Biographies

• David Andrade (1859-1928)....P.D. Gardner
• J.A. Andrews (1865-1903)....Bob James
• Dwayne (Campbell) Bigelow (1960-2002)....Joe Toscano
• Alexander Bikerton (1847-1928)....Frank Prebble
• Harvey Buttonshaw (1915-1990s)....Joe Toscano
• Jim Cairns (1914-2003)....Takver
• Francesco Carmagnola (1900-1986)....Peter Sheldon in Rebel Worker
• Kleber Claux (1893-1971)....Bob James
• Richard Curlewis (1917-2002)....Peter Riley & John Englart
• Arthur Desmond - Ragnar Redbeard (1842-1918)....Question Mark Collective
• Bill Edwards (1881-1956)....Question Mark Collective
• Eliot V Elliott (1902-1984)....Rowan Cahill
• Ted Englart - (1897-1982)....Claude Jones, Pete Thomson, Alby Graham
  • Kevin Englart - (1925-2000)....John Englart
  • Vince Englart - (1923-2000)....John Englart
• Francesco Fantin (1901-1942)....Paul Nursey-Bray
• John Flaus (1934?- )....
• John 'Chummy' Fleming (1863-1950)....Bob James
• Michael Flurscheim (1844-1912)....Frank Prebble
• Boris Franteschini (1914 - 1986)....S. Russell in Rebel Worker
• Frank Franz (TRESITON FRANZ) (1888-1916)....Joe Toscano in Anarchist Age
• Jack Grancharoff (192?-     )....Interview, Jack Grancharoff
• Germaine Greer (1939 -    )....Takver
• Lesbia Harford (1891-1927)....Question Mark Collective
• Anastasia Hayes (1818-1892)....Joe Toscano
• Harry Hooton (1908-1961) ...Sasha Soldatow
• Bob James (1940- )....Bob James
• Antonio Jimenez (1935-1990)....Jura Books Collective
• Philip Josephs (18?-192?)....Frank Prebble
• Roland Nicholas Kennedy (1896-1916)....Joe Toscano in Anarchist Age
• Pat Mackie (1914-    )....Joe Toscano in Anarchist Age
• Montague (Monty) Miller (1831?-1920)....Angela (Annie) Wesbrook and Joe Toscano
• Edward Joseph Moore (1820-1892)....Susannah O'Grady (nee Moore)
• Syd Nicholls (1896-1977)....Question Mark Collective
• Rosaleen Norton (1917-1979)....Question Mark Collective
• Bernard O'Dowd (1866-1953)....PD Gardner, Joe Toscano, Takver
• John Olday (1905-1977) In Australia , In Europe
• Larry Petrie (1859-1901)....Bob James
• Marie E.J. Pitt (1869-1948)....PD Gardner
• R.S. Ross (1873-1931)....Question Mark Collective
• Vicente Ruiz, Snr (1912-1998)....by Vicente Ruiz Foundation
• Karen Walters (1959-2003)....Joe Toscano
• Darcy Waters (1928-1997)....Takver, Sasha Soldatow
• William Robert Winspear (1861-1945)....Bob James

Biographical Briefs

• David Andrade (1859-1928)....P.D. Gardner
  A brief account of one of the original members of the Melbourne Anarchist Club in 1886. The Andrade brothers ran Australia's first anarchist bookshop and newsagency in Melbourne, and also published books and pamphlets.

• J.A. Andrews - Andrews was a prolific writer and agitator for communist anarchism in the 1880s and 90s. As a member of the Melbourne Anarchist Club he was influential in articulating anarchist ideas to the labour movement. He was a gifted theoretician, poet, inventor, historian and linguist. He left by far the greatest literary output of the anarchists of this period in Australia. At his death a comrade compared him to Tolstoy, Kropotkin, Thoreau, and Verlaine among others.

• Dwayne (Campbell) Bigelow (1960-2002)....Joe Toscano
  Community Artist, Feminist, Anarchist, Lesbian, Mother. Dwayne Campbell contributed to the Anarchist Centenary Celebrations in 1986 and to various anarcha-feminist meetings in the 1980s.

• Alexander Bikerton (1847-1928)....Frank Prebble
  Appointed as Professor of Chemistry at Canterbury College at Christchurch in 1873. In 1898, along with others he established the Federative Home at Wainoni. He had purchased the property some years before. Wainoni was to be an experiment in communal living. By autumn 1899 the Federative Home was well established with about thirty members. All domestic work was done co-operatively and most of the members had outside jobs. However the community did support a few industries such as a fireworks factory. Bikerton was also one of the founders of the Socialist Party.

• Harvey Buttonshaw (1915-1990s)....Joe Toscano
  A veteran of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 who fought in the POUM and anarchist militias. Attended the Anarchist Centenary Celebrations in Melbourne in 1986.

• Jim Cairns (1914-2003)....Takver
  Antiwar and social change activist, parliamentarian, counter cultural theorist. Jim Cairns will be best remembered for leading 100,000 people in the Melbourne Vietnam Moratorium march on 8th May 1970. But maybe he should also be seen as contributing to the anarchist tradition in Australia? (See Cairns on Revolution)

• Francesco Carmagnola (1900 - 1986)....Peter Sheldon
  Frank Carmagnola was a pivotal figure in anarchist and anti fascist activities in the Italian community in Australia from his arrival in 1922 to the second world war. His activism included two italian language papers he published, the Mateotti Social Club in Melbourne, and successfully leading the 1934 Canecutters' strike in North Queensland.

• Richard Curlewis (1917-2002)....Peter Riley & John Englart
  Richard Curlewis dedicated his life to the rights of working people and their communities, and democracy in the workplace by workers' control. He was a member of the Communist Party of Australia, Carlton Branch; Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation, Melbourne Local; and Industral Workers of the World, Melbourne Branch.

• Arthur Desmond - Ragnar Redbeard (1842-1918)....
  Desmond worked with other communist-anarchists in Sydney during the 1890's on a number of conspiritorial projects, including the inflammatory Hard Cash, a journal of finance and politics.

• Bill Edwards - Gender Rebel (1881-1956)....
  Marion Edwards forsook the life of domestic work for the wealthy or a working class marriage, to lead an independant life as Bill Edwards. She dressed in male clothing and spent much of her life working as a station hand,shearer, bar man, horse dealer, and french polisher.

• Eliot V. Elliott - A very moving and sympathetic account of the life of a "working class hero" - Long time Seamen's Union Secretary (1941-1978), Eliot V Elliott (1902-1984). Elliott steered the Seamen's Union of Australia through the difficult changes in technological development in seafaring during the post war decades of the twentieth century. He was both forward looking and dedicated to the interests of seamen, in Australia and internationally.

• Ted Englart (1896-1982) - was a prominent Queensland communist and Secretary of the Brisbane Branch of the Waterside Workers Federation in the 1940's. The radical tradition has continued in the Englart family, especially by Ted's sons, Vince and Kevin. Vince Englart was a model Australian communist and social activist for more than 60 years. His younger brother, Kevin Englart overcame political blacklisting by moving interstate. He was a dedicated teacher of mathematics for more than 30 years.

• Fransesco Fantin (1901-1942)....Paul Nursey-Bray - Italian anarchist and antifascist murdered by fascists in Loveday Internment Camp. "To describe him as a hero is not to depict him as a grand figure bestriding the passage of history. Fantin was hardly that. Fantin did not want to die. He did not want to continue to confront Fascism. Had he had his choice he would, as he made clear, have moved away from the aggression in Loveday 14A. But when his choices were denied and his options limited by forces beyond himself he did not deny his beliefs.. He affirmed them. He was a hero despite himself; a reluctant hero and therefore a real hero." Paul Nursey-Bray

• John Flaus (1934?- ).... - Radio, stage and screen actor, film critic, academic and journalist and....philosophical anarchist. John Flaus was closely involved at one stage with the Sydney Libertarians. But his great love has been films, and he has made a career as an actor, film critic, academic and journalist.

• Chummy Fleming: A Brief Biography.....Bob James
  Bob James has researched and rescued from obscurity the history of anarchism in Australia. This essay on Chummy Fleming reveals the radical commitment and trials and tribulations of another generation of activists. Chummy Fleming is particularly important as one of the primary instigators of May Day gatherings and marches in Melbourne. His activism is now remembered by a new generation...

  
  

• Michael Flurscheim (1844-1912)....Frank Prebble
  Michael Flurschiem arrived in Wellington in 1898. He was a supporter of the single tax movement and monetary reform. On arrival he was greeted by the Single Tax Society and spoke at a meeting of the Socialist League and Trades Council. Flurscheim was a wealthy industrialist from Germany who decided to sell his business and devote his money and time to the promotion of monetary reform. Its philosophy was based on the same principles as todays green dollar systems.

• Boris Franteschini . Boris was one of the Italian Anarchists In Melbourne who kept the flame of anarchism alive for many years in the Italian speaking community in Melbourne. He and his comrades raised much money to assist anarchists in exile, and for anarchist newspapers and journals in Italy.

• Frank Franz (1888-1916). Frank Franz was a Labourer and a member of the Tottenham branch of the I.W.W. (Industrial Workers of the World). Accused of the murder of a police constable, Franz turned King's evidence, but was convicted and executed on 20 December 1916 at Bathurst Gaol.

• Jack Grancharoff . Jack has been a prominent character in the anarchist movement in Australia since the 1950s, shortly after fleeing Stalinist repression in Bulgaria via refugee camps in Turkey. He arrived in Australia in 1952 and set about contacting local anarchists. He was a regular speaker at the Domain in Sydney, a motivator of various incarnations of the Sydney Anarchist Group, and participated in activities of the Sydney Libertarian Push, and is often seen at anarchist conferences and gatherings.

• Germain Greer (1939 -    ). Germaine Greer is perhaps the most famous Australian anarchist to date, although she is better known for her radical feminism and counterculturalism.

• Lesbia Harford - The Rebel Girl (1891-1927)....
  Harford was an I.W.W. activist and a strong believer in 'free love'. She graduated with a Law degree from Melbourne University in 1916, the same year as 'Pig Iron Bob' Menzies. As coincidence would have it, The Age on Wednesday 21 April 1999 published the text of an inaugural Lesbia Harford Oration on behalf of the Victorian Women Lawyers. It was delivered by John Harber Phillips, Chief Justice of Victoria. At Radical Tradition we hope that the feminist and socialist politics of Lesbia Harford inspires present and future women in the legal proffession to work for a more just and equitable society.

• Anastasia Hayes (1818-1892)....Joe Toscano
  After the Eureka rebellion was crushed, Anastasia was at the forefront of the resistance, including being involved in the operation without anaesthetic when Peter Lalor's arm was removed to save his life. Ballarat school teacher and mother of six, who raised her children alone after her husband moved to South America.

• Harry Hooton (1908-1961)....Sasha Soldatow
  Poet of the 21st Century, anarchist, philosopher. This is an updated biography by Sasha Soldatow based on the book, Poet of the 21st Century - Collected Poems - Harry Hooton, which he edited. Hooton was part of the Libertarian Push in Sydney during the post WW II years, with connections to Angela "Annie" Westbrook of the IWW and many of the poets and writers active in Australian Literature of the time. The anarchist philosophy he developed was anarcho-technocracy and The Politics of Things, which are prescient pieces of writing on anarchism, technics and society, still relevant today.

• A Personal Journey Through Anarchism in Australia.....Bob James
  Anarres Books in Melbourne organised for Bob James to present this talk at a public meeting organised by the Anarchist Media Institute. It is a personal account of Bob's journey and exploration of anarchism in Australia.

• Antonio Jimenez (1935-1990)....Jura Books Collective
  Tony, a Spanish emigrant to Australia, was inspired by Spanish workmates building the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric scheme in the ideas of Anarchism, and attempted to implement his vision in direct action on the job as an AWU delegate and in his support of Jura Books and later as International Secretary for the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation in Australia.

• Roland Kennedy (1896-1916). Roland Nicholas Kennedy was a Tottenham copper miner and a member of the Tottenham branch of the I.W.W. (Industrial Workers of the World). Accused of the murder of a police constable, Kennedy was convicted on flimsy and conflicting evidence, and executed on 20 December 1916 at Bathurst Gaol.

• Pat Mackie (1914-    ). Pat Mackie, an IWW member, played a pivotal role in the 1964/1965 Mount Isa Dispute in central Queensland.

• Montague (Monty) Miller (1831?-1920)....Angela (Annie) Wesbrook
  As an active participant in the labour movement, from the Eureka Miners Rebellion in 1854, to participation in early Labor Party organisation in Western Australia, his knowledge of the labour movement and the early Labor Party was extensive. He was active in the Australasian Secular Association in Melbourne during the 1880s, attended meetings of the Melbourne Anarchist Club, was an active trade unionist and public speaker in Melbourne and Perth. As an old man he supported the Industral Workers of the World during World War I in their antiwar and anti-conscription campaigns. He was twice jailed for his activities. In the I.W.W. he saw the hope of a stateless society run by workers through the rational economic administration of society.

• Syd Nicholls - Radical comic artist (1896-1977)....
  Syd Nicholls came to fame for drawing cartoons for the I.W.W. paper, Direct Action, which resulted in its prosecution. But most people will remember Nicholls for his Fatty Finn cartoon strip which appeared regularly in newspapers. He was extremely supportive of new talent, and in his final years was still active, contributing to the NSW Teachers Federation paper, Education.

• Rosaleen Norton - Australia's favourite witch (1917-1979)....
  A mystic and visionary artist and bohemian who became one of the great characters of Kings Cross, Sydney.

• Bernard O'Dowd poet, radical, socialist, anarchist. O'Dowd was an icon of the Australian socialist movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. As a contemporary of Henry Lawson, he was well regarded as a poet. From 1920 he was in a defacto relationship with the poet and anarchist, Marie Pitt.

• John Olday (1905-1977) was a council communist, cartoonist and artist who contributed to the anarchist movement in Germany, England and Australia through a range of strategies and his talents as a graphic artist and cartoonist. John Olday in Europe portrays his early and later life. John Olday in Australia contains his memoirs of nearly 20 years in Australia during the 1950's and 1960's.

• Larry Petrie - One of the activists neglected by most histories of the 1890s Labour movement. Petrie attended the Melbourne Anarchist Club, was active in the Australasian Socialist League and helped form the Social Democratic Federation which was a precursor to the Australian Labour Party. He was an active organiser for the AWU and was well regarded by other prominent activists of the time. Along with many other labor activists he emigrated to William Lane's 'New Australia' colony in Paraguay.

• Marie E.J. Pitt (1869-1948) - a short biography by PD Gardner
  Marie Pitt - poet, socialist, feminist, ecologist and anarchist. As the wife of a miner "she was active in workers politics and was elected Vice President of the Workers Political League at Mathinna. In 1905 she returned to Melbourne and became immersed in a number of social and political movements. She was closely associated with the Victorian Socialist Party at this time and editor of their journal The Socialist." Outspoken advocate for women's rights. From 1920 she was in a defacto relationship with the poet and anarchist, Bernard O'Dowd.

• R.S. Ross - Iconoclast of the Left....
  Harassment of radical magazines and writers has long been an element of the Australian literary landscape. Long before the 1998 Rabelais "Shoplifting" trial and indeed even before the Thorunka and Oz obscenity trials, Australian newspapers that stepped out of line with official morality faced an arsenal of legal and political attacks. One case that illustrates the hardships of rebel publishing is that of Ross's Magazine of Protest, Personality and Progress

• Vicente Ruiz (1912-1998)....
  Born 1912 - Died 15th July, 1998. Vincent Ruiz, a Spanish anarchist who participated in the Spanish Civil War died after a long illness. Vincent was one of the last direct links that Australia's anarchists had with anarchists who participated in the anarchist inspired social revolution during the Spanish Civil War. He was cremated after a simple and moving ceremony in Melbourne on Monday. After the collapse of the Spanish Revolution he and his family lived in exile in Algeria, Morocco and eventually arrived in Australia in 1965. The difference between Vincent and other anarchist exiles who came to Australia is that Vincent stayed true to the ideas of his youth and became involved in the re-emerging Anarchist Movement in Australia. He was one of the few anarchist refugees to this country who was able to make that transition. He will be missed by his family and those Australian anarchists who were infected with his enthusiasm for "the idea".

  For a more extensive biography visit the Vicente Ruiz Foundation at
  http://flag.blackened.net/vrf/biog.htm

• Karen Walters (1959-2003)....Joe Toscano
  A Melbourne feminist, anarchist and mother of four.

• Darcy Waters (1928-1997). Darcy Waters was one of the central characters of the Sydney Libertarian Push from its beginnings to its long decline. Darcy lived a bohemian life, which few others could emulate. Although he was central to the politics and culture of the Push, he left very few written articles. His contribution needs to be judged by what other people choose to write on his life and activities. This biographical page will be a work in progress for some time.

• William Robert Winspear (1861-1945)....Bob James
  W.R. Winspear was a pivotal figure in the radical labour movement of the 1880s and 1890s. His newspaper, The Radical, later called The Australian Radical, has been called the first regular socialist newspaper in Australia. This essay examines how several historians have interpreted Winspear's politics. Bob James has gone back to primary sources to question Winspear's politics and motivations. His research clears the path for a fuller biographical appraisal of Winspear and his contribution to the radical tradition in Australia.