BRITISH REDS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 16 October 1925, Page 8

BRITISH REDS.

THE MINERS 1 LEADER

11 programme for next may

That the British Labour Party was right iu excluding the Reds from its membership there can be no doubt, but the following speech ,by Mr. A. J. Cook, secretary of the Miners’ Federation, shows that the Communists have Already got coiit>rotl o.t sonic unions. • * An English paper reports that on Sunday, August 23, Mr. A. .J. Cook, the Miners federation secretary, visited the Nottinghamshire coalfields and addressed three meetings' in and around Mansfield. Thousands of miners flocked to hear him. He declared that the Nottinghamshire coalfield was the worst and blackest spot in the whole country from the Miners’ Federation £ioint of view. Nbn.-uniioimts were lepers. There were too many of them in the Notts -area.

They said he was trying to ruin the federation, yet he had increased the membership by ; 150,000 in a few months, although there were 200,000 unemployed. Had the leaders of the Nottinghamshire miners had their way the miners as a whole would have been beaten. “If you don’t fight we will make j r ou,” he challenged. Mr. Cook attacked the moderate trade union leaders and the press. “The papers picture me again and again as a- bloody monster,” he said. “They did the same to Mr. K.oir Hardie. It is a sure sign that you are doing your duty to the working class when the press attack you.” Neither miners, railway men, nor dockers could fight alone. No one industry had the right to make agreements individually without consulting the workers in other industries. All were interdependent. “I am fighting to take away the '£Bo,ooo a year the Duke of Northumberland gets in royalties,” said Mr. Cook, “and he is going to lose. He fights to keep his own. I don’t blame him.”

“WE HAVE AVON THE FIRST- • ROUND.”

Shaking with great deliberation, Mr Cook said: “Next May we shall be faced with the greatest crisis and the greatest struggle vye have ever known, and we are preparing for it. We shall prepare . the machine and prepare a commissariat department. I am going to get a fund, if I can, in Rpndon that will buy grub, so that when the Struggle comes, and, indeed, before itcomes, we shall have that grub distributed in the homes of our .people. When the fight comes we shall be ready. It is no use having one district that is going to starve, because that will decide the struggle. That would be the weak link, and every chain is only as .strong as its weakest link. “We won the first round. We- have saved the miners and their wives from further suffering, but w.e have not got -justice. We have not got a living wage yet, but we are going to get it. M With five other South Wales miners’ officials, said Mr. Cook, he had . been dragged! on ,a chain along crowded railway platforms at Swansea and Cardiff and imprisoned. “I have a debt to square,’ ’ he explained, “and lam going to square it.” Every day of his life, declared Mr. Cook, he got one or two letters threatening him with personal violence. He had in his pocket a letter from the British Fascisti threatening him with assassination. This, lie sa id, was. allowed by the British Government andebeourj aged bv the British capitalist class. Speaking of the Coal Commission, Mr. Cook said 1 the object of the Government was to get a packed commission that would reverse the decision of the Sankev inquiry. If there .was a mindr who * supposed that this commission would solve anything he warned him that he was living in a fooL’s paradise. , Z “I proposed Tom Ala on as an independent member, n.nd the Government was shocked. Why not Tom Maori ?c •2. Other sayings of Mr. Cook were:. * “You should go on your knees and thank God there are some Reds in your movement.” “I don’t want to encourage physical violence on any side. There is going to be an election before twelve morithsis over. Send to the House-of Commons the Tight men. We will capture the army and navy, by having them controlled by a Labour Government. Let me warn the Government not to tempt the army and navy too much. They are our own lads. I have enough faith in them to. know that they will not turn against their own kith and kin. Many of them joined the forcesbecause they were out of work.” “The Communist has, stood, by von, I, would rather associate witli Communists than with Royalty ” The meeting ended with a collection for the Chinese workers and singing of the “Red Flag.” • ..'ln an address at Rieasley in the afternoon Mr. Cook referred further to the plan for providing a food 'reserve against a May crisis. . Every man, he said, would be asked to pay threepence .or sixpence per week towards the fund. Salt meat would be. bought “and,” .he inquired, “why not a million tons of Glaxo?”

“I don’t care a hang for- any Government or .army or navy. They can come along with their bayonets,” he said. Bayonets do not cut coal. Already we have not only beaten the employers but the strongest Government of modern times.”

Mr. Cook was inveighing against Mr. Lloyd George when an interrupter said: “He got us the eight-hour day andi then *the seven-hour day.” In reply Mr. Cook said there had never been one bit of safety legislation, any reduction in hours, improvement in compensation, or increase of wages voluntarily granted by any Government. The miners had always forced their claim

In May, 1926, the mines would either be nationalised or the miners would get lower wages and longer hours.

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