Browse Items (7 total)

A photograph from c. 1911 of a large crowd lining Argent Street in Broken Hill to watch a Labor Day procession of men carrying union banners. Union banners have a medieval predecessor in the banners used by guilds (an association of craftsmen in the…

Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW) 1898 Wed. 5 Oct Eight Hours Day Song.jpg
Working or labour songs were a feature of nineteenth century (and later) union gatherings and processions. The songs and communal singing evoke peasant or folk traditions. The song gives the workers the high-ground because they resort to moral rather…

Geelong Trades Hall Building.jpg
‘Labor Omnia Vincit’ (work conquers everything) is a historically significant slogan associated with the American and English labour movements. It was also the motto of the Knights of Labour, a group started in the 1860s in America. The…

This illustration portrays the great fear of the establishment in the late nineteenth century in Australia, an organised workforce. Union organisation and affiliation and the strengthening of fraternities and friendly societies appeared to create a…

A wood engraving by an artist for the Victorian Millers' Union which commemorates the 35th anniversary of the establishment of the eight hour working day in Victoria. Some historians consider trade unions to be the successors of medieval guilds.

Photograph portraying a 1912 parade celebrating the Eight Hour Day. Trade unionists are in the parade showing their support by bearing a medieval inspired banner. Some historians consider trade unions to be the successors of medieval guilds.

The Procession_The Argus_22 April 1887_p6.pdf
This article from The Argus newspaper provides a report of an Eight Hours procession through the streets of Melbourne in 1887, during which at least 50 different trades were represented. It makes note of the increasing size and elaborateness of the…
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