Leontine Cooper left to form the Women's Suffrage League, alleging that the WEFA was too close to the labour movement which could hinder women's enfranchisement.
Miller was a founding member of the Women's Equal Franchise Association, which was established in 1894 and almost immediately suffered a split. She became colloquially known as "Mother Miller", as she was the most dominant female figure in the Queensland labour movement. 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. 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. Through this period Miller was an active participant in the Early Closing Association. 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. 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. In Queensland, Miller worked as a gentlemen's shirt maker and seamstress. Calderwood died in 1880, and Miller married Andrew Miller in Brisbane in 1886. In 1874 Miller married William Calderwood, and they migrated with Miller's children to Queensland, arriving in 1879. They had four children together however, Silcock died and Miller took up sewing to support the family. Īt the age of 18 she eloped and married a bookkeeper, Jabez Mycroft Silcock. Her parents had strong Unitarian beliefs and were active in the Chartist movement. Miller was born on 26 June 1839 in Chesterfield, England, the eldest of four children born to Martha Holmes, née Hollingworth, and her husband Daniel.
0 kommentar(er)
