LABOUR NOTES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 138, 7 December 1912, Page 16

LABOUR NOTES

(By "Unionist.") A STRIKE FOR THE VOTE. In Belgium during November the Socialist members of the National Parliament were to have raised the question of adult suffrage and the abolition of the property vote. Failing reform in the direction of at least ensuring the repeal of the provisions of the electoral laws which permit of the rich elector having three or four votes according to his income, the organised workers have threatened a general strike. If it happens it will be the third general strike for electoral reform that has occurred. In 1893 a general strike was declared as a protest against the rejection by Parliament of a pleasure favouring free suffrage. Again in 1902 another general strike took place to force further concessions. The first strike was partially successful in that it secured a wider suffrage, but the second strike was a failure. The Labour Party was organised in Belgium in 1885, and has grown steadily since. It fought the last elections, in June, mainly on "universal suffrage," and succeeded in returning 41 members. The Clericals are in office with a fol* lowing of 101 members, and against them are 44 Liberals and the Labour Party. The leader of the Belgian Labour Party is Emile Vandervelde. He said recently : "The Belgian workers are determined not to let tire matter rest. They are laying their future plans with much earnestness and enthusiasm. Should every other method fail to obtain their just and reasonable demand, should the Government close its ears against the desire for justice, the workers will enter their protest against a great wrong by using the weapon of a general strike. Jt will not be merely a political demonstration lastihg only a day or so. The trade unions and the co-operative societies will all take a hand in what will be a grim and | real struggle. We are making preparations by which 500,000 strikers can be maintained for a month or six weeks." ITEMS OF INTEREST. The by-election for the Murray seat in the South Australian Assembly, held on 2rd November last, resulted in the return of the Liberal candidate by a good majority. The voting was Young (Lib- I eral), 3867 ; Lehmann (Labour), 2576. The figures show a comparative increase in the Labour vote over the figures of the last General Election Counsel for the Glebe Island slaughterman, charged with participating in a strike, argued that the New South Wales Arbitration Act was ultra vires, inasmuch as its penal clauses are opposed to ] the spirit of recognised British justice. Judge Heydon overruled the point j but it has since been announced' that the Government has agreed to a special case being stated for the Privy Council to decide the point. "There is a general movement throughout all the States towards a six-day working week in seven-day industries," writes the secretary of the Melbourne Hotel Workers' Union. He reports further that in New South Wales and Victoria there are amendments to the respective "Shops Bills" in the direction of grantihg hotel workers a full day's holiday in each week, and that there is every likelihood of the reform passing. I /Three important Labour proposals have been defeated in the New South Wales Legislative Council this session. The amending Arbitration Bill sought to include clerks and domestics within the scope of the system. The clause to that effect was rejected by a big majority. Just prior to the recent municipal elections, the Bill sent up from the House proposing to extend the Parliamentary franchise to the Sydney municipal elections was thrown out. By 23 votes to 4 the Coal Mines Eight Hours Bill was also defeated. Last month 87? Labour and Socialist candidates contested seats on the London and County Councils in England. The results when to hand .will be some guide as to tho support likely to be given Labour at Home at the next Parliamentary elections. The municipal programme of the Labour candidates provides for the substitution of an income tax and death duties for the present system of rating on rental values, the earmarking of land taxes for municipal purposes, and the supplying of bread, milk, and coal by the municipality. The Labour Party in the Home Parliameut have a rule under which their leadership changes hands every two years. The wisdom of thiß arrange- i ment has often been called in question, and the matter now arises once more, in view of the approaching operation of the rule in the case of Mr. Ramsay Macdonald. The general body of opinion in the party is believed to be favourable to the continuance of the present system, but its critics argue that it detracts from the prestige which should attach to the occupant of the position. They point to the outstanding position occupied by Mr. Redmond in British politics by reason of his, virtually permanent leader* ship of the Irish Party, and urge that the Labour Party should take pattern by their Irish friends in this matter. Unquestionably Mr. Macdonald'is the ablest leader the Labour Party has yet pos» sessed, and his retirement, if it takes place, will be a distinct loss to the party and the House of Commons. There is just a possibility however, that he may be given a new lease of office, one reason being because of the difficulty of finding a suitable successor. The name of Mr. Philip Snowden is mentioned, but though he is undoubtedly the most intel lectttal of the Labour group, it is questionable t if he possesses the gifts of leadership. Interviewed on the subject. Mr. Macdonald intimated his willingness to place himself entirely at the disposal of the party in the matter.— Exchange. Keir Haldie, in a speech delivered at Chicago during his recent tour of America, is reported as follows ; —"The Syndicalist starts from the assumption that the State is a capitalist institution. The State, however, is nothing of the sort. At the present time every State in the world ie capitalist. Why is that sO:^ Because the workers elect the capitalist class to govern the State. (Applause.) The State itself is neither capitalist nor anti-capitalist The State is simply a good old donkey that goes the way its driver wants it to go. ' (Applause.) When the capitalists rule ; of course, the State serves the capitalists. When the workers get sense enough to stop sending capitalists and to* send Socialists drawn from their own ranks to represent them, then the State becomes your servant, and not the servant of the capitalists. (Applause.) Let me illustrate it in a very simple fashion. Take the State militia. When a strike takes place and the militia is called out, it is called out to protect the scab, and to protect the property of the masters. With a Socialist Government in office, if tho militia was called out at all it would be to protect the trades unionists in fighting for better conditions. That is one of the differences. That shows what I mean when I say that the State is exactly what you make it. (Applause.) The advice not to use your vote is simply I a confession of failure and a cry of de- : spair."'