Industrial Workers of the World

Glancing through the penny weekly of Fashion, Etc., called “Australian Woman’s Weekly,” my eye pinned tightly on the following printed lie:-“The Christian home is the mightiest instrument in the work of regenerating and elevating the human race. It is the guiding star of our good destiny. Home should be made everything.”

A lie! To prove it I’ll put the ex-ray of common sense on it for just a fleeting moment by asking this first question:-

How many millions of Christian homes have turned families of Christian sons and daughters out into the world?

Many millions. Now how many of those sons and daughters have regenerated and elevated the human race?

Why, this great European war is being fought in the name of Christianity, and it but proves what an addled guiding star has been Christianity!

In the name of Christianity men are destroying each other like wild beasts – wrangling over the material products of the world.

The IWW woman has emerged from the reticence of her home and come out into the world because she realises that to-day “home is not everything” ‘Twas woman who followed the persecuted Nazarene to his grave, and ‘tis woman who yet cherish the remembrance of that man – the Christ – in the sanctity of their hearts.

The IWW woman is wide awake to the fact that mankind has prostituted the teachings of Jesus, and in churches, and at national meetings his teachings are so warped to suit present day capitalism that they’ve become, the world over, a degradation to the human race.

Thinking women realise that the home is not the only influence on the child. The greater influence is the school, the workshop and the office, where a code of morals is drawn up by an exploiter who piles up wealth from the exploited labor-power of mothers’ sons and daughters, whom he hires for a food and clothing payment.

Women are beginning to realise that it is not the home so much as the outside world that is influencing the growing generations, and, therefore, she is coming out into the world, determined to have her say in matters that are controlling and spoiling the race.

Women right through history have always rushed to the assistance of men in dire trouble; this month last year there were but few women in the Sydney Local of the IWW, but since the persecution started three months ago the women have surged into the organisation and are now as busy in the release, defence and social functions as are the men.

Direct Action January 13 1917