"The imperial working class makes itself 'white': white labourism in Britain, Australia and South Africa before the first World War"

Hyslop, Jonathan

"The imperial working class makes itself 'white': white labourism in Britain, Australia and South Africa before the first World War"

Date

1999-10-11

Authors

Hyslop, Jonathan

Abstract

On the 1st of March, 1914, the biggest British labour demonstration of the early twentieth century flooded into London's Hyde Park in a seven mile long column. Estimates of the size of the crowd ran as high as half a million. The Socialist papers were euphoric: "Never in my long experience of Hyde Park", wrote R. B. Suthers in The Clarion (6 March 1914) "have I seen such countless multitudes pouring into its confines and gathering around the speakers and the platforms. Never have I seen so impressive a crowd, never have I seen so unanimous and earnest a mass meeting". The publication of the engineering workers' union described the gathering as "the greatest and most impressive of its kind that has ever taken place in the heart of the Empire." (ASEMJR, February 1914)

Description

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 11 October, 1999

Keywords

Working class. Great Britain. History. 20th century, Working class. Australia. History. 20th century, Working class. South Africa. History. 20th century