“CAN REBOUND”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22416, 25 August 1947, Page 3

“CAN REBOUND”

STRIKE WEAPON WATERSIDERS WARNED DIRECT ACTION THREATS It would be unsafe to assume that direct-action tactics in the future would bear fruit, states an article in the latest issue of the Transport Worker, the journal of the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Union. A stage had been reached when direct action should be confined to defending things already won, rather than to achieve ambitions, the article says.

Post-war difficulties had piled thickly upon those entrusted with leading the workers into a Promised Land, states the article. “As a result the worker is a little confused as he contemplates the wide gulf existing between promise and performance. “A not inconsiderable section, manifesting growing impatience, has adopted a militant attitude and 'requests’ have taken the form of ‘demands,’ with the threat of direct action if grievances arc not satisfied. “Fersuasivc” Tactics Paid Dividends “As far as this organisation is concerned, it might be said that the adoption of 'persuasive' tactics has paid dividends to date. Certainly we have attained a good deal following the overtime strike at the turn of the year. “It would be unsafe, however, to assume that similar tactics will bear fruit in the future. The strike weapon is one which, injudiciously used, can well rebound to the detriment of the workers—the more so with a Labour Government in power.”

There were individuals in the trade union movement who professed to see no good in the Labour Government, and it had even been suggested that the workers would be better off today if Labour had not attained power. "Their argument,", states the article, "is that, with the Labour Party relegated to the Opposition benches and a Conservative Government in power, the workers could, per medium of the strike weapon, and with the tacit approval of a Labour Opposition, bludgeon the Government of the day into submission to their demands. “Such reasoning is dangerous theorising. and those who expound this view are not friends of the Labour movement.”