emmamiller

Portrait of Mrs Emma Miller

from State Library of Queensland

• Vesna Verencevic said:

  Emma Miller (26 June 1839 – 22 January 1917) was an English-born Australian pioneer trade union organiser, suffragist, and key figure in organisations which led to the founding of the Australian Labor Party in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In Queensland, Miller worked as a gentlemen's shirt maker and seamstress. Along with May Jordan McConnel, she formed the first women's union in Brisbane, the Brisbane Women's Union, in September 1890 supported by a campaign by William Lane in the Brisbane Worker newspaper.[2] 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.[1] 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 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 community in Paraguay along socialist lines which attracted many labour activists, 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 in Queensland. She became colloquially known as "Mother Miller", as she was the most dominant female figure in the Queensland labour movement.[1 In August 1917 the Worker magazine published a poem in memorial to Miller.[6][7] In 1922, a marble bust of her by James Laurence Watts was unveiled at the Queensland Council of Unions.[1][8] A statue is located in King George Square in Brisbane,[9] and there is also an Emma Miller Place located off Roma Street in Brisbane. In 1987 the Queensland Council of Unions established the Emma Miller Award, which is presented each year to women who have made an outstanding contribution to their union.[10][2] Bust of Miller held at Queensland Council of Unions In 2003, Miller's life story was featured in the exhibition "A Lot on Her Hands", presented by the Australian Workers' Heritage Centre.[11] The electoral district of Miller created in the 2017 Queensland state electoral redistribution was named after her.[12] Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Miller