She was one the greatest activists in Queensland history.

Born into an English family linked to the radical Chartist movement, a shirtmaker by trade, Emma Miller came to Brisbane in 1879, where she became a labour agitator and campaigner for women’s suffrage.

From 1894 to 1905 she led the Woman’s Equal Franchise Association. Soon after Federation she helped found the Women Workers’ Political Organisation to mobilise votes for Labor candidates.

Miller saw labour organising and fighting for women’s rights not just as compatible, but as inseparable. When the more conventional suffragist Leontine Cooper complained about her labour connections, Miller stood her ground.

Miller became an organiser for the Australian Workers’ Union in western Queensland, speaking at large rallies as well as going door to door. She threw herself into support work for the 1891 shearers’ strike, working to establish a Prisoners’ Relief Fund for arrested strike leaders and marching with them when they got out of jail.

It’s dizzying trying to sum up the diverse roles Emma Miller played: delegate to ALP conferences, founder of a Freethought Association, participant in Early Closing campaigns (aimed at shortening working hours). When socialist figure William Lane proposed setting up a utopian colony in faraway Paraguay, she denounced this as "opting out of the struggle".

But she’s most famous for her role in the 1912 Brisbane General Strike, sparked by a dispute in the tramways when she was already in her seventies. At the end of 1911, learning that tramways profits had doubled, trammies unionised. In addition to better wages and conditions, they demanded the right to wear their union badges. Tramways boss J.S. "Bully" Badger promptly banned the insignia.

The workers defied the ban. On 18 January 1912, with crowds looking on, one after another defiantly put on the badge. Management stood them down. That evening, 10,000 people rallied in Market Square (now King George Square) in support of the unionists. Within a week, delegates from 43 unions had voted for a general strike.

Unionists held daily marches. On one of them, Emma Miller led a contingent of 600 women. Then on 2 February, Police Commissioner Cahill refused a march permit. 15,000 defiant protestors gathered in the square. A procession of women, including many from the Clothing Trades Union, lined up to march to parliament with Emma Miller in the lead. They faced police with bayonets.

According to a contemporary report: "The women showed a bold front and defied the police, and walked through their ranks. The crowd was hilarious with derisive laughter, and gave hoots and cheers."

In response, angry mounted police attacked the demonstrators. The women stood their ground, fighting back with umbrellas. They also had another weapon; the fashion of the time for large hats meant they used long hatpins. Miller stuck hers into the Police Commissioner’s horse. The horse threw him and he walked with a limp after that.

In the midst of this "Baton Friday" melée, Miller’s son George feared for his 73-year-old mother’s safety and tried to draw her out of the crowd. She ignored him and kept fighting.

Emma Miller went on to campaign against the First World War as a leader of the Women’s Peace Army. She died in 1917, two days after making a speech calling on women to join the labour movement. Later her friend and fellow suffrage campaigner, Mrs Sampson, unveiled a bust of Emma at Trades Hall, praising all she had done to "advance the working class movement … If her spirit could only speak to us this afternoon, I’m sure it would say: Fight on! Fight on!"