A CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY OF EDWIN JAMES BRADY - Mallacoota ...

12
The Star that I, fool, dreamed you’d be
Is clouded in the blue:
The bitter knowledge comes to me,
That you are – only you 1
As a member of the West Sydney branch of the Labor Electoral League (along with a
close friend, J.C. Watson, destined to become the first Labor Prime Minister), Brady
was nominated for preselection, along with twelve others. Depending on its size, each
branch could nominate up to four members. Brady, coming fifth in the poll, missed
out on nomination, partly because he lacked the strong union backing of the
candidates who were successful. George Black, J.D. Fitzgerald, Andrew Kelly and
Thomas Davies were subsequently elected to Parliament from this branch.
J.D. Fitsgerald and S.A. Rosa had represented a “moderate” group in the Australian
Socialist League while Brady was more militant and further left in his views.
Following Fitzgerald’s success both within the League and at preselection and
election, Brady and some other left wing members resigned from the Socialist
League. 2 Brady however, considered the fight worthwhile.
He wrote:
The A.S.L. went into the fight with a will. They stiffened the campaign and
seared the moderates at the Trades Hall, who endeavoured to have them
repudiated…Never, I believe, in the history of such things was greater activity
displayed from any centre. 3
Brady and other more militant members had acted as catalysts in the political arena.
Ford somewhat reduces the scale of this version of the part played by the Socialist
League while Brady was Secretary, but still regarded it as a new and important force
in the history of the Labor movement:
In the insecurity and instability of the strike aftermath and unemployment, as
in the earlier excitement and tension of the strike, it stood out with its novelty
of programme, passion, drive and utopian confidence. Its novelty, colour and
assurance made it a point of concentration and rally and its talented and
youthful leaders were unusually well-equipped to contribute the maximum in
publicity and propaganda. 4
His withdrawal from the Socialist League did nothing to curb Brady’s love for and
faith in socialist principles. He kept this faith and trust to the end of his days,
although it was often tried by public and private events in subsequent years.
Brady continued to eke out a meagre living by writing poetry (his first poem of many
for The Bulletin was 23 rd May 1891), as a dramatic reporter for John Norton’s Truth
and as a writer of feature articles for the Sunday Times.
1 “Only You”, The Bulletin 1.4.1909
2 E.H. Lane regarded the resignation philosophically. “Disillusionment and disappointment are the
inescapable lot of all who set out with brave ideals, and, of course, Brady and I encountered them.”
Dawn to Dusk, p. 32
3 “1891 Elections and Organisation Follow Unrest” The Red Objective.
4 Ford, pp 95 -6