John William 'Chummy' Fleming was a pioneer unionist, agitator for the unemployed, and anarchist in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
22 Facts About Chummy Fleming
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Chummy Fleming was a member of the Melbourne Anarchist Club which formed on 1 May 1886, the first formal anarchist organisation in Australia.
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Chummy Fleming was President of the Fitzroy Political Labor League, the forerunner to an Australian Labor Party branch.
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Chummy Fleming was born in Derby, England in 1863 to an Irish father, employed as a weaver, and an English mother, employed as a factory hand.
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In late 1889, Fleming was an organiser of the Sunday Liberation Society, and addressed meetings on the need to open the Public Libraries and Museums on Sundays.
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In 1889, Chummy Fleming helped form a Melbourne lodge of the Knights of Labor in Melbourne, as well as being elected to the Eight Hours Committee.
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In September, 1890 Chummy Fleming was first elected as a delegate of the Victorian Operative Bootmakers Union to the Trades Hall Council, and later served on the Executive.
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Chummy Fleming supported inter-colonial strikers, female organisation, and agitation for piece work rates as opposed to a minimum wage which the employers were after.
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Chummy Fleming was a supporter of Max Hirsch, author of Democracy versus Socialism.
10.
At a Knights of Labor meeting in 1893, Chummy Fleming moved the motion for what was the first May Day procession in Melbourne.
11.
In 1904 Chummy Fleming was expelled from Trades Hall Council for attacks on Labor parliamentarians.
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Chummy Fleming spent many periods unemployed and was active in unemployed agitation.
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Chummy Fleming was not noted as a writer or philosopher, but remained on good terms with mutualists, individualists and communist anarchists active in the club.
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Chummy Fleming is recorded as having regular correspondence with noted anarchists, Peter Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, and Max Nettlau and many others.
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On being expelled from Trades Hall Council in 1904, Chummy Fleming became heroic and made the following statement:.
16.
In May 1901 Chummy Fleming protested unemployment in Melbourne by rushing onto the Prince's Bridge to halt the Governor General's carriage.
17.
Hopetoun told the police not to interfere and listened to Chummy Fleming put the case for the unemployed.
18.
Chummy Fleming duly distributed the gifts to the unemployed according to a register: One shilling to each married man and 6d to each single man who attended on 24 June 1902.
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Chummy Fleming was active in the conscription debates during the first World War, being with the Industrial Workers of the World prepared to take a definite anti-war stance.
20.
Chummy Fleming became an institution as a speaker on the Yarra Bank on Sundays.
21.
On May Day in 1950, after his death, the ashes of Chummy Fleming were scattered among the crowd on the Yarra Bank.
22.
Chummy Fleming was remembered for his sincerity, courageousness, and dedication to the Australian labour movement.