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

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Brady, along with others, joined. “We formed a compact militant outside left wing
whose influence strengthened and inspired the Army of Labor.” 1 In his dual capacity
then as a member of the Socialist League and the Labor Party, Brady has unique
opportunities to observe and to participate in the Major social and political events of
the day. One of these was a meeting on the Maritime Strike, held at Ernest
Blackwell’s house at North Sydney, where the Queensland delegates were conferring.
Even though a prominent politician H.H. Champion, had referred to the strikers as “an
army of lions led by asses”, to Brady the strike leaders seemed to “radiate strength
and sincerity”. So impressed, indeed was he, that he resolved to do all in his power to
help. “I wanted them to win. I hoped they would win, and deep within me was born a
desire to help if I could”. 2 It is true to say that this strong element of altruism and
philanthropy remained with Brady throughout his life. There was always a genuine
concern for the plight of the average man, the worker, the widow, the underprivileged;
This desire to “help if I could” was never ever far below the surface. If polemic and
wrangling, disgust and cynicism obscured it briefly it soon reappeared. The humanity
of the man did much to offset the shiftlessness and tentativeness so often apparent in
the execution of his good intentions.
As editor of The Australian Workman, The Arrow, The Grip and The Worker and as a
principal contributor to political and union journals, especially TheLabor Call, as a
foundation member of the Socialist and Labor parties and an active member of the
Socialisation leagues of the 1930’s, Brady developed and expressed the ideas which,
taken collectively, can be described as his political creed. These ideas are expressed
more systematically and usually in more detail in many unpublished manuscripts,
especially The Red Objective and Religion of Humanity, and in the voluminous
correspondence which he carried on throughout his life with his political friends as
well as his literary associates. Fairly late in life, he wrote:
On the walls of my workroom here at Mallacoota are three possessions – a
reprint photograph of Karl Marx, a snapshot of Nikoli Lenin and a secular
picture of Jesus of Nazareth. Marx arouses in me a feeling of distant but
profound respect; Lenin I look upon with fraternal admiration; but the third
picture affects me with an emotion I cannot explain. My instinct tells me that I
am in the presence of the great comrades of the Cause.
My reason asserts that there is a community of interest shared by these three
and not yet fully perceived by Mankind; that Marx, Lenin and Christ were
impelled by the same motive and the motive came from I know not where. I do
not care what the Scribes and the Parisees say about Marx, any more than the
Christian regards what they say about Christ………Marx was no mystic but he
had the mind of a prophet…………The communication of this third great
Socialist was an inspired message to Humanity. Inspiration is one phase of
human consciousness that baulks definition. 3
1 “Early Lights of Labor”, The Red Objective
2 “The Pre-ninety Period”, The Red Objective. Miles Franklin, like Brady, recognised “The wheels of
social mechanism needed re-adjusting – things were awry”. (My Brilliant Career (Edinburgh, 1901
(Sydney, 1965)), p 35).
3 “On the way to Political Power”, The Red Objective