King Country Chronicle. Monday, July 17, 1939. ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4811, 17 July 1939, Page 4

King Country Chronicle. Monday, July 17, 1939. ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY.

A serious position appears likely to arise in Australia as a result of the decision of the Australian Council of Trades Unions to boycott the national register and take whatever industrial action is thought fit to protect those who fail to sign the register. It is reported that all coal mines in New South Wales are likely to be idle to-day, when stop-work meetings are scheduled to be held, and a conference of Union Executives has endorsed the decision of the Council of Trades Union to strike, if necessary. The position in regard to the National Act is significant in that it has provoked an estrangement of policy between the trades unions and the political Labour organisations. Whilst joining with the Trades Union Council in deploring the compulsory nature of the Act, the Australian Labour Party has unreservedly recognised that the right of the Government to enact the legislation cannot be resisted by direct action, and a couple of weeks ago the Inter-State Executive of the Party, whose decisions are nominally binding on Party members in the Commonwealth, uncompromisingly rejected the proposals of the unions for a boycott. At the same time the party condemned the Act, and addressed an appeal to all members of the Labour movement to concentrate their efforts on securing the repeal of the legislation "by a Labour Government," this being "the constitutional and only lawfully effective method of saving the workers of the Commonwealth from the undemocratic and dangerous legislation of the Menzies Government." In spite of this attitude, the Australian Council of Trades Unions on Tuesday decided upon a boycott of the National Register; at a meeting of representatives of 70 Federal unions the next day, the militants had a strong majority and decided to adhere to what has been termed the most momentous issue of union history, the upsetting of Federal legislation by a boycott or strike; the Trade Union Conference at Melbourne endorsed the decision, as has a conference of Union Executives convened by the New South Wales Trades and Labour Council. Thus it appears that a test of strength impends. The National Register provides, as its name implies, for the taking of what amounts to an industrial census, with a view to ascertaining the man-power of all Australian males betweeen the ages of 18 and 65, while a register of wealth —applying to all persons with property in their own right valued at not less £SO0 —is to be made concurrently. Important though this legislation appears to be, there is a still more important issue involved —can the labour unions, which comprise but one section of the community, be permitted to impose their will on a matter which directly concerns everyone in Australia, through direct action of the nature indicated? If they are then democratic forms of government will give way to government by sectional interests, which can in turn lead only to chaos.