Industrial Socialist Labor Party was founded by radical soci ...

candidate for the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

seat of Sturt in the 1922 state election. He gained less than 8% of the primary vote. Grant joined the Australian Labor Party in 1923. He soon won Labor preselection and was elected to the Sydney City Council for thirteen years. He was appointed by the Annual Conference of the NSW Labor Party to the Socialisation Committee from 1930 to 1933. In 1931 he was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council, where he represented the ALP for eight years. Turning to Federal politics, Grant was elected in 1943 as a Labor party Senator for New South Wales, and was an influential member of the Labor Party parliamentary caucus. At the height of the

1949 Australian coal strike The 1949 Australian coal strike was the first time that Australian military forces were used during peacetime to break a trade union strike. The strike by 23,000 coal miners lasted for seven weeks, from 27 June 1949 to 15 August 1949, with troop ...

Grant told the miners:

I come to Cessnock for one reason. In 1917...everyone was behind the workers n the general strike but they got beaten. Why? Because the State was against them. I have come here to tell you you won't beat the State.

He had particular interest in international affairs. This resulted in his selection as an Australian representative to the 1946 Paris Peace Conference, a delegate to the International Labor conference in Montreal, and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference in

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in 1954. At the age of 71 in 1959 he failed to gain endorsement from the Labor party and retired from politics to his Sydney home where he died on 11 June 1970.

References

* ''Donald Grant – a Tribute'' by W McNamara in ''Labour History'' No 19, November 1970 * ''Sydney's Burning (An Australian Political Conspiracy)'', Ian Turner (1969) {{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Donald Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Australian trade unionists Australian socialists Industrial Workers of the World leaders Scottish politicians British emigrants to Australia People from Inverness People from Sydney 1888 births 1970 deaths Industrial Workers of the World members Members of the Australian Senate Members of the Australian Senate for New South Wales 20th-century Australian politicians Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council Industrial Workers of the World in Australia