ABSTRACT
Interest in Australia’s social policies and labour movement was not confined to academics and middle-class reformers. The German labour movement also frequently published information and comments about the new continent. Although the socialist party was Marxist-orientated in theory, there were in the pre-war years a growing number of members and supporters who wanted, in place of the revolutionary course of action, reformist — or, as the German called it, revisionist — policies. Few countries on this earth are blessed with the eight-hour day. Our continent, which authors may justifiably call our adoptive country, has not as yet won official recognition of the eight-hour day, but many unions have succeeded in having the eight-hour day accepted by their employers and for all government employees it has become law. Here in Germany, on the other hand, they sent mounted police against our May Day demonstrators and the courts honour them by opening the prison to provide free accommodation.
