Australian unionism built upon strong foundations transported from Britain. Subsequently it grew beyond this base inscope and form. By 1890 the level of unionisation of the colonial workforce exceeded that in the mother country. This was mainly due to the upsurge of new unionism in the late...

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The dramatic rise of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) as the single largest electoral force in the country between 1890 and 1910 has traditionally been associated with the mobilisation of the votes of the urban and mining working class. However, this paper argues that, in fact, the ALP relied...