UNITY LABOUR PRINCIPLES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 89, 15 April 1913, Page 9

UNITY LABOUR PRINCIPLES.

PX-tTFOBM ADOPTED. FIRST STATEMENT. OF POLICY. The following has been adopted by the Unity Congress Committee as the Statement of Principles of the proposed Social Democratic Party, which it is hoped to promote"at the conference in Wellington on July Ist:— The Social Democratic Party stands for the eommoui ownership of all the collectively-used agencies of wealth production and the control of all industrial affairs on the basis of production for use. It affirms:— 1. The greatness of a nation depends' on the greatness of its people. 2. The greatness of the people depends on the physical power, the mental capacity, the moral character, and the economic, independence of its average individual. 3. These qualities depend for their highest development on the best educational facilities and the best economic advantages for all, and the largest sense of social responsibility on the part of all. 4. The present Capitalist form of society rests on the private ownership, and hence the private monopoly, of land (the primary source of wealth production), and the machinery and tools with which wealth is produced. 5. This form of ownership, with its resulting lack of equal opportunity, divides society in all countries into two distinct and opposing classes—the workers who by brain and hand produce all wealth, and the exploiters who by the power of monopoly based on the private ownership of things collectively used arc able co appropriate without service the products of the toil of others. 6. The workers, by far the larger class, are brought into industrial dependence on tlie exploiters, by far the smaller class, with consequent political subjection to them. The workers produce all wealth. Tlie exploiters appropriate it, and return to the workers only a fraction of their own products in wages of some form. 7. lt is because of these conflicting class interests between the workers and the exploiters that class antagonisms are generated and the world-wide class war is made inevitable. 8. The Social Democratic Party docs not make this class war. It is compelled to recognise its existence because it understands its historic and economic causes. It seeks to make an end of the economic causes of the classes in order to make an end of the class war. 0. Because of the monopoly power of the exploiters, in spite of the multiplication of labour-saving machines and improved methods- of industry—which cheapen the cost of production—the share of the producer grows ever less, while the prices of all the necessities of life steadily increase. The high cost of living is felt in every home. Thousands of wage workers have seen the purchasing po'vver of their wages decrease until life has become a desperate battle for a mere existence. The working farmers are plundered as ruthlessly as arc other workers. The extortion of the moneylords, of the transportation companies, of the land monopolists, and of the commercial combines, with their ever-increas-ing prices exacted for land, tools, credit, transportation, and for household supplies, are rendering the working farmers lot unbearable. 10. Because of the monopoly power of the exploiters, the workers arc exposed to unhealthy conditions in their homes, to frightful and needless perils to life and limb in tlie places where they work. Biassed Arbitration Court decisions and unjust laws hamper the workers at every turn, while measures which arc designed to assist the workere are often so juggled that they become instruments^or "their oppression. 11. Because of tlie monopoly power of the exploiters, the educational opportunities of the workers and their families are limited. The schools, especially the secondary schools, fail to teach the honour of social service, the dignity of labour, the shame of uselessncss, and the sense of loyalty to the common good, while they foster snobbery and promote class distinctions of the mo6t hateful nature. 12. .In the face of these evils, so manifest that all thoughtful people are appalled at them, the old Parliamentary parties are able to offer no relief; instead they defend and perpetuate the very things which have created these evils. Tlie growing unrest in New Zealand bears eloquent testimony to the inability of the old parties to satisfy the people's needs. d 3. .This Is true because all parties are t-hc expression of economic class interests. All other parties than the Social* Democratic party represent one or other group of the exploiters. Their political conflicts between each other, represent merely their superficial business rivalries. However they resnlt, these conflicts have no issue of real advantage to the workers. Whether Liberal or Tory win, the exploiters are always victorious. 14. The Social Democratic party js the political expression of the workers. Its defeats are their defeats. Its victories are their victories. It is a party founded on the economic needs of the workers, and is the outgrowth of the laws of social development. 15. In the face of the industrial and political aggressions of the exploiters, the only defence -and the only means of emancipation left to the workers 'is the power of their industrial and political organisations. The Social Democratic party urges the wage earners to combine "for industrial action into one industrial organisation, and all wage earners, the working farmers, and all other useful workere everywhere, to combine for political action into one political party. 16. So organised, the workers may not •only wrest immediate and temporary concessions, but they will be able to abolish industrial exploitation for ever, and to substitute tlie industrial and social administration of collective interests by the people, of the people, and for the people. The workers in achieving their own deliverance will emancipate all the race, and in this the labour movement will transcend all other movements in human history. 17. The workers of New Zealand must take their place in line with the organised workere of all other countries. There is no deliverance from the rapidly i increasing evils of capitalism short of its complete overthrow, and this can be ! accomplished only through the industrially and politically organised strength of the educated and united workere themselves. IS. The Social Democratic party therefore calls upon all the workers of New Zealand to forthwith enrol themselves in the ranks of the United Federation of Labour on the industrial field, and in the ranks of the Social Democratic party on the political field.