ALLIANCE OF LABOUR.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 13 April 1922, Page 2

ALLIANCE OF LABOUR.

WHAT IS IT AFTER?

SOMETHING BIGGER THAN A

STRIKE

(Contributed by the Welfare League)

In reading the newspapers of the country we find the idea is widespread that the Alliance of- .Labour is aiming at a. general strike. Mr J. Roberts is quoted as having said so. We cannot find when and where he did say so, and, further, we would not believe it if he did make such an utterance. This for two sufficient reasons. The first is thafe General Roberts, of the Red Army, is far too astute, if the Alliance meant a general strike, to l»t it be known that such was the purpose of himself and his comrades who constitute the Alliance. The same gentleman would be more likely to say it is a blind in order to cover the Alliance movements in other directions. Our second reason is that the whole machinery of the Alliance is designed not for strike purposes, but for a very much bigger and more dangerous object than a strike.

The plan and policy of the Alliance is most cunningly framed for the purpose of carrying on a continuous propaganda of peaceful penetration into all branches of the Dominion's activities; indoctrinating all wage-earners with the Communist idea of proletarian control; consolidating all industrial organisations on a class basis and finally entering upon the taking over of all industries and services of the Dominion. Strikes have been, common to1 Trade Unions for a long time, but readers should get it :clear; in their minds that it, is a revolution, ah dnot merely a strike, that the Alliance of Labour is after. We do not want it understood by what is here said that the Alliance will not uphold any strike. Both "' it and its affiliated branches will use the strike weapon when they deem it advantageous, but that will be entirely subsidiary to their main purpose, which is revolution. The Alliance is not at all disposed to plunge into a general strike like that of 1913, or even encourage sectional strikes where these are likely to result in losses and weakening on the Labour side, simply because that would delay thft march towards its ultimate goal of "collective ownership and wageearners of all industries."

We have been asked to say shortly what the Alliance of Labour is: The organisation is an alliance of industrial federations and Wiions of workers designed for the purpose of strengthening the position of all with the revolutionary object of substituting "collective ownership of production and distribution and control of all industries by the workers who operate them," in place of the private and. public ownership and control now existing. A little thought will convice any reasonable person that the revolution contemplated by this Alliance could only be effected by one or two means. It might be done by direct action in the way of a forced expropriation of the present owners, or it might be done by action in conjunction with a political party in power which was prepared to enact laws of confiscation. it is inconceivable that such a »stupendous change, affecting as it would the whole structure of society within the Dominion, could be effected by either violence, bloodshed, crime and civil warfare. It is indeed a greatly bigger thing than a strike the Alliance of Labour is after. The movement is of the same pattern as the Bolshevik movement in Russia, although expressed in other terms as suits the occasion. It remains to be seen how long the kyal people of this Dominion will allow this menace to their moral and legal rights to carry on.

What is wanted on the part of the Government is action, firm and definite, and on the part of the people that they will have no dealings with any individual who upholds the "Alliance" creed of class warfare and revolution.