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Barcaldine, Queensland

The Manifesto was announced under the Tree of Knowledge located
in Barcaldine. As such, Barcaldine was the center of the industrial
strife in the early 1890s and the central communication point for
the strikers who later formed the vanguard of the Labor movement.
Subsequently, Barcaldine became known as the birthplace of the
Labor Party in Queensland. Regardless of where the Manifesto was
genuinely proclaimed, the Manifesto stands as one of the planks
upon which the labour movement stood to attain greater electoral
success and parliamentary representation to progress the party's
aims and aspirations of better working conditions and economic
prosperity. Eventually leading to the formation of this first Labor
government , the Manifesto holds a unique place in Queensland,
◆
Australian, and world labour history.

◆ The Anderson Dawson government, formed in Queensland in December 1899

Thomas Glassey

Thomas Glassey (1844-1936) is well-known as a signatory
to the Manifesto as President of the Queensland Labor
Party. Arriving in Queensland in late 1884, he had
conducted various labour movements from a young age.
While working at a Scotland mine at the age of sixteen,
Glassey was sacked and black-listed following an attempt
to unionize miners towards better workplace conditions
and wages. He played a huge part in sharing international
ideas and support, which increased the Manifesto spirit.
Alongside this, he contributed to constructing networks
between prominent labor figures in other countries.
Glassey became the first Labor member of Parliament in
Queensland on 12 May 1888, and by 1892 was Chairman
of the Queensland Central Executive of the Labor Party.

Charles Seymour
Charles Seymour (1853–1924), the author of the Manifesto,
was a prominent and vocal member of the Queensland labour
movement and held many important executive positions. A Dublin-
born seaman, Seymour had arrived in Queensland in 1880. A very
active individual in labour movements, he had been instrumental in
forming the Queensland branch of the Federated Seaman’s Union
of Australia in 1885 and establishing the Queensland provincial
council of the Australian Labor Federation in June 1889. As one of
the contemporary principal Queensland labor leaders, his career led
him to write the first Manifesto of the Queensland Labor Party. His
descendants provided care for the document until the State Library

of Queensland became its custodians.