Demonstration at His Majesty's

Maoriland Worker, Volume 4, Issue 147, 26 November 1913, Page 5

Demonstration at His Majesty's

A l?rg© and enthusiastio rnpeting was held vi His Majesty's Theatre on Sunday evening, 16th inst. Mr. Donovan, president Seamen's Union, occupied the chair. Professor W. T. Mills was the first speaker. Ho made reference to published statements that striking was out of date and that legislative machinery was provided to settle disputes. He contended that it had never happened anywhere that Labor had obtained the right to organise industrially by an unorganised appeal to the ballot box. The only power Labor had $ver had, and which it was using now, was the assertion of th<? right to organise. The question was whether the employers should have the right to organise while it was denied to Labor. They must use their industrial power and refuse to share in the industries until their right to organise was recognised. All the chance the workers had to sell their labor properly was by an organisation of the labor market. If Labor had the right to sell its labor when satisfied with the terms offered:, it had the right to refuse to sell when not satisfied. The employers' organisations were combined in one body to use their industrial and political power. They were using their industrial power in order so to break the power of Labor that it would be unable to defeat the exploiters at the ballot-ba.x. If the workers of New Zealand would consent to have their hands tied they would be tied. He urged those present to stand by the fight of the workers for their industrial and political existence. This battle involved, the power to use- either the ballot-box or the strike for the workers to use their collective powers as laborers or their political poAyer as citizens. Mr. Gavin Sto\'e, Palmerston North, said there was on th© wharf a union whirh was called by the press an Arbitration union, but it could not bo denied that it was a "scab" union. The papers stated thrit the employers were quito satisfied, if the men would go back under the Arbitration Act. Unwanted to admit the value the Act had been to the workers in the past, but ho wished to point o-ut' that it had lost its power. For a few years it did good work; it was founded on good conscience and tquity, but now it acted upon precedence; it was merely a piece of common law and of no use to the workers. If the Act was analysed, those going before the judge were given a wage based on the cost, of living at that time for a fixed period. The basis oo which that wage was fixed might rise and rise; and overy commodity go up in price. The workers held that the wages should, go up accordingly. Originally it was optional for a union to register or stand out. When it was eventually .found that the Act we* not acceptable, to the workers and that the unions w,or«? drifting ftway, it was fnsde possible for lo men to confer with the employers and form a new union in defiance of the majority. The- day would come when the whoje of thft workers would arise in their might and trample, the Act under their feet. Mr". Savago (Auckland) said that the men in Auckland now were stronger thnn at the outset He enuriterated 'he unions which were on strike there, •md said these union's were just as determined as when they came out. There was a strike committee for each union on. strike, nfld for all of those there was a central executive. This "xueutive had recomme-nde-d that if the trouMp was not settled by the 13th met. at midnight all unions should ta-ke the necessary stops to cancel their registration under the Industrial Conciiiiilion and Arbitration A.-1.. ■ TMd the ui'.horitio bflipvc. hf; asked, J that ifter tin'; ftnolin? of "■ faw ' lltn ' "Mere wre not. others to tnko their places? Ho thought Mr. Massoy was capable of doing the same for Mow Zealand as ilismarck did for 'Germany by oppressing the workers.and causing them to riho in revolt.'The press s>aid the strike was settled ; ho would leave his hearers to draw their own conclusion. He • ir<>;ed the workers not to forget to make use of their vote- at' the election ■ml their industrial organisation in the lUcautiinc. Mr. Dowgray (acting president, U.L'YL.) hpoke oi' the significance of 'crikes: Statisticians had pointed out ho amount of wages lost in strikes; hen there was the breezy Conciliation Commissioner who patched up strikes. But still strikes went on. The reason vliy strikes continued was because the ipople were being educated up to the 'net tl'.-it ■ thpir srrujrgls was that of :ii» class isscKUt another class, lfthe ■V'doration'dill not exist, the disconcrrt would Mill bo. in the hearts of lio workers, mid the struggle would c on. '{"he Arbitration Court was not In py.ii-icr-ii ilie employers were srt:k- ---.,., ~t nil. TiUr'v v>ii;liCii lv divide oiw-■i.-i-i.ioii Hijajii.-r. another. TJk- orgau-.s<-f| oriiplovtM's, jKj\vtH - «'r. would see the through. The employe!s were determined that the organisation of tb«

tho workers wore determined that this should not bo done. -Mr. I. If. Iliekey, secretary-trea-surer, U.K.L., produced a document which ho stated was thu rules of the "seal)" union, which had been obtained at tho oflico of the Employers' Federation, for Is. Ono of the rules stated that any person working about the wharves, by signing a declaration that he would adhere to the principles of the Arbitration Act, should be eligible for membership of the new union on application to the secretary and payment of tho fee. Any member deemed to be opposed to the principles of the Act might be oxpelled from the union by ballot. Members of the Waterside Workers' Union had decider! by over a thousand votes that they would have, nothing to do with the Arbitration Act. So iar as other organisations were concerned, the whole of Australia was with them, and if an appeal were mad* to Australia for financial support the response would amount to thousands of pounds. A lot of things might happen before coal was obtained from Japan. Judging by the communications from diff-rent unions, there was going to be no backing aown on the part of Labor, and, if necessary, they would stay out 12 months. "By to-morrow," said Mr. Hickey, 'what the papers terms the back entrance to Wellington will no longer be a back entrance, but will be sealed up. Wβ havo not fired all our shots yet; we etill have a few left." Mr. Campbell, organising secretary, Railway Oonetruotion Workers, asked who was responsible for the starving women and children. (Cries of "Massey.") "No, not Massey," he replied, "but the exploiting class backed up by a capitalistic Government." Ho referred to the special police, and stated that when in Taranaki he heard a squatter's eon boasting of bow he had smashed the heads of three strikers. He would tell them something h$ had not told them before. When the Waihi strike was on 200 bushmeji.came to him and offered to march, on Waihi and shoot the "scabs." They wanted him to lead them, and it-took him all his time to keep them from going. "I am going to give this warning to Massey and Co. ill!' is not sedition—that if another body of men come to mc nnder such trying circumstances as there was at Waihi, I will not try to stop them." The men he was referring to were not townsmen; they were men in the back country who had the feelings of humanity at heart. He appealed to the laboring classes to stand .firmly in the fight. Mr. E. J. B. Allen, acting-editor of i "The Maoriland Worker," appealed to the railwaymen to take their part in this movement and stand behind the water aiders and the miners. He reiterated whth emphasis the- doctrine that no agreements between employers and workers could be binding, because the essence of a contract was that it should he voluntary, and the workers were not free agents in the making of agreements; they made them with the pistol at their heads. There could be no end, be said, to the struggle until the workers were masters of the means of production. He advised those who sympathised with the strikers to ltiake themselves "strike missionaries." During the last fortnight telegrams iad been received from shearers wanting to know when they were to be called out. If their executive would not call them out, he added, the strikers would appeal to the rank and file. In conclusion, Mr. Allen said, "We will have that old red flag over the top of Parliament Buildings as the sign that New Zealand is the first Socialist Republic in the world." Mr. Koir, late organiser for the shearers in Wairarapa, referred to the clause in the Arbitration Act rendering advisers in a strike who were not engaged in the industry liable to a fine of £500, and persons who donated money towards the support of those dependent on strikers to a fine of £10. Was it not better to have a w«lk or two of stanation by strike than a lifetime of genteel poverty? He made reference to the special police. On one station, he said, the men in the shearing shed were offered "the average of the shed" aboub £20 per man to come down and scab, but they refused to a man. They said, "No, boss; we're not scabs." (Applause.) One of the specials hero had told them that they had been misled; had been told that the watersiders were throwing butter and cheese into the harbor and ripping up wool bales. He had said that had the position been placed before them by Semple before they arrived, not 30 of them would hare taken the oatb. The speaker -characterised the present crisis as an attempt b.v organised Cap'tal to crush organised Labor. If ti. r workers failed in this fight Labor would have such n, set-back that they would 4 Lavo a. return to serfdom. The meeting .closed with cheers for the "boys in iail."'