Medievalism in Australian Cultural Memory

'Are We Medieval?' The Worker, 2 January 1904

This article from Brisbane publication The Worker rebukes derisive comments published by a London journalist mocking Australia’s legislation concerning workers as a reversion to medieval trade laws. Responding to McKenzie’s quip that…

Tags: Criticism, democracy, economy, guild, industrialisation, labour, legislation, McKenzie, medieval guilds, politics, Professor Thorold Rogers, progress, trade, trade bosses, trade guilds, trade unionism, wages, workers, working conditions

Eight Hour Procession 1901, Sydney

The writer credits the craft guilds of medieval England for the eight-hour system, including the Saturday half-holiday. The latter was supposed to be devoted to archery practice, which eventually ensured English mastery of the bow and arrow and their…

Labor Day Procession in Argent Street, Broken Hill

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…

Tags: banner, banners, Broken Hill, float, floats, Labor, Labor Day, labour, labourer, New South Wales, NSW, parade, parades, procession, processions, street parade, trade, Trade Union, trade unionism, union, unionism, unions, work, worker, working class

Eight Hours Song

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…

Tags: Eight Hour Day, eight hours, Felix McLaren, Knights of Labor, Labor songs, labour, labourer, sabre, Trade Union, trade unionism, union, unionism, unions, work, worker, working class

Geelong Trades Hall Front View ‘Labor Omnia Vincit’

‘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 Knights…

Tags: Geelong Trades Hall Building, knight, knights, Knights of Labor, Labor, Labor Omnia vincit, labour, labourer, Latin mottoes, trade, Trade Union, trade unionism, union, unionism, unions, work, working class

SA Register 1888 Thurs 26 April Carnival of King Labour

Report on the Eight Hours Day procession in Melbourne in 1888. The article describes the vivid and essentially working-class flavour of the skilled trades procession and after-picnic in Melbourne. The tinsmiths’ knightly armour invokes literary and…

Tags: battle-axes, carnival, carnivalesque, class, Don Quixote, Eight Hours Day celebration Melbourne, Friendly Societies’ Gardens, King Labour, labour, labourer, medieval guilds, references to Ivanhoe, Richard Coeur de Lion, streets celebrations, tinsmiths’ armour, trade processions, work, worker

King Working-Man

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…

Tags: Eight Hour Day, Eight-hour day movement, freedom of labour, labour, labourer, organized labour, Peasants Revolt, Premier Gilles, union, unionism, unions, work, worker, working class

Female Servant’s Revolt

This illustration is an early reference to the beginnings of the eight-hour movement. One of the first marches took place in Melbourne in 1856, when the Stonemasons working on the build of the University of Melbourne, marched to Parliament protesting…

Tags: Eight Hour Day, Eight-hour day movement, freedom of labour, labour, labourer, Melbourne, Melbourne 888, Peasants Revolt, revolution, women servants, work, worker, working class

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