The National Anti-Sweating League is the name adopted by two groups of social reformers in Australia and Britain at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Both campaigned against the poor conditions endured by many workers in so-called
sweatshop
A sweatshop or sweat factory is a cramped workplace with very poor and/or illegal working conditions, including little to no breaks, inadequate work space, insufficient lighting and ventilation, or uncomfortably or dangerously high or low temperat ...
s and called for a
minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. List of countries by minimum wage, Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation b ...
.
Australia
The National Anti-Sweating League was inaugurated in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
on 29 Jul 1895, with Rev.
Alexander Gosman as president,
Samuel Mauger as secretary, and
Alfred Deakin
Alfred Deakin (3 August 1856 – 7 October 1919) was an Australian politician who served as the second Prime Minister of Australia, prime minister of Australia from 1903 to 1904, 1905 to 1908, and 1909 to 1910. He held office as the leader of th ...
as treasurer.
[Race Mathews (1993) ''Australia's First Fabians: Middle-class Radicals, Labour Activists and the Early Labour Movement'' Cambridge University Press ] Vida Goldstein
Vida Jane Mary Goldstein (pron. ) (13 April 186915 August 1949) was an Women's suffrage in Australia, Australian suffragist and social reformer. She was one of four female candidates at the 1903 Australian federal election, 1903 federal election ...
was another member.
[Lees, Kirsten (1995) ''Votes for Women: The Australian Story'' St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin, p. 145] Their efforts resulted in wage regulation via the Factory Act of 1896.
[Sheila Blackburn (1991) ''The Historical Journal'' 34 (1) 43-64 "Ideology and Social Policy: The Origins of the Trade Boards Act"]
Britain
The National Anti-Sweating League was an all-party pressure group formed in 1906 with a 3-day conference in the
Guildhall, London
Guildhall is a municipal building in the City of London, England. It is off Gresham and Basinghall streets, in the wards of Bassishaw and Cheap. The current building dates from the 15th century; however documentary evidence suggests that a ...
.
[Daily Mirror 18 October 1906] 341 delegates representing (via trade union
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
s) some two million workers attended.[ Notable members included ]Alfred George Gardiner
Alfred George Gardiner (2 June 1865 – 3 March 1946) was an English journalist, editor and author. His essays, written under the alias "Alpha of the Plough", are highly regarded. He was also Chairman of the National Anti-Sweating League, an ad ...
,[ ]Mary Reid Macarthur
Mary Reid Anderson (née Macarthur; 13 August 1880 – 1 January 1921) was a Scottish suffragist (although at odds with the national groups who were willing to let a minority of women gain the franchise) and was a leading trades unionist. Sh ...
, and Lady Astor
Nancy Witcher Astor, Viscountess Astor (19 May 1879 – 2 May 1964) was an American-born British politician who was the first woman seated as a Member of Parliament (MP), serving from 1919 to 1945. Astor was born in Danville, Virginia and rai ...
,[Daly Mirror 5 November 1919] while its first secretary was George Shann
George Shann (28 October 1876 – 2 January 1919) was a British politician.
Born in Knaresborough, Shann grew up in Bradford. He began working half-time in a spinning mill at the age of ten, then five years later moved to a woolcombing mill ...
.[David E. Martin, "Shann, George", ''Dictionary of Labour Biography'', vol.II, pp.339-340] As a result of the campaign, the Trade Boards Act 1909
The Trade Boards Act 1909 ( 9 Edw. 7. c. 22) was a piece of social legislation passed in the United Kingdom in 1909. It provided for the creation of boards which could set minimum wage criteria that were legally enforceable. It was expanded and ...
was passed, with boards modelled on those in the state of Victoria, Australia, following the 1896 Act.[
]
See also
*Anti-sweatshop movement
Anti-sweatshop movement refers to campaigns to improve the conditions of workers in sweatshops, i.e. manufacturing places characterized by low wages, poor working conditions and often child labor. It started in the 19th century in industrialized c ...
References
{{reflist
Reform movements
Minimum wage
Australian labour law
United Kingdom labour law