INSANITY OF THE STRIKE METHOD

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 11 May 1921, Page 3

INSANITY OF THE STRIKE METHOD

STARVING LABOUR TO BEAT CAPITAL.

(Contributed by the Welfare League.)

The story is told of an African chief who was advised that in order to defeat the approaching enemy he should kill off all the cattle in the surrounding country , and thus leave their foes nothing to live upon when they had pressed into the ulterior. This was done,. only for the tribe to learn that whilst there was no food for their foes there was none for themselves either. It is this kind.of suicidal policy that the militant revolutionary socialists preach. They urge the workers to defeat the capitalists by depleting the stpeks that are necessary for the nation's existence, and the workers^ learn, often when it is too late, that' they have starved themselves into a condition which compels them to retreat or surrender.

It is just cabled out that Mr Cramp says the executive of the English Rail-waymen's-Union have decided "not to handle coal for commercial purposes." It would appear from this that whilst the railwaymen and transport workers' organisations broke with the Miners' Federation on the issue of enforcing a general strike against the nation, the Railwaymen's Union is ready for a limited general boycott of the commodity the nation most needs.

W re are taking it that the coal miners have very good reasons for fighting against any heavy reduction of wages. Their unions and federation are fully justified in defending their members' interests by all reasonable methods.

That brings us to the crucial ques- ! tion. Is the strike method a reason- j able or a just method? Our opinion is that it is neither just nor wise. To commence with, the strike, particularly in any key industry, is an attack upon those who are innocent of any offensive action against the attacking party. It is sometimes an attempt to coerce the nation on an issue which the people in general have never had a voice in. W rhere the strike method appears to us most indefensible is that, in general, it affects the poorest members of society most injuriously. A strike is like a siege. Those with the greatest supplies can exist the longest and suffer least. The general strike has been described as general foolishness. We submit to our readers that the strike method must of necessity prove ineffective in procuring social reforms or advantages for the masses, as it entails the cutting off of supplies from those who have to carry on the fight. When Napoleon said that "an army moves on its stomach" he said what was true of an industrial army as well as any other. If changes are to be made in our economic system they cannot be effectedby the workers in starving the nation or themselves. The idea is wholly irrational, and therefore we conclude that the strike method is an insane- one.