Lane, William (1861-1917), was an English-born Australian journalist and socialist. Socialism is a political belief that emphasizes public or community ownership of productive property. Lane was also one of the leaders of the labor movement in Australia.
Lane was born in Bristol, England, on Sept. 6, 1861. When he was 16, Lane traveled to Canada, where he worked as a printer. He later worked as a journalist for the Detroit Free Press in the United States before settling in Australia in 1882. From 1883 to 1885, Lane was labor correspondent for two Brisbane newspapers. In 1887, he founded the socialist weekly paper The Boomerang. Lane was influenced by Karl Marx and other left-leaning writers.
Lane was also active in Queensland’s trade union (labor union) movement. In the 1880’s, he persuaded the trade unions to join together to form the Brisbane Trades and Labour Council. Lane later helped establish the Australian Labour Federation, which replaced the Brisbane Trades and Labour Council.
Lane reported on the Queensland shearer’s strike of 1891. The strike had a huge impact in Australia and helped lead the union movement to political action. Lane, however, sought to create a utopian socialist community. Utopia is the name commonly given to an imaginary land where everything is supposed to be perfect. When he could not obtain suitable land in Australia, Lane organized and led more than 200 people to start a new community, New Australia, in an unsettled area of Paraguay in 1893.
In 1899, after several years of conflict and dissent among his followers in Paraguay, Lane settled in New Zealand. He became editor of the New Zealand Herald and demonstrated a more conservative attitude in his writing. Lane died on Aug. 26, 1917.
