In February 1886, Casey was associated with the
Queensland Maritime Council through the ''Brisbane Wharf Labourers' Union
which he helped form the previous year. In 1888 the council sent him on an organizing mission to Maryborough, Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Mackay and Townsville; there he helped to found the Townsville Trades and Labor Council'' (T.L.C.). As a member of the
Brisbane Trades and Labour Council, Casey became a trustee for the
Brisbane Trades Hall reserve, worked for the June 1889 reconstitution of the council into the
Australian Labour Federation (A.L.F), and became a member of its central district council. In December 1889, along with
Thomas Glassey and
Albert Hinchcliffe, Casey successfully went to and brought the bush unions into the A.L.F. Casey was appointed as a full-time A.L.F. organiser in April 1890 and in his first frenetic three months organized new unions and established
district councils of the A.L.F. at Maryborough, Rockhampton,
Charters Towers and Townsville. In February 1890 Casey was appointed the first chairman of the board of trustees of the
Worker. After the first Australian banks and economy crisis of 1890 and the defeat of the Australian unions in the
1890 maritime strike, and
1891 shearers' strike, he preferred a
general strike over Australia when more pragmatic union leaders wanted to negotiate a return to work, lest the defeats are turned into a rout. His extremism attracted attacks by anti-labor forces. In the newspaper the
Judge, he was accused of incest and, in subsequent libel action, he was awarded
contemptuous damages which did not cover costs. In
Barcaldine, he was accused during the shearers' strike in 1891 of arson and jailed for two weeks before he was discharged without the charge being heard. Casey was a self-proclaimed evangelist for the 'new unionism', believing it would radically transform existing society, which he saw as dominated by "those who rob legally, those who rob illegally and those who it pays to maintain the law". After the failed shearers' strike in 1891, he found it hard to accept the A.L.F's support for the founding of the
Australian Labor Party because he felt it would be easy prey for "wirepullers". He became a fervent member of
William Lane's
New Australia Co-operative Settlement Association, which had set itself the goal to establish a utopia at
New Australia, South America. Casey donated his Brisbane home as a prize in a fund-raising raffle and left on 31 December 1893 with his wife with the second group of settlers on the ship
Royal Tar Australia on the way to
New Australia in
Paraguay. He remained in the Australian
colony of New Australia even after it split, returning to Australia briefly in 1894 to try to obtain further support for the colony. He was elected president of the
Sociedad Co-operativa Colonizadora Nueva Australia in 1896, though the colony's income improved rapidly
after he was replaced by James Craig Kennedy in 1900. He was the police chief of
New Australia until he died on 2 October 1946. == References ==