STRIKE ARGUMENT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15922, 7 May 1912, Page 4

STRIKE ARGUMENT.

LABOUR AND THE DEFENCE ACT.

THE IRONMQULDERS’ UNION’S PROPOSAL.

SCOUTED IN LABOUR CIRCLES. The decision of the Ironmoulders’ Union to take a plebiscite of its members on the proposal that if the compulsory clauses of the Defence Act remain unrepealed by next Labour Day .a strike should be declared is ridiculed in responsible Labour circles in the city. Even unionists who have some liking for the strike as an argument, and who are bitterly opposed to the compulsory clauses, say that it would be folly to use the strike in a purely political controversy. This opinion is not unanimously held, but the great majority of the workers’ representatives who were questioned yesterday declined to take the suggestion seriously. Mr D. G. Sullivan, the president of the Trades and Labour Council, said that he would prefer not to express an opinion on such a matter, becauso a question of the kind, if anything came of it, would have to be considered by the Trades and Labour Council, and it would scarcely be proper for him to make a statement without the express authority of the Council. Mr Sullivan added that his personal feeling was utterly against the idea of a strike. A prominent Labour leader who was approached said that the ironmoulders’ resolution was,' in his opinion, “ hot air.” He did not believe that the members of the Union would have a word to say in favour of the proposal if the suggestion were submitted to the vote. Mr Sullivan’s non-committal reply regarding the attitude of the Trades and Labour Council was mentioned. “ I can quite understand Mr Sullivan’s desire to avoid making a statement,” the unionist said. “In the first place, it is very unlikely that Mr Sullivan would regard the proposal as a serious affair, and, in the second, the position of the Trades and Labour Council would be peculiar, not to ~av delicate, if the idea of a strike were at all widely taken up. The Council is dead against the compulsory clauses of the Defence Act. but it is also against the strike. If it came to a question of a strike against the Defence Act, therefore, the Council would have to oppose the movement even w’hile it was anxious to see the compulsory clauses repealed. But really I don’t think the matter is worth arguing. A handful of the members of the Ironmoulders’ Union lias evidently carried a catch resolution, and probably nothing more will I > heard of it. This is tho first time I have ever hoard of this particular union threatening to do anything desperate.” Mr Hiram Hunter, discussing the matter with a reporter, remarked that there was little ehanco of trades unions generally falling in with the proposals, ns they were divided on the question of defppce. Personally he favoured military training, hut not tiro present Defence Act. He wanted to see some scheme which could be democratically administered.

deprecated by peace council OFFICERS. Interviewed by a reporter yesterday, Mr Louis P. Christie and Mr C. R. N. Mackie, prominent officers of the National Peace Council, stated that the action of the Christchurch Brass and Ironmoulders’ Union in advocating a general strike in September, as a means of coercing the Government into repealing the compulsory clauses of the Defence Act, was taken without any instigation from their organisation. The Peace Council was naturally pleased to soe the workers, _ through their Unions, expressing their disapproval of compulsory military training, but it did not approve of any but constitutional methods being employed to effect reform. It certainly would not advocate an industrial strike, but there were in-

dications that the workers, or at least that section of the workers sympathetically inclined to the Federation of Labour, were prepared to use the strike as a weapon in the matter of military training and for other purposes.

A resolution was carried <321 Sunday evening by • the Socialist Party, at its Cathedral Square meeting, to the effect that in case of war the workers would down tools. It was decided that the resolution should be submitted to every labour organisation, in New Zealand.