Chummy Fleming
Encyclopedia
John William 'Chummy' Fleming (1863 – 25 January 1950) was a pioneer unionist
, agitator for the unemployed
, and anarchist
in Melbourne
, Victoria
, Australia
.
"Chummy" Fleming was instrumental in starting May Day
celebrations and marches in Melbourne. He was a member of the Melbourne Anarchist Club which formed on 1 May 1886, the first formal anarchist organisation in Australia. In 1899 he was elected to the Trades Hall
Eight Hours Day committee and to the executive of Trades Hall Council
. He was President of the Fitzroy Political Labor League, the forerunner to an Australian Labor Party
branch. For more than sixty years he was a regular speaker at the Queens Wharf and Yarra Bank speakers corners on Sundays.
, England in 1863 to an Irish father, employed as a weaver, and an English mother, employed as a factory hand. His maternal grandfather had been involved in the Corn Laws
struggles, and his father was active in strikes in Derby. His mother died when 'Chummy' was five. At the age of 10 he was sent to work in a Leicester boot factory, which took its toll on the boy's health, and gave him a personal understanding of social injustice. In his teens he attended Freethought
lectures of Charles Bradlaugh
, George Jacob Holyoake and Annie Besant
.
At the invitation of an uncle living in Melbourne, he migrated to Australia in 1884, gaining immediate work as a bootmaker and joining the Victorian Operative Bootmakers Union. Almost immediately he involved himself in radical politics by attending the second annual Secular Conference in Sydney
in 1884, organised by the Australasian Secular Association. In Melbourne he started attending Queens Wharf and North Wharf Sunday afternoon meetings at the Yarra River
where popular speakers included Joseph Symes, President of the Australasian Secular Association, Monty Miller, a veteran radical from the Eureka Stockade
, and William Trenwith
, an aspirant labour politician.
had closed on Sundays due to church pressure. At a meeting near the Working Men's College (now known as Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
), a large crowd gathered. A deputation of five was appointed to visit Parliament House to petition for the Libraries and Museums to open on Sunday. When the deputation left, the crowd followed. The police failed to stop the estimated 6,000 people surging along the street, then up the steps of Parliament, where they finally stopped at the closed doors of Parliament.
Several of the organisers received summonses for 'taking part in an unlawful procession' and were imprisoned for a month. The campaign was successful, but numbers attending the Library on Sunday were insufficient, and the Library soon closed its doors on Sunday.
Fleming's time in prison was not unproductive. While detained he studied the prison regulations and found that the sanitary arrangements were less than required. So, he stopped the Governor on his weekly rounds, 'lectured him for an hour' whereupon the Governor ordered immediate improvements.
in Melbourne, as well as being elected to the Eight Hours Committee.
In September, 1890 Fleming was first elected as a delegate of the Victorian Operative Bootmakers Union to the Trades Hall Council
, and later served on the Executive. He supported inter-colonial strikers, female organisation, and agitation for piece work rates as opposed to a minimum wage which the employers were after. Due to declining union membership, Fleming was instrumental in the Trades Hall Council devising union re-organisation, which resulted in a number of unions being brought into existence and many old ones strengthened. Often his support of grass roots initiatives, self-help and the unemployed put him at odds with trade union bureaucrats and Labor politicians such as William Trenwith, who he accused of 'working with blood-sucking capitalists.'
Twelve months later he was elected, unopposed, President of his union for a 6-month term, and for a similar period as President of the Fitzroy branch of the Progressive Political League, the fore-runner of the ALP. Fleming was a supporter of Max Hirsch
, author of Democracy versus Socialism.
At a Knights of Labor meeting in 1893, Fleming moved the motion for what was subsequently the first May Day procession in Melbourne. This was the start of a long association between Chummy Fleming and May Day in Melbourne. During the 1930s, when Fleming's anarchist politics was out of favour with the May Day Committee, then controlled by the Communist Party of Australia
, Fleming started marching a block ahead with his red flag with Anarchy emblazoned in white, going so slowly the march caught up with him; or sometimes he started back In the ranks and gradually edged to the front.
In 1895, at a large meeting at the Melbourne Town Hall
, Fleming and John White moved a motion successfully opposing the Melbourne Lord Mayor, Sir Arthur Snowden, from chairing the meeting because of remarks he had made supporting very low wages. A commentator in Tocsin articulated that it forced words to become deeds and resulted in the introduction of the Factories Legislation.
In 1904 Fleming was expelled from Trades Hall Council for attacks on Labor parliamentarians (disloyalty to Labor). Fleming's continual criticism of Trades Hall bureaucrats and Labor opportunists was echoed by noted Trade Unionist and socialist, Tom Mann
.
and was active in unemployed agitation. Many Trade Unions and Trades Hall officials were not sympathetic to unemployed agitation at this time. Fleming described one occasion:
In 1908, as part of an unemployed agitation, Fleming and Percy Laidler, a Marxist, led the unemployed into Federal Parliament
in Melbourne, stopping it for one and a half hours.
, David Andrade
and several others. In club meetings he gave lectures on 'The Subjection of Women', and the need for sexual freedom in a talk on 'Marriage, Prostitution and the Whitechapel Murders'. He was not noted as a writer or philosopher, but remainded on good terms with mutualists
, individualists
and communist anarchists active in the club. His union and unemployed agitation showed him to be more practical and pragmatic in his adherence to anarchism.
He is recorded as having regular correspondence with noted anarchists, Peter Kropotkin
, Emma Goldman
, and Max Nettlau
and many others. For every year from 1887 he commemorated in Melbourne the execution of the Haymarket Riot Martyrs.
On being expelled from Trades Hall Council in 1904, Fleming became heroic and made the following statement:
For the next forty five years Fleming helped organise or was involved with anarchist meetings in Melbourne.
, Australia's first Governor-General. In May 1901 Fleming protested unemployment in Melbourne by rushing onto the Prince's Bridge to halt the Governor General's carriage. Hopetoun told the police not to interfere and listened to Fleming put the case for the unemployed. Out of this encounter came a friendship which endured after Hopetoun returned to England in July 1902. While in Australia, he is said to have visited Chummy's house at 6 Argyle Place, Carlton, which was built with money he lent Chummy, the house bearing the name 'Hopetoun' when completed (since demolished). According to some reports, Hopetoun is credited with pressuring the government to speed up government work projects.
Upon Hopetoun's impending departure, he donated money and 25 dozen bottles of champagne, entrusted to Fleming, for distribution to the unemployed. Several commentators of the period saw this as a round-about slap at the establishment for refusing to pay Hopetoun what he thought he needed. Fleming duly distributed the gifts to the unemployed according to a register: One shilling to each married man and 6d to each single man who attended on 24 June 1902. The following day the bottles of Champagne, along with beer from 6 hogsheads donated by Shamrock Brewery, were distributed by Fleming, (who neither smoked or drank). According to newspaper reports drunkenness and riots ensued.
debates during the first World War, being with the Industrial Workers of the World
prepared to take a definite anti-war stance. In Port Melbourne Town Hall
for example, he spoke on "the Rich Man's War and the Poor Man's Fight." During this period he was frequently arrested, jailed and threatened with being deported by the authorities, or thrown into the river by roughs and on at least one occasion was thrown in.
In 1933, he was invited to make a speech at the Congress Against War and Fascism, organised largely by the Communist Party of Australia. It was reported that he took the organisers to task for their doctrinaire approach, and was heavily criticised for it.
On May Day in 1950, after his death, the ashes of Chummy Fleming were scattered among the crowd on the Yarra Bank. He was remembered for his sincerity, courageousness, and dedication to the Australian labour movement
.
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
, agitator for the unemployed
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
, and anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
"Chummy" Fleming was instrumental in starting May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
celebrations and marches in Melbourne. He was a member of the Melbourne Anarchist Club which formed on 1 May 1886, the first formal anarchist organisation in Australia. In 1899 he was elected to the Trades Hall
Trades Hall
A Trades Hall is an English term for a building where trade unions meet together, or work from cooperatively, as a local representative organisation, known as a Labor Council or Trades Hall Council...
Eight Hours Day committee and to the executive of Trades Hall Council
Victorian Trades Hall Council
The Victorian Trades Hall Council is a representative body of trade union organisations, known as a Labour council, in the State of Victoria, Australia...
. He was President of the Fitzroy Political Labor League, the forerunner to an Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
branch. For more than sixty years he was a regular speaker at the Queens Wharf and Yarra Bank speakers corners on Sundays.
Early life
He was born in DerbyDerby
Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...
, England in 1863 to an Irish father, employed as a weaver, and an English mother, employed as a factory hand. His maternal grandfather had been involved in the Corn Laws
Corn Laws
The Corn Laws were trade barriers designed to protect cereal producers in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland against competition from less expensive foreign imports between 1815 and 1846. The barriers were introduced by the Importation Act 1815 and repealed by the Importation Act 1846...
struggles, and his father was active in strikes in Derby. His mother died when 'Chummy' was five. At the age of 10 he was sent to work in a Leicester boot factory, which took its toll on the boy's health, and gave him a personal understanding of social injustice. In his teens he attended Freethought
Freethought
Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or other dogmas...
lectures of Charles Bradlaugh
Charles Bradlaugh
Charles Bradlaugh was a political activist and one of the most famous English atheists of the 19th century. He founded the National Secular Society in 1866.-Early life:...
, George Jacob Holyoake and Annie Besant
Annie Besant
Annie Besant was a prominent British Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule.She was married at 19 to Frank Besant but separated from him over religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society ...
.
At the invitation of an uncle living in Melbourne, he migrated to Australia in 1884, gaining immediate work as a bootmaker and joining the Victorian Operative Bootmakers Union. Almost immediately he involved himself in radical politics by attending the second annual Secular Conference in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
in 1884, organised by the Australasian Secular Association. In Melbourne he started attending Queens Wharf and North Wharf Sunday afternoon meetings at the Yarra River
Yarra River
The Yarra River, originally Birrarung, is a river in east-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stretches of the river is where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches...
where popular speakers included Joseph Symes, President of the Australasian Secular Association, Monty Miller, a veteran radical from the Eureka Stockade
Eureka Stockade
The Eureka Rebellion of 1854 was an organised rebellion by gold miners which occurred at Eureka Lead in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The Battle of Eureka Stockade was fought on 3 December 1854 and named for the stockade structure erected by miners during the conflict...
, and William Trenwith
William Trenwith
William Arthur Trenwith was a pioneer trade union official and labour movement politician for Victoria, Australia.Born to convict parents at Launceston, Tasmania, he followed his father's trade as a bootmaker...
, an aspirant labour politician.
Sunday Liberation
In late 1889, Fleming was an organiser of the Sunday Liberation Society, and addressed meetings on the need to open the Public Libraries and Museums on Sundays. The Public LibraryState Library of Victoria
The State Library of Victoria is the central library of the state of Victoria, Australia, located in Melbourne. It is on the block bounded by Swanston, La Trobe, Russell, and Little Lonsdale streets, in the northern centre of the central business district...
had closed on Sundays due to church pressure. At a meeting near the Working Men's College (now known as Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
RMIT University
RMIT University is an Australian public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. It has two branches, referred to as RMIT University in Australia and RMIT International University in Vietnam....
), a large crowd gathered. A deputation of five was appointed to visit Parliament House to petition for the Libraries and Museums to open on Sunday. When the deputation left, the crowd followed. The police failed to stop the estimated 6,000 people surging along the street, then up the steps of Parliament, where they finally stopped at the closed doors of Parliament.
Several of the organisers received summonses for 'taking part in an unlawful procession' and were imprisoned for a month. The campaign was successful, but numbers attending the Library on Sunday were insufficient, and the Library soon closed its doors on Sunday.
Fleming's time in prison was not unproductive. While detained he studied the prison regulations and found that the sanitary arrangements were less than required. So, he stopped the Governor on his weekly rounds, 'lectured him for an hour' whereupon the Governor ordered immediate improvements.
Union agitation
In 1889, Fleming helped form a Melbourne lodge of the Knights of LaborKnights of Labor
The Knights of Labor was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s. Its most important leader was Terence Powderly...
in Melbourne, as well as being elected to the Eight Hours Committee.
In September, 1890 Fleming was first elected as a delegate of the Victorian Operative Bootmakers Union to the Trades Hall Council
Victorian Trades Hall Council
The Victorian Trades Hall Council is a representative body of trade union organisations, known as a Labour council, in the State of Victoria, Australia...
, and later served on the Executive. He supported inter-colonial strikers, female organisation, and agitation for piece work rates as opposed to a minimum wage which the employers were after. Due to declining union membership, Fleming was instrumental in the Trades Hall Council devising union re-organisation, which resulted in a number of unions being brought into existence and many old ones strengthened. Often his support of grass roots initiatives, self-help and the unemployed put him at odds with trade union bureaucrats and Labor politicians such as William Trenwith, who he accused of 'working with blood-sucking capitalists.'
Twelve months later he was elected, unopposed, President of his union for a 6-month term, and for a similar period as President of the Fitzroy branch of the Progressive Political League, the fore-runner of the ALP. Fleming was a supporter of Max Hirsch
Max Hirsch (economist)
Maximilian Hirsch was a German-born businessman and economist who settled in Melbourne, Australia, where he became the recognized intellectual leader of the Australian Georgist movement and, briefly, a member of the Victorian Parliament.-Early life:Hirsch was born in Cologne in the German state...
, author of Democracy versus Socialism.
At a Knights of Labor meeting in 1893, Fleming moved the motion for what was subsequently the first May Day procession in Melbourne. This was the start of a long association between Chummy Fleming and May Day in Melbourne. During the 1930s, when Fleming's anarchist politics was out of favour with the May Day Committee, then controlled by the Communist Party of Australia
Communist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991; it was succeeded by the Socialist Party of Australia, which then renamed itself, becoming the current Communist Party of Australia. The CPA achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted...
, Fleming started marching a block ahead with his red flag with Anarchy emblazoned in white, going so slowly the march caught up with him; or sometimes he started back In the ranks and gradually edged to the front.
In 1895, at a large meeting at the Melbourne Town Hall
Melbourne Town Hall
Melbourne Town Hall is the central municipal building of the City of Melbourne, Australia, in the State of Victoria. It is located on the northeast corner of Swanston and Collins Streets, in the central business district. It is the seat of the Local Government Area of the City of Melbourne...
, Fleming and John White moved a motion successfully opposing the Melbourne Lord Mayor, Sir Arthur Snowden, from chairing the meeting because of remarks he had made supporting very low wages. A commentator in Tocsin articulated that it forced words to become deeds and resulted in the introduction of the Factories Legislation.
In 1904 Fleming was expelled from Trades Hall Council for attacks on Labor parliamentarians (disloyalty to Labor). Fleming's continual criticism of Trades Hall bureaucrats and Labor opportunists was echoed by noted Trade Unionist and socialist, Tom Mann
Tom Mann
Tom Mann was a noted British trade unionist. Largely self-educated, Mann became a successful organiser and a popular public speaker in the labour movement.-Early years:...
.
Unemployed agitation
Fleming spent many periods unemployedUnemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
and was active in unemployed agitation. Many Trade Unions and Trades Hall officials were not sympathetic to unemployed agitation at this time. Fleming described one occasion:
- "...The unemployed meeting was held on a piece of land near the Workingmen's College. At the conclusion of the meeting, old John White and I carried the calico banner which had written on it: Feed on our flesh and blood, Capitalist hyena; it is your funeral feast. When the unemployed arrived at the Trades HallTrades HallA Trades Hall is an English term for a building where trade unions meet together, or work from cooperatively, as a local representative organisation, known as a Labor Council or Trades Hall Council...
they were attacked by unionists. During the fight the banner was destroyed. The police came and ended the fight ..."
In 1908, as part of an unemployed agitation, Fleming and Percy Laidler, a Marxist, led the unemployed into Federal Parliament
Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, largely modelled in the Westminster tradition, but with some influences from the United States Congress...
in Melbourne, stopping it for one and a half hours.
Melbourne Anarchist Club
On 1 May 1886 the first meeting of the Melbourne Anarchist Club took place attended by Fleming, Monty Miller, Jack AndrewsJohn Arthur Andrews
John Arthur "Jack" or "J.A." Andrews , was an Australian anarchist theoretician, agitator and journalist. He was also a poet and inventor and author of fiction. He was born in Bendigo to John Andrews, a clerk, and his wife Eliza Mary Ann, whoes maiden name was Barnett. He matriculated from Scotch...
, David Andrade
David Andrade
David Andrade was an Australian anarchist.In May 1886, David Andrade, his brother Will and half a dozen others formed the Melbourne Anarchist Club , the first anarchist organization in Australia. Andrade became the MAC secretary and one of its main propagandists.The MAC produced the journal Honesty...
and several others. In club meetings he gave lectures on 'The Subjection of Women', and the need for sexual freedom in a talk on 'Marriage, Prostitution and the Whitechapel Murders'. He was not noted as a writer or philosopher, but remainded on good terms with mutualists
Mutualism (economic theory)
Mutualism is an anarchist school of thought that originates in the writings of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who envisioned a society where each person might possess a means of production, either individually or collectively, with trade representing equivalent amounts of labor in the free market...
, individualists
Individualist anarchism
Individualist anarchism refers to several traditions of thought within the anarchist movement that emphasize the individual and his or her will over external determinants such as groups, society, traditions, and ideological systems. Individualist anarchism is not a single philosophy but refers to a...
and communist anarchists active in the club. His union and unemployed agitation showed him to be more practical and pragmatic in his adherence to anarchism.
He is recorded as having regular correspondence with noted anarchists, Peter Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin
Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, economist, geographer, author and one of the world's foremost anarcho-communists. Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between...
, Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century....
, and Max Nettlau
Max Nettlau
Max Heinrich Hermann Reinhardt Nettlau was a German anarchist and historian. Although born in Neuwaldegg and raised in Vienna he retained his Prussian nationality throughout his life. A student of the Welsh language he spent time in London where he joined the Socialist League where he met...
and many others. For every year from 1887 he commemorated in Melbourne the execution of the Haymarket Riot Martyrs.
On being expelled from Trades Hall Council in 1904, Fleming became heroic and made the following statement:
- "... I am going to be expelled because I am an anarchist. I am in the company of Tolstoy, Spencer and the most advanced thinkers of the world. Workers will never get their rights while they look to Parliament. A general strike would be more effective than all the Parliaments in the world. I have got a fine stick and I am going to use It. Expel me if you like. I am an anarchist. We have been hanged in Chicago, electrocuted in New York, guillotined in Paris and strangled in Italy, and I will go with my comrades. I am opposed to your Government and to your authority. Down with them. Do your worst. Long live Anarchy".
For the next forty five years Fleming helped organise or was involved with anarchist meetings in Melbourne.
The Anarchist and the Governor-General
From 1901 an interesting friendship developed between Chummy Fleming and Lord HopetounJohn Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow
John Adrian Louis Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow KT, GCMG, GCVO, PC , also known as Viscount Aithrie before 1873 and as The 7th Earl of Hopetoun between 1873 and 1902, was a Scottish aristocrat, politician and colonial administrator. He is best known for his brief and controversial tenure as the...
, Australia's first Governor-General. In May 1901 Fleming protested unemployment in Melbourne by rushing onto the Prince's Bridge to halt the Governor General's carriage. Hopetoun told the police not to interfere and listened to Fleming put the case for the unemployed. Out of this encounter came a friendship which endured after Hopetoun returned to England in July 1902. While in Australia, he is said to have visited Chummy's house at 6 Argyle Place, Carlton, which was built with money he lent Chummy, the house bearing the name 'Hopetoun' when completed (since demolished). According to some reports, Hopetoun is credited with pressuring the government to speed up government work projects.
Upon Hopetoun's impending departure, he donated money and 25 dozen bottles of champagne, entrusted to Fleming, for distribution to the unemployed. Several commentators of the period saw this as a round-about slap at the establishment for refusing to pay Hopetoun what he thought he needed. Fleming duly distributed the gifts to the unemployed according to a register: One shilling to each married man and 6d to each single man who attended on 24 June 1902. The following day the bottles of Champagne, along with beer from 6 hogsheads donated by Shamrock Brewery, were distributed by Fleming, (who neither smoked or drank). According to newspaper reports drunkenness and riots ensued.
- "A representative of "The Age" asked Mr Fleming why the wine had not been sold and the money distributed. His reply was perhaps characteristic. He said: "We are tired of the inequalities among the people. The rich drink champagne and the poor small beer. Besides, it would have been a breach of faith to his Lordship to have sold the wine". When "The Age" reporter pointed to the drunken mob outside, and asked if that was the equality he meant, Mr Fleming could only say that such a thing as the distribution of champagne had never occurred before in Australia, and that champagne was not intended only for dainty stomachs." (The AgeThe AgeThe Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
, 26 June 1902)
"Rich Man's War and the Poor Man's Fight"
Fleming was active in the conscriptionConscription in Australia
Conscription in Australia, or mandatory military service also known as National Service, has a controversial history dating back to the first years of nationhood...
debates during the first World War, being with the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
prepared to take a definite anti-war stance. In Port Melbourne Town Hall
Port Melbourne Town Hall
The Port Melbourne Town Hall was erected in 1882. The Town Hall is an important element in the historic Bay Street streetscape of inner city Port Melbourne....
for example, he spoke on "the Rich Man's War and the Poor Man's Fight." During this period he was frequently arrested, jailed and threatened with being deported by the authorities, or thrown into the river by roughs and on at least one occasion was thrown in.
In 1933, he was invited to make a speech at the Congress Against War and Fascism, organised largely by the Communist Party of Australia. It was reported that he took the organisers to task for their doctrinaire approach, and was heavily criticised for it.
Yarra Banker
Fleming became an institution as a speaker on the Yarra Bank on Sundays. From 1901 until he died in 1950, each Sunday he would set up his Freedom stand, conducting meetings and lecturing on social questions, working conditions and other issues. Behind him would be draped two red flags: one with 'Anarchy' and the other with 'Freedom' worked on white.On May Day in 1950, after his death, the ashes of Chummy Fleming were scattered among the crowd on the Yarra Bank. He was remembered for his sincerity, courageousness, and dedication to the Australian labour movement
Australian labour movement
The Australian labour movement has its origins in the early 19th century and includes both trade unions and political activity. At its broadest, the movement can be defined as encompassing the industrial wing, the unions in Australia, and the political wing, the Australian Labor Party and minor...
.