2/28/2024 0 Comments Marta fitzgerald wikipedia![]() They carried these to protest meetings, with Mary earning the nickname "Pickhandle Mary". Mounted police carrying pickhandles tried to quell the crowd in Market Square but when the police dropped some of their pickhandles in the battle, the crowd took possession of them. The strikers sat on tramlines to stop scab drivers from leaving the depots. She was involved in two Johannesburg tramway strikes in 1911. įitzgerald supported the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), an international labour movement advocating "revolutionary industrial unionism", syndicalism and racial integration of trade unions. She also co-edited the pioneering feminist journal, Modern Woman in South Africa, under the auspices of the Women's Enfranchisement League. ![]() She co-owned a printing plant where she printed and edited a radical publication known as The Voice of Labour, which advocated for workers' rights. įitzgerald trained as a printer and became South Africa's first female master printer. She developed a firm friendship with suffragette Nina Boyle and became a pioneer in organising unions for women and in the fight for women's votes and for equality of pay and opportunity. Though a short, quietly-spoken woman she captivated her audience with her oration. She witnessed the appalling conditions of the miners and soon became actively involved speaking herself at union gatherings. Mary Fitzgerald became a typist for the Mine Workers Union which was known as South African Mine Workers Union. The Sinnotts and Fitzgeralds later moved to Johannesburg. Mary's Cathedral and went on to have five children. His tram conductor friend John Fitzgerald visited the bereaved family. Margaret Sinnott started work as a dressmaker on her sewing machine while Dennis got a job on the tramways.Įverything was going well for the new immigrant family until Dennis had a fall from the top of a tram and died of his injuries. Her mother and siblings sailed from Southampton to the Cape in December 1900. In 1900 he returned to Wexford and travelled back to Cape Town with Mary, with plans that the rest of the family would follow.Īt first, Mary found a job working at British military headquarters as one of the first female shorthand typists in South Africa. Three months later, he moved to rapidly growing Cape Town as the company representative. Her father Thomas travelled to America and got a job as a representative for the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Mary attended the Presentation Convent in Wexford, where she qualified as a shorthand typist. They had four other children: Dennis who was born in 1880, Doris and Sarah who were born in 1886, and Barbara. Her parents were Thomas Sinnott and Margaret Dunne. ![]() Mary was born into a farming family in the townland of Gortins, near Cleariestown, County Wexford in 1883. She was the first woman to be elected to the Johannesburg City Council (JCC) in 1915 and later served as Deputy Mayor of Johannesburg. She played a lead role in the Black Friday Riots of 1913. As editor of the Voice of Labour, she published articles advocating for women's enfranchisement, racially integrated trade unions and revolutionary socialism. She was South Africa's first female master printer. Mary Fitzgerald (also known as Pickhandle Mary 4 August 1883 – 26 September 1960) was an Irish-born South African political activist and was considered to have been the first female trade unionist in the country.
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