3 November Percy Brookfield book launch

           GOULDS BOOK ARCADE

        32  KING STREET NEWTOWN

Goulds Book Arcade, will be hosting a BOOK LAUNCH on Thursday November 3rd at 6pm in the Bookshop.  Humphrey McQueen, a noted historian, will be the Guest Speaker.

The book to be launched is titled THE BEST HATED MAN IN AUSTRALIA- THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PERCY BROOKFIELD 1875 – 1921.

Percy Brookfield, from Lancashire, went to sea at the age of 13.  After about 6 years at sea, he sought discharge from  the service and variously became a swagman, a gold prospector, a militant  miner and finally an ALP MP   and then an Industrialist Socialist Labour Party MP of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1917 until his violent death in 1921.

When he settled in Broken Hill, he  became an Official of the Amalgamated Miner's Association and led the Broken Hill campaign against the introduction of conscription and was gaoled for his anti-conscription activities.

He became an ALP MP in 1917 and became a leading left wing advocate and sympathiser for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the Bolshevik Revolution.  Because of his beliefs he resigned from the ALP in 1919, and stood for the seat of Sturt for the Industrial Socialist Labor Party and was elected.  He held the balance of power in the Legislative Assembly  and used his position to improve the industrial conditions for Broken Hill miners and to overturn the convictions of all the Australian IWW members who were gaoled in 1916.

As Humphrey McQueen says “Percy Brookfield was a giant among labour leaders.  Paul Adams, the author of the book, has given us a biography as thoroughly gripping as it is thoroughly researched.  Inspiration floods from its pages.”