THE LABOUR MOVEMENT

Evening Star, Issue 21582, 30 November 1933, Page 15

THE LABOUR MOVEMENT

[Dj J.S.S.] Brief contributions on matters with reference to the Labour Movement are invited. NEW ZEALAND WORKERS’ UNION. The New Zealand Workers’ Union has made arrangements for an influential deputation consisting of Labour members of Parliament and officials of the Alliance of Labour to meet the Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and the Minister of Public Works. The matters to be dealt with are as follows: —(1) That a general increase in wages be granted to all Public Works employees. (2) That payments be made fortnightly. (3) That the Engineer-in-Chief of the Public Works Department be empowered to renew the Public Works workers’ agreement and meet N.Z.W.U officials m conference for this purpose. (4) That all Public Works employees be granted quarter rates for the railway journey when proceeding to and from their work at Christmas. (5) That all piecework rates be substantially increased so that piece-rate workers may be able to earn a decent living wage. (6) That immediate steps be taken to provide further work at a fair rate of pay for all married men rendered idle through the completion of the Tawa Flat tunnel. * * * * MUSICIANS’ DISPUTE. An adjournment until December 12 was decided on at the hearing last week of the dispute between the New Zealand Theatrical Proprietors' and Managers’ Industrial Association of Employers and the New Zealand Performing Musicians’ Industrial Association of Workers. Mr Frank Egerton (workers’ advt* cate) said that under the clause “ classes of workers to be recognised in the applicants’ proposals the employ ment of musicians at skating rinks, cabarets, dance halls, card parties, and assemblies had been omitted, and the respondents could not agree to an award that did not cover the conditions of employment that musicians had been work ing under for the past twenty years The classes of employment omitted meant a great deal to musicians, per cent, of the work done in -New Zealand came under these headings. In another clause in their proposals the applicants claimed that the rates of pay for performers at card parties, concerts, dances, assemblies, hotels, cafes, and all entertainments or functions not otherwise specified, should be not less than 2s per hour, irrespective of the time at which the service was required * * * * WOMEN IN POLITICS. Mrs Lawrence Harrison, of Auckland, in a recent address, made mention o> the interesting- fact that Miss Rnnkine. the first woman M.P. to be selected to the United States Chamber of Depu ties had worked in New Zealand fo 1the’Social Democratic Party, and had been associated in a strike of the Petone mill girls. Mrs Harrison paid a tr» bute to the late Mrs Annie Besant lor her manifold services to the British Labour movement. Mrs Besant took an active part with the late Charles Bradlaugh, M.P. for Northampton, in 1880 in his active fight in the interestof the workers. Women -were given their - franchise in New Zealand fort’ years ago, hut it was not until 19P that they were allowed representation in Parliament. « * * * MORRIS HILLQUIT. The late Morris Hillquit, the noted American Socialist, is referred to by the New York ‘ New Leader ’ as follows:—“Above all he was a thinker, and probably the ablest the American Socialist movement has produced. His ability to take a complex and involved question being discussed by his comrades, to reduce it to the simplest elements, to correlate them, and to draw a conclusion was unsurpassed by any other man in the movement. His mastery of a dozen languages, his ex tensive knowledge of Socialism and of Socialist history, his intimate acquaintance with leading Socialists in many countries, and his keen interest in all phases of the movement to the day of his death also gave Morris Hillquit a leading place in the Socialist movement in tliis country, and in the International.” In 1888 Hillquit helped to organise the united Hebrew trades of the United States. This year that great organisation is to celebrate its lortyfifth anniversary. SYDNEY SEAMEN’S UNION. After a lively meeting of about 500 members of the Sydney Seamen’s Union recently Mr J. Johnson was removed from the position of secretary pending the annual election to be held in December. Mr R. Taylor was appointed to act as secretary until the ballot was held. Complaints were made at the meeting that Mr Johnson refused to convene special meetings because a number of those signing the necessary requisition were unfinancial. Supporters of Mr Johnson claim that the action taken against him was unconstitutional, because it was not endorsed by the other States. As against this others contend that the Sydney branch has a majority of members, and can therefore speak on behalf of the seamen of Australia. • « * * BRITISH LABOUR PARTY. The strength and, by a curious paradox, the weakness of the British Labour Party, says the special commissioner of the Liverpool 1 Weekly Post,’ lies in the fact that its chief membership is of men and women affiliated to the trade unions. Until the party capture'; the vast ranks of the unorganised it cannot hope to capture Downing Street. Another weakness of the party is its lack of funds. If the Labour Party could get a shilling a year from two millions of the seven millions who voted Labour at the last General Election it would mean a fighting fund of £IOO,OOO yearly. The enforced choice of candidates, often for wrong divisions, is criticised by the ‘ Post ’ writer. The party will not succeed until it does. The party’s aim is to break down the fear for the land-owning classes in the country districts. He makes the piquant suggestion that one of the wealthier members of the party should build his own country cottage as Labour headquarters and pioneer the usual Labour Party campaign. The returns which were submitted at the recent annual conference of the British Labour Party show that although there is an increase in membership to 2,000,000, it is still considerably less than it was in 1920, when there were 4,317,500 members. Against that there is an increase of individual niom-|)crfj_-;)71,000 in 1932, against 297,000 in 1931. There has been a falling oft in trades union membership of the party, and of subscriptions to its hinds, The trades unions are contributing but a bare £25,000 to the Labour Party war chest, although in 1927, helore a Conservative Act of Parliament substituted “ contracting in ” instead ol

“ contracting out ” of the political levy, the unions contributed £40,000. It is true that a further penny levy last year brought in an extra £7,309. “ Drastic decreases in headquarters’ expenses promise a big saving for the coining year, but the party funds cut a poor figure beside the great war chests of the Conservative Party, disguised under the name of ‘ National, and the mysterious millions (if they exist) controlled by David Lloyd George. Still, the Labour Party can boast honestly that they have no secret contributions; their funds come from the pockets of the rank and file, and their books are open for the inspection of- anyone, which is more than can be said of their rivals. And, at the same time, their members have a vigorous enthusiasm at election times which makes every one of them an active unpaid worker of the party. Their duet weakness, however, is in their forced choice of candidates, and the effeteness of their election methods and electoral organisations in the long intervals which elapse between municipal clet tions and the longer space of tunc between one General Election and another. There is a spirit of leaving everything to the last moment, irrcsjiective of the grim tact that it takes careful preparation and organisation to ensure a victory in an election. Lack of funds compel the party to leave the choice of candidate to each tlJides union which wishes to be represented in Parliament by one or more of its members. This results in the selection of too many Jonahs, who go into battle with an almost dead certainty of defeat. ... If trades unions were more careful of the character of the men and women they select as candidates—l am not speaking in terms of respectability, or of a character for assumed ‘ superiority 1 which would make men and women intolerable in decent society; 1 mean character in tact, in ability, m fitness, honest shrewdness, and with a known sincerity which puts them high above any charge of selfseeking—they would achieve greater electoral results. But Lansburys and Hendersons, Addisons and Greenwoods, to say nothing of Logan of Liverpool, do not grow on every bush. A\e all admit that the bulk of any body, whether it be Parliament, a trades union eongres, or an organised political party, must be ordinary men and women, who are neither giants nor dwarfs. Still, that cannot be helped under the present system. If the Labour Party could get a shilling a year from a bare two of the seven millions who voted Labour at the last General Election, that would mean a fighting fund of £100,(W0 yearly. It would enable them to get the best type of candidate—well-educated men and women who could be trained in the constitutional history of the Kingdom, in a thorough grasji of the lives of the people, how they earn their bread, the circumstances which improve or lessen their trades, their household needs, and the higher spiritual needs which should he a governing factor in the lives of men, and how to improve their material conditions in such a manner that their lives would be far happier than they are at present. Every town or city could adopt one or more rural districts in their area, and every week send out picked corps of speakers who could deal with the grievances of the men who live and work on the land. It would be a hard job, for the English country labourer lives in terror of the farmer or landlord who employs him, chiefly because they own the ovoru helming part of the country cottages, and when a man loses his job it means that he also loses his house. It seems easy to explain to the country labourer that a strong‘ Labour Party would be able to bring about a vast building scheme of country cottages, owned nationally, oi by the local governing body, which would make them independent of the farmer and the landlord, but the innate fear and ignorance of the country labourer is so intense that it will need much vehement assurance to convince them.” .... AMERICAN LABOUR. The attitude of the official Labour movement in America to the N.I.R.A. can bo estimated from the sjieeches that were made at the annual convention of the American Federation oi Labour held at Washington during the first week in October, and which was the largest and most important Labour conference held since 1919. The President, Mr Green, said that Labour would stand by President Roosevelt in his New Deal, and would work for the success of the National Recovery Act, although the codes did not, as 'yet, meet’s Labour’s policy of shortening maximum hours and increasing minimum wages. “ So far ns unregulated inflation is concerned,” Mr Green added, “ Labour knows that this is a problem that affects us very vitally, because when dollars arc cheapened, commodity prices rise, but wages stand still. Until we are assured that wc wilt got more of these cheap dollars tor the day’s work we perform, so that it will conform to the increase in commodity prices, Labour should stand unflinchingly opposed to inflation.” Unemployment, be went on, would not be overcome until codes of fair practice established the six-hour day and five-day week in industry. As a concomitant of this, wages rates for skilled and unskilled work must go up, so that buying power would not only keep pace with vising commodity prices, but outrun them and go beyond the increase in living costs. Although nearly 3,000,000 men and women had been returned to employment since March, Mr Green pointed out that at the end of September 11,000,000 were still unemployed. During that period buying power had increased 17 per cent.,"or 310,000,000d0l a month. With the abolition of child labour in the industrial codes submitted, an objective of the Labour movement for over half a century had been achieved. In asserting that the success of the N.I.R’A. depended upon the complete unionisation of all the workers in every trade throughout tho country, Mr Green intimated that 1,500,000 now members had been Secured by the federation sinre the Act came into operation in June. • • • • BIG SOCIALIST GAINS. Another nation meets the Fascist challenge to democracy, world peace, and human liberty with a heavy Socialist gam. At last month’s elections in Norway the Labour (Socialist) Party showed a heavy increase, and elected seventy out of 150 members of the Storting (Parliament). While failing to gain a clear majority, the Socialists hold by far the largest bloc of seats and are in a splendid position to force action upon their principal demands. The budding Fascist movement, organised by Major Quisling in sympathy with the German Nazis, suffered a crushing defeat. Only three scats were won by two new parties, including the Nazis. The Norwegians, the only real, unadulterated, and undefiled Nordics in the world, will have nothing to do with the Hitler “ Nordic ” idiocies. Tho line-uj) of jinrtics, with seats in the last Storting in parentheses, follows ;—Labour, 70 (47); Conservatives, 29, (44) ; Liberals, 25 (34) ; Agrarians, 23 (25) ; scattering, including Nazis. 3. The Socialists arc therefore seen to have made sensational gains from every party, and it is difficult to see how

any Government can be formed other than a Socialist minority ministry, such as exist in Denmark and Sweden. However, since the Storting will not meet until January, Premier Mowinckcl will not resign until then. Jf the Socialists are called upon to form a Government it will be their second chance at rule. The history and development of Norwegian Socialism constitute a stirring story.