Illustration from the Brisbane Worker newspaper condemning the brutality of the Queensland Police on Black Friday

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. They then marched to Brisbane Trades Hall where a meeting was held, with a mass protest meeting of 10,000 people held that night in Market Square (later known as King George Square). Image File history File links Black_Friday_1912. ... Image File history File links Black_Friday_1912. ... The Queensland Police Service is the law enforcement agency responsible for policing the Australian state of Queensland. ... Motto: Audax at Fidelis (Bold but Faithful) Nickname: Sunshine State/Smart State Other Australian states and territories Capital Brisbane Government Governor Premier Const. ... Victorian branch union banner The Australian Rail Tram & Bus Industry Union (RTBU), formerly known as the Public Transport Union or PTU, was formed on March 1, 1993, through an historic amalgamation of the Australian Railways Union, the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Enginemen, the Australian Tramway & Motor Omnibus Employees Association... January 18 is the 18th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday. ... The Brisbane Trades Hall is the Trades Hall building in the Australian city of Brisbane. ...

General Strike

The Brisbane tramways were owned by the General Electric Company of the United Kingdom. Despite this they were managed by Joseph Stillman Badger, an American, who refused to negotiate with the Queensland peak union body,then known as the Australian Labour Federation. After this rebuff a meeting of delegates from forty-three Brisbane based Trade Unions formed the Combined Unions Committee and appointed a General Strike Committee. The trade unionists of Brisbane went out on a general strike on 30 January 1912, not just for the right to wear a badge but for the basic right to join a union. The Queensland Council of Unions is a representative body of Trade union organisations in the State of Queensland, Australia. ... Brisbane is the capital city of the state of Queensland, Australia. ... A union (labor union in American English; trade union in Commonwealth English) is an organisation formed by workers. ... A general strike is a strike action by an entire labour force in a city, region or country. ... January 30 is the 30th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday. ...

Within a few days the Strike Committee became an alternative government. No work could be done in Brisbane without a special permit from the Strike Committee. The committee organised 500 vigilance officers to keep order among strikers and set up its own Ambulance Brigade. Government departments and private employers needed the Strike Committee's permission to carry out any work. The Strike Committee issued strike coupons that were honoured by various firms. Red ribbons were generally worn as a mark of solidarity, not only by people but also on pet dogs and horses pulling carts. Daily processions and public rallies were held to keep strikers occupied. Brisbane is the capital city of the state of Queensland, Australia. ...

On the second day of the strike over 25,000 workers marched from the Brisbane Trades Hall to Fortitude Valley and back with over 50,000 supporters watching from the sidelines. The procession was described as being led by Labor parliamentarians, with the procession being eight abreast and two miles long, with a contingent of 600 women. The strike spread throughout Queensland with many regional centres organising processions through their towns. The strike committee regularly issued an official Strike Bulletin to counter the expected anti-union bias in mainstream newspapers. The Brisbane Trades Hall is the Trades Hall building in the Australian city of Brisbane. ... Fortitude Valley, also known simply as the Valley is a suburb of central Brisbane, Australia. ...

The Queensland government became concerned about the situation, banned processions, swore in special constables and issued bayonets to its police force. Commonwealth military officers and spare-time troops volunteered as special constables, and many of the specials wore their commonwealth uniforms into action.

Black Friday

Mounted police and special constables in Market Square during the General strike

An application by the strike committee for a permit for a march on 2 February 1912 was refused by Police Commissioner Patrick Cahill - the day came to be called Black Friday for the savagery of the police baton charges on crowds of unionists and supporters. Despite the refusal of a permit, a crowd estimated at 15,000 turned up in Market Square. Police and Specials attacked crowds in Market Street under the direction of Cahill shouting "give it to them, lads! Into them." Meanwhile Emma Miller, a pioneer trade unionist and suffragist, led a group of women and girls to parliament house and while returning along Queen street were batoned and arrested by a large contingent of foot and mounted police. Emma Miller, now a frail woman in her 70s barely weighing 35 kilograms, stood her ground, and pulled out her hat pin and stabbed the rump of the Police Commissioners horse. The horse reared and threw off the Police Commissioner, giving him an injury resulting in a limp for the rest of his life. There is some debate that Miller's hatpin stabbed Cahill in the leg. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1000x759, 341 KB)Police and special constables in King Georges Square, 1912 Brisbane General Strike. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1000x759, 341 KB)Police and special constables in King Georges Square, 1912 Brisbane General Strike. ... February 2 is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday. ... Emma Miller Emma Miller (June 26, 1839 - January 22, 1917) was a pioneer trade union organiser, suffragist, and founder of the Australian Labor Party in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. ... Suffragette with banner, Washington DC, 1918 The title of suffragette was given to members of the womens suffrage movement in the United Kingdom and United States, particularly in the years prior to World War I. The name was the Womens Social and Political Union (founded in 1903). ...

The riding down and batoning of peaceful people, many of them being elderly and women and children on the footpath, was widely condemned, not only in union papers such as the Worker, but also in the more conservative papers such as Truth. It was initially called Baton Friday.

Conservative Queensland Premier Digby Denham, viewed the strike committee as an opposing alternate administration and said there were "not going to be two governments" and opposed all further permits for processions. When he attempted to enlist support of the Federal Government in the use of the military, he was rebuffed by the Labor Prime Minister, Andrew Fisher, member for the Queensland seat of Gympie. Fisher had also received a request for military support from the Combined strke committee, but declined this offer preferring to send a monetary donation in support of the strike. Digby Frank Denham (1859-1944) was Premier of Queensland, Australia, from February 1911 to June 1915. ... Rt Hon Andrew Fisher Andrew Fisher (29 August 1862 - 22 October 1928), Australian politician and fifth Prime Minister of Australia, was born in Crosshouse, a mining village near Kilmarnock in Ayrshire, Scotland. ...

Aftermath

By the end of February the General Strike had run out of steam and workers had all returned to work by 6 March with no real gain. Justice H.B. Higgins in the Federal Arbitration Court ruled that the precipitating event was a lockout rather than a strike, but could not intervene in restoration of jobs. The savagery of the baton charges by the Queensland Police and specials on Black Friday created a bitterness and hatred of the police which would last for several decades. The strike reinforced solidarity and collective identity of the Australian labour movement in Queensland. The Denham government immediately won an ensuing election on a "Law and Order" platform and passed the Industrial Peace Act of 1912 ushering in compulsory arbitration specifically to deter strikes in essential services. Hon H.B. Higgins For the fictional character Henry Higgins see Pygmalion or My Fair Lady. ... The Queensland Police Service is the law enforcement agency responsible for policing the Australian state of Queensland. ... Eight-hour day banner, Melbourne, 1856 University of Melbourne site where Stonemasons won the 8 hour day in 1856 The history of the Australian labour movement reaches back to the 19th century and the movement has a long tradition of organised unions of workers and links to political activity. ...

In the aftermath of the strike three years later there was an electoral swing to Labor all over Queensland, and the second Queensland Labor Government was elected in 1915, led by Thomas Joseph Ryan, who regarded himself as a socialist. A statue of T J Ryan stands in Queens Gardens, Brisbane Thomas Joseph Ryan was Premier of Queensland, Australia from May 1915 until October 1919 when he resigned to enter federal politics. ...

References

• The Bitter Fight by Joe Harris (1970)
• 'The Hatpin - A Weapon: Women and the 1912 Brisbane General Strike', Pam Young, Hecate, (1988)