The Maritime Strike of 1890 was precipitated by the refusal of ship-owners to allow the Maritime Officers to affiliate to the Melbourne Trades Hall Council. It quickly became the first great conflict between labour and capital in Australia and New Zealand, pitting the principle of unionism against freedom of contract. It involved seamen, waterside workers, shearers, miners, carters and drivers and other trades.
Henry Hyde Champion was a British socialist activist, journalist and publisher.
In England, he published To-day, a monthly magazine whose contributors included Ibsen and Bernard Shaw. He was secretary of the Social Democratic Association, a position from which he was forced to resign due to his Tory acquaintances and financial irregularities, and he was also a leader in the 1889 London dock strike.
He travelled to Melbourne, arrived 12 August 1890, seeking a better climate for his health. He was warmly welcomed, but quickly alienated the Melbourne labour movement. His arguing for concessions to employers in the Maritime dispute of 1890 and his high-handed manners, silk hat, eye glass and cigars, contributed to bitter resentment, culminating in his description of the striking workers as ‘lions led by asses’. He return to England, but was repudiated by the Independent Labour Party and returned to Melbourne in 1894.
He mounted a number of unsuccessful campaigns for a seat in Parliament, he helped found the Fabian Society, and joined the Women’s Suffrage League, and published The root of the matter; being a series of dialogues on social questions (1895). He founded the Social Democratic Assocation of Victoria in 1895, and also the National Anti-Sweating League.
He joined the Victorian Socialist League in 1898
In England, he published To-day, a monthly magazine whose contributors included Ibsen and Bernard Shaw. He was secretary of the Social Democratic Association, a position from which he was forced to resign due to his Tory acquaintances and financial irregularities, and he was also a leader in the 1889 London dock strike.
He travelled to Melbourne, arrived 12 August 1890, seeking a better climate for his health. He was warmly welcomed, but quickly alienated the Melbourne labour movement. His arguing for concessions to employers in the Maritime dispute of 1890 and his high-handed manners, silk hat, eye glass and cigars, contributed to bitter resentment, culminating in his description of the striking workers as ‘lions led by asses’. He return to England, but was repudiated by the Independent Labour Party and returned to Melbourne in 1894.
He mounted a number of unsuccessful campaigns for a seat in Parliament, he helped found the Fabian Society, and joined the Women’s Suffrage League, and published The root of the matter; being a series of dialogues on social questions (1895). He founded the Social Democratic Assocation of Victoria in 1895, and also the National Anti-Sweating League.
He joined the Victorian Socialist League in 1898
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