POLITICAL MATTER.

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 December 1911, Page 8

POLITICAL MATTER.

(Published by Arrangement)

A further article on the Auckland strike culled from “The .Voice of Labour of Friday November 3rd, 1911, which paper is the official organ of the New Zealand Labour Party”:—

‘•WORKERS MISLED BY INCOMPETENT LEADERS.

THE STRIKE THAT FAILED

The strike is over, “settled,” to use the current phrase; and settled it is in more ways than one. During the strike the “Voice” carefully refrained from making any comments, as it might be Said by either side that we had sought to prejudice public opinion. But now that it is settled, w r e wish to make a few plain remarks. The strike has failed, utterly, hopelessly, ignominously, to secure the things for which it was ostensibly declared—that is the abolition of subcontracting (or co-operative contracting). (just as the reader pleases) on the drainage contracts. All the bluff, bounce, and brag of the leaders cannot deny this, the men were “called out,” kept out for a week, over ,£.IOOO lost in wages, with the consequent suffering and hardship on children and wives. They were assured in fiery speeches by the leaders that there would be no backing down. Semple talked and jbluffed and bragged about how they would bring the Mayor and the Drainage Board and the" contractors to their knees about the “Great Federation,” and the things it would do if the demands were not granted. They would “paralyse New Zealand,” “tie up the wheels of industry,’ and all the rest of it; but it was only Semple’s foolish bluff. Semple had to bluff, for Semple and the other preachers of the general strike idea as a means of working class salvation have been for years telling the workers that “the strike’s the thing,’ and in this, Semple knew full well that he had either to demonstrate the superiority of the ‘strike plan’ or to admit that the strike plan was a failure, and that the right plan is the securing by the working class, through political action, of control of the National Government and Municipalities. But Semple knows that to admit this is to admit that ' the general strike policy preached by himself and fellow anarchists is a fraud and a delusion, and so though absolutely beaten in this—the first —encounter, Semple will not admit r. We do not expect him to admit it. But we do expect workers themselves to do a little hard thinking, and seriously ask themselves the question whether it is a wise policy to allow their Unions to drift into the domination of a handful of men obsessed with the general strike idea? There is a clear, plain, and rational method of not only securing the things wanted now, but also of so radically altering human society, that economic injustice will be wholly impossible, and that is by and through the ballot-box. These methods entail absolutely no hardship on the worker, no loss of wages nor dignity, no suffering to wives and children, no violence. The strike should only be used as a very last resort and after all other means have failed, and in the case under review other means were not tried.

No matter how much Semple and the other general strike advocates may bluff and brag and talk of victory, it must be plain.to the men themselves that this is no victory, but utter defeat. We do not blame the men, we admire and praise their loyalty, but they must now recognise that they were led astray and misled *by a handful of Revolutionary Socialists, whose pay went on all the time, who care nothing for the men’s Joss of wages or the suffering of wives and children so long as they can advertise their mad propoganda and get their names into the daily press as 'strike leaders,’ ’ The strike was called to abolish sub-contracting, to have the sub-clause in the Drainage Hoard contracts wi‘-h the employers doited. The sub-clause' has not been abolished, the great bulk of working conditions remain unaltered either by the strike or its settlement. In the current contracts, amounting to a quarter of a million sterling, the clause remains unaltered; the men go back to work under the same old conditions. Can Semple deny this? Where is the victory in all this? Is this the net result of all Semple’s brag, bluff, and bounce? No, there is this, that a number of men won’t be able to start again on account of the flooding of the workings, Perhaps Semple will also record this as another "victory,” but the men who are thrown out of employment will surely call it by some other name.

No one who has any inner knowledge of the designs of the Anarchistic group iff Aew Zealand can have any doubt but that thp mail) ob ject of Semple and Co. in calling the Strike was to make a demonstration (jf thp superiority of the general strike' and physical force policy over the peaceful find certain ni.etl>odp of appealing to reason and urging the justice of our claims ; but (us usual with demonstrations of unsound tilings) the demonstration only exhibited the pitiful weakness of the body the general labourers were cajoled ifftp trusting. The Miners Federation (alius tjj.e N.Z. Federation of Labour) has no policy or plat ppm or programme but the general strike and the appeal to force, and as a consequence the miners—even on their own adhesion —are the lowest paid section of Inborn- iff Npw Zealand. While other occupations have by flip "appeal to reason’’ secured a substantial betterment of their conditions, those Unions that have relied Off the rotten stick of the general Strike pave mostly remained in their old condition, pr Jjave even gone back. The success of affy mptljod can Offly hje judged by what' it has accomplished, and iff New Zealand the strike has failed to accomplish any good, though it has caused great hardship and unnecessary suffering on its unwilling victims; and broadly speaking, the same is true everywhere; on its own showing the strike is useless, A handful of men, oosessed with the general strike mania, have planted themselves in as leaders, and at their autocratic bidding a section of the general labourers of this city have peen deprived of a week’s wages; their families have been woptonlj injured to tfiat extent, soipfj jn

an attempt on the part of this hand-; fill of general strike advocates to glorify their played-out implement of strike. The Trades Councils have vigorously protested always agtiinst contracting in any form and in most trades have'secured their end, but always the Miners’ Unions have clung to the ancient methods. The “Voice” opposes the contract system in any shape or form, and has no hesitation in asserting that the alleged difficulty and trouble here could have been settled in ten minutes by any sane group of men, without any loss of pay or any hardship. The general labourers have bieen grossly and wilfully misled by a handful ol shrieking general strike advocates whose salary didn’t stop because was a strike. After a week of Semple’s blither, bounce, denunciation, and “bellow-dramatic” threats to “paralyse the h’industries of the country,” the loyal but misled general labourers have had to go back to work, having.lost a week’s pay, having gained no advantages, and with the assurance that as all drainage contracts are let, but that they won't be let because there is nothing to contract about, that the sub-clause won’t appear, but in the eleven current contracts, totalling a quarter of a million pounds worth, the sub-contracting clause remains unaltered.

The sorry fizzle of the past week adds one more failure to the credit of the general strike policy The absolute failure of the strike ought to make the general laborers and others look around for some more effective way of bettering things. That all work

should be done by day labour is one of the cardinal principles of the Labour party’s platform; a Labour CityCity Council would do all its work by day labour; the only way out is*to have a Labour City Council, because then there would be no contracting and consequently no pretext for ambitious individuals to force other men to lose wages in order that they may glorify themselves and ‘-heir ancient old woman’s remedy for workingclass wrongs. In short, a Labour City Council is the first thing the wage earners of this City must have; but as a necessary prelhniniary the workers must free themselves from all connection with the must-inevi-tably-fail general strike policy, and instead put their energy, their time, and their money into getting control of the local and national governing bodies, and thereby legislate for their own benefit, instead of for ever asking the anti-labour men, who now hold the power, to do something.

The general strike advocates cannot see this, but that is only another reason why those Unions now under their dominance should cut themselves adrift and ally themstlves with the sensible section of the Labour

movement. The sooner the general labourers recognise this the better for themselves, for the rest of organised Labour and for the community at large.