William Spence

William Guthrie Spence (7 August 1846 – 13 December 1926), was an Australian trade union leader and politician, played a leading role in the formation of both Australia's largest union, the Australian Workers' Union, and the Australian Labor Party.

Early life

Spence was born on the island of Eday in the Orkney Islands, Scotland and migrated to Australia with his family as age six. He had no formal education and worked as a farm labourer in the Wimmera district of Victoria from the age of 13. Later he acquired a gold-mining licence and worked for various mining companies. In 1871 he married Ann Jane Savage.

In 1874, Spence was one of a number of militant mine-workers who formed the Amalgamated Miners' Association of Victoria, and he became the union's general secretary in 1882. He led the union into mergers with similar unions in the other Australian colonies, forming the Amalgamated Miners' Association of Australasia. In 1886, he became the first president of the Australian Shearers' Union; he also became president of its successor, the Amalgamated Shearers' Union of Australasia in 1887, and by 1890 most shearers in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales had joined the union and 85% of the shearing sheds were open to union members only.

Around 1890, Spence became a strong proponent of Georgism. The Georgist 'Single Tax' proposal was at the time incredibly popular amongst Radical Liberals and the movement was highly influential in the political labour movement, the Australian Labor Party being created through the joint efforts of Single Taxers, socialists and trade unionists.

Since the Australian economy was expanding rapidly at this time and there was an acute shortage of labour, the unions were in a strong bargaining position and were able to secure great improvements in the living standards of Australia's rural working class. But a depression which began in 1891 led to acute class conflict as the mine owners and graziers tried to cut wages to remain solvent in the face of falling commodity prices, which the unions resisted. In 1894 Spence led the amalgamation of the miners, shearers and other rural workers into the Australian Workers' Union (AWU), Australia's largest and most powerful union. There were bitter strikes in the maritime and pastoral industries, in which Spence played a leading role, although he was generally a force for moderation in the labour movement. He was the AWU's secretary from 1894 to 1898 and president from 1898 to 1917.

Political career

The defeat of the strikes of 1891–1894 led Spence and other labour leaders to move into politics. Spence supported the formation of the Progressive Political League, an early labour party, in Victoria in 1891 and he was narrowly beaten at a by-election in 1892 for the seat of Dundas in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. In 1891, he supported the first election campaign by the Labour Party in New South Wales, which won a number of seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. In 1898, Spence he became MP for Cobar in western New South Wales. He remained president of the AWU, making him one of the most powerful men in New South Wales politics. He described himself as "an evolutionary, not a revolutionary, socialist."

Unlike many in the labour movement, Spence supported the federation of the Australian colonies, and in 1901 he was elected to the first Australian House of Representatives as MP for the NSW Division of Darling. Like most of the older generation of labour leaders who were born in the United Kingdom, Spence was associated with the more conservative wing of the Australian Labor Party, led by Billy Hughes. He was not really suited to parliamentary life and did not hold office until he was appointed Postmaster-General in the third Fisher Ministry from September 1914 to October 1915. He was also appointed to the undemanding position of Vice-President of the Executive Council in the second Hughes Ministry from November 1916 to February 1917.

In 1916 Hughes decided to introduce conscription to maintain Australia's contribution to the Allied forces in World War I. Most of the Labor Party bitterly opposed this, but Spence sided with Hughes. As a result, he was expelled from the party along with Hughes and the other conscriptionist MPs. He was also deposed as president of the AWU and shortly after was expelled from the union. At the 1917 federal election, although Hughes was easily returned to power, Spence lost his seat, mainly because the AWU organised the rural workers to oppose him. Shortly after he was returned to Parliament at a by-election for the Tasmanian seat of Darwin. He was one of only a small number of people who have represented more than one state or territory in the Parliament. In 1919, he ran for the Melbourne seat of Batman, but was defeated.

Spence later took up farming at Terang, Victoria, and died of pulmonary oedema on 13 December 1926, aged 80. He was survived by his wife, four daughters and three of his five sons. His daughter Gwynetha had married publisher and politician Hector Lamond in 1902.

Honours

In 1972, the Canberra suburb of Spence was named after him. In October 2003 the Australian Workers' Union named its Melbourne headquarters in Spence's honour.

References

Further reading

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External links

Australian Workers' Union memorial to Spence

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spence, William Guthrie
Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Darling
Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Darwin
Members of the Australian House of Representatives
Members of the Cabinet of Australia
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia
Australian trade unionists
People from Orkney
People from Victoria (Australia)
Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia
1846 births
1926 deaths
National Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia
Nationalist Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia
20th-century Australian politicians