Martin J. Boon

Martin James Boon (1840-1888) was a radical trade unionist.^[1] In 1869 he participated in the establishment of the Land and Labour League of which he was a secretary until it ceased operation in 1873. Despite having penned a pamphlet opposing emigration,^[2] he emigrated to South Africa, and wrote a further pamphlet on railway nationalisation as well as idiosyncratic histories of the Orange Free State^[3] and South Africa.^[4] The latter contained considerable fragments of a personal memoir and includes the only contemporary history of the Land and Labour League.^[5]

Attended the General Council of the First International in 1871.^[6]

References

1. Whitehead 1993, pp. 9-16.
2. Boon 1869.
3. Boon 1885a.
4. Boon 1885b.
5. Bowie 2014.
6. Documents of the First International. Lawrence & Wishart. 1872.

• Boon, Martin J. (1869). A Protest Against the Present Emigrationists: Including Remedies for the Present Stagnation of Trade, and Finally to Remove Starvation, Pauperism and Crime.
• Bowie, Duncan (2014). Our History: Roots of the British Socialist Movement. London: Socialist History Society. pp. 17–18. ISBN 9780955513893.
• Barry, E. Eldon. Nationalization in British Politics: The Historical Background. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-0197-6.
• Boon, Martin James (1885a). The History of the Orange Free State. W. Reeves.
• Boon, Martin James (1885b). The Immortal History of South Africa: The Only Truthful, Political, Colonial, Local, Domestic, Agricultural, Theological, National, Legal, Financial and Intelligent History of Men, Women, Manners and Facts of the Cape Colony Natal, the Orange Free State, Transvaal, and South Africa. W. Reeves.
• Whitehead, Andrew (1993). "Martin J. Boon". In Bellamy, Joyce M.; Saville, John. Dictionary of Labour Biography. A. M. Kelley. ISBN 978-0-678-07008-6.
• Whitehead, Andrew. "Martin James Boon, 1840-1888". The Website of Andrew Whitehead. Retrieved 2015-07-25.

External links

• Works by or about Martin J. Boon at Internet Archive