APPEAL TO EXTREMISTS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 102, 27 October 1925, Page 5

APPEAL TO EXTREMISTS

TRADE UNION CONGRESS

PRESIDENT'S OPENING SPEECH

!•- PERIOD OF STRIFE AND

CONFLICT."-

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON, Bth Sept,

The Trades Union Congress is being held at Scarborough this week. Mr. A. B. Swales, the president, in his opening speech, apparently anticipated in the hot distant future a sort of industrial Armageddon.

Reviewing tho past year, he said that while economic conditions forced the unions to assume a defensive attitude,, the employers did not hesitaie to tako advantage of their stronger position, and .they were still plotting and planning to undermine trade union standards. But the limit to the concessions which the unions could be forced to make had been reached. Union policy henceforth wuuld bo to recover lost ground, to re-establish and improve their standards of wages, hours, and working conditions, and to co-ordinate and intensify trade union action for the winning of a larger measure of control in industry for tlie workers.

The temper of the address and its point of view aro indicated by such phrases as -"Everything points to a period of industrial "strife and conflict," and that in which he accused employers of "still plotting and planning to undermine trade union standards." lie spoke more in sorrow than in anger of the sad apostasy of those who in "bygone days taught that there was no remedy for capitalist mismanagement other than the abolition of capitalism, but who now appealed for a united effort to restore industry to prosperity. Mr. Swales's advice to the workei'3 was to follow the example of Russia and Mexico, which, witii their Workers' Republics, were leading the way. Their achievements would stand as a beacon light showing tlie road to a higher development of democratic welfare.

INDIA AND CHINA

They had watched with much interest, he said, tho struggles ■of the Indian workers in seeking to improve their political and industrial status. In the interest of their own industrial workers they must help in any and every direction the Indian workers in their political and industrial struggles. The wholo British trade union movement must rejoice at the revolt of the Chinese workers against the degrading conditions which had been made public during the last few months. There appeared .to do a repetition of the methods used in Great Britain by the employers over 100 years ago; when the workhouses were the recruiting ground for cheap labour, by the employment of little children. The whole Labour movement was shocked to learn that- under British rule little children were farmed out from their parents to employers at from 2s to 4s a month, and were worked as long as 16 hours a day.

"I thitik," continued the president, "Congress will agree with the General Council making it quite plain to the Government and the wholo world that, being conscious of tho fact that our British movement has won its way from such conditions of slavery as are being imposed in' China to our present comparative or limited freedom, we are prepared, on behalf of the British trade union movement, to raise our voice in condemnation of the atrocities committed by the British and other employers in China, and in wishing the Chinese people evei'y success in their country." (Cheers.) The General Council had started an inquiry into conditions in Eastern countries, and hoped to report iv the next few months.

AWAKENING CONSCIOUSNESS

In conclusion, the president dwelt on the increase of unemployment during eight months of "Tory Government/ and declared that some day the people would sweep away the system that produced the present appalling conditions. "All around are signs of im" awakening consciousness in the peoples of all countries that the present system of society is condemned. Russia and Mexico, with their Workers' Republics, are leading the way. Already there aro signs for those with eyes to see that the ]and and mineral wealth of a country in the possession of the people's Government, being exploited and used in tho interest of the whole people, is conferring lasting benefit upon its people. The lesions being taught to-day in those countries will fructify in the years to come. These achievements will stand as a beacon-light showing tho way to a higher development of democratic welfare than tho world has known. Simultaneously the backward centres of industrial and political slavery are organising and rising in revolt against the capitalist; order of society, and so we see India, China, and other Eastern countries in tho throes of upheaval and demanding the right .of self-determination.

THE FINAL STRUGGLE

"Who can predict the rate at wliicli tho conflagration will travel or how wide it will spread? Those who believe Hint a new order of society is inevitable before we can remedy the existing evils cannot do better than rejoice that at last there are clear indications of a. world movement rising in revolt and determined to shake off the shackles of wago slavery. Just as our people have passed out of slavedom into serfdom, and out of serfdom into wagedoni, so will they filially pass out of wagedoni into freedom. The. now phase of development, which i,; world-wide, has entered upon the next, and probably the last, stagu of revolt. It is the duty of all members of the working class so to solidify their movement that, come when the time may for the last final struggle, wo shall bo wanting in neither machinery nor men to move, forward to the destruction of wage slavery, and the construction of a system of society based upon co-ordinated effort and world-wide mutual goodwill and understanding."

Outside tlia Central Ilnll, where the Congress was going on, there was a row of seiimen currying placards with the declaration : "No 5 per cent, reduction. Down with ITavelock Wilson and the Shipping Federation." Inside, the president wns rejoicing over the increasing unity among the workers at Home. G5, Fleet Rtrcet.