'We Have No Redress Unless We Strike': Class, Gender and Activism in the Melbourne Tailoresses' Strike, 1882-83 (Essay‪)‬

'I find the girls very difficult to deal with', J.R. Blencowe told Commissioner Smith one June day in 1883. His competence under scrutiny, the manager of Beath, Schiess and Co. was keen to put his side of the story to Smith, who had arrived unannounced to investigate conditions at the factory. For Blencowe had good reason to be nervous: The Commissioner was in fact Major William Collard Smith, the Protectionist member of parliament. and veteran anti-sweating campaigner, who had long had employers like Blencowe in his sights. Six months before, a strike had broken out at Beath, Schiess and Co. Flinders Street factory, spreading to the suburbs and crippling Melbourne's tailoring industry. (1) Ever since, his employees had become brazenly insolent: 'they have no consideration except for themselves, and do not understand the two sides of anything'. (2)