MASS MEETING

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 99, 23 October 1913, Page 8

MASS MEETING

MEN ASSEMBLE EARLY "TURNED DOWN." As the result of the decision arrived at by the shipowner's at their meeting last evening, the waterside workers held another mass meeting at an early hour this morning. The gathering was not nearly so largely attended as the two t meetings yesterday. The president of the union, Mr. F. Curtice, was in the chair. The president was very brief in his remai'ks, contenting himself with the statement that the shipowners had turned them down and they would have to fight them. Mr. Farland, the secretary of the union, also delivered a very short address, saying that they must strike, and strike hard. If the " scabs " wanted to work they would do so, and it would be better not to attempt to stop them. "INCONSISTENCY." Mr. Simmons stated that he had his clothes on, and was going to keep them on until the strike was finished. He attacked Mr. Fletcher, the chairman of the Harbour Board, stating that in the 1890 strike Mr. Fletcher came out because he wanted to be loyal to the workers. But now he had stated that the permanent staff was loyal to the Harbour Board. He himself was loyal to the board. He (the^ speaker) did not want to cast any personal reflections, but this showed the inconsistency of "this man." "As things go on," continued the speaker, with emphatic gesture, "and the stomachs of the bosses get big, so that they oan wear nice watchchains, they don't want anything to do with us." He added that the two secretaries, himself, and the president would be in the office, and would be only too pleased to give the men any information they wanted to know. What they wanted to do was to carry out the strike in a scientific manner. It had to be fought, like war, on scientific lines. The speaker complained that the coal-workers were put on the coal boats at 4 o'clock, and were brought back any time that suited the bosses. If they went back it mu6t not be under the oldconditions. The least they must haVe, if they couldn't get any improvement, were the present conditions. Be hoped they would all do their best to carryon the fight. A CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS. Mr. Geo. Bruce, assistant secretary, explained that a Strike Committee had been set up, and there were still, one or two members wanted. There was no denying the fact that they were up against it, and they had to fight it .out like men. There was only one way they could do it, and that was by standing together solidly. His own opinion was that the strike would not last long. He had been asked that morning by a labour foreman if the men were going to turn to, and he had replied, " lw, not until you reinstate the men in the positions they were in." > Mr. Bruce then called for nominations for the strike committee and volunteers for picket duty. Sufficient nominations were received, and a large number of men offered their services to patrol the wharves. The names of the various gangs of pickets and their leaders were then read out, and instructions given to the men to keep a sharp look-out for free labour on the chips. I.W.W. METHODS RECOMMENDED A new arrival on the scene this morning was Mr. Tom Barker, of Auckland, organiser of the I.W.W. He advocated the I.W.W. methods, and pointed out how the waterside workere could annoy the bosses by quietly dropping cases overboard from slings and such like methods. Not that he would urge them to adopt this course. That was a matter for themselves. The French railway strikers had adopted the methods of "sabotage," sending trucks to the wrong stations, failing to collect fares, and so forth, and as the result the strike cost the Government twelve millions of money. The present was a class warfare, and the I only way the strike would be effective I wa-s for them to get the transport men and the other workers out. The bosses •were organised as a clabs, and the only way to fight them was for the workere to 'organise.