Emma Miller
Encyclopedia
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...
organiser, suffragist, and founder of the 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...
in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, 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...
.
Early life
Miller was born in ChesterfieldChesterfield
Chesterfield is a market town and a borough of Derbyshire, England. It lies north of Derby, on a confluence of the rivers Rother and Hipper. Its population is 70,260 , making it Derbyshire's largest town...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, to a family with Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
beliefs and activism in the Chartist
Chartism
Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...
movement. She married three times and had four children, migrating to Queensland with her second husband in 1879. In Queensland she worked as a gentlemen's shirt maker and seamstress. In 1888 she helped found a local Freethought Association, where she first became known for her radical opinions, and articulated her opinions on equal pay and equal opportunity for women in the workplace.
Trade union activism
Along with May Jordan, she formed the first women's union in BrisbaneBrisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
in September 1890 supported by a campaign by William Lane
William Lane
William Lane was a journalist, advocate of Australian labour politics and a utopian.-Early life:Lane was born in Bristol, England, eldest son of James Lane,from Ireland a Protestant Master Gardener , and his English wife Caroline, née Hall...
in the Brisbane Worker newspaper. As a seamstress she gave evidence at the 1891 Royal Commission into Shops, Factories and Workshops, that highlighted the existence of many sweatshops that exploited women workers. Through this period Miller was an active participant in the Early Closing Association.
With the great strikes of the 1890s, Miller was active in supporting the 1891 Australian shearers' strike
1891 Australian shearers' strike
350px|thumb|Shearers' strike camp, Hughenden, central Queensland, 1891.The 1891 shearers' strike is one of Australia's earliest and most important industrial disputes. Working conditions for sheep shearers in 19th century Australia weren't good. In 1891 wool was one of Australia's largest industries...
and in setting up the Prisoners' Relief Fund for the twelve arrested strike leaders. While William Lane chose to set up in 1892 the New Australia
New Australia
New Australia was a utopian socialist settlement in Paraguay founded by the Australian New Australian Movement. The colony was officially founded on 28 September 1893 as Colonia Nueva Australia and comprised 238 adults and children.-History:...
community in Paraguay along socialist lines which attracted many labour activists, Emma Miller believed Lane was "opting out of the struggle" and became a foundation member of the Workers' Political Organisation, a forerunner of the 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...
in Queensland. She became colloquially known as Mother Miller as the most dominant female figure in the Queensland labour movement.
Women's enfranchisement
The establishment of the Woman's Equal Franchise Association in 1894, almost immediately suffered a split with Leontine CooperLeontine Cooper
Leontine Mary Jane Buisson , better known by her married name, Leontine Cooper, was a teacher, a pioneer trade union organiser, suffragist and campaigner for women's rights in Queensland, Australia....
leaving to form the Womans Franchise League, alleging that the WEFA was too close to the labour movement which could hinder women's enfranchisement. Miller remained and was elected President of the Woman's Equal Franchise Association (1894 - 1905), the remaining period of its existence. Despite the differences, Emma Miller, Leontine Cooper and the conservative Woman's Christian Temperance Union often worked together on suffrage issues.
Women were enfranchised under the Federal Electoral Act on 9 April 1902, becoming the first women of the world to win the right to vote for a national parliament. (Women in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
won the right to vote in colonial elections in 1893). Members of the Woman's Equal Franchise Association actively canvassed for the women's vote for the December 1903 Federal election, by forming the Women Workers' Political Organisation with Emma Miller as president. After the Federal election Miller stood down as president, but became President of the Political Labour Council in Brisbane. Women were granted the vote for the Queensland parliament on 25 January 1905, although not the right to stand for parliament. The following year Emma Miller embarked on a tour of western Queensland under the auspices of the Australian Workers' Union
Australian Workers' Union
The Australian Workers' Union is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the 1880s, and currently has approximately 135,000 members...
, speaking at large public rallies and helping to form local branches of the Workers' Political Organisation and the Women Workers' Political Organisation.
Brisbane General Strike
During the 1912 Brisbane General Strike1912 Brisbane General Strike
The 1912 Brisbane General Strike in Queensland, Australia, began when members of the Australian Tramway Employees Association were dismissed when they wore union badges to work on 18 January 1912...
for the right to organise trade unions, Miller thrust her hatpin into the Police Commissioner's horse causing the Police Commissioner permanent injury, a feat for which she is remembered.
Women's Peace Army
She was also involved in anti-conscription activism over the course of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
by joining the Women's Peace Army when Cecilia John and Adela Pankhurst
Adela Pankhurst
Adela Constantia Mary Pankhurst Walsh was a British-Australian suffragette, political organizer, and co-founder of both the Communist Party of Australia and the Australia First Movement....
visited Brisbane in 1915. The following year she attending the Australian Peace Alliance conference 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...
, and is reputed to have attended the Yarra Bank where she denounced militarism from her soapbox. The campaign against the first conscription referendum on 28 October 1916 was a success, attributed by many historians to the strong women's anti-conscription campaign.
Death
In January 1917 Emma Miller travelled to ToowoombaToowoomba, Queensland
Toowoomba is a city in Southern Queensland, Australia. It is located west of Queensland's capital city, Brisbane. With an estimated district population of 128,600, Toowoomba is Australia's second largest inland city and its largest non-capital inland city...
for several weeks rest. At her last public meeting in the Toowoomba Botanical Gardens she impressed on the women present the "need to play a part in the Labor movement as it meant as much to them as the men". Two days later Emma Miller died of cancer. The flag at Brisbane Trades Hall
Brisbane Trades Hall
The Brisbane Trades Hall is the Trades Hall building in the Australian city of Brisbane. It is used by the Queensland trade union movement for meetings, offices, social and educational events, and is the location of the Trades and Labour Council, now known as the Queensland Council of Unions...
was flown at half mast for the "mother of the Australian Labor Party". A state funeral was offered but was refused by her surviving son.
A marble bust of her exists at the Queensland Council of Unions
Queensland Council of Unions
The Queensland Council of Unions is a representative body of Trade union organisations, known as a Labour council, in the State of Queensland, Australia...
, and a statue is located in King George Square
King George Square, Brisbane
King George Square is a public square, located between Adelaide Street and Ann Street , in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Adjacent to King George Square is Brisbane City Hall...
in Brisbane. There is also an Emma Miller Place located off Roma Street in Brisbane. The Emma Miller Award is presented each year by the Queensland Council of Unions
Queensland Council of Unions
The Queensland Council of Unions is a representative body of Trade union organisations, known as a Labour council, in the State of Queensland, Australia...
to women who have made an outstanding contributionto their Union.
See also
- History of feminismHistory of feminismThe history of feminism involves the story of feminist movements and of feminist thinkers. Depending on time, culture and country, feminists around the world have sometimes had different causes and goals...
- List of suffragists and suffragettes
- SuffragetteSuffragette"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
- Women's Social and Political UnionWomen's Social and Political UnionThe Women's Social and Political Union was the leading militant organisation campaigning for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom...
- Women's suffrageWomen's suffrageWomen's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
- Women's suffrage in the United KingdomWomen's suffrage in the United KingdomWomen's suffrage in the United Kingdom as a national movement began in 1872. Women were not prohibited from voting in the United Kingdom until the 1832 Reform Act and the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act...