PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4023, 27 October 1931, Page 7

PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY

FUTURE OF TRADE UNIONS ARE THEY KEEPING PACE! In this new world it does not follow that the instruments and methods which have been created to cope with the problems that formerly existed are necessarily valuable to-day. This is particularly true in the case of the trade unions. “ The trade unions were formed to deal with a comparatively simple set of facts,” Mr A. Creech Jones goes on to say, in the ‘ Common Room.’ 11 They were the response oi men lo a new economic environment; they were shaped on no particular principle and to no plan; they wore adapted slowly and laboriously to meet new needs and to deal with new situations. To-day many of them, in structure and government, are anachronisms. “ The great world of industry, commerce, and linance has moved on while they have continued to attempt to grapple with problems which have become infinitely more complicated witn the years. They have no realistic view of the conditions in which they are now operating. Their policy is shaped on the ideas of a world that has vanished. .Some of the big unions are adjusting their structure, government, methods, and policy to the new economic environment but, at best, they lag behind the development necessary tor the world they are operating in. “ In my judgment there is need tor the unions to re-examine their structure and policy. They cannot live on thenpast, however honourable that past mav have been. But every trade unionist should be asking whether the purpose the trade unions were called into being to serve has been met, whether the instrument of trade unionism is still necessary, whether the environment which evoked trade unionism has fundamentally changed, whether the new environment calls lor a newtype of organisation with a new purI pose. . . . . “Are the unions constructed in such a way as to serve any new purposes? Can the unions hope to achieve anything along the old lines? Has not the character of the problems confronting the unions changed? “it is the realm of policy in Us broader aspects that the difficulties are greatest and where there is obvious need for a new conception of function and objective by the unions. “ Can wages be lifted out oi the fighting arena? “ How' should the movement press for participation in management in industry? “Can the influences making ior rationalised industry, be redirected tor the workers’ good? “ How' are the new powers ot national and international finance and capital to be faced? “ How' can we rectify the underconsumption of the workers and secure a fairer distribution of national income ? ‘‘ls a new approach to the wage problem possible? “The tasks to-day call not merely for courage and character, but understanding and sustained inquiry, for that co-operation and action which can come only from understanding. Leadership to-day is a grave responsibility. We have yet to demonstrate our capacity to make industrial democracy real. Is it not tune that a great intellectual ferment took hold of the membership of the unions, so that everywhere the immensely difficult problems in the realm of industry could be grappled with sincerity, enthusiasm, and understanding? . ...... , “It is our special responsibility to fill the unions with a right spirit for the assumption of the degree of responsibility that will later come to them. That means a big push in educational effort. We are now in critical years. 1 have little doubt that the workers can emerge from the present depression into the new world science is fashioning, with greater powers, responsibility, and material com torts, but the extent to which their great creative powers are released for the common good will depend wdiether they understand the world they live in and have gained wisdom in controlling the forces operating in it.”