The Great Maritime Strike of Australia

1890 Australia's Great Maritime Strike: The 1890 Australian Maritime Dispute, commonly known as the 1890 Maritime Strike, was on a scale unprecedented in the Australasian colonies to that point in time, causing political and social turmoil across all Australian colonies and in New Zealand, including the collapse of colonial governments in the colonies of Victoria and New South Wales.

It was the first of four great strikes that rocked Australasia in the 1890s, and though it ended in defeat for the Australian labour movement, it demonstrated the growing social power of trade union organisation co-ordinated by Trades and Labour Councils, and was an important cause in the introduction of the arbitration system for industrial disputes and the formation of the Australian Labor Party.

While police had been used in strikes before 1890, the military had not been used. During the 1890 Maritime Strike military units were extensively used against strikes in New South Wales and Victoria. Armed troops were deployed in Sydney, Melbourne, Newcastle and a number of other ports around Australia ...

Categories: labor+history, radical+history, australia, history