The Maoriland Worker WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1918. POLITICAL ACTION AND THE A.P.U.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 9, Issue 349, 16 January 1918, Page 4

The Maoriland Worker WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1918. POLITICAL ACTION AND THE A.P.U.

»-*t» < " r " In what purports to be an official pronouncement of the A.P.U., published in the "Watersider" of January 1, under the caption of "One Big Unipn," Mr. C. Grayndler sets forth in effect that the A.P.U. is against political action, and holds that it is absurd to elect Labor representatives to Parliament. It is folly, the article declares, to send "crude talkers" to represent Parliamentary electorates, and (inter alia) it is a superstition tha£ a good miner can look after the interests .of other miners there. "The miners, the waterside workers, the shearers, and other workers are going to be their own members of Parliament on quite an honorary basis," because "no man is good enough to be a member of Parliament for any rational thinking being"; and the workers who stand for political action are described as fools who have to learn in the dear school of experience. Why Mr. Grayndler, •in the name of the A.P.U., should declare an anti-political policy for the miners and watersiders we are not told, but he certainly has even less authority to speak for them than he has to commit the A.P.U. to an anti-political policy. Now, if Mr. Grayndler's pronouncement had been made as representing his own opinion, although it would have keen amazing enough, it might easily have been allowed to pass unnoticed; even then, the inconsistency of a union secretary, who is daily resorting to political action, insisting that political action is a superstition would have been a circumstance to make the logically-minded wonder, for it has to be remembered that to-day Mr. Grayndler and jother Union secretaries are forced to ask as favors from the Tories in power the rights which would be firmly established if Labor were sufficiently class-conscious to assume political control. The A.P.U. as an organisation knows this, and because it knows it is the very reason it does not and will not stand for the anti-political attitude Mr. Grayndler credits it with. WHAT ME. GRAYNDLER HAS OFFICIALLY DECLARED TO BE THE A.P.U.'s POLICY IS EMPHATICALLY NOT THE POLICY OF THE A.P.U., AND NEVER HAS BEEN ITS POLICY. At its annual conferences the A.P.U. has proclaimed its belief in political action by endorsing the candidates of Labor in municipal and parliamentary elections; and through its representatives on "The Maoriland Worker" Board, it undertakes to see that the policy of the paper is the policy determined by the annual conference of the political Labor organisations. As a matter of fact, Mr. Grayndler himself, as a member of the Board, is committed to the very political action which, in the name of the A.P.U., he declares amounts to only a superstition. One of the most serious aspects of Mr. Grayndler's action at this juncture is that his article is an indirect exhortation (bearing the stamp of the A.P.U.) to the workers of Wellington North to realise the folly of voting for the Labor Party in the fight that is pending in that constituency. It may be that Mr. Grayndler would not wish that his "official" statement should be read quite so literally; but if it doesn't mean that, it doesn't mean anything at all. It is certain that the A.P.U. would not give a moment's consideration to a proposed policy that would involve standing aloof when Labor is at grips with its historic foe on the political field. It is, on the contrary, certain that every well-informed member of the A.P.U. ! —and most assuredly the A.P.U. as an organisation—will be ready to stand solidly with Labor in every electoral fight. Again, if the attitude taken up by Mr. Grayndler were really the policy of the A.P.U., .the logic of it would be that in the opinion of the A.P.U. the Australian workers ought to have "realised the folly" of going to the polls to defeat Conscription by political methods. We know, of course, that svery sane member of the A.P.U. would scout the very suggestion. Mr. (xrayndler flings out a jibe that the Labor representative in Parliament (exploits Labor "by making himself a professional man at £6 or £12 a .week, which comes out of the earnings of Labor." The same jibe has joiten been flung at union secretaries by Labor's interested enemies— and it is quite as effective, and quite as silly, in one case as in the other. If both the Labor member and the union secretary are honest men, they give full value for the money they receive. But the paid secretary who hands out jibes of that sort is on rocky ground indeed. However, Avliat we want to make clear is that the A.P.U. is NOT antipolitical, and that Mr. Grayndler is not entitled to officially commit it to an anti-political policy. We do not for a moment think that Mr. Grayndler was actuated by any desire to injure the Labor movement; but the fact remains that he has made an official pronouncement in the name of the A.P.U. that is capable of being used by the foe to incalculably injure Labor, and that this has been done on the eve of one of the most eventful political conflicts that has ever taken place between Capital and Labor in this country. To minimise, if possible, the evil use that may be made of Mr. Grayndler's statement this article is printed. We are sure that when he has had more time for reflection, Mr. Grayndler himself will be ready to admit that his action was both ,-wrong and ill-timed, for it is a hard fact that while Capitalism remains in control of the political machinery of the Class State, the alleged anti-political will ever find himself in the position of being anti-Labor, anti-working-class, anti-Socialist, however much he may not desire to land himself there*