TRADE UNIONS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 301, 1 October 1938, Page 9

TRADE UNIONS

MR LEE LOOKS AHEAD. ROLE UNDER SOCIALISM. NEW SPIRIT REQUIRED. A DRIVE FOR BETTER WORK “What is tho position of trades unions in a democratic State verging toward socialism?” asks Mr J. A. Lee, M.P., in his new book, “Socialism in New Zealand.” “A Socialist Government is in power lor the first time in New Zealand’s history, and the trade union movement, a device to fight capitalism, has been expanded and made stable by legislation in a way never achieved in any other country in the world. Soon New Zealand will be 100 per cent unionised. What is the mission of a trade union movement in this situation?”

Mr Lee’s answer to this question should be intensely interesting to workers and union officials. Under socialism, Mr Lee, argues, the workers and their unions must abandon present tactics of grudging service and exploitation. They will bo required to work harder and better, a prescription that, many will reflect, is already being applied in Soviet Russia, where Communism makes stern demands of labour. In fact, the driving of workers was elevated into the vaunted and hated system known as Stakhanovism,. Inspirers of Production. But let Mr Lee expound in his own words what he lias in store for New Zealand workers. “Tho mission of the trade union in tho past,” ho writes, “has been to act as a defensive mechanism against the employing class. To-day, with Government becoming increasingly responsible for tho operation of industry, the mission of trade unionism, if trade unionism is not to lose its political power, is to see that the industries of New

Zealand function as never before. “There must be a complete transformation in the role of the trade union, and this is not easy to secure. Hours have been reduced, wages have been increased, but many conditions prevail which are essential to tho existence of craft union fighting a capitalist employer, but which are a menace to a Labour Government engaged in socialist construction. Socialism demands a fluidity in regard to the transference of labour. Where construction is for all, the capitalistic device of long apprenticeship is a menace. “Capitalism, of course, is only concerned about the quantity of cash profit; socialism is concerned with an increased production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. The trade union organisations must become inspirers of production, if living conditions are to rise. For instance, for years the railways organisations have been fighting capitalistic Governments. It would be nothing short of a disaster if such an organisation were to fight a Labour Government as though Labour were a capitalistic boss. Payment by Results. “The role of organisation has changed. It must now assist the transport industry to function more economically if Labour is to continue in office and to distribute that larger income which socialism can yield. To retain the benefits of Socialist Govern-

ment demands the disavowal of oldfashioned trade union technique. “Merely by becoming a member of a trade union and by being automatically affiliated by a majority vote to the New Zealand Labour Party, the trade unionist does not become a socialist. We have socialist institutions dominated by capitalist culture, and a period of time must elapse beforo that mental transformation can bo achieved that will enable the workers to control industry as well as to secure an increased proportion of its fruits. Payment by results under capitalism is an exploiter’s device. Under socialism it’s an intelligent social contract. “I know that if private enterprise offers sixpence an hour more to a worker to help build an insurance palace or a private bank, even though those institutions are tho very symbols of tho worker’s slavery, the private institution will secure the worker. If I offer tho worker what the socialist community can really afford if a house is to be available for other workers, and if my figure is a few pence lower than that offered by the private enterprise firm, capitalist construction will get the best labour and I will be left with tho least efficient. And if I build on day labour and the worker gives a better result to a capitalist builder, socialism will fall down in a democratic community. t New Outlook Needed. “How to achieve a new outlook among our own people is tho difficulty confronting the Labour movement,” Mr Lee continues. “How to make trade unions agents of the transformation rather than tactical organisations seeking to bargain between a Socialist Government and private enterprise for the best possible rate, is one of the great difficulties confronting a Labour Government attempting to make a democratic approach toward new social conditions. How to maintain speed of effort with reduction of hours. “The only, answer seems to be that trade unions must become propaganda organisations for industrial efficiency. “As we approach nearer and nearer to the point at which industry is owned and controlled and operated by the people, it becomes less possible to advance one group of workers at the expense of others. The privileges to be enjoyed by any section of workers can best bo defended by securing, as far as possible, a similar set of privileges for all the workers. The carpenter cannot have high wages and tho butcher low rent; the butcher cannot have high wages and the carpenter cheap meat; the tailor cannot have high wages and the housewife cheap clothes; except where an increased efficiency and economy of production occurs as a result of such large-scale production. Unionising Everybody. “Labour’s objectives can only be won if workers in State industries have a sense of responsibility to the new society which is gradually emerging. The newer recruits do not understand so well that all can only receive what lias been put into the common pool. The safeguard, as I see it, really exists in what might appear to > be the dangerous circumstance. The safeguard for Labour is tho compulsory unionisation of all. Followed as unionisation has been by effort to establish one federation of labour throughout New Zealand, there may grow up very rapidly among all organisations an appreciation of the fact that the conditions of one section cannot be advanced to the detriment of tho conditions of another, and that all can only be permanently advanced by improving production and distribution. “It is true to say that the executives of trade unions are with the Government to-day, but we have a country moving toward socialism and our trade unionists are still dominated by private enterprise culture,” says Mr Lee in conclusion. “We have made socialism more desirable by making the Labour Government yield better conditions than were ever yielded by capitalism. The trade unions must help us to succeed in deed as well as word.” [Published by Arrangement.]