The Evening Star SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 1940. UNTIMELY COAL STRIKE.

Evening Star, Issue 23527, 16 March 1940, Page 12

The Evening Star SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 1940. UNTIMELY COAL STRIKE.

How long will the Australian coal strike last? This is a matter of great concern not only to the Commonwealth itself, but : also perhaps to all Britons, who hope earnestly in this time of war for an Empire friendly and united on every conceivable issue. One of the 'most recent cabled messages on the position states that the strike is daily Becoming worse and that there is no immediate prospect •of ■ a settlement. Unfortunately it would, appear that unless one of the parties involved is prepared to sacrifice what they individually, consider to be (principles the trouble may last as long as the mine workers’ finances, a period which could extend into some months. It may be asked why. considering the present vital nature of all industry, the Government does not intervene to put a stop to industrial unrest of a kind which, besides creating serious inconvenience, is certain to be seized on as a useful propaganda topic for enemy leaders. The Government’s that it feels it cannot intervene for settlement by compromise of a strike which is fundamentally a strike against the Arbitration Court unless it is prepared to mutilate the principle on which Australian industrial regulation is based. The coal owners are of the opinion that they cannot operate under the shadow of the continual industrial unrest of the past two and a-half years, and believe that, if they give way from the stand that-the awards of the court must remain binding for their duration, they will involve themselves in, the process of attempting to satisfy demands that may prove insatiable. The mine workers, having committed themselves to' the fight, however unwillingly in the main, think that their future chances of industrial solidarity would be endangered by early surrender. Their mood seems to be to go down fighting if go down they must. At least some such sentiment, is indicated by the paragraph in a cable message which states that they are to receive financial assistance by means of a weekly levy from all unionists in accordance with a pledge from the

executive of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

If tUo question of “ principle ” is the only obstacle that is standing in the way of a settlement it should be obvious enough that the miners have the weaker case, for it is they who do not scruple to agitate for, a breach of an award originally granted very much in their own favour. There is nothing very fair or democratic in an attitude like this. It is no secret that the Communist Party claims to have taken control of the Miners’ Federation. In ‘this connection it is interesting and may be helpful to quote the advice of an ex-member of the Communist Party in Australia who had the intelligence and initiative to sever his long association with the movement after the signing of the Berlin-Moscow Pact. With particular reference to the Miners’ Federation, he writes, in the ‘ Sydney Morning Herald ’ : “ Let the workers study carefully the history of that union during recent years, and then ask themselves whether they are enamoured of Communist leadership. I am no supporter of the Australian Labour Party, but I Would urge its members to look to their organisation. I should not. like to see it become also an agency to carry'down the Kremlin’s orders to the Australian workers ....

Such, in part, is the position as I see it, after I have given the best years of my life to an organisation that I now regard as a deadly incubus on Australian labour. But after a terrible international and a national betrayal of the hopes of many I am sure that events will show, and are already showing, the path our workers should follow.” Perhaps as the tempo of the war increases and the people of all classes become aware that their -free-dom-loving Empire is really in danger the retreat from Communism will be so widespread as to leave nothing but an innocuous residue.