LABOUR DIVIDED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 36, 12 February 1925, Page 4

LABOUR DIVIDED.

INTO CRAFTS AND SECTS.. A PLEA FOR XJNITY. £fl{ DOMINION' COXTKRKXCE IX APRIL, (l<y Telegraph-—Special to "Star.") WELLINGTON", this day. it is stated in Wellington that there are indications that tho attendance at an open conference called by the Alliance of Labour for April next will he fully representative of all sections of the Labour movement, and hopes arc entertained that the result of the deliberations will be tho formation of a Dominion organisation which will be able to present a united front in all matters affecting the workers. There is a feeling in some quarters, however, that some difficulty will be experienced iv arriving at a dccUiun that will be received with favour by all concerned. One section of the Labour movement, while hoping that good may result from the conference, is not, by any means optimistic, and holds the opinion that there is likely to be considerable difference of opinion a≤ to what form the new body should assume.

The view taken is that any new body formed should follow on the lines of, the National Trades Congress at Home, but it is felt that that view will not coincide with views held by other sections of tiie Labour movement.

The need for unity is stressed in a statement which has been issued to workers. This states: —

"Labour of Xcw Zealand has been talking unity for years past. For some rea=on, however, that unity has not been obtained, for the workers of New Zealand are to-day to a very large extent disunited as far as a general policy for industrial Labour is concerned. There must be some definite reason or reasons for this, for on every hand we find actual wage workers demanding a national industrial policy and closer unity, while at the same time Labour is divided into crafts and sects, which leaves toilers at the mercy of the Xew Zfaland Employers' Federation. The present disunity in the Labour movement should not be allowed to continue, and there is no reason why it should. The opinion of any one man or any one section of workers should not be the means of keeping workers apart, for unity is essential if the workers are ever to obtain an improvement in their standard of living."