"DIRECT ACTION" OPPOSED

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 6 May 1921, Page 5

"DIRECT ACTION" OPPOSED

4 Mr H. M. Hyndnian, the veteran English So:iali.vt, points out in his new , book, "The Evolution of Revolution," that general strikes have always failed, and that political action must be more successful than "direct action." "It cannot be doubted," he says, referring to British conditions, "that if direct action took as wide a, sweep as is contemplated, involving the cessation of work in the mines, on the railways, at the docks, wharves, and elsewhere, this would almost inevitably lead to civil war. There may easily then arise differences between the strikers themselves; for it is by no means certain that men who are too slow and careless to vote for their own class cham- ; pions would develop a whole-souled eagerness to fight for themselves and | their class. Starvation is apt to turn even enthusiasts for overthrow into partisans of a military dictatorship. No Government, also, would, or could, : surrender at ©nee to such an organised , arrest of the functions of the whole j national life without a desperate effort, ! in which all the resources of civilisation ! would be used. It is advisable even to j threaten to resort to such desperate i tactics when the alternative of political ! action is still open."-