MINERS REPUDIATE MOTION

Evening Star, Issue 23444, 8 December 1939, Page 12

MINERS REPUDIATE MOTION

“ SEDITIOUS AND MISCHIEVOUS “ TRADES COUNCIL DOESN’T REPRESENT COAST WORKERS [Per United Press Association.] GREYMOUTH, December 7. The State -Miners’ Union’s general meeting, on the motion of. the president and vice-president; passed unanimously the following resolution; — “That we as an organisation emphatically dissociate ourselves from the seditious and mischievous resolution arrived at by the West Coast Trades and Labour Council at its meeting on November 25, and since published in the Press; furthermore, that until the motion in question is rescinded : and expunged from the minute book of the council, we refrain from representation at any future meeting.’’ The resolution of the council to which the union objects stated : —That the- Trades Council, representatives of ther organised; workers: of the West Coast, recognising that the war in Europe is another Imperialist struggle for markets and raw material between capitalist Britain and France on the one side and capitalist Germany on the other, which may involve the whole world, with the accompanying slaughter of millions bf workmen, calls on the Government to make public the reasons for which New Zealanders are expected to fight, and to give a definite assurance in keeping with the oft-repeated statement that no attempt will be made to introduce conscription in this country; further, that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the Federation of Labour with a demand that an emergency conference of the federation be called without delay to formulate a policy in connection with the war and to resist encroachments on our liberties and standards of living.’’ Mr George English, president of the State Miners’ Union, said : “The decision of the Trades and Labour Council might lead' the public to believe that it had the support of a majority of the workers on the West Coast. The voting at the Trades and Labour Council was eight for and eight against, the eight supporters of the resolution including the president, Mr J. Doyle, who, besides exercising his deliberative vote, gave also his casting vote for the motion. The statement that the council represents the workers of the West Coast is correct; hut it is not, in my opinion, correct to state that the resolution is the opinion of the majority of those workers.”