THE 'I.W.W."

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17311, 28 October 1916, Page 4

THE 'I.W.W."

CONNECTION WITH NEW ZEALAND. STATEMENT BY HON J. T. PAUL. PREAMBLE NOT IDENTICAL WITH TACTICS. The Hon J. T. Paul, M.L.C., mad© a. statement in Christchurch yesterday respecting tho position of the New Zealand Labour leaders towards the Industrial Workers of the World, whose, policy of violence in Australia has attracted much attention to the organisation. The Wellington correspondent of tho " Lyttelton Times" stated yesterday that the Federation of Labour in May, 1912, decided to adopt the I.W.W. preamble. Tho correspondent adds:—"There liavo been amendments and additions to the Federation of Labour platform sinco this extraordinary document was solemnly endorsed, and in the light of the practical outcome of its teachings of class bitterness and violence, it can well bo imagined that the federation leaders are well content to let their 1912 programme be forgotten. '» Mr Paul said that the fact was that at the most largely attended Labour conference ever held in New Zealand, the preamble was eliminated. In any : case, the preamble —with which, by the way, he did not agree—was quite apart from the I.W.W. itself; it had been adopted by organisations actually opposed to the I.W.W. tactics. The I.W.W. never included among its adherents any prominent leader of Labour in New Zealand. No person who held a prominent position in the I.W.W. had any prominonce whatever in any Labour organisation in New Zealand—not one. Tho I.W.W. men simply came to New Zealand, ly from tho ends of the earth, as I.W.W. men. They achieved notoriety hero as I.W.W. men, and then went on to Australia, and also achieved notoriety there, as I.W.W. men. FEDERATION OF LABOUR'S PREAMBLE. Tho following is the full text of the preamble adopted by the Federation of ' Labour in 1912. It is based on tho preamble of tho I.W.W.: — Tho working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organise as a class take possession, of the earth and tho machinery of production, and abolish the wage system. Wo find that tho centreing of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes tho trado unions unable to cope with the evergrowing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to bo pitted against anothor set of workers in tho same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. These conditions can bo changed and tho interest of the working class uphold only by an organisation formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries, if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lock-out is on in any department thereof, thus making an- injury to one an injury to all. Instead or the conservative motto: "A fair day's wagos for a fair day's work," our watchword is: "Abolition of tho wage system." It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organised, not only for the everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organising industrially /we are forming the structure of the new society within tho shell of tho old. In the following year, at a Unity Conference in Wellington, to which Mr Paul referred, the preamble was struck out. ' -* NEW ZEALAND LEADERS NO TIME FOR I.W.W. MEN. Mr H. Hunter, secretary to the Federation of Labour, states that the preamble was adopted before he was in office, and ho explains its adoption by the fact that in many Labour docu-' ments there are repetitions of phrases and sentences. He has noticed this in many documents connected with the Arbitration Court, secretaries simply taking clauses drawn up bv other secretaries. The I.W.W. who Visited New Zealand, ho said, were antagonistic - to Now Zealand Labour leaders. They had no time for Labour organisation in New Zealand, and Labour leaders here had no time for the I.W.W. tactics