WHICH?

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 130, 28 November 1924, Page 4

WHICH?

UNIONISM OR ANARCHISM?

THE RIGHTS OF THE PUBLIC.

The Welfare League writes: — What is now taking place in connection, with the shipping industry in Australia, where the methods'-of "irritation strikes are being applied to the serious injury of the trade of the country, should prove a.lesson not merely to.the people of the great Commonwealth but? to oiu^own people as well. The direct action. policy is being put in force in ways which make thinking people ask, _ Is this trade unionism or is it anarchism" Here is.a country where political labour ostensibly stands for arbitration, but a, large class of industrial labourites (who are m the.politf.al Labour Parties)' by their actions insist on war rather than peace. Socialist Labourites and others point :to Australia, and declare that it furn.'shes proof that arbitration does not ensure industrial* peace. Yet we find that many of those people who dispute the value of arbitration in the indus-' trial field want their country to rely solely on arbitration for the settlement of all differences between nations. "No more war," as an ideal, we subscribe to as m every way desirable, but we wish to see it applied to the social and industrial affairs of, our country as well as in the relations of nations. ;. _ We have doubted, and still doubt, the sincerity.;, of; Socialist advocates oE "no more war." They pose too much as iE they help a monopoly of peaceful inten- [ tions. At the same time these people | substitute militancy against the public I interest for their professed pacifism when it comes to the matter of dealing with industrial issues. i The- attitude of class antagonism is war and not peace. The standing' of " our way or industrial chaos " is warfare beyond all question.. We shall be told that it is unionism which is at stake in Australia. What kind of unionism is it? Is it a free and'voluntary unionism or that which is tyrannic, dictatorial, and has no consideration for the rights of others? We have the news that ships arc declared " black," and some unionists forced against their wills to obey the behests'of the'would-be all-powerful federation. In this struggle tho irritation strike authorities show no consideration for" the returned soldiers and sailors^ who fought for their country, and incidentally saved ' these very strikers. Surely these returned men have a right to form a union of their own when they so desire. They have done so, and- have worked along peaceful-lines. We have never heard of them making attack on any other union. If workmen in Sydney choose to go to'work through a Labour Bureau' that is jointly controlled by employers and employed, in a. free country, ■they should be allowed to do so. It is a unionism of dictatorship which, is seeking to deny the rights of others to choose their own methods in a peaceful way. When it corals, to consideration of the \ public the repeated irritating and unreasonable strikes partake of the character _of anarchy. In practice the strikers virtually say, " We care nothing for the public, the loss of capital, the forcing up of costs and prices, and the individual suffering of workers' families " —that is a selfish attitude which may justifiably be described as "black." In England,the Commonwealth of Australia has been referred to as the country "where Labour rules." It certainly has had more Labour Party Governments than other parts of the Empire. What becomes of the plea put forward by the Socialists in England and elsewhere that the way to bring industrial peace is to place " Labour" in power. The catchy appeal, will not stand examination. It is true to-day as it never was before that what is commonly called "Labour" is not labour "proper at all. It is a school of political Socialists using the masses as instruments to force their wills on the nation. The rights of the public do not come' in with those who are thus obsessed with their class and party idea. Their movement becomes to them everything there is. With rational trade unionism there is ground for reasoning and sympathy, but with the false'unionism that knows nothing' but its own selfish interest, or the union" ism of the I.W.W. schools, which leads ■ towards sabotage and violence, all so- i ciety can do is to defend itself. j