NATIONALISATION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 79, 3 April 1943, Page 4

NATIONALISATION

To The Editor

In 1936, Mr. P. C. Webb told the people of New Zealand that the Labour Government stood unchanged in its principles from those it had advocated for 30 years, and he added that it was still the same staunch advocate of socialism. During the Huntly strike he was asked whether the taking over of the control of the mines was the thin end of the wedge of socialism. "Certainly not," replied the Minister, with some emphasis. "The question of the nationalisation of the coal mines was never considered." When he was asked what the new measures of control really did amount to, Mr. Webb said: "It means that the owners will still own the mines. Their interests will be adequately preserved. At the conclusion of the war the mines will revert back to the owners. Yet, when he spoke to the miners at Hikurangi he is reported as having said: "I think the State should take over all coal mines and that the miners should work for the State." By stressing such an issue at the present time, does Mr. Webb believe that he is making his fullest contribution towards a unified war effort? "Where the mines are owned by the State," concluded Mr. Webb, "the men guilty of stopping the wheels of industry are guilty of shameful conduct." Mr. Webb seems to imply that under nationalisation any strike against the State would have no moral justification. When the State is the owner, there is to be no distinction between a justifiable and an unjustifiable stoppage of work. Mr. Webb omitted to point out that if we have a form of nationalisation that is complete and fearless and not a mere vote-catching apology, the men who work for the State would lose their right to strike. States that talk: State control —and also mean it —have gaols, concentration camps and guns for strikers, and if men lose their right to strike they also lose their right of effective collective bargaining. If they toss in such rights in exchange for Mr. Webb's State control, they throw away the most important economic right they have ever had. R. M. ALGIE.